GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAM
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers
in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart
with many possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peaceH7965
and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here,
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch
appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.
On that 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 Euphrates—
the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Genesis 15:13-21
In the first part of Genesis Chapter fifteen, God assured Abram (later to be renamed Abraham) that his heir will be his own biological son rather than his servant. God also promised Abram the land in which he was currently living. Abram asked how he would know this for certain. God had Abram cut certain animals in half and lay the two pieces side by side with a path between. This was part of a custom of “cutting covenant.” The symbolism was that the two parties would walk between the pieces implying that this should be done to them if they broke the promise they were making to each other. Note that only God passed through the pieces, meaning that God is the one responsible for keeping His covenant with Abram to make him a great nation who possessed the Promised Land. The covenant relied on God’s grace, not Abram’s obedience.
In the middle of this covenant ceremony, God prophesied the four-hundred-year captivity of the nation of Israel in Egypt, but also assured Abram they would eventually return and possess the land. Where does peace come in? Abram believed what God promised and it was “credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). God promised Abram he would enjoy a long life and die in peace. He could have the peace of God because by believing, by trusting God’s promises, he had peace with God.
When we have a right relationship with God through trusting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, His peace is available to us. We can have “shalom.” A good definition of “shalom” is “Nothing missing, nothing broken, completely whole.” Are you feeling broken in any way today? Do you feel incomplete? First, be sure you have made peace with God by trusting Jesus and surrendering your will to His. Then, you can ask for the peace of God to replace all your anxiety and brokenness and make you complete in Christ.
Father, we thank You that we are granted peace with You because we have trusted Jesus who was sacrificed in our place on the cross. When we feel anxious, broken, or incomplete, please grant us Your peace, a calmness that cannot be shaken no matter what the circumstances.