Abraham:  Called to Wed

 

When we left Abraham at the end of Episode #2 of Act 1, Scene 2 of God’s One Big Story, he had just returned from the daring and successful rescue of his nephew, Lot, and the other inhabitants of Sodom and the surrounding cities.  Before he could return the captives and the loot taken in the raid, though, he was met by Melchizedek, the Priest and King of Salem (Jerusalem), with whom he shared communion and to whom he gave tithes from the spoils of that war.  As a result of this worshipful encounter, when he was later offered the recovered loot by the King of Sodom, Abram was fully prepared to turn it down, choosing instead to maintain his integrity and witness before the pagan king and the peoples of the land.

This temptation turned out to be the third in a series of tests that Abram has been undergoing.  As we have seen in our previous study of him, God has progressively been revealing Himself and His plans for Abram and his descendants through a series of revelatory encounters—with each one involving a promise that was followed by a period of testing.  This chart summarizes Abram’s progress so far…

 

 

This, then, brings us to Abram’s next revelatory encounter that is found in Genesis 15.  Although he doesn’t know it yet, throughout this process, God has been preparing him to become the Father of the nation of Israel, a role we will see him step into here in Episode #3 of his story. This is when he will enter into a marriage covenant with God for his future offspring—the descendants who will eventually become the nation of Israel and the Wife of Jehovah.

Episode #3 of Biopic #1
Cast:     Narrator     God     Abram

With the lights now dimming in the theatre and the curtains slowly starting to rise, we hear the voice our off-stage Narrator once again, as he begins setting the stage for us… 

Narrator:  Lot has just left to go back to Sodom, leaving Abram shaking his head and wondering whether his efforts to rescue and restore his backsliding nephew have been in vain.  The king of Sodom has also left, rubbing his hands over the recovery of all his goods, at no cost to himself, no doubt discussing with the secretary of his treasury what particular form of insanity has possessed Abram for him to refuse his share of the spoil.  Melchizedek has gone, leaving Abram with only a memory and a little better understanding of God.  Abram’s allies Aner, Eschol, and Mamre have also departed, having congratulated one another on their prowess in war and gloating over the rich profits they have reaped—leaving Abram alone, somewhat depressed and a little fearful that his unexpected display of military power might provoke the Canaanites into taking a retaliatory action against him.  Moreover, if he has been listening to the excited chatter of the children he has rescued, this may have left him heavy hearted because he has no child of his own.  It is at this point that God, in His love and care, comes to talk with Abram about the building of his family…[1]

Narrator:  After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying…

God:  Do not be afraid, Abram. I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

Abram:  Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?  Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!

Narrator:  And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying…

God:  This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Narrator:  Then He brought him outside and said…

God:  Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them….So shall your descendants be.

 

 

Narrator:  And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.  Then [God] said to him…

God:  I AM the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.

Abram:  Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?

God:  Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

Narrator:  Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.  And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.  Then God said to Abram…

God:  Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.  And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.  But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Narrator:  And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.  On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying…

God:  To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

With nothing further to add, this Episode comes to a sudden halt, indicating that it is time for us to don our Critic’s Caps and begin our Review once again.

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As always, when reviewing this latest Episode, we will be approaching it from three levels…

The Earthly Level—where we will be looking for any Life Lessons that we can take away from it;
The Heavenly Level—where we will be looking for the Contributions it has to make to God’s One Big Story of Redemption; and,
The Eternal Level—where we will be looking for the Revelations of God contained in this part of the Story.

So, with these as our goals, let’s begin our Review by first going over…

 

The Most Important Points in this Episode

I.  In our previous episodes, when God “spoke” to someone, it was not made clear just what form that took. But here the Word of God came to Abram in a vision—making this the first mention of a vision in scripture.  This kind of appearance is called a Theophany and usually indicates a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.

II.  With this visitation coming closely on the heels of his battle experience, God reassures Abram that he did the right thing in rejecting the spoils and that whatever happens as a result of his “military offensive,” He would be Abram’s protector and provider.

III.  Given that in each of his previous encounters with God, Abram was promised either a nation or descendants, when he meets with God this time, it only seems logical that the first thing he would mention is his lack of children—after all, how can you have descendants if you don’t have any children?

In response, the Lord promises him—for the first time—that his heir will not be his adopted servant, but a son born from his own seed.  At this, he is told to count the stars.  In Genesis 12:14ff, God told him that He was going to make his descendants as the dust of the earth.  These two separate promises speak of Abram’s two seeds—his natural descendants being those born of the flesh, the Jews, and the supernatural descendants being those who will one day be born of the Spirit, the Church.

IV.  The Lord’s self-identification as I AM is also used for the first time here. Later, in John 8:56-59, Jesus stated unequivocally that He was the I AM. At that time, in a confrontation with the Jewish leaders, Jesus told them…

…if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death…the Jews said to Him…Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’  Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead?…

Jesus answered…Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.

Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.

V.  Although Abram has believed God in the past—so much so that he packed up, left his homeland, and became a wanderer in the Land of Promise—this is the first time that it has been said that his belief has been accounted to him for righteousness. Why do you think that is?  

Unlike all of God’s previous promises to Abram, this is the first mention and direct promise that a son would be born to him, a son that would be in the lineage of the Seed promised to Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15.  It was his faith in this promised Redeemer that is being credited to him as righteousness.

VI.  In spite of the fact that we have just been told that Abram believed God, when God promises him the land again, he asks for a sign. Is a demonstration of a lack of faith on Abram’s part?

No.  Back in Genesis 9:8-17, God gave Noah the Rainbow as a sign or reminder of the Covenant that He would never again destroy the earth by a flood.  So, in asking for a sign, Abram was asking God what the tangible reminder of this Covenant would be—a sign which would be the equivalent of God’s signature on a contract today.

VII.  In response to this, Abram is told to prepare an offering/a sacrifice. Although he very quickly obeys, there is a considerable delay before anything else happens—leaving him with no other option than to wait and try to keep the birds away from the offering.  This delay was probably meant to indicate that the fulfillment of this Covenantal Promise would not be immediate, while the birds were intended to be a picture of the demonic forces that would be at work until then, trying to keep this Covenant from being fulfilled.  In Luke 8: 5, 12, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus used a similar analogy to illustrate this practice of the enemy…

A Sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it…

Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

VIII.  After protecting the sacrifice all afternoon, darkness falls, and a deep sleep overtakes Abram. He is shown a dream in which his future descendants are slaves in a foreign land where they will be afflicted for 400 years. This raises such questions as…

i.   After giving the land to Abram, why would God allow them to be taken out of the Land of Promise?

In later chapters of Genesis (especially chapter 28), we will find that the corrupt culture of the Canaanites was beginning to impact the behavior of Jacob and his family.  To protect them from these negative influences—and while giving the people of the land plenty of time to repent before bringing judgment upon them—God removed His People from the land and sequestered them in Goshen, the best land in all Egypt.

ii.  Why would God allow His Covenant People to be subjected to such suffering and affliction?

During the first part of their sojourn in Egypt, as the family of Joseph, the Israelites enjoyed special treatment and were being provided for by Joseph.  Even during the great famine, they were prosperous, not really needing to look to God for anything, as their needs were being met by the government.  But when a ruler came to power after Joseph, they lost their privileged position and were reduced to slavery instead.  It was then that they began to call upon the Lord again.  So, their affliction can be seen in one of two ways—as the means God used to restore His People to faith and dependence upon Him, and as a picture of the persecution that the World routinely inflicts upon the People of God.

Abram, on the other hand, was promised that he would live a long life and die in peace.

IX.  While Abram is asleep, the Presence of the Lord passes between the sacrificial elements. This is significant because in the Ancient Near East, when a covenant was made, it was ratified by first slaughtering animals and then creating a path between their divided carcasses.  Both parties would walk through these animals, pledging to fulfill the terms of the covenant…

By cutting the animals in half during covenant ceremonies, the parties making the covenant were effectively saying, ‘Let this be done to us if we break the terms of this covenant…’

By being the one who passes between, Yahweh places the penalty of violating the covenant on Himself.  He is showing Abram how serious He is about His promises.’ [2]

 

In Summary…

In this episode we have learned that…

i.  For the first time, Abram has had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus Christ—an encounter of faith which established Abram as righteous in the eyes of God;
ii.  God allays Abrams’ fears about his past actions and assures him of a glorious future with a Son of his own to be his heir;
iii.  This Son of Promise will be the foundation stone upon which the nation of Israel will be built; and,
iv.  As a sign of this Promise, God “Cut a Covenant” with Abram in which He swears by oath that He will fulfill every promise He has made concerning Abram and his descendants.

 

In conclusion, we now need to determine…

I.  What Life Lessons can we take away from Abram’s experience in this episode?

i.  Everyone, no matter how important or insignificant they may be, must come to God in the same way—that is, through a personal faith encounter with His Son, Jesus Christ;
ii.  Once they stand righteous before God, He will cover their pasts, and protect and provide for them as they follow Him into the future;
iii.  God’s tests are not punitive but preparatory. They are designed to help grow everyone in faith and in righteousness and prepare them for their divinely ordained destinies.
iv.  Like Abram, Believers today are participants in a Covenant with God—a New Covenant written in the very Blood of Jesus, in which the Spirit of God comes to live within them and begins writing God’s Laws upon their hearts and teaching them to live like Children of the Most High God.

II.  What Contributions does this episode make to God’s One Big Story of Redemption?

This episode marks a pivotal point in God’s One Big Story.  Everything that has gone before has merely been preparation for this event—the cutting of the Covenant between God and Abram.  In reality, this Covenant is a Marriage Contract in which Abram betroths Israel—the Nation that will come from him—to God.

In the Ancient Jewish Wedding Tradition, which provides the format for the Story of the Bible, there are three phases to a Jewish Marriage…

i.  The Negotiation or Arrangement Phase—when the Bridegroom’s Father, the Bridegroom himself, or his Agent goes to the Father of a Bride and negotiates a marriage contract. If arrangements acceptable to both parties can be arrived at and if the bride gives her consent, then the Bridegroom and Bride become legally betrothed or engaged.  At this point, the Bridegroom returns to his Father’s house and begins preparing a home for his Bride.
ii.  The Betrothal Phase—usually lasts for about a year and is the time when the Bridegroom is at work building a home and the Bride is busy preparing her wedding garments.
iii.  The Consummation Phase—includes the actual Marriage, its consummation, and the Wedding Feast that follows. This can only happen when the Father of the Bridegroom is satisfied with the work of his Son and gives him permission to go and get His Bride.

With the Marriage Covenant between God and Abram having been ratified by blood of the sacrifice, the Negotiation Phase is now complete, God and Israel are officially engaged, and the Betrothal Period has begun.

III.  What Revelations of God does this episode give us?

As we have just learned, God is seen here as the Celestial Suitor, the Bridegroom who has just become betrothed to the Nation of Israel.  Even though she isn’t even a reality in the natural as yet, in the mind and heart of her Beloved, she has been in existence since before the foundation of the world.

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Early on in our study of Abram, we learned that he was called to Wander, Worship, and Witness, and in our last episode, we learned that he was also called to Warfare.  In our next episode—in Genesis 16—we will discover that he has also been called to do one of the hardest things ever—and that is, to Wait!

 

Should you need a brief review on the Jewish Wedding Tradition, please check out this little video…

 

 

[1] John Phillips, Exploring Genesis (Neptune, New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, 1992), 132.
[2] Calvin Park, “Cutting a Covenant,” Bible Study Magazine, September 19, 2017, http://www.biblestudymagazine.com/bible-study-magazine-blog/2017/9/19/cutting-a-covenant

Some original images courtesy of https://freebibleimages.org/