The Covenant

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE COVENANT

Gen 15:7-21

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, "O 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 your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 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 fathers 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 Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

NIV

We now see that after Abram had questioned once, the LORD assured him and the LORD made it clear that the land Abram was on would be his and his descendants. However, Abram questions the LORD again, “How will I know?” and the LORD answers by making a Covenant with Abram. Once again, we do not know what or how deep of a sleep Abram fell into and who exactly was the smoking firepot with a blazing torch, although he must have been either the LORD or Jesus or maybe an angel of the LORD because it was the time the LORD make this covenant with Abram as He passed between the pieces, we think it was the LORD himself. We know that God came down and walked the talked with Adam in the garden and all things are possible with God, for nothing is impossible and thus it would be possible for God, or the LORD to show up once again on the earth in a form of some sort, such as a blazing torch. What we learn here is that we too can have a conversation with God only when we speak to him through or in the name of Jesus. Nevertheless, we can talk with God and there is no doubt that God can and will talk to us. It might be in a vision, it might be when we are in a deep sleep, or when we least expect it, a voice from heaven. We also learn that it is alright to question what God has told us, and we can be certain, that He will assure us in some way that the plan and path He has marked out for us is the way He has determined for us. God is always willing to assure us of his will. Of course, we know much of his will because of his written word. We can also be certain that just as He made a covenant with Abram, He has made a covenant with us through Jesus. We have this new covenant that is far superior to any previous covenant because if we accept and agree to this covenant, we will have eternal life. God promised Abram a land and God has promised us a land that is coming down from Him in heaven. As God fulfilled His covenant with Abram, God will fulfill His covenant with us.