Scripture Story for the Week
God's Covenant with Abram
Genesis 15:1-11
The Lord’s Covenant With Abram
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,[a]
your very great reward.[b]”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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, “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.
Footnotes:
[a] Genesis 15:1 Or sovereign
[b] Genesis 15:1 Or shield; / your reward will be very great
[c] Genesis 15:2 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
[d] Genesis 15:5 Or seed
Pondering Point
Abraham (previously Abram) is known as the father of many nations. This covenant between God and Abraham sheds light as to why he gets that title. A few chapters earlier (Genesis 12), God called His friend to leave home, and with only general directions, travelled until God said stop.
While Abraham didn’t know exactly where He was going, He was comfortable in Who he was travelling with.
Similarly Jesus calls us to follow him as the Way of life but he does not show us exactly where we're going. Abraham trusted his friendship with God – and God sent His own son Jesus to foster trust in Him also. That night when Jesus said, “Trust God and trust also in Me” was followed later with this truth, “there is no greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends if you do what I say.”
As you read Genesis 15, consider how you fit into that covenant. Then finish by revisiting the covenant God made with you through Jesus (Matthew 26:27-28).
Matthew 26:27-28
27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the[b] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Footnotes:
[b] Matthew 26:28 Some manuscripts the new
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Like every rabbi in his day, Jesus had two things. First he had a yoke.
Not a literal yoke; he was a teacher, not a farmer. A yoke was a common idiom in the first century for a rabbi’s way of teaching the Torah. But it was also more: it was his set of teachings on how to be human. His way to shoulder the (at times crippling) weight of Life – marriage, divorce, prayer, money, sex, conflict resolution, government – all of it. It's an odd image for those of us who don't live in an agrarian society. But imagine two oxen yoked together to pull a cart or plow field. A yoke is how you shoulder a load. What made Jesus unique wasn't that he had a yoke; all rabbis had a yoke. It was that he had an easy yoke. Secondly, Jesus had apprentices.
In Hebrew the word is Talmidim. Is usually translated as “disciples,” and that's just fine, but I think an even better word to capture the idea behind Talmidim is “apprentices.” To be one of Jesus’ Talmidim is to apprentice under Jesus. Put simply, it is to organize your life around three basic goals: (1) Be with Jesus; (2) Become like Jesus; (3) Do what he would do if he were you. The whole point of apprenticeship is to model all of your life after Jesus. And in doing so to recover your soul.
J.M. Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, p. 76, 77