Promises to Live By
Genesis 15:1-6

Promises are the foundation of human life. In fact, our lives are dependent on the promises we make to others and that others make to us. Marriage is dependent on the promises we make and keep to each other. Going into business is dependent on the promises that partners make and keep to each other. Buying a home or a piece of property is dependent on the promises made and kept by the seller and buyer. Taking a job is based on the promises to be a good employee and a fair employer. These are just a few examples. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of other aspects of life that are dependent on promises.

What is true of the horizontal promises made between people is also true of the vertical promises God has made to us, and we, in turn, trust in and live by. When promises between people are broken or go unfulfilled, it makes our lives exceedingly difficult. A broken promise in marriage, business, employment, or legal contracts is a source of great consternation, emotional pain, and hardship. The same can be said about God’s promises to us that remain unfulfilled. This was Abram’s predicament.

God had made great promises to Abram and Sarai. “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Gen. 12:1-3). God promised to give Abram and Sarai land, progeny, and blessing.

Abram and Sarai encountered several obstacles to God’s promises. First, a famine drove them from the promised land (Gen. 12:10). Then strife between Abram and his nephew, Lot, caused the two to part ways and occupy different regions of the promised land (Gen. 13:8-9). Finally, war between kingdoms in the promised land resulted in Lot being taken captive and Abram having to enter the conflict to rescue his nephew (Gen. 14:11-12, 14).

To strengthen Abram, the LORD reiterated the promises to him. “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you’” (Gen. 13:14–17).

But the greatest obstacle to God’s promise remained. Abram and Sarai were childless. How could Abram become the father of many nations without an heir?

That brings us to this morning’s text. Abram was worried about how God would fulfill this fundamental promise. God appeared to Abram in a vision to comfort and encourage him. “After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great’” (Gen. 15:1). “I am your shield,” means, “I will protect you.” “Your reward shall be very great,” means “I will give you more than you can imagine.” But Abram did not respond with thanksgiving or gratitude. He was still very troubled. He asks God twice about his anxiety. “But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir’” (Gen. 15:2-3).

Abram might have raised his fist in anger to God demanding action. Or Abram might have done the opposite and not raised the problem at all. He might have suffered in silence or stewed with stress. Instead, Abram did what we all should do. He spoke honestly to God about the yet unfulfilled promise.

God responded graciously to Abram’s anxiety. God did not rebuke him. God did not say, “I already told you I would make you a great nation. Do not be faithless but believing.” Instead, God repeated the promise. “But the word of the Lord came to him, 'This man shall not be your heir'” (Gen.15: 4a). Eliezer would not be Abram’s heir. Then God clarified the promise. “No one but your very own issue shall be your heir” (Gen. 15: 4b). Abram’s heir would be a natural- born son. And finally, God expanded the promise. God brought Abram outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be” (Gen. 15:5).

Previously, God told Abram to survey the land of Canaan, to look east, west, north, and south, to walk its length and breadth. God had told Abram to look down at the dust of the land, and God promised, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if you can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted” (Gen. 13:6).

But now God bids Abram look up. God points him to the stars of the night sky. We do not go outside at night to look at the stars that often. When we do, they may be obscured by clouds or smog or smoke, or they may be dimmed by the ambient light of our towns and cities. But if you have ever gone outside on a clear night, away from electric light, you know what Abram saw. Abram was staring into the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is so dense with stars that there is no visible space between them. That is what gives the galaxy its milky color. It is impossible to count the stars with the naked eye.

Under the glory of those countless stars, Abram believed the LORD. Abram’s mind and faith were stretched by God’s greatness and power. He believed that God’s promise was trustworthy. As Genesis puts it, “He believe the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

The promise of an heir was not fulfilled immediately, but Abram’s faith, Abram’s trust, enabled him to live by God’s promises awaiting their fulfillment.

The promises we have from God are different from God’s promises to Abram and Sarai, but they are connected in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the source of all blessing. God has promised to forgive our sins through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death. God will declare us guiltless on the day of Judgment. God has promised to ransom our lives from the power of the grave through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. God has promised that we will be with Christ when we die. God has promised to give us eternal life merely for trusting in his son. And God has promised to exalt his name in all the earth so that everyone will honor God completely. God has promised that the kingdom will come, and God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven when the Son of Man appears in glory with his holy angels. God has promised to vanquish evil and banish sin from his good creation. Our promises from God are much greater than God’s promises to Abram and Sarai. These promises are yet to be fulfilled and even harder to trust in.

We might be prone to ignore the disparity between the promises of God and the reality of continuing sin, evil, sickness, and death. We might even be angry with God if these chaotic forces impinge upon our lives. Or we might say with Abram, “What will you give me?” The psalms give voice to our honest anxieties and longings. “How long, O LORD?” “How long must I bear pain in my soul?” “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?” (See Psalms 10 and 13.)

And God responds to us as he did to Abram, inviting us to look up instead of looking at the bleak reality that surrounds us. And by God’s grace and power, the LORD summons faith from us so that we too can believe the LORD and that trust can be reckoned unto us as righteousness.

Abram and Sarai had many reasons to despair, chiefly their age and Sarai’s barrenness. We might be tempted to despair too. Things are really a mess at the current moment. The west coast is burning. The Gulf coast is battered by storms, the pandemic is still with us, economic inequality is rising, our body politic is a disaster. But instead of despairing, let us speak honestly to God in prayer, imploring God to act, beseeching God to give us faith to trust in his yet unfulfilled promises.

Like Abram, God is our shield, our protector, and our exceedingly great reward. God plans to give us more than we can imagine. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

Like Abram and Sarai, we have been given the grace of faith to trust and live by the promises of God despite all outward appearances. So, do not look down or around you. Look up. Lift your heads; for our redemption draweth nigh (Luke 21:28).

Thanks be to God, who will yet cause us to triumph through our LORD Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Amen!