Word of Encouragement (01/26/2022)
And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." (Gen. 15:7-9).
As Abram hears God renewing His promise concerning the land, he asks God a question. Here, Abram is not doubting whether God will, or can, do this. In the preceding verse, he believed God’s promise to give him a son and God counted it to him as righteousness. Here, Abram is simply asking for a sign, if you will.
We can say that asking for any sign from God is an indication of unbelief. He is God. His name is the Amen, the faithful (Rev. 3:14). His word should be good enough. After all, what is more reliable than the word of God? The moment He promises something, it is as good as done. For God cannot fail. If He should fail in anything, He would no longer be God.
Many do ask for a sign out of unbelief. They want a sign to convince them that God is real. But they don’t realize that the suspicious mind of a sinner is deeper than what a miraculous sign can fill. Think about the exodus generation, which perished in the wilderness for their unbelief. No generation in all of redemptive history experienced more signs and wonders than the exodus generation And yet, they availed them nothing because of their unbelief.
But even believers can ask for a sign from God—not to convince them of what they don’t believe but to remind them of His promise and faithfulness. It is like the wedding rings we exchange at the wedding as a sign of our love and commitment to our spouses. This is why God did not rebuke Abram for asking for a sign; He readily granted one for Him.
And what a sign it was! God made Abram cut up some animals and line up the cut-up pieces to make a pathway. Then, God appeared in the form of a torch and passed between the pieces. This was a symbolic act that said, “If I don’t carry out my promise with you, let Me be cursed as these animals.” Such symbolic gestures were used in the Ancient Middle Eastern covenant-making ceremonies. They were there to warn the parties involved to think twice before breaking their promises. These solemn gestures were made as a sign of pledge to keep one’s covenant.
There are a couple of things that were shocking about God’s sign to Abram. First, this gesture of passing through “the path of self-malediction” was usually for the vassals that were defeated, not for the suzerain lord that defeated them. Here, the Lord is the One, who performs this act of self-malediction. Second, this act was usually meant to be a deterrent: the idea was to avoid the curse that the cut-up animals represented. But in the case of God, it was His pledge to be cursed in the place of sinners to bless them. For a holy God to bless sinners, the penalty of sin must be removed, which sinners cannot do for themselves. Already, God was showing His people how far He was willing to go to save them! And in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ would come into the world to do just that—to receive the curse we deserve so we can be forgiven and blessed by God!
There may be times when we want to ask what Abram asked: “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that you love me?” God may grant you a sign. But we should remember that God has already given us a sign of His infinite and unbreakable love—the cross of Jesus Christ! What greater sign can God give us? Let us direct our eyes to the old, rugged cross and find in it God’s undeniable, insuperable sign of His love for us!