God's Assurance to Abraham (Gen. 15:8-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 07/06/2006

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  Assurance

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Genesis 15:8-12

            Message of the verse:  “8 He said, ‘O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?’  9  So He said to him, ‘Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon."’ 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.  11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.  12  Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.”

           

            In verse eight Abraham asks God how he could be sure that he will possess the land that God was talking about and in verses 9-12 God begins to show him.  The things that are described in the following verses were ways in this culture that a covenant between two people were made, as two people would gather some animals to sacrifice and then cut them in two and walk between them and if one of the people would not keep the covenant then he could end up like the sacrifices, however as seen in some later verses this covenant will be a bit different in as God would be the only One who would walk through the sacrifices showing that the covenant was entirely up to Him and not up to Abraham. We can call this an “unconditional covenant.”  There is a difference between a conditional covenant and an unconditional covenant as a conditional covenant depends upon the person that the covenant is with.  In Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 36 we see a conditional covenant that God made with Israel in which they failed to keep and therefore they were taken out of their land due to the failure of keeping that covenant with the Lord.  It was not until May of 1948 that God brought them back into their land, however as Ezekiel prophesized the spirit has not yet entered them.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that this is a very good picture of my salvation in that it was all up to God, as He called me in eternity past, and then Christ died for me on the cross, and the Holy Spirit came to me with an effectual call which I would not turn down and thus accepted and was saved.

The Word of God was refreshing to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Ask God to give me the grace I need to get through this day, and to continue to teach me contentment, and to also give God praises in the storms that I am going through.