Abram believed God
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. God now reaffirmed His promise of
the land to him. God reminded Abram that it was He who had brought him out of
Ur of the Chaldeans to give him the land. Abram than wanted to know how he
would possess it. The question he asked was “O Lord God, how may I
know that I will possess it?” Abram was not
doubting God’s ability to give him the land. In fact he was seeking to know how
this would come about so that he could be assured of its certainty. We need to
bear in mind that at this point he still did not have a son. He was probably
anxious for he could not see what’s ahead. What would happen next was unknown
to him. It did not help that what he was experiencing seemed to contradict what
was promised. Abram did not doubt God’s word. He sought to understand it. And
we know that faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith seeks understanding. Our
faith must rest on God’s Word. An untested faith is not worth embracing. So
Abram sought to understand.
God then instructed
Abram to bring Him “…a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat,
and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” These animals the
Lord asked Abram to bring for the sacrifice were three years old, meaning these
were grown animals at their peak, and could provide their best service.
Symbolically God expects us to give Him our best. We want God to have the
golden years of our life, not the fainting ashes of our hearts. We don’t want
to run the world’s errand and then labour up the heavenly hill with slow and weary
feet. God must be given the very best part of our life.
Abram prepared
the covenant ceremony. He probably knew what to do based on what was common to
covenant making in his culture. Animals that were cut into halves and divided, and
placed on two sides, were part of covenant formation ceremony. Both the parties
making the covenant would then walk between the animals that were cut in
halves. Jeremiah 34:18 tells us that this was how a covenant was made. This was
done to affirm one’s commitment to the covenant. Symbolically a person who walked
between the animals that were halved would be saying, that he would be like the
cut animals if he broke the covenant. Let’s not only give God our very best but
also seek to keep our promises to Him. Take into heart what Jesus said, “No one, after
putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In verse 11, we are
told that Abram drove away the birds of prey that came upon the carcasses of
the sacrifice. Perhaps the coming of the birds of prey is symbolic of the enemy
forces that would come to disrupt and threaten the covenant God had with Abram.
The birds of prey were symbols of enemy forces that would come and attack His
descendants when they fail to keep the covenant. The solemnity of the covenant
must be upheld. We must not allow whatever that is not in keeping with the
expectation of God to come and disrupt our relationship with Him. We must seek “…not to be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what
the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
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