Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Fearful Saint and the Smoking Furnace: Assurance in the Covenant of Grace (Genesis 15:1–11)

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The Fearful Saint and the Smoking Furnace: Assurance in the Covenant of Grace (Genesis 15:1–11) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we take a deep dive into
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  the sources. We try to get past the summaries
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  and go right to the heart of what the scripture is saying and
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  why it's still so vital for us today.
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  I have to say, I'm really looking forward to this one.
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  We are zeroing in on a passage that, well, you could argue is
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  the birth place of so much of our theology.
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  Genesis 15 specifically verses one through 11.
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  Our sources are really focused on 2 just colossal ideas that
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  come out of this one moment in the narrative.
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  The first is how God gives absolute covenant assurance, and
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  the second is the nature of justifying faith itself.
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  And this deep dive is, well, it's really tailored to help you
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  get a clearer picture of how a believer's faith is kept going,
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  not just at the start, but through that long, often, you
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  know, uncertain period between when the promise is given and
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  when you actually see it happen. Right.
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  And that gap, that space between the promise and the fulfillment,
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  that's really the experience of faith for all of us, isn't it?
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  So our mission today is to get inside Abraham's head, so to
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  speak. We want to understand first why
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  this man, I mean, he's the recipient of these incredible
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  promises, why he was struggling so much with fear and why he was
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  trying to use these, well, pragmatic human solutions to get
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  a supernatural result. And then second, we have to
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  grasp how God answered him. It wasn't with a scolding.
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  It was with two just monumental theological building blocks,
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  credited righteousness, and the absolute certainty of a sworn
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  bloody oath. So we'll kind of dissect this
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  passage in two cycles. First the revelation and
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  justification, and then we'll move to the confirmation and
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  what it means to persevere. OK, let's do it.
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  Let's unpack the starting point. The passage kicks off with a
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  very deliberate phrase after these things that immediately
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  tells us we have to look back. Look at what just happened at
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  the end of Genesis 14. So what are these things that
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  came right before this moment of anxiety?
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  The context is absolutely everything here, and the
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  contrast couldn't be more stark. In Genesis 14, Abram is on top
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  of the world. He's just had this spectacular
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  military victory and a moral victory as well.
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  He led his small band of men. Was it 318 of them and defeated
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  this powerful coalition of Mesopotamian kings?
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  I mean, these were the regional superpowers.
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  Right. He rescued his nephew Lot in the
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  process. He was a bold, victorious
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  warrior. Absolutely.
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  But then there's the moral triumph you mentioned.
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  Yes, the king of Sodom offers him all the spoils of war, all
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  the wealth, and Abram just flatly refuses.
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  He says he won't take a single thread so that no one can ever
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  say I have made Abram rich. He's basically declaring that
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  Yahweh alone is his provider. So he's just proven he can beat
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  external enemies and he can beat the temptation of worldly
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  wealth. Exactly.
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  So he's coming down from this immense spiritual high.
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  But what happens after the battle is over and the
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  adrenaline is gone? He goes back to the quiet of his
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  tent. The source material calls this
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  the quiet aftermath, and that's when the external triumph gives
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  way to this internal private anxiety.
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  Suddenly he's left exposed and he's thinking about two very
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  real, very practical threats. OK, So what are they?
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  Well, first there's the obvious one retaliation.
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  He didn't just beat up some local bandits, he defeated a
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  major Mesopotamian coalition. They're probably going to
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  regroup and come back for him and he's living in tents.
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  He has no walled city, no standing army.
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  He is a sitting duck. And the second threat?
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  The second is much deeper. It's the persistent, aching
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  problem of his childlessness. He's getting older.
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  Soraya is getting older. The promise of a seed from
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  Genesis 12 is just running head first into the brick wall of his
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  biological reality. So he's a perfect example of
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  something we all experience, right?
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  These great spiritual victories are often followed by these
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  moments of, I don't know, crippling practical fear.
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  You overcome a sin, you make a sacrifice, and then the next day
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  you're worried about paying the bills or what people think of
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  you. Abraham's just running the
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  numbers and they don't look. Good.
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  And that is precisely where God steps in.
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  He doesn't wait for Abram to cry out.
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  God initiates. The word comes to him in verse
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  one. After these things, the word of
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  the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
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  Fear not, Abram. That opening command?
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  Fear not. It's so gentle, isn't it?
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  What does that tell us about where Abram was at internally?
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  It tells us the fear was already there.
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  It had a grip on him. If God has to command silence,
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  it's because the noise of anxiety is already booming in
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  your heart and God's grace is immediate.
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  He doesn't start by rebuking him for being afraid.
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  He starts with a revelation of himself as the complete answer
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  to the fear. He gives this twofold
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  identification that speaks directly to both of Abraham's
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  worries, the external threat and the internal emptiness.
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  OK, so the first part of that is I am your shield.
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  Right. And that speaks directly to the
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  real external danger, the kings who might come back and notice
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  God doesn't say I will give you a shield.
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  He doesn't promise an army or a better strategy.
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  He says I am your shield. He is placing his own person,
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  his own sovereign being between Abram and any threat.
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  Abram's protection isn't in his own cleverness, it's in the very
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  person of Yahweh. That's what real protection is.
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  And the second part is so important, especially after what
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  happened with the king of Sodom. Your reward shall be very great.
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  One of the sources points out that the Hebrew word sikar can
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  even be translated. I am your exceeding great reward
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  that completely reframes the whole struggle.
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  It does. It directly addresses his moral
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  victory. He turned down the earthly
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  security offered by Sodom. And God responds by saying I am
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  the true treasure. I am your portion.
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  It's a correction for that deep seated temptation we all have to
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  anchor our security in something other than God.
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  Whether it's money or family line or our own achievements,
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  the giver is always greater than the gifts.
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  He's the reward. He is the reward, and God is
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  teaching Abram that the promise is anchored in his unchanging
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  character, not in Abram's visible circumstances.
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  This is where good theology becomes practical.
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  When everything around you seems to be screaming that God's
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  promise is failing, your peace has to be in the fact that God
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  himself, he's your ultimate security.
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  That makes so much sense, but Abram's humanity just comes
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  right back to the surface. God gives this incredible
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  statement of his own sufficiency, and Abram's
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  response in verses 2 and three basically ignores it.
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  He says, Oh Lord God, what will you give me for?
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  I continue childless. It's just raw honesty, isn't it?
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  Yeah, it's the cry of a St. who is just tired of waiting.
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  He uses the formal title Adonai Yahweh.
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  So he's acknowledging God's sovereignty.
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  You say you are my master, but then he says I see that you're
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  great, but my reality says your promise is impossible.
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  It's a gut level question. If the whole great nation thing
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  depends on me having a son, and I don't have a son, what good is
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  any other reward you could possibly give me?
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  And this is where we see what our sources called the paralysis
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  of pragmatism. Abel doesn't just complain.
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  He has a solution ready. He presents his Plan B.
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  The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
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  This wasn't some wild idea he just came up with.
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  This was a logical, legal, culturally normal backup.
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  Plan, right? And this is where archaeology
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  gives us some really helpful context.
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  The Newsy tablets, which come from the Hurrian society in the
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  ancient Near East, they show this was a common custom.
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  A childless couple could legally adopt A faithful servant like
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  Eliezer to be their heir. This person would manage the
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  estate, take care of them in their old age and carry on the
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  family name. From a human point of view, it
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  was a perfectly responsible thing to do.
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  So he's being prudent, he's making sure all his bases are
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  covered. Exactly.
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  But that's the spiritual danger right there.
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  He is trying to fulfill a supernatural promise, a promise
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  that absolutely requires a miracle with natural carnal
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  human means. His circumstances have become
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  the flawed interpreter of God's covenant word.
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  He's trying to manage God's plan to give God a helping hand
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  instead of just resting on God's character and God's power to
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  overcome biology. It's a substitute fulfilment.
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  It is. It's a way to get the
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  inheritance without having to wait for the miracle.
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  And it's a temptation we all face, trying to achieve God's
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  supernatural ends through our own reasonable, predictable
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  human shortcuts. So God has to deal with this
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  pragmatism head on. He has to completely dismantle
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  Abraham's Plan B. How does he do that in verse 4?
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  He does it with a sovereign negation, a firm no.
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  God just completely and unequivocally shuts the door on
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  the Eleazar idea. Verse 4 is so clear.
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  This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your
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  heir. So why is God so insistent on
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  this point? Because it's fundamental to how
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  the covenant of grace works, God refuses to let the promise be
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  reduced to a human arrangement. If the promise could be
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  fulfilled by a legal adoption, well, then human effort would
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  get the credit. The whole thing wouldn't require
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  a miracle. God negates the backup plan
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  because he has to show his own power, his own ability to bring
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  life from death, so to speak. He insists on being the only one
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  who can bring about this supernatural birth to make it
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  clear that the whole thing is by grace, not by human effort.
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  OK, so after shutting down the carnal plan, God immediately
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  does something to change Abraham's perspective in verse
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  5. This is such a powerful visual
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  moment. He tells him to go outside the
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  tent and the tent, you can see it as a symbol of his limited
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  thinking, right? The walls of his own fear and
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  his finite view of things. Taking him outside is the cure
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  for that kind of tunnel vision. The view instantly shifts from
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  the dusty, barren floor of his tent to the infinite ordered
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  cosmos above him. And the command is simple, but
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  it's impossible. Look toward heaven.
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  Number the Stars if you're able to number them.
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  The scale of that is just staggering.
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  I mean, even with the naked eye, he would have seen thousands of
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  stars, way more than he could count.
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  But when you think about what we know now from modern astronomy,
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  I mean, our Galaxy alone has, what, 100 to 400 billion stars?
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  It's an uncountable number. God was asking him to quantify
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  the infinite. And the purpose is entirely
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  theological, isn't it? Entirely, God is anchoring
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  Abraham's hope for the future in the heavens.
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  He's tying this impossible promise of a son to a reality
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  that is physically overwhelming but supernaturally certain.
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  The logic is, if God can command the host of heaven, if you can
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  name and number what man can't even count, then you can
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  certainly govern the future of Abraham's aging body.
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  He's lifting Abraham's hope off the ground where it's failing
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  and placing it in the heavens where God's power is on full
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  display. It's a massive visual aid for a
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  faith that's feeling small. It is, he's saying.
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  Look up. The promise stands not because
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  you are clever or strong, but because the one who made the
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  promise rules everything you can see.
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  And that leads us to the absolute peak of the passage,
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  the theological engine Room for the rest of the Bible.
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  Verse 6 believed the Lord, and he counted it to Him as
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  righteousness. This is where the doctrine of
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  justification by faith is born. It is.
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  This is the moment. So let's spend some real time on
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  the language here, because everything that comes later in
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  Christian theology really hinges on this.
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  First, that word believed the Hebrew is he, Amen.
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  What does that word really get at the root?
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  Word is amon, which is where we get Amen.
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  It conveys this idea of firmness, stability, certainty,
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  reliance, and in this form, the hip fill, It has a causative
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  sense. It's like Abram made God firm.
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  He leaned his entire weight on the trustworthiness of Yahweh.
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  This wasn't just intellectual agreement.
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  Like, yeah, I suppose God could do that.
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  This was him staking his entire existence, his whole future, on
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  the conviction that God's Word was solid rock, no matter what
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  his circumstances look like. So he was relying on the
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  character of the promisor, not the probability of the promise.
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  That's it. That is the essence of true
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  faith, resting your full weight on God's declaration.
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  OK, so that's Abram's action. Now what about God's reaction?
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  He counted it to him as righteousness.
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  The Hebrew verb there is chashaf.
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  We need to break that down for our listeners.
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  Right Chashaf is accounting language.
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  It's forensic language, like something you'd use in a
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  courtroom or on a financial Ledger.
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  So what does it mean for God to count or reckon righteousness to
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  Abram? It means God credits something
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  to Abram's account. He transfers a status.
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  Think of it like a divine judge sitting on the bench.
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  He bangs the gavel and issues a verdict righteous.
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  And this righteousness is not something Abram produced
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  himself. It's not a moral achievement he
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  earned for good behavior. It is a legal status that is
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  granted to him by God. And the timing is so important.
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  He's counted righteous while he's still uncircumcised.
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  He's childless, he's just been struggling with fear.
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  He's done nothing to earn this. Nothing.
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  It is an alien righteousness. It comes from completely outside
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  of him, from the character and promise of God, and it's
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  transferred to his account. The moment he leans his weight,
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  he Emin on the Lord. The Ledger analogy is so
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  helpful. It's like having your account
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  wiped clean of all debt and a perfect credit score instantly
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  transferred to you. And that score wasn't earned
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  battle, it was just given to you by the judge.
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  It's a verdict based purely on the transaction of faith.
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  That analogy gets to the heart of it, and it strikes right at
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  the root of every workspaced religion, that impulse we all
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  have to earn our way to God. The text also refused the idea
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  that faith itself is the meritorious work.
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  Faith is just the instrument. It's the empty hand that
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  receives the gift. And the Reformer tradition makes
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  a key distinction here, doesn't it?
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  This is imputed righteousness, not infused righteousness.
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  Critical distinction infusion would mean God makes you
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  internally perfect and then accepts you.
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  Imputation means God credits you with the perfect righteousness
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  of another, prophetically Christ's righteousness, and
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  accepts you right now while you're still a struggling
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  Sinner. Because of that credited status,
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  the verdict comes before the performance.
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  OK, so to sum up this first part.
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  When fear rises, God points Abram to himself as shield and
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  reward. When the temptation to use human
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  shortcuts comes, God shuts it down.
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  And when Abram simply believes, God secures his standing forever
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  with a verdict of righteousness. A verdict that's meant to
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  provide absolute stability for the long way to head.
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  Right. But the conversation doesn't end
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  there. Abram has this incredible
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  spiritual gift, a righteous status, but he's still a frail
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  human being. And so we move into the second
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  cycle where the focus shifts from the promise of seed to the
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  promise of land in verse 7. Yes, and God speaks again and He
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  grounds the future hope in his past action, which is a pattern
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  we see all through the Bible. He says I am the Lord who
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  brought you out from UR, the Chaldeans, to give you this land
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  to possess. It's a formula, isn't it?
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  It is the three-part formula. First, his identity, I am the
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  Lord. Second, his past saving act, who
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  brought you out. And 3rd, his future purpose to
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  give you this land. And that promise of the land
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  erects its concrete. It's real geography.
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  This isn't some vague metaphor for inner peace.
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  It's a historical, physical piece of property pledged by the
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  God who rules geography just as much as he rules the stars.
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  God is saying my past faithfulness is the guarantee of
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  my future faithfulness. But even after receiving the
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  promise of justification, Abram shows that human frailty.
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  Again in verse 8, he asks the second question.
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  O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?
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  And this is such an important distinction to make.
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  He has just been declared righteous because he believed
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  so. This question is not the
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  question of a skeptic. He's not saying I refuse to
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  beseeve you. It's different from the first
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  question. It is.
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  This is the honest cry of a weak person asking for assurance.
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  He's asking for a tangible guarantee like a legal title
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  deed. Saving faith and the desire for
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  confirmation are not opposites. Faith can be real and still
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  desperately want a sign to hold onto, especially when the
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  promise is so far off in the future.
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  He's basically praying. Lord, give me an anchor for the
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  storm of waiting. And God's answer is, well, it's
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  costly and dramatic. He doesn't get angry with Abram
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  for asking. Instead, he gives him the
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  covenant sign in verses 9 and 10, the ritual of the Barrett,
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  the Covenant. And the details are so specific,
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  God says, bring me a heifer 3 years old, a female goat three
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  years old, a ram 3 years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
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  Abram obeys. He cuts the larger animals in
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  half and lays the pieces opposite each other, creating
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  this a bloody pathway between them.
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  This whole ritual is just saturated with seriousness.
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  You mentioned earlier that in Hebrew you don't make a
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  covenant, you cut one carrot. The severed animals aren't just
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  an offering, are they? Not at all.
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  This is a juridical act. It's something we see in other
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  cultures from the ancient Near East.
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  It's what's known as a self meledictory oath, a self cursing
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  oath. OK, what does that mean?
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  It means that when two parties made a treaty, they would often
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  walk together between the pieces of the slain animals.
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  And that act was a solemn, visible prayer that said, may I
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  be torn apart just like these animals if I break the terms of
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  this covenant, It's a walk of death.
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  It symbolizes the horrific curse that falls on the Covenant
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  Breaker. So Abram is setting up this
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  bloody Isle, probably expecting that both he and God in some way
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  will pass through it, sharing the oath and the threat.
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  Right. It's teaching him in the most
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  vivid way possible that God is not casual about his promises.
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  They're secured with the highest level of solemnity under the
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  threat of judgement. God is stooping to Abram's
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  weakness by giving him a tangible, enacted word.
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  A word that says my promise is as sure as my own life.
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  Exactly. And I bind myself to it under
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  the penalty of death. And of course, the stunning
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  thing that we see later in the chapter in verse 17 is that only
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  God passes through the pieces. Abram is asleep, but that's a
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  key detail that points us forward.
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  Right, we'll get back to that. But before the covenant is even
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  sealed, the narrative throws in a conflict in verse 11.
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  And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove
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  them away. This seems to be where the
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  practical instruction about perseverance really begins.
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  Assurance is given, but opposition shows up immediately.
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  That rhythm is a constant in the life of faith, isn't it?
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  God gives you clarity. He gives you security, and then
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  immediately a trial comes to test whether you'll actually
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  hold on to what he said. And these birds of prey, they're
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  not just random scavengers. They function as symbols in the
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  story. They are threats that are trying
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  to spoil what has been set apart for a sacred purpose.
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  Spoil the material of the oath itself, Yes, and you can see
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  them as representing every force that opposes God's covenant of
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  grace. Your internal doubts,
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  temptations, cynicism, all the way to external forces like the
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  nations that would later try to devour Israel and destroy the
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  promise. And Avron's response is quiet,
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  but it's determined. He drove them away.
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  The Hebrew word implies this active, vigilant resistance.
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  He's not just sitting back passively.
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  He is actively guarding the oath.
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  It's vigilant waiting, and the application for us is so direct.
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  Justification is 100% God's work.
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  But perseverance, holding onto our hope, requires our active
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  participation. We have a duty to stand guard
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  over the truth of the covenant, to drive away every cynical
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  thought, every worldly solution, every lie that tries to eat away
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  at our confidence in God's sworn pledge.
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  We have to drive away the birds. Message is really a hinge, isn't
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  it? It connects Abram's personal
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  historical fears to the full story of the Bible, which is
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  fulfilled in Jesus Christ. To really get the certainty God
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  was offering, we have to trace these promises forward.
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  We do we have to follow the canonical trajectory.
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  So let's start with the seed. Abram was promised this huge
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  family, as numerous as the stars, and that promise drives
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  the story through Isaac and Jacob and the nation of Israel.
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  But the New Testament takes that promise and focuses it.
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  It does. It narrows it dramatically and
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  concentrates it, showing that it all finds its ultimate
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  representative in Christ. Paul makes a huge deal of this
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  in Galatians 3. He argues that the promises were
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  spoken to Abraham and to his seed singular, which he says is
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  Christ. The many are gathered up into
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  the One. So Christ is the singular seed
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  who secures the blessing. He is.
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  He's the one who perfectly fulfills the covenant
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  requirements and all of us who believe, who received that
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  credited righteousness by faith, we become Abraham's offspring,
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  not by blood, but by faith in that one singular seed, Jesus
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  Christ. He's the representative head who
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  fulfills the promise of countless stars.
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  OK, so that's the seed. What about the land?
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  The promise in Genesis 15 is for a real, physical piece of
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  geography, and that promise drove the story of the Exodus in
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  the Conquest. But the story doesn't stop
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  there. No.
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  If it stops there, we miss the full scope the New Testament,
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  especially in books like Hebrews and Romans.
• 20:13
  It expands the horizon of that land promise to the renewed
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  creation. So the physical land was a down
• 20:19
  payment or a signpost? A signpost pointing to a much
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  greater rest of fuller inheritance.
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  Paul says in Romans 4 that Abraham was promised he would be
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  the heir of the world, not just a strip of land in the Near
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  East. The final inheritance secured by
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  Christ is a new heaven and a new earth.
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  The God who promises a real land in history is the same God who,
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  through the promised seed, will restore the whole cosmos for his
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  people. So it's serious in history, but
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  it's cosmic in its final fulfillment, right?
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  OK, finally, let's talk about the curse.
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  That covenant ceremony with the cut animals.
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  It established this idea of solemnity and curse bearing.
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  It preached that breaking the covenant deserve death.
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  And you've been saying that anticipates the cross?
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  It is the foundation for substitutionary atonement.
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  Let's go back to that scene. Abram prepares the sacrifice,
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  but then a deep sleep falls on him.
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  He's unconscious when the covenant is actually sealed.
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  And in verse 17, it's not Abram who walks between the pieces.
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  It's not. It's the representatives of God,
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  the smoking firepot and the flaming torch that pass through
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  that bloody Isle. In a normal human treaty, both
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  parties would walk through both accepting the potential curse.
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  But here God walks through it, alone in the darkness.
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  He is taking the full weight of the curse, the threat of being
• 21:36
  torn apart entirely upon himself.
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  He's binding himself to his word, but also relieving Abram
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  of the penalty for failure. Yes, he's taking the curse for
• 21:46
  the covenant breaker and that is a direct foreshadowing of the
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  cross. The cross is the ultimate
• 21:51
  fulfillment of that one sided walk in the dark.
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  Absolutely, Paul says in Galatians 3.
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  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
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  curse for us. Christ, the true seed, was
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  literally cut off, as Daniel says, so that the blessing could
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  be guaranteed to us. Even though we are the ones who
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  fail to keep the covenant. The judgement symbolized by that
• 22:09
  bloody path fell on our substitute.
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  So what Genesis 15 established this idea of a covenant secured
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  by a death is completely fulfilled in Christ.
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  God met Abram's weakness by, in effect, accepting the death
• 22:22
  penalty for him. And that is the absolute bedrock
• 22:25
  of our assurance It is. OK, let's try to put a bow on
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  this whole sequence. This passage really is a master
• 22:31
  class in how God sustains A struggling believer from start
• 22:34
  to finish. It is, and it all begins with
• 22:36
  God's initiative. Right Divine initiative.
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  The covenant isn't a deal between equals.
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  It starts with God's unprompted word.
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  The word of the Lord came. Our faith is fed by God's
• 22:48
  speaking, not by our own and spiritual efforts.
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  He anchors our security in His own person as shield and reward.
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  And second, God accommodates our weakness.
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  He hears Abraham's honest, frail questions.
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  What will you give me and how am I to know?
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  And he answers them. He gives him a pointed concrete
• 23:04
  size, the. Stars and the covenant cutting.
• 23:06
  Yes, God is so realistic about our frailty.
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  He strengthens our faith by pointing us outward to the power
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  of His creation and the absolute certainty of His own sworn oath.
• 23:16
  And 3rd, the covenant has this steel like certainty.
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  God justifies sinners by accredited righteousness and
• 23:23
  irreversible verdict. But then he double s down and
• 23:26
  confirms that promise with the gravity of blood.
• 23:28
  Our security doesn't rest on the strength of our faith, it rests
• 23:32
  on the faithfulness of the promisor.
• 23:33
  And that provides the stability we need for every long, dark
• 23:36
  night of waiting. This deep dive into Genesis 15,
• 23:39
  it really does offer some, I think, very sweet and bracing
• 23:42
  counsel for any of us who struggle with fear.
• 23:45
  When that fear starts to rise, God points us away from our
• 23:47
  situation and toward Himself. He is our sufficient shield and
• 23:50
  our great reward. When guilt or a sense of failure
• 23:53
  starts to accuse us, God offers a verdict of imputed
• 23:56
  righteousness received by faith. And when our assurance starts to
• 24:00
  waddle, He comes down to our level and gives us concrete
• 24:02
  signs and solemn promises, all secured by His own life.
• 24:06
  And I think for us as pilgrim's trying to move forward, the
• 24:09
  warning against those reasonable shortcuts is so stark.
• 24:13
  We have to guard against that impulse to use our own aliasers,
• 24:17
  our own pragmatic plans or worldly methods to try and bring
• 24:21
  about God's purposes. We need to repent of that kind
• 24:24
  of anxiety by remembering that God has placed Himself, His own
• 24:27
  person, and His curse bearing Son between US and any ultimate
• 24:31
  harm. Our security is in His finished
• 24:34
  work, not our clever plans. So if the God who commands the
• 24:37
  stars binds himself to his word with the seriousness of blood
• 24:40
  and takes the ultimate curse upon himself for you, what false
• 24:43
  security or substitute fulfilment are you clinging to
• 24:46
  right now? What human plan are you trusting
• 24:48
  in that you need, like Abram, to actively drive away from the
• 24:50
  substance of your hope?