Abrahams 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?

  • God’s Promise
  • God introduces himself again to Abram
  • Shield – Military term: God is the protector of his people.
  • Your reward – Mercenaries’ pay / a soldiers’ “booty from war”
  • Abram was already a very rich man (Genesis 13:1-2, 5-6)
  • Abram was not rich in the popular sense – he had no children
  • Despite Abram’s outward success, he lacks an heir
  • There would be no one to carry on his legacy
  • There would be no one to look after him when he got old
  • There would be no one to bury his body when he died
  • Abram introduces his heir as “Eliezer of Damascus” – this is a hapax legominon (unknown phrase used only here)
  • Possibly an unclear translation that simply means that no one would be able to be heir to Abram’s house
  • Possibly a complaint that a foreigner would usurp the authority of the house and become heir to Abram’s fortune
  • Possibly a servant acquired from Damascus (“The servant of my house…”)
  • He probably would adopt this man as his heir
  • Only highlighted his pitiful situation – he had to rely on a slave to propagate his name
• An “heir” would be born of Abram’s body v.4
  • This “heir” would be the beginning of descendants like the stars
  • Abram’s reaction was silence – this indicates a reaction of faith on Abram’s part

2Faith 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 rewarded in the previous chapter
• Abram’s faith is a model to his descendants to follow
• Abram’s belief that God would fulfill his word was the thing that God counted as righteousness
• Not the fact that Abram was a “good-doer”
• Normally, righteousness was described as a morally good action (“doing righteousness” – Ez.18:5; following Pentateuch, etc.)
• Righteousness is typically “God approved behavior” (Wenham) – not in this case
• Abram was relying on what God said and that he would fulfill his promise to Abram – his righteousness was found in God, not himself
• Abram was not righteous because of what he did
• Abram was righteous before God because of what he believed about God
• In addition, Abram’s belief in God automatically influenced his actions to follow
• Whatever he did would be in the light of what he believed that God would do
• His actions did not save him; they revealed what he already believed to be true about God
• Faith is the Right Response to God’s Revelation.
• God introduces himself in a covenant form (v.7) – this is the same as the 10 Words at Sinai

3The Sign of the Covenant

• Abram asks for a sign that God would fulfill his word
• A sign was given in the form of traditional sacrifice v.9-12
  • The difference between traditional sacrifice and this event is that the animals were neatly placed in two rows and remained uncut
  • As the sun set, birds descend to eat up the carcasses – the wording is discontenting
  • Some commentators see this as an ominous sign
  • Some commentators see this as the significance of God’s presence throughout the scene

4The Preamble to the Covenant

• The details of the Covenant
• Prophecy of the Exodus v.13-16
  • Round numbers are used (100 years for four generations = 400 years)
• Exodus is promised for the fourth generation v.16
  • Perhaps the 3-year old ram indicates the three generations in Egypt
• Promise to Abram: Abram would die in peace 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 “Amorites” v.16

5The Promise of the Covenant-Maker

• The establishment of the 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 enacted curse
• This is what it means “to cut a covenant”
• Suggested explanations:
  • The variety of sacrificial animals = Israel or priestly leaders

  • Birds of prey = unclean nations, Gentiles, Egypt?

  • Driving the birds of prey away = Abram protecting his people from foreign attackers
  • God walking among the pieces = God walking among his people

6The Abramic Covenant

• The Covenant v.18
  • This is the guide for generations to come
  • This promise lays the foundation for the Jewish claim to the land of Israel
  • This promise has a “now and then” connotation
  • The Israelites would become a nation and inherit the land now
  • The Called nation of God would someday inherit the land forever
  • This is the grafting into the vine of the Gentile people
  • Those who are the spiritual children of God will someday inherit God’s promised land

7Abraham’s Attempts at Faith

• Genesis 15