Scripture: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Today’s sermon is Part 2 of our new “Gospel According to the Old Testament” series. It’s all about waiting on God. And in today’s sermon, I want to make three points: Number One: When God makes us wait. Number Two: How God wants us to wait. And Number Three: The gift worth waiting for.
But first, number one… When God makes us wait…
As some of you know, every year for the past several years I follow a Bible-reading a plan in my daily quiet times. Each day there are usually four chapters of scripture taken from different parts of the Bible. And since I start the plan on the same day each year, I read and reflect on the same passages of scripture the same day each year. And for two consecutive years now—on the same date in January—I’ve been blown away by a particular scripture passage…
There’s a Bob Dylan song in which he sings, “Every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal/ Pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul…” That’s what it feels like when I read this particular passage… which is probably a sign from God that I need to share this with you.
Don’t worry… It pertains to today’s scripture too. I’ll show how it ties in.
But I’m thinking right now of Matthew chapter 8, verses 1 to 3. Three short verses:
When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed.[1]
When we read a passage in the gospels in which someone is asking Jesus in-the-flesh to do something, we ought to think to ourselves, “This is, in part, about prayer—because we’re not so different from this man with a skin disease. Maybe we don’t have a skin disease, per se, but we got plenty of other problems about which we go to the Lord and ask him for help, right?
But what captures my imagination about this particular man’s prayer request are those words, “If you are willing…” The man already believes, in other words, that the Lord has the power to heal him. But does the Lord want to? Does the Lord care enough about him to do this good thing for the man? That’s the only question in this man’s mind. “Are you willing to help me—even me.”
And so… when we go to the Lord in prayer, do we believe that he is willing to help us? Because if he’s willing to help us when we pray, all bets are off! If the Lord is willing to help us, You better watch out for the powerful things God can and will do!
There’s a favorite verse of mine in Isaiah 59:1. In its original context, Isaiah meant it as a word of judgment against Israel—like, God hears your prayers and has all the power to respond… but because of your refusal to repent, you’re under God’s judgment, so God is not going to help you. But for us Christians, for whom Christ suffered God’s judgment for our sins, and through whom we always stand before God as perfectly righteous, it says something astonishing about the power of prayer. Isaiah writes,
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear.
Let those words sink in: God hears every one of our prayers. And we can be sure that “his hand is not shortened”—in other words, he’s got all the power in the universe and beyond to give us anything we possibly need. God could work a miracle that defies the laws of physics. He could work providentially—that is, invisibly—through perfectly normal, natural circumstances. And he could also use anyone in the world to answer the call and provide whatever help we need… if he’s willing.
And because we know he is willing, then we should conclude the following: if God seems to be delaying his help—if it’s taking longer than we think it should for God to help us—then God must have good reasons for the delay. It must mean that the delay is good for us!
So while we’re waiting… will we trust him?
That’s the kind of trust with which our dear brother Abraham is struggling in today’s scripture. He’s not sure God is willing to give him the help that he needs the most! And he’s angry about it, too. (And for the record, I’m calling him “Abraham” here, not “Abram”—even though in today’s scripture God hasn’t yet changed his name to Abraham.)
At the beginning of today’s scripture, it’s been about ten years since God first called Abraham—and promised that through him and his descendants, God would create a great nation… indeed, a nation through whom the world would be saved… from their sins… because back in Genesis 12:3, God tells Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And the ultimate blessing—of which Abraham had only a shadowy understanding—was that through him a Savior would come—Jesus the Messiah.
Not that Abraham understands all this yet, but he knows one thing for sure: If God is going to save the world through his family, and his descendants, it’s got to start with at least one child… with one heir… with one son. Abraham better have at least one son, and he’s already about 85 years old at the beginning of chapter 15, and he doesn’t have any children. Because he and Sarah were unable to get pregnant back when they were young and of childbearing age.
And it’s been ten years since God made that promise back in chapter 12, and Abraham still has nothing to show for it!
So he is clearly frustrated with God. Notice in verse 1 when God tells him, “your reward shall be very great,” Abraham responds, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…” I like the way the NLT puts it: “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son?”
Hear the anger and frustration? “Why haven’t you fulfilled your promise, Lord?”
And yet God assures him, “Fear not… I am your shield.” In other words, I will take care of you, provide for you, protect you. You have nothing to be afraid of… “I am your shield.”
“Some shield!” Abraham must think. Because to Abraham, it must have seemed as if our enemy, the devil—or at least unfortunate medical circumstances beyond Abraham’s control—shot an arrow labeled “years of heartbreaking childlessness” in the direction of Abraham and Sarah… and God—who was supposed to be “their shield,” after all… God took his shield and lunged to deflect that arrow, but he must have missed… and, sadly, the arrow struck its intended target, Sarah and Abraham! The result? Years of heartbreaking childlessness… Decades, in fact…
Did God lunge to deflect the arrow with his shield… and miss? Or did God see that arrow coming—the one marked “years of heartbreaking childlessness”—and just not even bother to intercept the arrow when he saw it heading Abraham’s way? “Eh… I’ll just let that one go. I don’t feel like chasing it.”
Perish the thought! Remember: “The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear.”
If the Lord is making Abraham and Sarah wait… if the Lord is making us believers today wait… then he must have good reasons for doing so! Will we trust him?
Consider these astonishing and encouraging promises from God’s Word:
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31. Answer: no one… and nothing… Even things that enemies intend to use against us God will transform and turn them into something good for us! Or how about this:
Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11. Like any human father, our Father will always want to give what’s best for us—except unlike us human parents, our heavenly Father always knows precisely what that is in every circumstance.
Or how about this…
Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:29-31.
Can we even comprehend how much our Father loves us… how intricately involved he is in the minutest details of every moment of our lives?
If all that’s true, then surely… surely… we can trust God when he makes us wait on him?
That’s Point Number One… When God makes us wait…
Abraham and Sarah had to wait a long time for God’s promise to come true. But they are hardly the exception in scripture. Heroes of the Bible are shown, time and again, waiting on God. Waiting goes hand in hand with faith… But maybe that’s putting it too mildly. Because waiting on God—with trust, patience, and hope—is practically the same thing as biblical faith. In the Bible, faith is not primarily about taking heroic action for God’s sake; it is primarily about enduring in that gap between God’s promise and its fulfillment.
Most of us believers live most of our lives in this in-between time. That’s where many of you listening to this sermon are right now. We’re waiting… on God… to show up… to do something powerful… to help us… to heal us… And as Tom Petty told us decades ago, the waiting is the hardest part! Right? He wasn’t kidding.
But consider this: while it seems like Abraham and Sarah had to spend these decades of waiting mostly by themselves, we believers today, who live on this side of the cross and on this side of the resurrection of Christ are never meant to waitalone…
And this bring us to Point Number Two… How God wants us to wait…
Do you remember the story of the rich young ruler? After Jesus tells his disciples, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven,” the disciples are deeply troubled. In their culture, wealth was seen as a sign of God’s favor—a reward for righteousness. Therefore if even the rich can’t be saved, then who can be?
But Jesus reassures them: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” The disciples are still learning what the gospel really means—that everyone, rich or poor or anywhere in between, is saved only by God’s grace through faith in Christ.
But Peter, bless his heart, still doesn’t quite get it. He’s worried about his own standing before God. So he reminds Jesus of what he and the other disciples have already done: “See, we have left everything and followed you.” “Surely we’re okay, right, Lord?”
Jesus responds with some remarkable words—words I want us to linger on for a moment:
Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.[2]
Notice what Jesus says: we receive a “hundredfold,” “now in this time”—a hundredfold of brothers, sisters, mothers, and children… right now.
Does that sound crazy?
Where does Jesus think all this extra family comes from?
From the church. Like it or not, we are meant to wait on God—to endure trials, to suffer, to weep—together—through this local body of believers called the church… even Five Forks Methodist Church. All of the New Testament makes this case, over and over: Church is supposed to be the best, the most loving, the most encouraging, the most supportive kind of close-knit family imaginable!
And maybe you’re tempted to think, “Yes, pastor, but for Jesus, for Paul, and for the other New Testament authors, being dependent upon one’s church family was often a matter of survival. Because Christians back then were facing persecution. It was life and death, so they had to stick together. We don’t experience much of that! We’re not being threatened by a government that arrests us and beats us, takes our property and takes our lives—the way Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians were. Not even close.
“So we don’t need to depend on one another like that! We’re just living normal, reasonably quiet lives here, you know… in a country with First Amendment protections.”
And I want to say, yes, but we’re living our normal, reasonably quiet lives for Jesus. We’re trying to glorify Jesus in every aspect of our lives. We’re trying to bear witness to Jesus. We’re trying to surrender every part of our lives to Jesus.
And as we do those things, for Jesus, you better believe we’re threatened by a deadly powerful enemy who wants to attack us and harm us and destroy us and destroy our families—probably not by taking our freedom, our possessions, our lives… but by taking our very souls… or the souls of our loved ones… We have an enemy stronger and craftier than any merely human enemy. Are you kidding? Because “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”[3]
And this enemy, the devil, is resourceful. If he can’t inflict physical pain on us, he’ll happily afflict us with comfort and prosperity and career success… if by doing so he can make shipwreck of our faith… And of course he’ll also use the bad stuff like crises related to career, family, finances, health, marriage… you name it! He’ll use anything to try to rob us of our faith in Christ!
My point is, so long as we at Five Forks Methodist are in the business of “equipping disciples to share Christ’s light,” we will be attacked by this enemy over and over again. We risk getting discouraged. We risk feeling defeated. We risk feeling frustrated… just like Abraham… because God will often make us wait.
Therefore we need each other! We need our church family! We need the love of brothers and sisters in our church! And your brothers and sisters need you! You are the answer to the prayers of your brothers and sisters in Christ who are enduring difficult trials right now. Your love is the means through which God is enabling them to make it through!
And loving one another like this is also a kind of evangelism… because when people see this kind of love in action… they stand up and take notice… it is attractive to them… they want to be part of what we have here—this family at Five Forks Methodist.
So as we wait on God—which we often will—we wait together…
And that’s Point Number Two: how God wants us to wait…
Point Number Three: The gift worth waiting for…
God is very gracious toward Abraham’s doubts, fears, and frustration. He doesn’t fuss or scold or lose patience. Instead he takes him out under the night sky: “‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”[4]
When God says this, the most amazing thing happens to Abraham. Verse 6: “And he believed the Lord, and [the Lord] counted it to him as righteousness.” As the NLT puts it, “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
And this verse is at the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ and of the apostle Paul’s argument in Galatians and Romans: We are justified, or brought into a right relationship with God, not through obedience to God’s law—none of us could keep the law if we tried; the law can only convict us of sin… No, we are brought into a saving relationship with God through faith alone.
And God showed us this truth, Paul argues, 430 years before the law was given to Moses on Sinai. In fact Genesis 15 takes place even before God gave Abraham the very first law, the law of circumcision. That doesn’t happen until Genesis 17!
So God was showing his people, way back in Genesis 15 that God always intended for us to be justified by faith… faith in Christ alone!
We’re justified by faith alone… but not even a lot faith, if that makes you feel any better.
Because look at Abraham’s doubts and fears and frustrations, which crop up again the moment God tells us that Abraham is justified by faith. Verse 8: “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
More doubt!
Which must mean it simply doesn’t take a lot of faith to be saved!
But when Abraham asks his doubt-filled question in verse 8, “How will I know your promise will come true,” God answers it by entering into a covenant with Abraham.
What follows in verse 9 sounds strange to modern ears because it describes an ancient covenant ceremony. At the Lord’s command, Abraham cuts in half a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, arranging the pieces with a space between them. He also sacrifices two birds. This “aisle” between the animals was intentional.
This is how covenants were made in the ancient Near East. Today we sign contracts; back then, people cut animals in half and walked between the pieces. In fact, the Hebrew phrase translated “make a covenant” literally means to cut a covenant.
The meaning of the ceremony becomes clear in the only other place where Scripture refers to it: Jeremiah 34. There, God condemns the people of Jerusalem for breaking a covenant and says, “I will treat them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces.” To walk between the animal parts was to say, May this happen to me if I fail to keep my word.
With that in mind, notice what happens next in Genesis 15. When night falls, God appears as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch—images Scripture elsewhere uses to represent God’s presence. And this fiery manifestation of God passes between the pieces of the animals.
God enters the covenant.
Okay, so next we should expect Abraham to walk between the pieces, right? But he doesn’t: Abraham himself never passes between these animal parts. Only God does.
Which means God is taking responsibility for both sides of the covenant. If Abraham—or his descendants—break the covenant—which they will, of course—God himself will bear the penalty…
Which means… God will die…
But how can God die?
Only by doing what Paul describes in Philippians 2: though Christ was in the form of God, he humbled himself, took on human flesh, and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.[5]
This covenant ceremony at the end of Genesis chapter 15 is a sneak preview of what God, through his Son Jesus, will do on the cross.
And God did this so that we could have eternal life… That’s a gift worth waiting for!
And remember what I said earlier: Christ is willing to heal you, to help you, to save you… He wants you to have this gift… because he loves you…
[Invitation…]
[1] Matthew 8:1-3 NRSVue
[2] Mark 10:29-30 ESV
[3] Ephesians 6:12 ESV
[4] Genesis 15:5 ESV
[5] See Philippians 2:6-9