Five animals are to be gathered together. Interesting to note that all five of these are approved sacrificial animals. The animals are then cut in half (except for the birds) and were lain open - half to half. Pause for a moment and visualize this scene! Can you see it? What is all around and over and between ... perhaps even making the ground slick, the altar red rather than the color of stone? Can you see the blood? Can you smell it? Is Abram soaked? His garments? As God reaffirms His promises to Abram ... as He cuts this covenant with His servant ... the scene portrays incredible sacrifice and cost. It provides yet another picture ... another illustration ... another glimpse into how passionately the Lord God desires you to be with Him - righteous and in full fellowship! Are you? If not, why not?
Abram makes the preparations ... but evidently nothing happens immediately. In fact, enough time passes that birds of prey begin to descend upon the carcasses for their own feast. Abram has to keep driving them away. Why the delay? Was God trying to decide if He was really going through with it or not? I don't think so! Maybe it was to signify that, while the promise is absolutely sure ... fulfillment is going to take a very long time. We don't know ... but there was delay. And during the delay Abram had work to do. He had to keep the birds off the sacrifices. Henry Morris says,
"This experience no doubt symbolized the attempts of Satan to thwart the plans of God, plus the need for alertness in the believer in order that the enemy not succeed."In a way, I can see us living in the 'delay' time. We want nothing to thwart the plans of God ... not in ourselves and our own personal growth toward God ... not in our churches ... not in our families. Are there any things about which you must be vigilant? What are the birds of prey that try to interfere in your life? I can think of so many - the influences in this world that try to "snatch and devour" our children ...the lure that exists to not fully trust, not fully believe, God. Habits and addictions ... hatred and bitterness ... anxiety and fear.
Never forget ... the promise is made ... the covenant has been ratified. Our task is to be vigilant during this waiting time ... until our Lord appears again to clean up the scene!
Lord, my shield, give me eyes to see the influences, the attitudes, the behaviors that are interfering in my own walk with You. Give me the courage to do battle with them. Keep me alert and vigilant ... I am Yours ... and I believe.
Gail, I've been reading and re-reading this passage today (it's always puzzled me a little), and I think I've gained a new perspective on where Abram might have been in his faith walk.
ReplyDeleteBack when I first married, we lived 15 miles outside Lubbock on a dirt road ("road" is a very generous term here!) with no name and no street sign. Friends who tried to visit routinely missed the turn (especially at night on a country highway with few lights), so we had to give directions beginning where the pavement ended more than a mile from the house. The biggest landmark was Anderson Grain, a huge sheet metal building much more visible/recognizable at highway speeds than the teeny sign for SSR 168, so we told visitors to turn south where they saw that sign.
It used to sound to me like Abram wasn't 100% convinced here, and that was why he asked God for a sign. But I'm beginning to think some of what was going through his mind might have been "Wow -- the LORD God Himself is making a covenant with me, promising things I know are well-nigh impossible... I want to make DEAD SURE I don't miss it!! LORD, can You give me some 'landmarks'? Some way to recognize it?"
And I love the "landmark" God gives him! Anderson Grain is no longer Anderson Grain (though the building still stands)... so if I were giving directions today, they would have to be different. But God is still, and will always be, God... the most enduring "landmark" Abram could possibly have asked for!
"Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6
PD, love that imagery; it helps me understand this passage better as well. Thank you!
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