God's Visible Assurance (Genesis 15)

 God's Visible Assurance

God has not neglected to give assurance to His people in the past. So He did to Abram. 

And in all this He didn’t neglect to use visible means either.

In Genesis 15 Abram had some doubt about God’s promise to him. He just went through a war that had not brought much reward. This could’ve brought fear and a spirit of feeling unrewarded for what he had done.

God told him He was his shield and great reward.

In this context Abram thought about the fact he still didn’t have a child and heir. Even this seemed to be taken from him.

He said:


[Gen 15:2-3 NKJV] 2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house [is] Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"


God decided to give him some assurance.

He said:


[Gen 15:4-5 NKJV] 4 And behold, the word of the LORD [came] to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."


And Abram was assured:


[Gen 15:6 NKJV] 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.


First God gave him His word. But He also told Abram to look outside and count the stars. He used the stars as an illustration.
He could have simply given His word and kept it at that. But to give assurance He also gave a visible illustration that Abram could grasp.

Visible illustrations should not be neglected. The spiritual and physical are closely connected. Faith grasps the visible more easily than something abstract.

And God will often use visible illustrations to assure us.

In the same chapter another assurance is given in regards to the inheritance of the land of Canaan:


[Gen 15:7-21 NKJV] 7 Then He said to him, "I [am] the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." 8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" 9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror [and] great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land [that is] not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites [is] not yet complete." 17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates-- 19 "the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 "the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 "the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."


Again a visible sign is given. God made a covenant with Abram.

At that time a covenant was often made with animals that were cut in two. Both the parties would then walk among those pieces.

But in this case only God Himself walked through it. He would fulfill this covenant Himself. He had made a promise to Abram and He would keep it.

He would give him the land.
And God used a custom of Abrams' time so that Abram could more easily grasp the promise by faith.

This is how God often works. And this is how faith can be strengthened and how humanity tends to work.


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