Presented to each Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 21 October 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Quiz:
1. Samuel anointed two Kings; who was the first one?
2. Who was the second one?
3. Name the giant the David killed
4. Tricky one: what is a prophet?
5. List one prophet in the book of 2 Samuel… (not Samuel, he’s dead) *Answers at bottom
Let me give you a bit of history before we begin. In the book of 1 Samuel, which we did not read yet as a community, Israel was finished with its judges and the corrupt leadership of the High Priest and his sons. They begged God and Samuel for a king and one was reluctantly given to them: Saul. Saul was a tall, dark, and handsome farmer. He was a reluctant ruler – he did not want to be king – and eventually his Kingdom was torn away from his family line.
1 Samuel ends as King Saul and his son Prince Jonathan die in battle. Throughout the last days of Saul’s reign a rival for the throne[1] was set up in the person of David. The prophet Samuel himself anointed David as king and David and Saul have quite a relationship that sees David and his mighty men and Saul and this soldiers competing for the heart and soul of the Israelites.
All this is in First Samuel but now Saul (and Samuel for that matter) is dead as 2 Samuel opens up but there is still a problem. The tribes of Israel and of Judah are locked in a civil war because Abner, one of Saul’s generals (acting on his own and for his own benefit)[2] has seized power (2:8-9; contrast David, 2:2-7) –even though it is David who is the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 16:13). Look at verse 8 and 9: It says there that Abner (not God) takes Ishbaal and makes him king - he thereby seizes control by propping up Saul’s son Ishbaal (Ishboseth) as a puppet ruler.
Now this war goes on for quite a long time and the forces loyal to David – under the leadership of Joab – have great success in their battles against General Abner (2:17; 3:1). Abner proves himself to be a much better politician than a general for even as he is losing badly his military contest with Joab, he is stealing all of King Ishbaal’s remaining power (3:6, 11).
Then Abner, after he is the one who provokes the entire war in the first place (2:8-9) by installing a puppet ruler[3], betrays his own people by switching sides in this war (3:8-20). Abner acts on his own and is concerned primarily about himself and his own power – and, as a result, there is war and the house of Israel is divided.
Israel is divided and in our text today, 3:20-31, we read about Abner’s treason to Israel in approaching David. He stages his betrayal masterfully. He provokes King Ishbaal (3:6) to the point where even he can’t stomach it anymore, kicks up a big fuss and heads over to Judah.[4]
Abner, however, in relying on himself rather than God, makes a serious mistake:[5] He forgets about Joab.[6] Now Joab is the one who, in our story today, is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Sam 2:17-28). Joab is known to be quick with a knife and to even carry out David’s murderous deeds for him (2 Sam 11:16-17). And Abner has previously killed Joab’s brother (2 Sam 2:23) and now Abner has forgotten about Joab. And so guess who shows up now? 3:21: “just then the servants of David arrived with Joab from a raid…”
And Joab is mad.[7] 3:24-25: Joab goes to the king and says, ‘what have you done? Abner came to deceive you and you let him get away!’ Joab knows Abner is up to something and now Joab goes to deal with it on HIS own[8] and, in verse 27, it says that Abner dies for shedding the blood of Joab’s brother. There is more death. The house is still divided.
Now at first glance this may not seem to be so bad for David actually. Your enemy’s armies are on the retreat and now their popular leader is dead. It seams like this would be a good thing? Right? But how does David thank Joab, verse 29, he says: May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house! May Joab's house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food."[9] (Wow that’s quite a curse!)
So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that Israel is still embroiled in a terrible civil war. It is not reconciled. Her house is still divided, even with Abner out of the way. Joab ON HIS OWN struck back at Abner and now David is vulnerable to someone seeking revenge. Israel is still at war. Israel is not reconciled. Her house is still divided.
Think about our houses today. I have, in my time, seen many divided houses. We have, in the past, had tenants who were always fighting with each other. I had one friend while I was growing up whose mother was so loud that we could hear her yelling at her sons all the way down the block. I had another friend who was thrown out of his house and had his father and his brother on another occasion come to blows.
I have seen homes where one spouse cannot stand to be around the other anymore; so, he looks for any excuse to have an out of town business trip. I have another friend who has signed up for every extra-curricular activity – every sports team in town - so he doesn’t go home. I have many friends from my time in the business world who just work and work all the time and if they can prolong their evening a little longer by heading out for a drink – or anything else - they will. These houses are divided.
There are houses divided – like Israel was - all over this country, in our community, and probably even in our churches. People act on their own. Wives yell at their husbands. Husbands leave the house to work long hours or to drink. They return to more yelling so they seek solace in more abandonment, which provokes still more yelling. It’s a terrible cycle. Houses remain divided; they need to be reconciled; what do you do?
In our world today there seems to be a big need for us all to be reconciled to God. Pornography and indulgence in sexual sin are at an all time high. They are even openly promoted in North America. I remember reading somewhere that more than 80% of US pastors have confessed to use of pornography in some way. Drug addiction and export are rampant. There are more wars and violence these days in the world than there has ever been at any time in history. And the sin inside the churches is AT LEAST as bad as it is outside. I believe the divorce rate is even higher inside than outside the churches actually . It seems like even Christian societies and houses are divided and in need of reconciliation? So, what do you do?
So, what do you do? This is a question that I wrestled with in studying this text? How come there are still divided houses? Why did Jesus die, anyway? Romans 5:10, didn’t Jesus die to reconcile us to God, (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-22)? Didn’t He rise again to establish His Kingdom (the Kingdom of God) on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt 6, Lk 11). As we seek first the Kingdom of God, is not all else supposed be added unto us (Matt 6:33)? Isn’t Jesus a Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), rather than of war and divided houses (cf. Matt 12:25, Mark 3:25, Lk 11:17)? And, after all is said and done, aren’t all things supposed to work out for the good for those of us who love the Lord? (cf. Eph 6:8) So why is everything seemingly worse when Christ died so that we can be reconciled? Why are houses still divided?
What can this portion of the scriptures teach us about that? What can 2 Samuel 2-5 teach us, on this side of the cross, about when the battle against sin and death is supposed to be already won? Well, I think there are a couple of important things.
One that we have been looking at a lot lately through our Bible studies about Moses, Aaron, Abraham, and Babel, and Abner and Joab: if we don’t act on our own instead relying on God, we won’t have this discord in the first place. You see David was anointed by God way back in 1 Samuel (1 Sam 16:13) and he inquires of the Lord in our text today (2:1) before his people ratify his kingship.
There would not be this war in the first place had Abner consulted God, instead of, as we see in 2 verse 8, taking Ishbaal and making him king! If Abner, who was supposed to be a commander in the Lord’s army, had relied on God instead of seeking his own glory none of this would have happened! And if Joab hadn’t taken out HIS OWN vengeance on Abner when he did (3:26-27), maybe the problems could have ended a lot smoother and quicker. Maybe.
God promises (Col 1:20-23) that we will experience his reconciliation as we continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all know that if our country today would just keep its eyes on the Lord it wouldn’t keep getting deeper into the troubles it is every day with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and everyone suffering the consequences of doing what is right in his own eyes. And in our own lives, if we’d just keep our eyes on the Lord, we wouldn’t have waded into a lot of the difficulties that we personally have. We know that.
But now a lot of us in this world are already in a mess. We are already addicted to all kinds of self-indulgences. There are many divided houses in and out of the churches (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-23). Why then aren’t we benefiting from God’s reconciliation? After all, Jesus did die so we would be reconciled to God.
I think we have an answer to this in our text today. In Chapter 5: 1-3, it says:
“All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the LORD said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.' "
When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a compact with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.”
You see God already - way back in 1 Samuel 16:13 – as was reaffirmed in 2 Sam 2:1-7 of our text today, united/reconciled Israel through David. Most of the tribes of Israel however, chose to reject this reconciliation; they continued to serve someone else – one of their own – they continued to serve themselves (2 Samuel 2-4), instead of the King.
In order for Israel to be reconciled with Judah then, Israel had to give up its claim to be its own King. They had to give up on their demands of independence (5:1-3). They had to no longer be ruled by one of their own choice. They, instead, had to repent, change their whole way of thinking, and had to submit to the leadership of another. They could not maintain their independence and experience reconciliation at the same time. It is not possible. It is not possible to be independent and reconciled at the same time.
And this I think is important: we cannot experience our independence and reconciliation all at the same time. Many of us here today have taken wedding vows (Eph. 5:23-6:3; cf. Col. 3:18-19) Husbands you must love your wives (it says!) as Christ loved the church – and how did Christ love the church by serving them. (He gave up his own life, for the life of the church.)
And wives, you must submit to your husbands. It is true. Children of believing parents; (cf. Matt 10:35-36,12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21) you have a responsibility to them as well.
After all, Just like Saul dies and Israel is united under a new king,[10] Jesus dies so that we might be reconciled under the true King. So then let us not be the captains of our own ships instead, let us now go, serve God and live reconciled lives.
----
* Answers 1) Saul, 2) David, 3) Goliath, 4) a messanger of God, one who speaks for the Lord, etc. 5) Nathan
[1] This rivalry was actually for succession to Saul’s reign. Saul very much desired that his descendants should rule; there is a certain irony in this in that he himself was reluctant to take the job. David also never harmed Saul or his sons but waited on the Lord instead.
[2] Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[3] He does this by acting on his own to install Ishbaal as King. Ishbaal appears to be nothing more than a puppet ruler and the scriptures testify that David, by way of a contrast, inquired of the Lord before he was acknowledge as king over Judah. Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[4] Ibid; cf. also Birch, 1213 and Tullock and McEntire, The OT Story, 7th ed., p. 148.
[5] Abner comes up with this masterful political and military coup idea to betray his King and secure power and glory for himself; however, in relying on himself rather than God, he makes a serious mistake: He forgets about Joab.Now Joab, as we will find out (as we continue to read in 2 Samuel) is, from time to time, David’s right hand man. He is with David from near the beginning (cf. 2 Samuel 23; 1 Chronicles 2:16). Joab is the one who cares enough to rescue David from his self-indulgence at home (with Bathsheba) so that David -not Joab- may be remembered for conquering Jerusalem (2 Samuel 12:26-28). He is the one who tries to stop David from sinning against God and causing the death of many people in the process (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). He is the one who, in our text for Sunday (2 Samuel 2-3) is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Samuel 2:17-28) and he is the one who is loyal enough to David to carry out David’s own murderous deeds for him (Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:16-17).And Abner – acting on his own - forgets about Joab. And Joab - acting on his own - kills Abner, And Solomon - acting a generation later - kills Joab.
[6] Joab is David’s Nephew; the son of his sister, Zeruiah.
[7] While he was out fighting, David is politicking with his enemy.
[8] Cf. 2 Kings 2:5, 34. This is his ultimate undoing as this is the reason given for Joab’s death in the purges that later accompanied Solomon’s rise to power.
[9] One irony of this curse may be of course that Joab is of David’s father’s house; Joab is David’s nephew (1 Chr. 2:16).
[10] Intentional turn of phrase here – I am linking the language to that of Joshua and Judges, as I think the author of Samuel does as well with this same phraseology.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Covenant: a Three Legged Race
Presented to Tisdale Corps Council October 9, 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay
The three-legged race is always a fun one to watch at the fair. Perhaps you have noticed that some people seem to do it with ease whereas many others tend to fall down and trip all over each other. I have seen dads tied to their kids who have simply picked them up and run with them without breaking the tie that binds.It is a lot of fun but you’ll notice that the team that wins moves in sink with each other so that with every stride they are matching their partner.
When you have two independently minded people however (like siblings often) you see two people going nowhere other than to a pile-up on the ground.Over these weeks we have been and will be looking at covenants in our Bible studies and sermon series. The thing about covenants – as we discussed on Sunday – the word itself refers to being bound, tied, or shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race.
We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our soldiers pledge to uphold our doctrine and, among other things, abstain from all that can enslave the mind and body. Our officers covenant to make soul-winning a primary focus of our lives. We are bound to this. And as Christians in general we are yoked together with Christ. In this, I think we need to remember that it is difficult to move, let alone win the race, when the one you are yoked together with is going in the other direction; ...BUT when you are following in a proper covenant, the Lord’s yoke is easy! And really what can we accomplish on our own that isn’t accomplished much more easily and effectively when we were shackled to the LORD!
by Captain Michael Ramsay
The three-legged race is always a fun one to watch at the fair. Perhaps you have noticed that some people seem to do it with ease whereas many others tend to fall down and trip all over each other. I have seen dads tied to their kids who have simply picked them up and run with them without breaking the tie that binds.It is a lot of fun but you’ll notice that the team that wins moves in sink with each other so that with every stride they are matching their partner.
When you have two independently minded people however (like siblings often) you see two people going nowhere other than to a pile-up on the ground.Over these weeks we have been and will be looking at covenants in our Bible studies and sermon series. The thing about covenants – as we discussed on Sunday – the word itself refers to being bound, tied, or shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race.
We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our soldiers pledge to uphold our doctrine and, among other things, abstain from all that can enslave the mind and body. Our officers covenant to make soul-winning a primary focus of our lives. We are bound to this. And as Christians in general we are yoked together with Christ. In this, I think we need to remember that it is difficult to move, let alone win the race, when the one you are yoked together with is going in the other direction; ...BUT when you are following in a proper covenant, the Lord’s yoke is easy! And really what can we accomplish on our own that isn’t accomplished much more easily and effectively when we were shackled to the LORD!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Genesis 15:7-21: When God is Bound...
Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 07 October 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the updated 19 March 2012 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/genesis-15-7-21-when-god-is-bound.html
I know that some of you have been coming out to Thursday night Bible study. This has been a lot of fun as not only have we dug deeper into the Scriptures but in past couple of weeks people have confessed old pranks they have pulled and I’ve confessed all the difficulties that I have had adjusting my speed to the straight open stretches of roads here in Saskatchewan. I’m getting much better by the way…
All these stories of pranks and cars got me thinking back to my teenage years. At the church youth group I went to it wouldn’t be uncommon to have fifty kids out on any given Friday night and even more of us came out to the big events. And we had some big nights where we would have some good competitive events – and, I must confess, my team had this terrible habit of… winning - mostly because we paid more attention to the rules than the others.
For example, we had these events called KGB runs. They were these games where you started in the university forest and had to make your way back to the church at night without being caught by the leaders, who would catch you by ‘tagging you’ with a flashlight. So everyone would start walking and sneaking through the woods trying not to get caught but MY team we would sneak (yes) but right to the parking lot where one of us would leave our car and we would drive to just outside the church and walk in – no one SAID we weren’t allowed to drive.
So, of course, once the organizers caught on, at the next event like this, they have all the rules written out and among those rules are –not surprisingly- no cars are allowed and the borders of the game are well-defined of where we are and are not allowed to go.
So with the new rules in place and the leaders determined to catch is, we have a new plan, not too far into the forest we have stashed … really big flashlights. So then when the people who are ‘it’ see the flashlights they just assume we are on their team and our whole team walks safely in without being caught.[1]
Now the planners are making it their priority to make their rules so air tight that know one can possibly misapply them. As they get ready for the next big event, they even brag that their rules are ‘Mike-proof’
Well this next event was a car rally. You know what those are? You drive around the city and are given clues that you have to solve in order to figure out where you are going to drive to next and as you figure it out, you drive to the next location and get the next clue to figure out and so on.
The people who are planning this event, like I said, are determined to stop any creative problem solving. So we are given the rules that include the normal no breaking the law or speeding, –after all this is a church group. To enforce this, they have each of the drivers put our driver’s licenses in a sealed envelope. If the envelope is opened, they know that you were caught by the police. We then had to show we agree to the rules by signing the envelope, along with the leaders, and this big fancy agreement.
Well, we are winning, as usual coming near the end of the rally – and there is this open stretch of road – now you don’t get these so much in Victoria, so we open it up to speed for the finish line and… you guessed it. The red and blue lights come on behind us. The officer asks for my licence and I hand over the envelope.
So we arrive first and they give us the prize and as all the other teams come in, they can’t believe that we’d won again. But then the leader remembers, “Oh, I need your drivers’ licences’, so one by one each team puts their sealed envelopes on the table. And then it is my turn… They were bound to beat us eventually and this is how they did it. They made this big fancy agreement, we failed to live up to it and as a consequence we lost our reward.
If you’ll turn with me to our text today, Genesis 15:7 – 21, we’ll look at Abram’s big fancy agreement with God. This agreement (or covenant) is a very significant one for us as we have just finished studying Luke-Acts,[2] and for all Christians today because you see it relates back to the good news of Chapter 12 –from our readings this week, 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).
The promise includes us here and now also, 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 he promises about inheriting the promised land with a contract (v.18) and a strange and significant, symbolic covenantal act.
Now 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.[3] 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.[4] The image then is of two people being fettered or bound together by this covenant.[5]
This particular contract, in the text before us today, is only one of three in the entire Hebrew Bible where God himself is bound[6] - the others are with Noah, (Gen. 17, Num. 25:12) and the Davidic covenant (II Sam. 23:5, Pss. 89:3, 28-29; 110:4) which we will come to in a couple of weeks.
The word image for us here then 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 –as we’ll see in a bit – is possibly even death (cf. Jer 34:18-20).[7]
Now let’s take a look at this whole contractual ceremony here because it is, well, peculiar. In verse 9, it is recorded that God asks Abram to bring him a number of different dead animals of varying (and mostly forgotten)[8] significance and has him cut many of them in half and Abram does.[9] 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 - 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)”[10]
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 his descendants will eventually possess this land that he is on.[11] 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.[12]
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 contract. Here it is ONLY God who is bound by the contract. It is God (represented by a smoking firepot with a blazing torch[13]) 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 he is bound and he will pay for it, if our interpretation of the ceremony is correct, with His own life. This ceremony has other 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. This is serious and this is like the ceremony that God is voluntarily taking upon Himself here. 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 kids 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. And she becomes pregnant. Aarrgg!
This is reminiscent of earlier in Genesis isn’t it?[14] There, 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…and just like the People of Babel who we looked at a couple of Chapters previous (Gen 11:1ff).
Well, what about us? Are we any more faithful[15] than Abram with God’s life on the line? Years ago, before I ever met Susan, 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 – actually it’s a lot of money for me in these days too – 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 – I think Susan has told you his story – he is a godly man and the Lord taught me lots 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.
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 invade (Deut 1; Num 14). The Lord is angry and tells them that because they did not act in faith their generation would not inhabit the land; so the people get up early in the 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.
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.
God didn’t need to make this promise 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! 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 MIRICLES 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.
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. Rather on this day of thanksgiving let us be thankful for to God for his sacrifice, inherit the promise, and come to and delight in the free gift of eternal life.
[1] These three stories are based on real events.
[2] These sermons are available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com
[3] G.E. Mendenhall. “Covenant.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715.
[4] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 715.
[5] Michael Ramsay, “Berit[h].” In the Journal of Aggressive Christianity.
[6] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 718.
[7] 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).
[8] Terence E. Fretheim, NIB, P. 446.
[9] John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21)
[10] The fire and the smoke are interesting symbols here. They cast the reader’s mind ahead to the fire and smoke with which God led the Israelites out of Egypt and to this same promised land. Those who have been studying Acts along with us will also note the pillars of fire that settled above the peoples heads in Acts II, which may or may not be making reference to the Exodus and by extension this passage as well.
[11] 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 genetic 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, however, still stands to this day. Remember also that the messianic prophecies to David are not tied to the physical land (2 Samuel 7) and of course are ultimately fulfilled in Christ. 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). It is also interesting in this passage that God promises on his own life that Abraham’s decedents will receive this land; Abraham’s decedents are unfaithful and God pays with the life of his Son.
[12] Compare this to Moses’ sign 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).
[13] 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.
[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.”
To view the updated 19 March 2012 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/genesis-15-7-21-when-god-is-bound.html
I know that some of you have been coming out to Thursday night Bible study. This has been a lot of fun as not only have we dug deeper into the Scriptures but in past couple of weeks people have confessed old pranks they have pulled and I’ve confessed all the difficulties that I have had adjusting my speed to the straight open stretches of roads here in Saskatchewan. I’m getting much better by the way…
All these stories of pranks and cars got me thinking back to my teenage years. At the church youth group I went to it wouldn’t be uncommon to have fifty kids out on any given Friday night and even more of us came out to the big events. And we had some big nights where we would have some good competitive events – and, I must confess, my team had this terrible habit of… winning - mostly because we paid more attention to the rules than the others.
For example, we had these events called KGB runs. They were these games where you started in the university forest and had to make your way back to the church at night without being caught by the leaders, who would catch you by ‘tagging you’ with a flashlight. So everyone would start walking and sneaking through the woods trying not to get caught but MY team we would sneak (yes) but right to the parking lot where one of us would leave our car and we would drive to just outside the church and walk in – no one SAID we weren’t allowed to drive.
So, of course, once the organizers caught on, at the next event like this, they have all the rules written out and among those rules are –not surprisingly- no cars are allowed and the borders of the game are well-defined of where we are and are not allowed to go.
So with the new rules in place and the leaders determined to catch is, we have a new plan, not too far into the forest we have stashed … really big flashlights. So then when the people who are ‘it’ see the flashlights they just assume we are on their team and our whole team walks safely in without being caught.[1]
Now the planners are making it their priority to make their rules so air tight that know one can possibly misapply them. As they get ready for the next big event, they even brag that their rules are ‘Mike-proof’
Well this next event was a car rally. You know what those are? You drive around the city and are given clues that you have to solve in order to figure out where you are going to drive to next and as you figure it out, you drive to the next location and get the next clue to figure out and so on.
The people who are planning this event, like I said, are determined to stop any creative problem solving. So we are given the rules that include the normal no breaking the law or speeding, –after all this is a church group. To enforce this, they have each of the drivers put our driver’s licenses in a sealed envelope. If the envelope is opened, they know that you were caught by the police. We then had to show we agree to the rules by signing the envelope, along with the leaders, and this big fancy agreement.
Well, we are winning, as usual coming near the end of the rally – and there is this open stretch of road – now you don’t get these so much in Victoria, so we open it up to speed for the finish line and… you guessed it. The red and blue lights come on behind us. The officer asks for my licence and I hand over the envelope.
So we arrive first and they give us the prize and as all the other teams come in, they can’t believe that we’d won again. But then the leader remembers, “Oh, I need your drivers’ licences’, so one by one each team puts their sealed envelopes on the table. And then it is my turn… They were bound to beat us eventually and this is how they did it. They made this big fancy agreement, we failed to live up to it and as a consequence we lost our reward.
If you’ll turn with me to our text today, Genesis 15:7 – 21, we’ll look at Abram’s big fancy agreement with God. This agreement (or covenant) is a very significant one for us as we have just finished studying Luke-Acts,[2] and for all Christians today because you see it relates back to the good news of Chapter 12 –from our readings this week, 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).
The promise includes us here and now also, 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 he promises about inheriting the promised land with a contract (v.18) and a strange and significant, symbolic covenantal act.
Now 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.[3] 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.[4] The image then is of two people being fettered or bound together by this covenant.[5]
This particular contract, in the text before us today, is only one of three in the entire Hebrew Bible where God himself is bound[6] - the others are with Noah, (Gen. 17, Num. 25:12) and the Davidic covenant (II Sam. 23:5, Pss. 89:3, 28-29; 110:4) which we will come to in a couple of weeks.
The word image for us here then 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 –as we’ll see in a bit – is possibly even death (cf. Jer 34:18-20).[7]
Now let’s take a look at this whole contractual ceremony here because it is, well, peculiar. In verse 9, it is recorded that God asks Abram to bring him a number of different dead animals of varying (and mostly forgotten)[8] significance and has him cut many of them in half and Abram does.[9] 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 - 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)”[10]
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 his descendants will eventually possess this land that he is on.[11] 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.[12]
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 contract. Here it is ONLY God who is bound by the contract. It is God (represented by a smoking firepot with a blazing torch[13]) 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 he is bound and he will pay for it, if our interpretation of the ceremony is correct, with His own life. This ceremony has other 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. This is serious and this is like the ceremony that God is voluntarily taking upon Himself here. 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 kids 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. And she becomes pregnant. Aarrgg!
This is reminiscent of earlier in Genesis isn’t it?[14] There, 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…and just like the People of Babel who we looked at a couple of Chapters previous (Gen 11:1ff).
Well, what about us? Are we any more faithful[15] than Abram with God’s life on the line? Years ago, before I ever met Susan, 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 – actually it’s a lot of money for me in these days too – 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 – I think Susan has told you his story – he is a godly man and the Lord taught me lots 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.
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 invade (Deut 1; Num 14). The Lord is angry and tells them that because they did not act in faith their generation would not inhabit the land; so the people get up early in the 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.
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.
God didn’t need to make this promise 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! 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 MIRICLES 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.
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. Rather on this day of thanksgiving let us be thankful for to God for his sacrifice, inherit the promise, and come to and delight in the free gift of eternal life.
[1] These three stories are based on real events.
[2] These sermons are available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com
[3] G.E. Mendenhall. “Covenant.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715.
[4] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 715.
[5] Michael Ramsay, “Berit[h].” In the Journal of Aggressive Christianity.
[6] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 718.
[7] 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).
[8] Terence E. Fretheim, NIB, P. 446.
[9] John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21)
[10] The fire and the smoke are interesting symbols here. They cast the reader’s mind ahead to the fire and smoke with which God led the Israelites out of Egypt and to this same promised land. Those who have been studying Acts along with us will also note the pillars of fire that settled above the peoples heads in Acts II, which may or may not be making reference to the Exodus and by extension this passage as well.
[11] 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 genetic 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, however, still stands to this day. Remember also that the messianic prophecies to David are not tied to the physical land (2 Samuel 7) and of course are ultimately fulfilled in Christ. 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). It is also interesting in this passage that God promises on his own life that Abraham’s decedents will receive this land; Abraham’s decedents are unfaithful and God pays with the life of his Son.
[12] Compare this to Moses’ sign 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).
[13] 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.
[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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