Abraham’s Attempts at Faith

• Review
• Babel:

  • What does it mean when the text says that “God came down” to see what they were doing at Babel?

  • What was the great sin of Babel?

• Abram:

  • What promises does the Covenant hold for outsiders that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12?

  • Abram had demonstrated some measure of faith already. Can you give a few examples?

  • Abram had just completed a testing in Egypt with the Egyptian king. How did he succeed in that trial?

2Some Necessary Details before Signing Covenants…

• God introduces himself again to Abram
• Shield – term: God is the of his people
• Your reward – Mercenaries’ pay / a soldiers’ “ from ”
• Abram was already a very rich man (Genesis 13:1-2, 5-6)
• Abram was not rich in the popular sense – he had no
• Despite Abram’s outward success, he lacked an heir
• Abram introduces his heir as “Eliezer of Damascus” – this is a hapax legominon
• God’s Promise
• An “heir” would be born of Abram’s body v.4
  • This “heir” would be the beginning of descendants like the
  • Abram’s reaction was – this indicates a reaction of faith on Abram’s part

3“Faith was Abram’s normal reaction to the Lord’s words” (G. Wenham)

• The point: Faith is the correct response to God’s promises
• Abram’s faith is in the previous chapter
• Abram’s faith is a for his descendants to follow
• Abram’s that God would fulfill his word was the thing that God counted as righteousness
• Not the fact that Abram was a “ - ”
• Abram was relying on what God said and that he would fulfill his promise to Abram – his righteousness was found in God, not himself
• Whatever he would be in the light of what he believed that God would
• His actions did not save him; they revealed what he already to be true about God
• Faith is the Right Response to God’s Revelation.

4Forging the Covenant

• Abram asks for a sign that God would fulfill his word
• A sign was given in the form of traditional sacrifice with some very interesting differences v.9-12
  • As the sun set, birds descend to eat up the carcasses – the is intended to be disconcerting
  • The details of the Covenant
• Promise of Rescue: Prophecy of the Exodus v.13-16
• Promise to Abram: Abram would die in Genesis 25:8
• Fulfillment of the Covenant would take place when the Israelites finally returned to the land and drove out the inhabitants – these are lumped together under “ ” v.16

5The Promise of the Covenant-Maker

• The picture of making a Covenant
• An animal was split and placed neatly on two sides
• The person making the Covenant Oath would walk between the pieces
• The action simply stated that the person making the Covenant would become as the split up animal if the wording of the Covenant was not fulfilled completely – this was an
• This is what it means “to a ”
• Suggested explanations by Commentators:
  • The variety of sacrificial animals =
  • Birds of prey =
  • Driving the birds of prey away =
  • God walking among the pieces =
• The Covenant v.18
  • This is the for generations to come
  • This promise lays the foundation for the Jewish claim to the of
  • This promise has a “ and ” connotation