Abraham’s Honesty
If
there is anything here that I appreciate out of Abraham it is the fact that he
is open and honest with God. God
declares a promise, and Abraham comes back to God with an honest reflection of
how that makes him feel. He basically
says, “God, I don’t doubt who you are.
But I don’t really understand how you are going to get from where we are
now to where you promise I will get to.”
That’s honesty.
To
be truthful, I think that there is a little more than just honesty going on,
though. There is a little bit of blaming
going on. There sounds like there is a
lot of uncertainty and maybe even doubt going on. I really like that about Abraham. Abraham is real with God. He doesn’t doubt God’s existence or His omnipotence. But his humanity is antural. Abraham can’t see how God is going to get
there. In this passage we see genuine faith
mingling with genuine humanity. Perhaps
it is not quite as much humanity as David brings to the table, but it is enough
here to make Abraham very real.
God’s Reply
Of
course, God does reply to Abraham. The
root of God’s reply is essentially this truism: “God’s plan happens according
to God’s way and according to God’s timing.”
God
doesn’t tell Abraham all of the details.
God doesn’t give Abraham a flow chart of faith. God doesn’t tell Abraham the step-by-step
journey. Instead, God reminds Abraham
that He is God and He is not a God who goes back on the promises. That is enough.
Sometimes
I wonder why God doesn’t give us full insight.
Certainly He knows the future.
Certainly He’s all powerful. He
could show us the future perfectly and give us that insight if He desired.
I
think the reason He doesn’t give us that insight is because we can’t handle
it. Think of it in terms of
parenting. If you told all the struggles
of parenting a child to a couple whose child was only moments old, it wouldn’t
be a blessing to them but a curse! There
is no way that the couple would be prepared to shoulder the burden of the
future when their child is just born.
They need to grow into parenting before they can shoulder the greater
and greater burdens. I believe the same
is true for us and for Abraham. He must
grow into the plan. He’s not ready to
understand it all and should all of that responsibility. It is enough to know that God keeps His
promises and if we are faithful He will see us to the end.
Abraham’s response to God
Abraham
believes. Abraham’s belief is credited
to God in righteousness. In this act I
think we see the proper balance of Abraham’s question. Abraham is not bringing God’s question into
character; he is looking for assurance of the promise. I think so long as we respect God and honor
God, God desires true communication with us.
He doesn’t ask us to feign obedience; rather God wants us to be honest
with our relationship so that when we are truly close to Him He is glorified
and when we are far from Him He has a chance to draw us near to Himself. Yes, Abraham may show uncertainty and a lack
of understanding. But his faithfulness
to God gives God a chance to reassure Abraham that things haven’t changed.
What
I love about this passage is that Abraham technically doesn’t do anything in
this passage until the sacrifice after the covenant is conferred. It’s essentially just a conversation of the
heart. God speaks, Abraham returns the
exchange, God speaks again, Abraham believes, and it is credited to Abraham as
righteousness. Here we find the true
pattern of how God works with humanity. It
is through relationship and not our works that God conveys things like
salvation, righteousness, and forgiveness.
Covenant
Now
let’s talk about this covenant. This is
a pretty cool thing. Once Abraham
believes and once righteousness is already conferred to him, we see the process
of covenant making.
Here’s
how covenants were handled in the ancient Middle East. Essentially, animals were cut up and the
people making the covenant walked between them.
That act of walking between them was like saying “if either of us breaks
this covenant, we deserve to suffer the same fate as these animals who have
been sliced open and killed. That’s the
cultural understanding for what is going on here in this passage.
Now
look at what this chapter actually tells us.
Abraham brings the animals, but it is only God that passes between
them! God is the one who makes the covenant,
Abraham isn’t actually asked to make any covenant! All God asks of Abraham is something that He
has already received: faithfulness. In
return, God reassures Abraham by making a one-sided covenant. God makes all the promises. God takes all the risk of consequence. All Abraham has to do is receive.
How
awesome is God?
So
it is with us. God has made a covenant
with us in the same fashion. God has
given us Jesus Christ. God has already
laid out the sacrifice. And God has
declared that anyone who desires may accept God’s promise of eternal life. There is nothing we can do to earn it, to
deserve it, or to make it better. All we
can do is accept it. Once we have chosen
to accept it, then we are prepared to respond to it with a faithfulness like
Abraham.
Good
reading, I hope you have been reminded of God’s graciousness and glory.
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