DAILY READING
REFLECTION
God's Faithful Promises
by Pr. Dave Mann
When God makes a promise, it is certain. Even if God’s timing is not as we would like it, he will fulfill his covenant.
God made great promises to Abraham – a great name, a great nation, and a great land (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-6). However, God also warned him in advance that his descendants would go through more than 400 years of slavery in Egypt. This horrible, humiliating experience did not invalidate God’s promise.
Have you sensed God’s promise in your life, but you feel that that promise has yet to be fulfilled? Do you think that you have waited long enough? Maybe our perspective needs to be adjusted. Abraham was told that God’s promise was sure, but the fulfillment would be seen by his people many generations into the future.
Abraham may have also wondered about the timing of the promise of a great land. He asked God for some reassurance of the reliability of this promise (v. 8) --“Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
God gave Abraham a meaningful sign that we might find strange and incomprehensible. In those days, there was a ceremony for the sealing of a sacred covenant between two parties. They would slaughter animals and lay the halves of the butchered animals in two lines, with a passageway between them. The two parties would then walk through the passageway. This walk between the bloody flesh was to state in no uncertain terms, “If I do not make good on my promises, may I become like these slain animals.”
The set-up for such a ceremony was what Abraham saw in his vision. But what was different in the vision from what was the normal cultural experience? In the vision, there was only one party that passed through the gore, making his promises certain. In verse 17, it was only God who passed through, not Abraham -- a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces (v. 17). God was stating in unmistakable terms, “I, the Lord of the universe, will make good on my promise to give this land to your descendants as part of my promises to you.”
Do you have promises from God? If God has indeed promised you life, forgiveness, and salvation, you can count on God’s faithfulness to make certain what he has covenanted to you.
PRAYER
Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for this amazing account of what you promised for Abraham and his descendants. Thank you for being faithful to make good on what you have promised. Even in my life, help me to trust in your good promises, even if your timing is different from mine, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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