GLIMPSES OF LENT AND EASTER FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT: GOD’S PROMISES

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Msg.

Abram and Sarah and their household have obeyed the command of God to go from their home in Ur of the Chaldees to go to land that God would show them. They settled temporarily at Haran in Mesopotamia. They then journeyed on to Canaan, the land that God showed them. They were promised that the land would belong to them and their descendents, and that they would become the beginning of a great nation.

Now, however, Abram and his company simply wander through the land that still belongs to the Canaanites. Both Abram and his wife Sarah are old, past the age of childbearing, and the promises that God gave them in the past seem so far off if not gone forever. The future that God had previously laid out for them was apparently nothing but a dream and an empty one at that. The God who had asked them to leave everything familiar to become pilgrims and wanderers in a foreign county was obviously not to be trusted. It is that kind of a situation from which our scripture lesson comes.

A mysterious and hidden God appears to Abram in this passage. His word comes to the by now old man first in a vision and then in a dream. God’s presence is indicated by the strange symbols at night of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch. Nevertheless his words are spoken to Abram.

1. The first word spoken is that Abram will have many descendents: “Your reward will be very great.” Abram simply does not believe that word from God. In fact Abram blasphemously says to God, “No, I won’t. I have no son of my own….and the only heir I will have is a son of my slave woman.”

At least in this moment this model for faith isn’t much of a model at all.

But God has a way of never giving up on the recipients of his promises, so he takes Abram outside to look at the stars and to count them, if Abram is able. At that point God renews his promise: “You’re going to have a big family Abram!” Abram receives a new dose of inspiration. Now the scripture says, “And he believed, believed God!” Because of that God declared him to be set right with God…”righteous.”

This is the first account of righteousness by faith that can be found in scripture. The Christian Church has always believed and said that we are set right with God…righteous…justified in God’s sight by grace through faith alone. Here Abraham, one of our forefathers in the faith becomes the pioneer in that kind of a faith.

Please note carefully what that faith is all about for this story also characterizes the faith we are to have. Abram’s faith in the Lord consists in the fact that he believes God’s promise, despite all appearances to the contrary. Abram will from now on act as if that promise will come true. God has now opened the future to him and assured him that he will have a son, from whom will spring those many descendents said he will have. Abram now simply has to wait for that promise to come true. I say simply but waiting is never simple is it? In fact, waiting may be some of the hardest work I do. I suspect that is true of you as well.

2. The story goes on with more promises made to Abraham. In the mysterious and awesome dream of sacrifice that Abraham undergoes, God promises that he will also give to Abram’s descendents the land on which Abram’s is sleeping. 3. The story continues, in the strange symbolism of passing through the cut pieces of sacrifice, God himself promises that he will be destroyed, like cut animals, if he does not keep his word to Abram. Once again Abram is called upon to wait on the promises of God despite all the evidences against it.

We are familiar promises made and waiting on them aren’t we? We too have been given lots of promises by our Lord.

“I am with you always to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

“Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will find it.” (Mark 8:35)

“Fear not little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12: 32)

“I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.” (John 14:18)

“He who believes in me though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

“Ask and you shall receive.” (Matthew 7:7)

Faith, then, consists in believing those promises and acting as if they will come through. To be sure the evidence seems often against the fulfillment of Christ’s words. When we are beset by trouble on every side, or when pain is a daily experience; when every circumstance seems to go against us and there seems to be no hope for the future; when we sacrifice for the sake of the gospel and find no peace or reward whatsoever; when we stand beside the grave of a loved one in which are buried along with the body all our hopes and dreams for the future, when sorrow washes over us, do Christ’s promises of his presence, of his peace and joy and abundant life, of his eternal life in his kingdom, do away with the empty desolation and give us a future full of hope? Often all the evidence seems to point in an opposite direction.

It is often then that folks give up and walk away. Our church rolls are littered with the names of people who have given up in the face of those seemingly empty promises.

That is true of our Lord as well when he journeyed towards that cross in Jerusalem. Some well meaning Pharisees urged him to flee from this task, urged him to save his own life while he still could. (Luke 13:31-35) What future after all is there for someone facing a torturous death? But our Lord’s steadfast reply was that God owned his future. “I finish my course,” he replied. “I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; it’s not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside of Jerusalem.

Similarly, there are members of our church family who have grown weary of waiting and who have come to believe that God’s promises are empty and they have had to go on with their lives no longer waiting. Then there are also those among us who like Jesus will not settle and be found outside the faith and so we wait believing that God’s promises will come true.

I once knew a man who was so faithful to his church that it was beyond belief. One day I asked him why. He told me that right after his first child was born she become deathly ill. Doctors prepared him for her death. He shared with me with tears in his eyes that he knelt at her bed and asked God to save her life. He believed in Jesus promise that if he asked he would receive. He asked and he received. Receiving that incredible gift meant that his promise to God had to be kept. He has done so now for some sixty plus years. If he received he would serve God for the rest of his life as faithfully as he possibly could. She lived and he worked hard at being faithful to God. That may be the easier kind of waiting for the promises of God to become reality.

David Wadkins waited for God’s promise to come true as well. He battled multiple myloma for years and so bravely that he was an inspiration to many of us who knew him. All through his battle when asked how he was doing he would say, “While I do not know my future I know who holds the future.” It was his way of saying that God was faithful….and that he was willing to wait. That kind of waiting is more difficult…but that is a faithful kind of waiting.

Faith trusts God’s promises, despite all evidences to the contrary. Faith simply waits for God to fulfill those promises, and knows that God will do so. So faith acts in the sure knowledge that the Word of God will come to pass. And it goes on its way today and tomorrow and the day following, and it finishes its course.

You need evidence? You need facts? How do you know that is true? God kept his promises of descendents and land to Abraham. And God kept his promise to our Lord that on the third day he would rise from the dead. God’s promises have come true for many of us. For those of you who are still waiting faith is holding fast to the promises of God, no matter what else happens, for God always keeps his Word…..and you can take that to the bank…….on second thought don’t take it to the bank…put it in your heart. Amen

This sermon was written and preached by Dr. Jerry D. Bron at the Southminster Presbyterian Church of Gastonia, NC on the first Sunday of Lent, February 21, 2010. This sermon manuscript does not give credit for sources used so please do not use this material for any other purpose.