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Covenant - When God is Bound:
...a look at Genesis 15:7-21
by Captain Michael Ramsay
In our world
today, people seem to be entering into covenants less and less
and the ones that we are engaging in then are being taken less
and less seriously. Of the 'till death do we part' vows that
couples take before God, half are broken. Covenants are not
being taken any more seriously by those in the church than
they are by those in secular society. This is distressing. For
the Salvationist this should be even more alarming. I have
heard testimony of some soldiers drinking, smoking, gambling,
and seen many who are obviously flirting with that 'which can
enslave the mind and body.' I think we try to walk away from
our vows too easily; I am not convinced that God actually lets
the ties of covenant fall as easily as some might like. I am
not convinced that simply declaring oneself 'un-wed' in the
courts or renouncing our soldiership vows necessarily releases
us from these covenants with God. There are no consequences
for taking vows but there are consequences for breaking vows.
In NE Saskatchewan here, we are plunging into this very
foundational topic of covenant.[1] If you open your Bible
(on-line or hard copy) and look at Genesis 15:7 – 21, you'll
see a covenant possibly even more extreme than our soldiership
agreement. This agreement is a very significant one for us all
in that it relates back to the good news of Chapter 12, where
God has already promised Abraham that all nations of the earth
will be blessed through him and, as well, it looks forward to
Chapter 17 where the symbol of circumcision is introduced
(17:11). This sign of the covenant may be less noticeable than
wearing a uniform; however, it is no less extreme!
One thing that is interesting of this ceremony and of the
earlier promise God made to Abram that all the nations of the
earth will be blessed through him is that the promise includes
us here and now even though neither we nor our nation existed
at the time of this agreement (cf. John 8, Mark 3, Luke 3,
Romans 2). Genesis 12:3 is the first time that the Gospel, the
'good news' (that all the nations of the world will be blessed
through Abraham) is presented in scripture and it is here in
Chapter 15 that God ratifies the promises about inheriting the
promised land with a contract (v.18) and a strange and
significant, symbolic covenantal act.
Now before I go any further, I should probably take some time
to explain exactly what a covenant is and was. The Hebrew word
for covenant here, berit[h], is the most common term
translated 'covenant' in the Hebrew Bible: it appears 286
times, making it quite an important word.[2] This word in all
likelihood is also associated with the older Akkadian word 'biritu',
which means literally "to fetter", "to shackle" or to "bind"
and when it is used in the sense it is here, it designates the
beginning or the end of a contract.[3] The image then is of
two people being fettered or bound together by this
covenant.[4]
This particular contract, in the text before us today, is only
one of three in the entire Hebrew Bible where God himself is
bound[5] - the others are with Noah, (Gen. 17, Num. 25:12) and
the David (II Sam. 23:5, Pss. 89:3, 28-29; 110:4).
The word image for us here is clear. It is that of God, in
this contract, actually shackling himself to a promise to
Abram and in so doing, of course, not only is God bound to the
promise but He is bound to the consequence of a broken
covenant – which in this case, if we are correct in our
understanding, is more extreme than either our wedding vows or
our soldiership pledge – the consequence of breaching this
covenant is possibly even death (cf. Jer 34:18-20).[6]
Now let's take a look at this whole contractual ceremony here
because it is peculiar in Scripture. In verse 9, it is
recorded that God asks Abram to bring him a number of
different dead animals of varying (and mostly forgotten)[7]
significance and has him cut many of them in half and Abram
does.[8] And Abram stays by these bodies guarding them from
other animals that want to eat them (v.11) and then he falls
asleep into a 'deep and terrifying darkness (v.12).'
Abram is terrified as the Lord approaches him and says, verse
13, "know for certain that your descendants will be strangers
in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and
mistreated for four hundred years. Wow, this is 'good news'!
(sarcasm) – Abram is terrified (v. 12) and the Lord meets him
with the comforting words of, 'your descendants will be slaves
for 400 years.'
This is great (sarcasm) and there is even more: look at the
contractual ceremony here. After God tells Abram that his
family will be slaves - and then those who enslave them will
be punished – and at the same time that all this is happening,
another people will be allowed to run wild in the promised
land until their sin reaches its absolute full measure (v.
16), there will be 400 years of sin and 400 years of slavery
and now, verse 17, "when the sun had set and darkness had
fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and
walked between the pieces [of the dead animals]. On that day
the Lord made a covenant with Abram… (vss. 17,18)"[9]
And this is interesting: the 400 years of sin and slavery are
signs of the covenant or contract. They are not the contract
itself. This section highlights a portion of the covenant and
that portion states that Abram's descendants will eventually
possess this land that he is on.[10] And what is the sign that
they will possess this land? The sign is that they will be in
slavery for 400 years and none of this sign will Abraham see
ever actually see.[11]
Further, remember how we said that this is one of the few
times in scripture where you will find that it is actually God
who is bound by the covenant. Here it is ONLY God who is bound
by the covenant. It is God (represented by a smoking firepot
with a blazing torch[12]) who walks between the halves of the
dead animals here – not Abram. This is interesting because in
so doing, God says that he will pay the consequence for the
broken covenant. He says that he is bound and that he will pay
for it and - if our interpretation of the ceremony is correct
– He will pay for it with His own life. This is quite the
serious ceremony and this ceremony has parallels in ancient
customs and literature but only in Jeremiah (34:18-20) in the
Scriptures is this type of a ceremony mentioned and there it
says:
"...all the people of the land, which passed between the parts
of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and
their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the
heaven, and to the beasts of the earth."
If the covenant fails after this ceremony, the one bound by it
here, dies.[13] This is serious and this is like the ceremony
that God is voluntarily taking upon Himself. And it says that
Abram does believe Him (and the LORD reckoned it to him as
righteousness, v.6) EVEN BEFORE the Lord goes to these great
lengths to bind himself to His promise.
So then Abram believes God, even before God covenants up to
even His own life. Abram believes God that he and Sarai will
have children and that they will inherit the promised land,
and then God makes this deal that may EVEN risk His own life,
and then Abram, at his wife's insistence… has sexual relations
with his wife's slave (16:3). And she becomes pregnant.
This is reminiscent of earlier in Genesis isn't it?[14] Back
in Eden itself Adam takes matters into his own hands at his
wife's prompting and she blames the serpent (Gen 3) and sin
and death enter the world and here Abraham takes matters into
his own hands and Sarah blames God (16:3) after God has just
entered into this most serious covenant.
God has put a lot on the line. In the contract he may be
bound, to die, if it is not kept…and instead of relying on
God, Abram, a hero of Hebrews 11's walk of fame, takes matters
into his own hands…just like Adam, just like the People of
Babel a couple of Chapters previous (Gen 11:1ff), and just
like too many of us, I fear.
Well, what about us? Are we any more faithful[15] to our
covenants than Abram with God's life on the line? Do we really
avoid all that may enslave the mind, body, and spirit, or do
we rationalize that our indulgences are fine whereas other
people's indulgences may or may not be? Do we keep our vows
before God about forsaking all others UNTIL DEATH DO WE PART
or do we pretend that God releases us from those vows as soon
as we no longer wish to be bound?
Years ago, before I ever met my wife, I met a lady at a place
I used to frequent. I felt the Lord prompting me to give her
$500; she, I was led to believe, needed it to go up north and
gain the custody of her infant son. I gave her the money – and
that was a lot of money for me in those days –but I give this
stranger the money at what I feel at the time is the Lord's
prompting and she tells me she will meet me there again on a
certain date with the money and – well – the time comes and
goes and I continue to go to that place a few times over the
next months still with faith but I confess each time this
faith is intermingling with more doubts until it get to the
point that I am thinking of calling friends of mine and
tracking her down on my own, in my own strength, and
retrieving the money. My thoughts drift from faith to
frustration…
I also think of a friend of ours –he is a godly man and the
Lord taught me a lot through him. Before I ever met him, he
felt the Lord telling him to witness to one of his employees,
to tell him the good news of Jesus Christ. He believes the
Lord but he does not tell his employee and the next day, he
hears that his employee is dead.
An example from the Bible again: remember the Israelites with
Moses on the edge of this land promised to them by God. Ten of
12 spies come back saying that they are afraid; they don't
have faith and they won't receive the land (Deut 1; Num 14).
The Lord is angry and tells them that because they did not act
in faith their generation will not inhabit the land; so the
people get up early the next morning and say, "We know we have
sinned, we'll go do it now"…but it is too late…God is not with
them…and they are defeated by their enemies. There are
consequences.
And Abram, righteous Abram, now has chosen to act on his own
instead of trusting God. God pledged his life so that we may
have faith and faithfulness (Romans 1-3) but we are faithless
many times over and what is the consequence of our
faithlessness? God dies. God dies.
God is fettered and bound in this covenant for Abram. As a
consequence of Israel's sin in the dessert a whole generation
dies outside of the promise and as a consequence of our sin
today, God dies: Jesus dies on the cross.
We didn't need to make our covenants before and with God and
God didn't need to make His promises to us. He didn't need to
make this promise to Abram. Abram believed Him before He put
his life on the line. But God did make this promise and the
thing about God is that, even if we are unfaithful to our
promises, He remains faithful (Romans 3:3,4).[16]
And look ahead in our text from Genesis with me, God is not
unfaithful, and in Chapter 21, verse 2, it says, "Sarah became
pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very
time God had promised him." So now here it is- even though
Abram may not have acted in a manner consistent with faith,
ONLY God was bound here and as the covenant is fulfilled, God
lives!
God promised children to Abraham and God provided children to
Abraham. God promised that his decedents would inhabit Canaan
after 400 years of slavery, and God provided that they
inhabited the land after 400 years of slavery. Like the
Apostle Paul says emphatically, centuries later, in his letter
to the Romans, "What if some did not have faith? Will their
lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all!… (
Romans 3:3,4)" No way. No! No! No! God is faithful even and
especially when we are not!
God promised Israel that they would inhabit the land and, even
though they were faithless at the border, God still fulfilled
his promise a generation later. My friend who did not pray
with his employee the night before he died, went on to be a
pastor and never forgot the lessons the Lord taught him that
night in the whole time I knew him anyway. And my other
friend, the lady I met, just when I had almost given up hope
that she would ever find me and return the $500, she did and
that's not the end of the story. Years later I almost came to
tears. I came out of my house and there she was with her son.
He was now 5 or 6. She knew our tenants and was visiting them.
The Lord let me meet her son – the Lord let me see how He used
His $500 to help a child be raised by his mother. She, in her
excitement at seeing me, grabbed her now school-aged son and
said, "This is the man from the story I told you…" THIS child
KNOWS the stories of the MIRACLES of GOD. Even though, after I
believed I had my doubts, The Lord used even me to do His
will. And he rewarded me in such a way that day that I will
never forget it.
And isn't that the same for all of us? Jesus died on the cross
because of our sin. Jesus died because of our faithlessness
but God is faithful to His promises and Jesus is alive. Jesus
rose from the dead! Jesus defeated death. He died for us and
he rose again. Nothing we do can change that! Now all we need
to do is not reject him; we can do that by remaining faithful
and holy and by upholding our covenants.
So then let's not be like that generation of Israelites who
rejected his invitation to the promised land and died in
outside of the promise. Let's not be like those who confess
'Lord, Lord' with their mouths but do not live up to their
obligations. Covenants are important and God will hold us to
our vows so instead of being faithless, let us be thankful for
to God for his sacrifice, respect our covenants, and inherit
the promise of eternal life.
www.sheepspeak.com
[1] Michael Ramsay's sermons on these
topics are available on-line at www.sheepspeak.com
[2] G.E. Mendenhall. "Covenant." In The Interpreter's
Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick.
(Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715.
[3] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 715.
[4] Michael Ramsay, "Berit[h]." In the Journal of Aggressive
Christianity.
[5] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 718.
[6] Death is the penalty meted out to those who violate this
ceremony the only other time it is recorded as being enacted
in the scriptures: Jeremiah 34:18-29. See Sarna, Genesis, PP.
114-115, Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, 446. cf
also, Anet, p.532 and John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the
covenant (15:1-21).
[7] Terence E. Fretheim, NIB, P. 446.
[8] John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21)
[9] The fire and the smoke are interesting symbols here. They
cast the reader's mind ahead to the fire and smoke with which
God leads the Israelites out of Egypt and to this same
promised land. Those who have been studying Acts along with us
in NE Saskatchewan or online (www.sheepspeak.com) will also
note the pillars of fire that settled above the people's heads
in Acts II, which may or may not be making reference to the
Exodus and by extension this earlier passage as well.
[10] The Holiness Code in Leviticus (esp. Lev 25), as well as
the prophecy of Amos (esp. 3-4) and numerous other portions of
scripture testify that yes indeed the Lord was faithful in
fulfilling this agreement but as the covenantal talks are
re-opened with future generations who are looking for a
permanent territorial blessing for their offspring, it is
granted to them albeit with conditions (pertaining to caring
for the poor and the land) which they did not fulfill (cf. Gen
18:19; 26:5; Amos 3:1-2; Lev 25:2; 26:34-35; cf. also N.T.
Wright, "Romans and the Theology of Paul," Pauline Theology,
Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson,
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.) The blessing to the
nations (12:3) that was offered through Abraham stands
fulfilled to this day. Remember also that the messianic
prophecies to David are not tied to the physical land (2
Samuel 7) in that, of course, they are ultimately also
fulfilled in Christ. Also pertaining to the descendants of
Abraham, we should neither forget that God that he can raise
up decedents of Abraham from stones if need be (cf. John
8:31-41; Hebrews 11:8-12) and indeed he does graft all the
nations into the promises of Abraham (cf. Matthew 3:9, Luke
3:8, John 8, Romans 11). There is also a certain irony in this
covenant in that ultimately, of course, the promise is
fulfilled that all nations of the earth will be blessed
through Abraham (12:3) is ultimately fulfilled when God
(Jesus) dies.
[11] Compare this to Moses' sign that the LORD is speaking to
him (Exod 3:11-12) and the sign of the Lord's faithfulness re:
the provision of his people around the Sabbatical Year and the
Year of Jubilee (Lev 25:19-20).
[12] This does cast our minds tangentially ahead to the pillar
of cloud and the pillar of fire with which God will later lead
the Israelites around the desert.
[13] Jeremiah 34:18-20
[14] Cf. Chapter 11. This is the chapter where Abram is
introduced. He is introduced - ironically enough - after the
people from the city of Babel are dispersed for (pridefully)
taking matters into their own hands.
[15] I am using the term 'faith' in the rest of this document
in a manner that is consistent with the so called 'New
Perspective on Paul'
[16] Cf. N.T. Wright, "Romans and the Theology of Paul," p.
37. See also NT Wright, "The Law in Romans 2."
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