It’s a strange childhood pledge: “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a
needle in my eye.” You’d think that
one’s death would be enough! So what’s
the needle in the eye business?
Well, in earlier years the custom of undertakers was to
stick a needle in the eye of the alleged death victim to make sure they were
really dead before lowering them into the ground. There’s no record that I could find of anyone
ever screaming out in pain due to a misdiagnosis. In fact, when you think about it, it’s a
crude way of confirming one’s death, but effective! Here in Sunday’s text, Genesis 15:1-18, we
find a much more dramatic and effective way to determine the seriousness of an
oath than a needle in the eye. Indeed,
here in the third chapter of God’s presentation of the life of Abram, we find
the most monumental oath ever made.
There’s an old adage that is quite apt when you come to a
text like Genesis 15: The New Testament
is in the Old Testament contained; the Old Testament is in the New Testament
explained.” And what is contained in
Genesis 15 is nothing short of the solid rock on which our victory over Satan
is confirmed. Indeed, what God does for
Abram in the aftermath of his victory over the coalition of kings is nothing
short of a mirror image of what He does in Christ for every child of Abraham
who He’s claimed as His own.
In verse one, the Bible says, “After these things the word
of the Lord came to Abram…” This is the
first time in the Bible that we read of the word of the Lord coming to
someone. It’s an expression that we will
read well over a hundred times in the balance of Scripture, but this is the
first time we hear of it.
And what is it that the Lord says to this man Abram? And what is the context for Him saying
it? What relevance does God’s Word have
to Abram’s circumstances? And how in the
world does God prove to Abram and us that what He says He means?
Years ago I preached on this same text in our year-long
series on “Themes from Genesis.” In that
message I mentioned a man whom I revere, an exceptional student of the Scriptures,
who once said in my hearing that if he were imprisoned at the end of his life
and could have one chapter of Scripture in his possession, that chapter would
be Genesis 15. Now I will elaborate on
Sunday, but think about that. Why this
chapter? How is this chapter the ground
on which we can stand confidently at the end of life, with all our questions
and concerns?
We embark on a new section of our series Jesus Wins this Sunday. This section entitled, “The Ground of
Victory”, will carry us all the way through Easter. In preparation for Sunday’s message, “God’s
Pledge”, you may wish to consider the following:
1. What
does verse 1 tell us about Abram’s state of mind and emotions?
2. What
is Abram’s principle concern here?
3. What
does God mean when He says that He is Abram’s shield and his exceedingly great
reward?
4. How
long has it been since God first promised Abram descendents?
5. How
many ways does God reiterate His promise to His descendents?
6. How
is Abram’s belief (verse 6) different from any other description of “faith”
prior to Genesis 15:6? (Note: This is
the first time in the Bible that we read that some believed the Lord.)
7. What
does the word “believe” mean?
8. Why
does Paul labor this in Romans 4?
9. How
does God answer Abram’s question in verse 8?
10. What
relevance does His answer have to you and me in the midst of spiritual warfare?
11. Why would
that man, in jail at the end of his life, pick Genesis 15:17 as the one verse
he’d keep if he were down to one verse?
