Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Can We Trust God's Promises? | Torah | Genesis 15

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. If God's role is to make promises, does that mean our role is to believe promises? How can we trust God? In today's episode, Keith shares about God's covenant promise to Abram in Genesis 15. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Passages: Genesis 15 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. I'm Jensen Holmick-Nair. And I'm Patrick Miller. We're digging into the stories found in the first books of the Bible. They're not just some of the best stories in the Bible. They're some of the best stories in all of human history.

Right now, we're in the Book of Genesis. Are you as much of a sucker for a good email newsletter as I am? I have to admit I love them because they keep me informed. Unfortunately, they don't really help me grow in my faith. What if you gave Jesus access to your inbox? 10-minute Bible Talks is starting a weekly email newsletter. It will have a variety of things inside of it. Each week will be different.

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God keeps his promises. God keeps his promises. Tell yourself that this morning. Wherever you are, maybe you're driving or maybe you're exercising or maybe you're mowing your yard or folding laundry or running errands. Tell yourself this because you're so. needs to hear it. God keeps his promises. Joshua 21 verse 45, not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Everyone was fulfilled. That means that God has never broken a promise. Not one of all the

Lord's good promises to Israel failed, and none of the promises that God has made to you has failed either. This is so important for us to know because we live by faith in God's promises. We're in the middle of a series through the book of Genesis, and today we find ourselves in Genesis chapter 15. God continues to develop the promises he first made to Abram all the way back in Genesis 12. You might remember back in Genesis 12 that God had promised Abram that he would make him into a great nation, that he would give him land, and that the whole world, world would be blessed through him. Well, it doesn't take a genius to realize that all those promises are dependent on Abram having a child. And that's the focus of Genesis 15. Abraham was 75 years old

when God first made these promises to him. Now years have gone by, and he and his wife, Sorai, well, they're even older now. They're well past their child-bearing years, and they haven't had a child. Genesis chapter 15, verse 1. After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. I mean, we could just stop right there and just talk about that verse, because in that verse, God tells us that he is our reward. He is the one that our heart longs for. He is not a means to an end. In other words, we don't use God to have a good family. We don't use God to have a good career. We don't use God to have peace in our life. God is the reward. God isn't a means to an end. He is the end. He's the one that we want.

But let's get back to our story. Verse 2. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless? And the one who will inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, you have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir. It was a common practice in the ancient world for a childless couple to adopt a son to care for them in their old age, and exchange for that, that adopted son would receive the inheritance when they died. That's what Abram and Sarai have done with this man named Eliezer. Since they don't have a biological son, Eliezer is going to be the... their heir. But can you hear the accusation in Abram's word? God, you've given me no children. So a servant

will be my heir. God, you haven't provided. So I'm having to figure things out for myself. Verse four. 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. So God tells Abram that this isn't up to Abram to figure out. It's not up to Abram to manipulate circumstances to make God's promises come true. God tells Abram that Eliezer isn't going to be his heir. Their error isn't going to be through a human legal transaction, but by God graciously providing a son. Verse 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 be. Now, God has made Abram a promise. He has told him that his descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars in the

sky. Now, what is Abram going to do? He has a choice. Is he going to believe God or scoff at God? Is he going to dismiss God? Is he going to minimize what God is saying here? Is he going to doubt God's promise? Is he going to come up with all the reasons why this can't possibly happen? No. Instead, Abram believes God. Verse 6. Abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. So what's the basis of a relationship with God? It's trust.

It's trust that God is faithful. It's this core belief that God keeps his promises. That God is a promise-making God and he calls you and me, all people who call themselves Christians, he calls us to be promise-believing. people. So now this conversation between God and Abram turns to the land that God had promised to provide them. Listen to what God says in verse 7. I am the Lord who brought you out of Ure of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. And now listen to Abram's question. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?

You hear the doubt in Abram's voice? mean, he's so much like you and me. One moment he believes, one moment he doubts. Belief and doubt are mixed up in our hearts. But God is patient with us. Just like he was patient with Abram, he's patient with us. Now, the next few verses get a little weird. Let me read them and then I will explain to them. But remember, God is saying this in response to Abram's question of how can I know that I will gain possession of the land. So God says to Abram, bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them into, and arranged the halves opposite each other. Now, if you lived in the ancient Near East, it would

have been obvious what was happening here, but it's anything but obvious to us. What's happening is that God is entering into a covenant with Abram. In other words, God is confirming his promise. I promise. Abram says, how can I know? And God says, I am going to make a covenant with you that backs up the promise that I made to you. Think of it like a signature on a contract. That's how we would confirm our word, that we would confirm our promise. Now, this ceremony that God is taking Abram through is a lot more elaborate and involved than a signature, but it's accomplishing the same thing. God instructs Abraham to cut these animals in half and place them opposite each other. So there's a pathway between the parts of the animals. Half of the heifer is on one side and half the other, and the same for the other

animals. Now, typically what would happen is that each person would walk down the path in between these animal parts. By doing so, you were saying, if you failed to keep your promise, you would become like these animals. You were saying, may I be torn apart and die if I break my commitment? So this is a really serious thing that God is asking he and Abram to commit to. But then there's a twist in the story. God puts Abram into it deep sleep, and God is the only one who walks down the path between the animal parts. So God is making a covenant with Abram and all of his descendants. But by God being the only one who walks down this path, God is saying that he will endure the punishment

if either party fails to keep their word. That's what the cross is all about. The cross is God enduring the punishment that we deserved because of our sin, because we broke our covenant with God. Genesis 15 is a fantastic chapter, and it leaves us with so much that we could unpack. But I want to close with this idea firmly in your mind and heart. God keeps his promises.

God makes promises to us, and like Abram, we are called to believe those promises. God promises to meet all of our needs in Jesus. God promises to be with us. He is Emmanuel. God promises to satisfy the longings and desires of our heart. God promises to use hardships for our good. God promises to provide for us. God promises to forgive us. God promises to give us his supernatural peace. God promises to use us in his world. He promises to instruct us. He promises to strengthen our weak faith.

God promises that he hears our prayers and that he gives us abundant life. But all those promises are of no value to us if we do. don't believe God. Let's pray. God, we pray for hearts of faith to know and believe your promises, to believe them with our whole heart. God, we recognize that we are like Abram. We have faith and doubt mixed together. We believe your promises. Help us overcome our unbelief. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith,

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