The Ultimate Gift

Genesis 15 is a pretty crazy chapter. It’s not full of action, it doesn’t involve God saving someone from certain doom, and it doesn’t have a hero of faith taking a stand for what she believes in for the glory of God. But it does give us an intimate look at the relationship between God and Abraham and, in effect, between God and humanity. That includes YOU! Check out Genesis 15:1-6, this part of the story may be familiar to you. God makes an incredible promise to Abraham and his barren wife. They will have a child! And their descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. An incredible promise. And yet, it just gets better! The next part of the story is one of my favorites in the entire Bible and it’s a bit less well known. Read Genesis 15:8-10 and 17-18. Okay, it’s a little strange and maybe hard to understand what’s going on. But this goes back to an ancient tradition. When two people made a big promise and commitment to each other they would cut a cow in half and each person would walk between the two halves declaring: If I break my promise then let me be like this cow. Basically, if I don’t follow through then you have the right to kill me. God performs this tradition with Abraham, with man. But instead of Abraham walking through God walks through, twice! God is saying if either I or you don’t follow through, then I, God, will be like this cow. Obviously man doesn’t follow through. We sin daily. So what does God do? Ever heard of Jesus and His crucifixion?

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