Introduction
When I played soccer, our coach regularly rotated who served as team captain. Occasionally, that was me. My great responsibility was to shake hands with the other captain and call the coin toss. It wasn't much, but as a teenager, I felt the pressure of representing my team. My decision seemed like it would affect everyone, even though I couldn't control how the coin would land.
Another moment where I felt the weight of representing others was when we moved to Minnesota to go to seminary. We had prayed about it, and Katie and I felt like this is what God wanted for us. We did our best to explain the process to our kids so they could own the choice with us, and they were all very excited about the adventure of moving to a new place. But Katie and I knew we were making decisions for our kids that they didn’t really understand. They didn’t really know all the ways this was going to affect them.
We were essentially deciding that they were going to have to choose new friends, go to a new school, and live in a new neighborhood. They wouldn’t see relatives as often. Depending on how long we were there it might change where they went to college, the person they met to be their spouse, and many other major life choices. We were happy to have our kids be on board with everything, but we knew we were making decisions as their parents that was larger and more consequential than they may have realized. We were representing our family, and doing what we thought was best for everyone in choosing to move.
Representation and Narrowing for Expansion
As we have been going through Genesis here at the beginning of our series about the Story, and as we have looked at Adam and Eve as well as Noah, you might have noticed this theme of representation beginning to be evident. Nowhere in those accounts does God say he is using Adam or Noah as a representative, but it seems to be happening, and we are told later in Scripture that God IS doing that. In Scripture, representation often means that God’s plans and decisions seem to narrow on one person or family in order that they might represent others and, hopefully, bless them. And when they don’t make good decisions, we also see the opposite—their representation brings problems.
Like it or not, you and I were represented in those opening moments of creation. God gave Adam and Eve the responsibility of living out his purposes and following his one rule. And in a particular way, Adam stood as the representative for humanity by himself. When Adam sinned, the consequences were not his alone. Paul explains this in Romans 5:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…
Romans 5:12 ESV
Adam’s poor choice in representing humanity means we all are now affected by sin, and we also choose to sin ourselves. We then see another representative in the Story—Noah. Noah represents God’s preserved people through the flood. And after the flood, God covenants with Noah, but it is also a covenant and a promise for all of creation and humanity that God will preserve us. Noah represents the future of humanity.
And you may have begun to notice something else: Representation keeps happening, and in that moment the story seems to slow down and focus on one particular person or family (the representative). Then it expands back out again to the broader group of humanity or others around this person. Adam represents humanity in his and Eve’s choice to sin, and then we see the consequence of how everyone on earth is living sinfully. Noah represents humanity as he and his family are brought through the flood, and then we see how humanity goes on in a renewed creation and ends up at the Tower of Babel.
When we see representation, it is not God’s plan becoming smaller. God is concentrating the fulfillment of his larger purposes upon a chosen representative for a reason:
God narrows his representation for the sake of expansion.
That may have been a pattern we can see if we think about it as we looked back at Adam and then Noah, but as we get to Abraham, God tells us this is his goal. In Genesis 12, God makes the purpose of his narrowing explicit. God says that from Abraham will come a people—Israel—one family that will become nation. And through this nation God will bless ALL the peoples of the earth.
This is the fourth recurring lens that we will see throughout the Story of God. We have already talked in depth about People, Place, Presence, and Purpose. We have talked about how God is the King and has his Kingdom and how God is relating to his people through covenants. And we have looked at life that comes through death. But this is the lens that was there in the beginning, but somewhat hidden. Representation for expansion. And as we come to Abraham, we see God is declaring that representation and expansion is part of how he works, and it is now easy to see in Abraham and moving forward in the Story.
In fact, as we follow the story of Israel up to Jesus, we will see God continue to work through particular representatives for the good of the many. Sometimes this narrowing happens through a particular family or descendant, as we will see with David. Other times God raises up particular people to represent him and serve the broader people. Moses receives God's word to deliver to Israel. God raises up prophets to speak his word, priests to mediate, judges to deliver, and kings to rule. Each of these representatives begins to show us something more about what God's people need.
What begins to emerge is the realization that we don't merely need another representative. We need a particular kind of representative. Someone who can accomplish what all these others could not.
Additionally, as we reach this point in THE Story, we begin to see that each story itself is longer—much longer than I or Jack can cover completely in a sermon. God is giving us a much fuller understanding of himself as we go through each step and as we advance to the next covenant. We will do our best, but you may have aspects of these stories that you want to include in your retelling of the story that we miss. That is okay—there is a lot of good information in each of these next pieces of the story, and we can’t possibly share them all.
This morning we are going to see a lot about representation and narrowing for the sake of expanding. And as we come to Abraham, God is going to continue to show us more about how he intends to accomplish his purposes through his covenants.
God Calls and Covenant Promise
Last week, we left off with Noah and Babel. God had preserved creation after the flood. Noah and his family are recommissioned to multiply and fill the earth, yet the sinful human heart has remained unchanged. We see narrowing and representation with Noah, and expansion again to Babel. And we have seen with Babel, preservation alone does not equal redemption. Preservation doesn’t deal with the problem of sin.
In Genesis 11 and 12 we see God’s Story narrow again with Abraham. And again, we see that God is the Story, not Abraham. God is the one who initiates, and God is the one who moves things forward. Abraham is not shown as a man who first devises a plan to please God and get back into relationship with God. Rather, God calls Abraham out of his current life, as we see in Genesis 12. The initiative belongs to God.
In Genesis 12:1–3 we see God’s covenant promise to Abraham:
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. And 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 him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1–3 ESV
God’s call requires Abraham to leave what is familiar to him. His entire destination and future depend on God’s word and call to Abraham. Importantly, just like Noah, God’s promise precedes Abraham’s obedience. And, just like God preserved and moved the world forward through Noah, God is now revealing how he will move things forward through Abraham.
And note 12:3: “…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abraham’s election serves God’s worldwide purpose. God does not choose one man and his family because he has forgotten the other families. It is THROUGH this promise that God’s blessings will ultimately expand beyond Abraham to his descendants and the entire world.
Again, God is showing us these same lenses with Abraham. God promises land, He promises Abraham will become a great nation, that Abraham will have a great name, that Abraham will find blessing and protection. God is restoring his people, place, presence and purposes!
People: Abraham’s offspring will become a great nation.
Place: God promises Abraham a land.
Presence: God calls, appears to, and relates personally with Abraham.
Purpose: Abraham’s family will become the means through which God is glorified and his blessings reach the nations.
We also see that God is still King. His kingdom purposes will extend to the entire creation. He has come to Abraham and pursued Abraham through HIS covenant and HIS promises. Even though we just had the story of Babel and assume that this type of rebellious sin will continue to bring death, we also see God promising to bring life through this covenant. As we continue through Abraham's story, we will also see that God can bring life even where it seems impossible. Through this representative and God’s narrowing for the sake of expansion, God is moving his plans forward again.
Abraham has a promise from God, and he obeys without knowing where he is going. Hebrews 11 reminds us of that. And that raises a familiar question for us: Are we willing to obey God when we don't know how everything will turn out? Abraham's calling was unique, but our struggle is familiar. We often want to make our obedience the guarantee that life will turn out as we hope. Yet Abraham's obedience wasn't what made God's promises certain. God's faithfulness did that.
That is something to consider as we look at Abraham this morning: Are you trusting God with your Story, or are you trusting in your own ability to make it turn out right?
Promise and Un-Fulfillment?
As we see God make extraordinary promises to Abraham, we also see that Abraham’s circumstances don't look like those promises are being fulfilled. The story of Abraham in Genesis 11 through 21 covers many years, but during this period he still hasn't seen the fullness of what God promised. Even though God talks to Abraham several times over this period, it doesn’t look like Abraham will get what he was promised. That may make us think that God’s promise is failing, but perhaps what God is doing during this time is just as important as what Abraham is waiting for.
We see Abraham enter the land of Canaan. God reiterates that the land will belong to his offspring. Abraham builds altars and worships. But he does not yet possess the land, and Abraham remains a sojourner within the very land God promised him.
Famine forces Abraham to seek food in Egypt. Abraham fears for his life and misrepresents Sarah as his sister (because she is too pretty…that’s weird!), and Pharaoh takes her into his household. This threatens the very promise itself: Abraham has been promised offspring, but Abraham’s conduct puts Sarah and the promise at risk. What if Pharaoh consummates his marriage with her? But God intervenes. Pharaoh’s household experiences plagues and Sarah is returned. Abraham departs Egypt and returns to the land.
Even after Abraham has believed God and been counted righteous through faith, he still struggles to live consistently with that faith. In Genesis 16, Sarah remains barren. She gives Hagar to Abraham, and through Hagar Abraham and Sarah seek to obtain their heir through their own arrangement. The problem isn't that they shouldn't make decisions or make plans. Rather, they fail to trust God's promise and attempt to secure its fulfillment themselves.
Throughout Abraham’s life, we see that Abraham is not consistently faithful. His obedience is real, and his faith is imperfect. But his failures do not overturn God’s promises!
Perhaps the point as we look at this broader story of Abraham is not only to wait for fulfillment, but to see that God is showing us other elements of his plan. And importantly, we are to notice God, his purposes, and his ways of solving the problem. Perhaps that is the same in our lives? We often measure whether God is working by whether we can see things moving toward the outcome we want. But…
Perhaps what we most need to notice is not the goal, but God.
Perhaps in the waiting, God is teaching us more about who he is, what he has promised, and why we can trust him.
And sometimes we may not see the outcome we are hoping for. That doesn't mean God has stopped working or that his promises have failed. Abraham's story is teaching us to look beyond what we can see and to trust the God who is faithful even when we cannot see how his purposes will be accomplished.
The Promise Received by Faith
Amid all those stories and more that I didn’t mention—Egypt, Sarah and the Pharaoh, Lot’s and Abraham’s men fighting, Abraham saving Lot, Abraham meeting Melchizedek, Abraham’s and Sarah’s names being changed—we see God come to Abraham again in Genesis 15. Abraham remains childless. The original promise increasingly seems impossible—Abraham and Sarah are quite old now. But God! God comes and visits Abraham:
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 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, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:1–6 ESV
God reminds Abraham that HE will fulfill the promise he made. Abraham hears this from God and again has faith in God and what he says. And we are told this is “counted to him as righteousness.” How amazing is this! God doesn’t declare Abraham righteous because he has achieved perfect obedience. In fact, as we just noted, you could never say that about Abraham. His life is full of messy obedience and sinful attempts to solve the problem of his heir on his own. We have already seen Abraham's imperfect obedience in Egypt.
And remarkably, even after this declaration of righteousness through faith, Abraham will struggle again. In the very next chapter, Genesis 16, Abraham and Sarah attempt to secure the promised heir through Hagar, and Ishmael is born. And the consequences of this decision will continue through the generations that follow.
Yet even this failure does not overturn God's promise to Abraham or his commitment to fulfill it. Even after that mess, God gives Abraham the sign of the covenant—circumcision. A sign of his family’s distinction and difference from the world. It is a sign that marks out Abraham's family as God's covenant people, distinct from the nations around them. But even this outward distinction cannot solve the deeper problem of sin. God can mark out a people as his own, but they still need hearts that love him and faithfully obey him. That is something GOD will promise to accomplish himself, as we will see later in Deuteronomy 30.
If you have ever wondered how God can use someone like you and me, people who have faith but at times it seems weak and we repeatedly sin and try to solve things in our own power, take great comfort in Abraham. Paul takes great comfort in Abraham! Paul, when he looks back at Abraham, sees in Abraham’s life the most amazing picture of how God’s grace works through faith. We see this in several places in Paul’s writings.
Paul spends almost the entire chapter of Romans 4 discussing Abraham. In verses 1 through 8 he notes that Abraham was justified—he was declared righteous—by his faith. In fact, Paul notes how Abraham is considered righteous BEFORE receiving the covenant sign. He becomes the father of all who believe while he is uncircumcised, becoming the father of the circumcised (the Jews) AND the uncircumcised (the Gentiles). The outward sign of circumcision marks out the covenant people, but it does not itself provide the grounds for God's acceptance and justification. That is only through faith.
Paul goes even further in Romans 4:16–22 and says that the promise rests on grace and faith in GOD’s ability to do what he has said. In Romans 4:17, Paul reminds us that God gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist, and Abraham believes despite the apparent impossibility of having offspring. Abraham trusts the God who can accomplish what is impossible for him.
And Paul doesn't leave this as something that was only true for Abraham. At the end of Romans 4, in verses 23–25, he says that the words about Abraham's faith being counted as righteousness weren't written for Abraham alone, but for us, also. We too are counted righteous through faith in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Abraham's faith pointed forward to what God would accomplish in Jesus, and our faith looks back to what God has accomplished through him.
The narrative of Abraham in Genesis does not depict Abraham as uniformly and unwaveringly faithful. He obeys God’s call and leaves Ur—he then fears in Egypt. He believes God’s word here in Genesis 15—then he and Sarah pursue their own solution through Hagar. NEVERTHELESS, Abraham’s faith is reckoned as righteousness. That back and forth nature of Abraham’s life, the back and forth nature of our life, leads us to an interesting conclusion:
Faith is not assessed through our achievements or our perfect commitment to faith. The strength of our faith is in the object of our faith. The strength of our faith is in the faithful God who makes and keeps his promises.
Even our faith is not important because it comes from us. It is important because it looks to God and his faithfulness. And praise God for that! Our present circumstances, and even our present ability to trust God are not the measure of God’s faithfulness. Again, are we looking to our own believing, or are we looking at the faithfulness and power of the God we trust?
God’s Binding Promise
That is exactly the issue Abraham needs to learn. Abraham asks God this same thing:
But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
Genesis 15:8 ESV
If Abraham looks at his own actions, he hasn’t been obedient enough to earn what God is saying. If Abraham is to look at the situation, he hasn’t yet seen God provide what he has promised. A child, no. Land, no. A great nation—definitely not! What is Abraham to trust in to know God will do what he has promised? And to answer Abraham, God has a covenant ceremony with Abraham. A ceremony that Abraham and most of those around him would be very familiar with.
In the ancient world, one way to establish a solemn, binding covenant was through a ceremony involving divided animals. Especially when one party was more powerful than the other, the covenant could establish obligations and consequences for breaking them. In this ceremony, the animals were divided and the weaker party of the two covenant-makers would pass between the pieces. The image was unmistakable: if I break this covenant, may the judgment represented by these animals fall upon me.
Jeremiah 34:18 talks about this exact same process when God has a covenant with the officials of Judah, Jerusalem, the priests and the people. These people walk through a cut calf and God says he will now hold them accountable because they failed the covenant.
But something very different happens in this covenant ceremony with Abraham and God:
And [God] said to [Abraham], “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 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.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Genesis 15:7-10 (ESV)
Up to this point, it looks like a normal covenant ceremony. Abraham prepares the animals, and he is waiting for God to show up so he can do his part. But it doesn’t play out that way!
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Genesis 15:11–21 ESV
God comes and recites HIS promises. God, CLEARLY the stronger party, passes through the middle of the animals as he solemnly establishes the covenant he has promised to Abraham. The smoking firepot and flaming torch—the same imagery of smoke and fire that God uses as we go forward in the story—represents God. And God alone passes through the pieces.
And in case you are tempted to think, “Well, Abraham was a part of it in some way,” he really wasn’t. That is the point of telling us he is in a deep sleep—he has no part to play in this covenant process other than to receive it.
The covenant oath and its consequences are assumed by God. The fulfillment of the promise rests entirely and ultimately upon God himself. Abraham does not secure the promise through his own capacity. Rather, it rests on God. And God does not merely make the promise, but God solemnly binds himself to fulfill his promises. God declares that if the covenant can’t be fulfilled—if humanity can’t live out their side as well—God will take the punishment upon himself. He will take the penalty of death.
Isaac—The Exclamation Point of Jesus
Every Christian should be thinking here, “It's Jesus! It's Jesus!” God himself will bear the covenant curse in order to fulfill his promises at the cross! But just in case you missed it, God adds another Jesus-shaped exclamation point to Abraham's story!
The promised son is finally born. In their old age—beyond what is humanly possible—Abraham and Sarah have a son, Isaac. Now, the future of the covenant depends on Isaac and the people that will come through him. But then, God tests Abraham. He commands Abraham to offer up Isaac to him as a sacrifice. Can you imagine the anguish? You have waited your whole life for this one thing—this glimpse of the beginning of the promises of God coming true in your life, and God asks you to give it up. This is a huge apparent contradiction: God has promised a future through Isaac, but now Isaac is to be offered up. The covenant’s future again seems impossible from a human perspective. The author to the Hebrews again offers us insight on this moment:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV
Abraham considered that if God had given him Isaac at his old age, he could surely raise Isaac from the dead if need be. So, Abraham loads up wood on Isaac, and they climb the mountain to sacrifice him. He binds his beloved son Isaac and lays him on the altar. The text doesn't tell us what Isaac is thinking in this moment, but imagine the weight of this moment for Abraham. This is the son through whom God has promised to fulfill his covenant.
And just as Abraham is about to act, the angel of the LORD calls out and stops him. He points to the bushes and shows that God indeed has provided. There is a ram, caught in the thicket, provided as the sacrifice in Isaac's place.
And once again, we see that God is showing us something about how he will fulfill his promises. God himself has assumed the covenant curse, and now God provides a substitute for the promised son. Both point us forward to Jesus Christ, through whom God will fulfill his promises, even at the cost of the life of HIS Son. What an amazing image of the love of God, embedded in the Story with Abraham.
Final Conclusion / Application
And yet there is still something else remarkable about Abraham's story that we haven't considered. God has called Abraham, God has promised him a family and a land, God has counted his faith as righteousness, God has solemnly guaranteed his covenant, and God has even provided the son through whom those promises would continue.
And yet, after all of that, Abraham died without seeing the fullness of what God had promised.
The writer of Hebrews helps us understand what Abraham was looking for all along:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:8–10; 13–16 ESV
Abraham's ultimate hope extended far beyond his own lifetime. He received the promised son, but he didn't live to see the great nation that would come from him. He walked through the land God promised, but he lived there as a stranger. He received extraordinary promises from God, but he died still waiting for their fullness.
And Hebrews tells us that Abraham understood something important. He wasn't merely waiting for his circumstances to improve or for everything God promised to happen before he died. He seems to have learned something along the way. He learned something in living through God’s Story. He was looking forward to something greater—a better country, a city whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham believed that God's promises were greater than Abraham's life. And that meant his hope could extend beyond his death, because the God who made those promises would remain faithful even after Abraham was gone.
I wonder if we don’t often miss this. Main Street, we naturally want to know how God will resolve the difficulties of our present lives. How will he restore a relationship? How will he bring healing? How will he provide what we need? We naturally want to see God's faithfulness demonstrated in the outcomes of our lives. But Abraham reminds us that God's promises are bigger than our circumstances, and even bigger than our lifetimes.
Are we to expect God to accomplish all his promises? Absolutely! But are we to expect him to accomplish the fullness of those promises during our lifetime? Abraham teaches us that those are not the same thing.
Are we resting in what GOD has accomplished and what he will finally accomplish for our future hope? Can we trust God, like Abraham, when the fullness of what he promises lies beyond our earthly experience? And probably more important for all of us, do we believe God's promises are certain simply because we feel full of faith today, or do we believe his promises will surely happen because we rest knowing that GOD alone is faithful?
Abraham's faith was sometimes imperfect. His obedience was inconsistent. He did not live to see the complete fulfillment of God's promises. Yet his hope was well placed. His faith was in the God who calls, promises, guarantees, and provides.
We are not simply being called to have Abraham's exceptional faith. We are being directed toward Abraham's faithful God!
How would you say all that in a paragraph or two? Here is my version, including what we have said up to this point:
The Story — Abraham
In Abraham, we see God covenant with one man, promising to make him a great people, give them a place, and bless all the nations of the earth through him. God is rebuilding his People by choosing one man to represent the many. His promises narrow to Abraham and his offspring so that his blessing might expand to the whole world.
God promises to do everything needed to fulfill his word. So much so that Abraham is asleep when God makes covenant with him, and God alone passes between the divided animals, binding himself to his promises and their covenant consequences. Abraham believes God, and his faith is counted as righteousness. He receives God's promises through faith, pointing forward to how we receive salvation through Jesus Christ.
For Discussion
Sermon Summary
As the Story of God moves from creation through Adam and Noah to Abraham, a recurring pattern becomes more visible: God narrows his work to a particular representative for the sake of blessing many. Adam’s sin affected humanity; Noah and his family were preserved through the flood. Now God calls one man, Abraham, and promises that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3). God’s plan is not shrinking. Through Abraham and his descendants, God is advancing his purposes for the world.
God’s promises to Abraham include a people, a place, his presence, and a purpose extending to the nations. But Abraham’s circumstances often seem to contradict those promises. He and Sarah remain childless for years. Abraham lives as a stranger in the promised land, fears for his life in Egypt, and later attempts with Sarah to secure an heir through Hagar. Abraham genuinely obeys and believes, yet his obedience remains imperfect. His failures do not overturn the promises because their fulfillment rests on God’s faithfulness.
In Genesis 15, God renews his promise of offspring as numerous as the stars, and Abraham believes the Lord. God counts that faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Paul explains in Romans 4 that Abraham was counted righteous through faith before circumcision, making him a father of both Jewish and Gentile believers. Faith is not valuable because Abraham performs it perfectly; its strength lies in the faithful God to whom it looks. The same God gives life to the dead and raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:17, 23–25).
When Abraham asks how he can know he will inherit the land, God solemnly confirms his covenant. Abraham prepares divided animals, but God alone passes between the pieces while Abraham sleeps (Genesis 15:7–21). The future of the promise rests ultimately on God himself.
Later, when Abraham is tested with Isaac, the promised son, he trusts that God can even raisethe dead (Hebrews 11:17–19). God provides a ram in Isaac’s place. These moments direct our attention toward Jesus, in whom God bears the covenant curse and provides the sacrifice through which his promises are fulfilled.
Abraham dies without seeing the fullness of what God promised. Yet Hebrews 11 tells us he was looking for a better country and a city whose builder is God. We also may not see the full resolution of our circumstances or the fulfillment of every promise within our lifetimes.
Abraham’s story invites us to look beyond our visible outcomes and even beyond the strength of our own faith. We are being directed toward Abraham’s faithful God.
Small Group Questions
1. Read Genesis 12:1–3. Why does God choose and bless Abraham? How does the promise to bless “all the families of the earth” shape the way we understand his calling?
2. Where do you see the pattern of representation and expansion in Adam, Noah, and Abraham? How does this pattern prepare us to understand Jesus?
3. Abraham believed God but also acted fearfully and tried to secure the promise himself (Genesis 12; 16). What does his imperfect obedience teach us about the object of saving faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4)?
4. In Genesis 15:7–21, why is it significant that God alone passes between the covenant pieces while Abraham sleeps? What does that teach us about the certainty of God’s promises?
5. What do the offering of Isaac and God’s provision of a substitute reveal about God’s purposes? How do they point us toward Christ (Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17–19)?
6. Hebrews 11:8–16 says Abraham died without receiving the fullness of what was promised. Where are you tempted to measure God’s faithfulness by an outcome you want to see in your lifetime? How does Abraham’s hope challenge that?
