How Do I Know — Part 2

** This is Part 2 of my two part blog. **

There was this unbelievable darkness … and it came over him and it put him into almost a kind of trance. And out of that dark cloud God spoke about dark things that would happen in the future …

–>  and he explains to Abram the future of his descendants … that they are going to be slaves, they’re going to be exiles, they’re going to be away from this land … they won’t come back for 400 years.

Now referring back to verse 17 …

(and) When the sun had set and darkness had fallen a smoking pot and a blazing torch appeared.

Now this smoking pot and blazing torch … nobody knows exactly how to translate this … it’s very hard to know. But here’s what we know.     Something appeared … and in the original Hebrew text they used the same words for smoke and for blaze.

And it’s the same words used to describe the top of Mt. Sinai when God came down on it years later.

And the same words were also used to describe the pillar of God’s presence called a cloudy pillar.

It was the presence of God.      The best way I found to describe this was when one scholar put it this way, he says …

“At that minute, suddenly in the midst of the darkness a searing streak appeared and held it’s shape. It spewed fire and smoke, and sparks. It was the presence of God, BUT it wasn’t just the presence of God that astonished Abram … but also what it did …        LOOK at verse 17 again “it passed between the pieces.” It went down the aisle made by the pieces. And here’s the reason this was so strange, this was so incredible … THIS is the gospel. This is the whole gospel right here. And before you start thinking I’ve totally lost my marbles, stay with me. I don’t think there’s any place in the New Testament that gets as thorough going over as this.

Here’s what’s going on. You see, There’s always two problems with living a confident big life. I mean, why aren’t you and I living the same kind of life Abram lived?  The first problem is … we do like Abram …  when Abram says, “Lord, how can I know?” “How can I know all these great things are going to happen?” How can I trust your promise? How can I know you will come through?

What’s astonishing is when God does appear and he passed between these pieces. Do you now know what he’s saying?  >>>>

What he is saying to Abram is, “I have promised to bless you, Abram … to bring salvation to the world. And if I don’t do what I say …

May my immutability experience mutation.

May my immortality suffer mortality.

May my infinity suffer limitation and finitude.

May my power suffer powerlessness.

May the impossible become possible.

May I be cutoff. May I be destroyed.

May my body be ripped to pieces.”

This is what God is saying to Abram … and to us.

Now if you think that’s amazing … and it is. But that’s not all, because Abram looks at God at this point, in a sense, and says what most of us say … “Wow, alright.” But that’s not the only problem that I’ve got with living a big life.    I recognize you’ve made this promise.        … and how amazing and wonderful that you pass between the pieces and you would make a promise like this, but you know I guess what it comes right down to Lord I never really thought you would break your promise. Not really. The real problem is how do I know Lord about ME?

Here you’ve given me this wonderful promise and I don’t think I can come through.

       You said … you will be my people; I will be your God.

       I believe you will be my God but how am I ever going to be your person? I will let you down. You will finally get tired of me. You will finally say, “urrrrgh, How many times will he break the promise? That’s it … this is the 50^th time – that’s it.”

Finally, you will give up on me. How can I know about you … well, now I know because you’ve passed between the pieces. But how will I know about me?

And here’s the thing that Abram knew … and that we’ll all know in a minute once we realize this …

God walked through the pieces alone.        He did not say, Abram, now you do it.

And let me tell you this is absolutely unique … and stunning.        Because we know from history and archeology … that whenever a king would enter into a covenant relationship with a vassal … a lesser king, or a conquered king, or a servant … both the king and the other person would go through the pieces. Both would say, if I don’t do my part may I be as eaten by the birds of the air and the beast of the field.

But when God goes through by himself … he’s saying, Abraham I’m going to go through for both of us. Do you see how this is the gospel? Salvation and the Christian faith is not a cooperative effort … it is not God helps those who help themselves … it is not a partnership . God comes through and says, “I will take upon myself the curse of the covenant for both of us. Abraham, may I be cutoff if I don’t do my part of the bargain … BUT Abraham(!), may I be cutoff if you don’t do yours.”

Abram … I will bless you … Even if it means – and it did – that I will have to die.

Don’t you realize that century’s later (2,130 yrs)  darkness came down again? You can read about it in Mark chapter 15 verse 33 where it says,

33 And at the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land and the ninth hour Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me.

And Isaiah 53 verse 8 says, … something that Abram didn’t know … Abram had no idea what it was going to cost God to make the promise he did. But Isaiah says about the Messiah, “he was cutoff from the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”

His immortality did become mortality

His immutability did suffer mutation.

The impossible became possible.

God died … God was cutoff … God was trampled into the dust … the darkness came down on him.

Here’s how we apply this. First of all, you and I will see that all of our problems … and I mean all of our problems … I mean all of our problems come because we – you and I – don’t trust the promises of God. Our anchors are not all the way down.

You know why we worry?   We don’t trust his wisdom.

You know why we get angry and maybe bitter? We don’t trust his justice.

Do you know why some of us hate ourselves, because we don’t trust his love and his grace.

In fact, do you know why we disobey anytime, ever? Why we ever do the wrong thing?  Because we don’t trust … we don’t trust that God’s presence is better than anything we could possibly get by disobeying.

In other words, you I believe we will do better with what will make us happy because if I trust God … if I trust God … if I trust God all the way to the bottom, I might miss out. Our lack of self-control, our lack of self-esteem, our anxiety, our bitterness, whatever it is … our anchor is in the water … but we don’t have it all the way down to the bottom under something secure. That’s the problem. We need an anchor for our soul. How do you get it?     Well first of all, very simple, very very simple … two or three ways to put it and we all know this answer.  First of all, we go to God and say, “How do I know.”  Isn’t that what Abram did?  … Isn’t it wonderful? … Abram came and said, Lord I need to trust you more … I don’t see how I can. And what did God say … did he say?, “How dare you! How dare you question me!”   Nooo, isn’t it wonderful, God says, I’ll show you. You know when the man came to Jesus and said, “Would you please heal my son?” And Jesus says, “Well of course I can if you believe.” And what did the man say, “I think I believe, help my unbelief.” And Jesus healed his son … because here’s the gospel … this is good news.  Take the person who says, I believe but I’m afraid I don’t believe enough, but I want to believe more. That’s the beginning of belief because they are going to Him. Because you have to go and say How do I know? You have to go to him and just tell him you don’t have it. He isn’t going to clobber you. John the Baptist sent a messenger, remember … he says, Are you the one who is to come or should we look for someone else. And Jesus doesn’t say, How dare you for saying that … how dare you to question me. No, he sends a message back.

If we go into God and say, I know what my problem is I don’t trust you enough. And in all honesty, I don’t trust me … I don’t have this mastery that Abram had. Help me. I think God will respond.

And secondly, here’s something important I learned I think is helpful especially with today’s discourse. The way you get the anchor for your soul is to major in the majors, not major in the minors. Focus on living the big life like Abram … don’t get distracted by the minor issues?

• Forget about whether or not God invented the world in seven 24 hour days or whether he used evolution. Don’t worry about it. Sure it’s made the cover of TIME magazine and the front page of the New York Times a few years ago – Big deal!
• Let’s not talk about abortion …
• let’s not talk about homosexuality …
• let’s not talk about tongues …
• let’s not talk about denominations.
• let’s not talk about even whether all the miracles in the Bible happened.

All we have to do is understand that if Jesus is who he says he is –

if Jesus is the one for whom the darkness came down –

if Jesus is the one that was cutoff from the land of the living …

if Jesus is the one!  Everything else falls into place.

You’re not going to get an anchor for your soul or improve your faith by studying archeology or by looking at the peripherals … getting all caught up in the minor things. We’ve got to remember what God did for Abraham … he showed him the gospel. We’ve got to get into God’s word and go to Jesus. We’ve got to read and study what he did. And finally, You have to realize Jesus Christ loves you so much that He became your Advocate to God.   There’s our anchor … Jesus Christ. Because if our anchor was just hanging in the water that still wouldn’t dislodge Jesus Christ from us. Even hell … God poured hell itself down on him. He was ripped to pieces … and he stayed … he fulfilled the resurrection for us. There’s our anchor. Because if you go to Jesus Christ first everything else in the Christian life falls into place.

• How do you know there’s a God? Look at the evidence for Jesus.
• How do you believe in miracles? Well if Jesus is who he says he is then miracles are no sweat.
• Why do you believe this … why do you believe that.
• You know I don’t believe Christians are right about this or that …
• Everything falls into place intellectually but personally, what you need is Him. You need the sight of him … you need a vision of him to feel his presence.
• Have you gotten any today? Has this caused you to think?
• Have you had some cobwebs shaken in your mind?
• That’s the way the anchor goes all the way down and is firm.
• And eventually nothing will move you. Nothing will move you away from your anchor.
• And you will say, Lord God – YOU are my shield, my anchor … not circumstances … and you are my exceedingly great reward.

Don’t you see he doesn’t say, My Friends, I’ve come to bring you your reward. He says, “I’ve come to BE your reward. I’ve come to give you Jesus.

How Do I Know — Abram f2f with God

** This is my first blog of this type. This is Part 1 of a two part blog of a SS lesson I presented recently and thought I would share in this medium. Hope you enjoy.  **

Our lesson today is primarily from Genesis 15:1-20, which is a situation in which Abraham has a face-to-face meeting with God around 2130 BC.

The crux or importance of the passage is not Abram’s f2f with God, but what God does to illustrate to Abram what His plan is for the Gospel all the way to 30 AD when Christ was crucified (which was 2,159 yrs later) … and beyond … all the way to us today (or 4,147 yrs later). And although Abraham lived an unbelievable life, it is my opinion that unbeknownst to Abram at the time, he won’t experience most of what God is illustrating and promising him here in Genesis 15:1-21. I think God had Moses write this in Genesis for Abram’s descendants and for us. But what is amazing is that Abram believed – and I do mean – he believed it! As you will see Abram had a belief that is truly remarkable.

Let’s delve into this scripture by first just reading it through and then dissecting some of Abram’s and God’s relationship, experiences, and promises.   Follow along on your handout …

1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

   “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,

   your very great reward.”

   2 But Abram said, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eli-e-zer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

   4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

   6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

   7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

   8 But Abram said, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

   9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

   10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

    12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Ken-ites, Ken-iz-zites, Kad-mo-nites, 20 Hit-tites, Per-iz-zites, Reph-aites, 21 Am-or-ites, Ca-naan-ites, Gir-ga-shites and Jeb-u-sites.”

That’s our text from The Word of God …

To get some context of what we have here refer back to verse 1 …

1 After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision

          Do not be afraid, Abram.

Right away that raises three questions: After what? Why is Abram afraid? What’s going on? … and so we have to step back, for just a moment, … and answer these questions to get an idea of Abram and God’s relationship.

You see the history of Abraham and God starts back in Genesis Chapter 12. When you read all the chapters in Genesis that pertain to Abram(ham), you will see that there are 4 great crisis or events in which God comes in some way or another to Abraham. The crisis just before Chap 15 was Abram rescuing his nephew Lot and Lot’s family from the tribes in the North Country without losing any of his people, which might be the reason for Abram to be afraid.

In fact the very first crisis is in Genesis chapter 12  – and God refers to it here in our text in verse 7, when he says, I came to you the first time when Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldeans … and God came to Abraham and this is what God says, (paraphrasing) “Abraham get out! Get out of your country (it’s amazing how God just rattles them off), Get out of your country, get out of your people, and get out of your family.” He says, I want you to leave everything that’s familiar to you … I want you to go to a place I will tell you of later. And the Book of Hebrew says in chapter 11 verse 8, “By faith Abraham got out not knowing whither he went.” That was Abram’s first crisis.

Then next in Chap 12 he told Abraham, “I want you to get out because I will make a great nation of you and your descendants. And out of this great nation will come one through whom all the peoples of the world will be blessed.”

Now that means to Abraham he will be the patriarch of a great nation … that his descendants would be a great nation. That meant two things to Abram. First of all … that God would give him a son, if he was going to be a great nation and his descendants were going to be this great people out of whom all of the people of the world would be blessed. And secondly, not only would he need a son he would need land. He would have to have a place … or some land … to have this great nation. And so here in Genesis 15 verses 2&3 Abram asks, Will I have a child? Will I get this land? And God says Yes, but if you look rather carefully … he says, I’ll give it to your descendants. And the fact of the matter is Abraham never got any land. Abraham never owned any land in his entire life except a little piece of land he and his wife were buried on.

So you see God says, “Leave your land and I’ll give you a land.” And then he says, Well, not exactly you … your descendants about 400 years from now.

And then in Genesis Chapter 17, Abraham comes to God and he says, “Lord God, you say you’re gong to give me a child, we’ve been waiting 25 years. I’m 99 – my wife is 90.”

And the Lord says, “And?  …  (pause)  Just wait.”

And then finally a child is born … Isaac … and when we get to Genesis 22 verse 2 God says to Abram, (in KJV) “Abram, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest … and offer him as a burnt offering to me.” In other words, …    Kill him.

I want to share with you this schematic that explains Abraham’s life succinctly … it goes like this:

• God says, I’m going to send you out – and Abram says, Where? And God says, I’ll tell you later … just go.
• And then he says, I will give you a land – and Abram says, Where? And God says, I’ll tell you later … just wander.
• And then he says, I’ll give you a child – and Abram says, How? And God says, I’ll tell you later … just wait.
• And then finally God sends a child and God says, Abraham kill your child. And Abraham says, Why?! And God says, I’ll tell you later … walk up the mountain, take the knife, take the fire …

And in every situation, Abraham passed that threshold (or challenge) … and he, triumphed!

Abram was a very normal guy … a very ordinary person – with lots of weaknesses which you can see if you read his entire biography. But in those > critical > situations > when > he > faced > these > unbelievable > circumstances …  he triumphed.

The best way I can put it is Abraham led a Big Life. Circumstances did not master him. He mastered them. Life did not push him around; he mastered life.

There’s a frightening line in Macbeth where Shakespeare says,

              “Each new morn new widows howl,

              new orphans cry,

              new sorrows strike heaven on the face.”

In other words, that’s life. Each morning there’s new widows, there’s new orphans, there’s new mourners, new pain … everyday. Every morning circumstances come at you.  Now what are you gong to do?

Life comes at you …

How can we be like Abram and deal with these life circumstances – disappointment, disillusionments, and contradictions ?

Abram BELIEVED THE LORD … he didn’t just believe in the Lord … he believed what God promised him … he believed it was going to happen … he believed … he trusted God and he base his life on them

Hebrews 6:17-19 refers back to our test today in Gen 15:1-21 … we read:

17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, (so) he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that we who have fled to take hold of hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Abram used his Belief in God as his anchor for his life.

The simplest way to explain an anchor is to say it secures something, usually a boat or ship, it doesn’t just hang over the side because the water moves and the currents and so forth will move. You have to get the anchor down into something like the rocks or something that doesn’t move. Then any movement or unexpected changes don’t matter.

The reason an anchor is used as a metaphor in Hebrew 6 where it says you have this hope as an anchor. What is your anchor of hope? … whereby you have this confidence about your life?

It is your job … your looks … your talents … a friend.     None of these will always be there … friends (and family) come and go … no talent is always there … no job is always there … your looks certainly won’t always be there.

What is it that you put your anchor down into? … to live a confident life?

Remember Shakespear’s reference to circumstances changing everyday … we don’t want to just put our anchor over the side and just let it hang or dangle there in the water, unsecured.

Everything but the promise of God is water … ebbing and flowing. If it’s flowing well now it will ebb later.

We want to have our anchor into something solid, not moveable … doesn’t change.

Abram believed God … he was able to get the anchor of his heart down that far. You see God told him …

I will give you land,

I will make you a great nation,

I will bless all the earth around you

I will give you a child and

I want you to live as if all those things are gong to happen

No matter what it looks like …

No matter what the circumstances.

Put your anchor down into that.

So how did Abram do it? I mean he’s a guy just like us right?  Well it happened one day like this

In verse 8 of our text Abram asks, “… how-can-I-know?”

And God says, let me help you get your anchor down … where you’re secure.

And this is what Abram does to assure Abram.   … in verse 9 where –

The Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a pigeon”

Now what in the world is he doing >>> and what’s interesting here is that Abram … it says in verse 10, that

… Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite to each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. (And when) the birds of prey came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away.

What is going on?

The reason this sounds so difficult to understand is because we don’t live in that day and time. Notice Abram wasn’t even given any additional instructions. God said bring me these animals and Abram knew immediately what to do with them.   See verse 10

Abram brought all them to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.

See Abram knew what to do but you and I don’t … so I’ll explain as best I can …

Today when we make a contract with someone we agree to sign. And we know there are consequences once we sign a contract. That’s because we live in a written culture … but back in Abram’s time they lived in an oral story telling culture. And the way they made a contract they would act it out … they would put themselves into a position where there were consequences for breaking their word … they would act out the consequence of unfaithfulness in front of everyone to see.

Let me read you something interesting in Jeremiah 34 that is relevant to this … vs 18

(X) 18 This is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; the men who violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms they will I will treat them like the calf they cut in two and walked between the pieces I will hand them over to their enemies and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and for the beast of the earth.

In those days, the way you took an oath was not by signing … how wimpy. What would that mean. Here’s what you would do. You would take an animal, you would slay it, you would cut it in two, put it down on the ground and you would walk between the pieces – and this is what you were saying. If I do not do everything that I am promising to do, may I be cut off  … may I be destroyed, may my flesh lay on the ground to feed the birds of the air and the beast of the field.    That’s what you’re doing in their culture. That’s a really effective way, don’t you think?  A lot better than signing, huh? With this enactment you see vividly … you see that you are bound … you just acted out the curse for not fulfilling your commitment/promise.

Now when Abram was told, bring me all these pieces he immediately knew what was going on. This was a covenant ratification ceremony. This was the making of a contract. He knew right away and he figured … What did he figure? Well he didn’t figure what actually happened. No one on the face of the earth figured what actually happened. Here’s what happened, verse 12 …

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

Now look in verse 17, it says …

17 (and) When the sun had set and the darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared …

Evidently, it’s almost as if a darkness fell over him … and crushed him to the ground.   Have you ever been … or maybe seen in a movie … when there’s a thick thick smoke where you cannot breath … so you have to get down to the ground, you have to stick your nose right on the ground hoping there might be a ½ inch of clear air. Well it was like that spiritually. There was this unbelievable darkness … and it came over him and it put him into almost a kind of trance. And out of that dark cloud God spoke about dark things that would happen in the future …

** Part 2 of this two part Blog will be published Thurs **