OPEN: A representative of the gas company phoned the owner of an expensive new home to make an appointment for the service man to come in and light the pilot lights and adjust the furnace.
The owner said that was OK, but he wanted to make sure he was there, because if he wasn’t the service man would never get the furnace going.
The caller insisted that his people were well trained and would have no trouble.
"You don’t understand," the owner said, "When your man tries to adjust the furnace he’ll go out of his mind. The thermostat in the entry hall is a dummy. It’s there for my wife to play with. Only I know where the real one is hidden.”
APPLY:
There have been times in my life when I felt that somebody had hidden the thermostat from me.
Times when I was faced with some type of crisis in my life
Times when ALL the plans I’d made turned to dust in my hands
And no matter what I did to try to resolve the problem – nothing worked.
Everywhere I turned… I was faced with a brick wall, and I found myself powerless – and I hate being powerless.
Have you ever felt like that? (A number of people raised their hands) Good… I don’t feel so bad now.
I think everybody encounters problems like that, at one time or another, in their lives. But, what’s really frustrating – is when it happens to us. Especially when we’re Christians.
I mean… we have God on our side
… we have God working beside us
… we just know that everything will work out OK in the end
In fact, we have a promise to that effect:
Romans 8:28 “… we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
We have this PROMISE… but, at some point in our lives, we get to feeling that “all things AREN’T working together for good.” And that can be really frustrating.
I. That’s pretty much how Abraham was feeling here in Genesis 15
Now, I want to give you a little bit of background on what has just happening in Abraham’s life. It seem there had been a war. Four Kings from the north had swept down upon the cities of the South, and (having defeated their enemy) they were returning home with prisoners and other spoils of war. Amongst those prisoners was Abraham’s nephew Lot along with his possessions.
Once Abraham heard of this, he gathered his men (a total force of 317 men) & pursued the army from the north. He attacked them by night and routed them, rescuing his nephew along with all the other captives and their possessions.
On the way home, Abraham stopped at a town we now call Jerusalem and spent time with a priest of God called Melchizedek and gave him a 10th of all the spoils.
Right after this, God comes to Abraham in the vision we have recorded here in Genesis 15 and said: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." (Genesis 15:1)
It’s almost like God is telling Abraham: all things work together for good to you Abraham because you love Me, and you’re called according to My purpose.”
Now (get this) Abraham has just returned from a battle he had no business winning. And Abraham KNOWS that he had no business defeating this army from the north. The only reason he won was because God had helped him. That’s why he shared a 10th of the spoils with God. He was thanking God for helping win the victory.
But now… once the victory has been won
… once he has shown his gratitude to God at Jerusalem
… and now that God has visited him in a vision to confirm His love for Abraham
Notice what Abraham says in Genesis 15:2-3
“But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
Now does that sound like a complaint to you?
God’s telling Abraham… “all things are going to work together for good to you Abraham cause I’m your shield and your very great reward”
And Abraham comes back sounding a little irritated.
You see, God had made a promise to Abraham about 10 to 15 years before…
We’re told “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To YOUR OFFSPRING I will give this land." Genesis 12:7
That’s been a while back.
Abraham’s getting older
His wife’s not a spring chicken anymore
The clock’s ticking… and he’s got no kids.
He’s beginning to think that he needs to come up with an alternative plan.
ILLUS: In those days, if a man was childless, there were laws that enabled them to “adopt” one of their servants (to make sure the estate did not fall into somebody else’s hands).
One “adoption tablet” from Mesopotamia spoke of a servant being adopted as a man’s heir.
It then declared that if (the master) should have a son of his own, the son would take a double share of the inheritance; the servant would be next in order of inheritance take his proper share. But if the master died childless, the servant became his sole heir.
Abraham believes he needs that kind of a plan… a plan “B” in his life.
Plan “A” (God’s promise) doesn’t seem to be coming along anytime soon. So, he makes plans to have his trusted servant Eliezer be his heir.
BUT this wasn’t what God had promised to him and Abraham is a little bewildered. And he lets God know that he’s disappointed.
"You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." Genesis 15:3
II. Now… notice how God responds
He DOESN’T rebuke Abraham for being upset.
He doesn’t tell him he has NO RIGHT to question what’s happening.
Many times in Scripture, we find great men and women of God complaining
David writes: “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” Psalms 13:1-2
The prophet Habakkuk writes: How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Habakkuk 1:2
God doesn’t rebuke any of these prayers. He records them so we can see that other men and women have struggled with their faith as well.
In Abraham’s case… Abraham needs reassurance. And so God gives it to him.
First God corrects Abraham’s thinking
"This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Genesis 15:4-5
Then God goes thru an elaborate ceremony known as “cutting a covenant.”
A covenant was like a contract… except it was far more binding and serious.
In the cutting of a covenant, two parties would cut an animal in two (here God orders Abraham to cut up several animals)
The parties to the agreement would then pass down between those halves and were declaring to each other and to anyone else who happened to be a witness to the event: “May I be like this animal if I ever break this covenant.”
Now, why would God do this? Why would God not only speak to Abraham as He did, but also engage in an elaborate and bloody ceremony?
BECAUSE – Abraham needed assurance.
The promise of a child so late in life was going to be difficult for him to grasp. And… when Abraham would struggle with this question in the future (and he would) God wanted him to have a powerful image in his mind REMINDING him of this day.
ILLUS: You see, that is the major purpose for Covenants – to remind people of promises that are made. In fact, in our society, there are only two covenants that are celebrated.
The first is marriage. When you attend a ceremony, the bride is on your left and the groom on your right. On the left of the side of the auditorium are seated the friends and family of the bride… and on the right side, the friends and family of the groom.
Now, what do the bride and groom do right after the vows are completed (After they kiss each other)? They walk out between the two sections of family. It’s similar to the procession between the two parts of the animal in the Old Testament… and that is not an accident. That is a deliberate part of the Marriage ceremony to drive home that this is a marriage “covenant.”
The 2nd covenant we celebrate in our society is something only we Christians celebrate. It’s called the New Covenant – or Salvation. Baptism is the “mark” of that covenant. When a person is buried in the waters of Christian baptism, they literally part the waters. They go down into the water and they rise to a new life. Paul tells us that baptism was used by God to REMIND us of the forgiveness we received at our salvation. Paul writes:
“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.(Romans 6:1-4)
In both cases… the covenant’s purpose is to REMIND us of the promises that have been made.
So also, God used the ceremony of “cutting a covenant” to BURN into Abraham’s mind the fact that GOD WILL BE FAITHFUL. God will keep His promises
That’s what we’re reassured of by Paul “… no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1:20
So… God didn’t rebuke Abraham for his complaint. instead He reassured him…
III. But why didn’t God give Abraham his child right then instead???
I mean… it’s another few years before this prophecy of a child is fulfilled, and it would be so much easier to give Abraham what he wanted NOW instead of waiting another few years.
You and I struggle with those same questions in our lives. “Why doesn’t God deal with my problem NOW!”
That was what Abraham wanted. That’s why he was adopting Eliezer as his servant. He FELT he needed a solution to his problem… and he needed it NOW.
NOTICE: God wasn’t upset with Abraham trying “plan B.” It’s just that “plan B” wasn’t how God intended to get things done. But God doesn’t always answer our FELT needs when we FEEL we need them met.
Why? Why would God do it that way?
Well, it could be that…
1. The time isn’t right
It could be that God intends to use your situation to accomplish something bigger, and more important than you have in mind. When something is REALLY important, God takes His time to make sure that everything is in place.
In Galatians, Paul writes of us as being descendents of Abraham: “…when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Galatians 4:4-5
2. The people around us aren’t ready
Sarah may not have been ready to have a child. It’s kind of hard to believe that a woman in her 80’s or 90’s wouldn’t have had time to prepare to have a kid. But as you read about Sarah in the next few chapters you find that she’s not the most mature individual you’ve ever met.
And so there are times when God waits for the optimum moment when the change He makes in our lives can have the greatest impact on those about us.
3. You’re not ready
God isn’t in the business of granting wishes and handing out gifts.
He’s not some Santa Claus type guy, making a list and checking it twice, trying to find out who’s naught and nice. He isn’t up there trying figure out gets a lump of coal and which one gets this gift or that gift.
God is not in the business of granting wishes…
God is in the business of taking people who are not what they should be… and building them up to be what He knows they can be.
AND – at times – that means that He won’t give us what we believe we need WHEN we believe we need it.
God will supply for our needs at just the right time, and in just the right way.
In fact, this last reason (we’re not ready) is almost always part of God’s equation.
We are an impatient people. We almost always want what we want… NOW.
We are an impatient people.
I am an impatient person. You just put me in traffic behind a person who’s going way too slow, and you’ll see just how impatient I can be!
But Scripture advises us:
“Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!” Psalms 27:14 NKJV
“The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” Lamentations 3:25-26 NKJV
“…those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 NKJV
Or… as it says in the New Testament:
James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds
(or… when you don’t get what you want or things don’t work out like you’d like) because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Remember… we have this promise
“…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
That doesn’t mean (necessarily) that all things are from God.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that all things are good.
BUT it does mean that in ALL THINGS God will work for your good because you love Him and He’s called you according to His purposes.
CLOSE: I was talking to a friend of mine lately who told me this story about his cousin Joe. Ever since he was a boy, Joe had wanted to be a pharmacist. He wanted to help people and he wanted to serve God. And in his mind, being able to be a pharmacist was one of the best ways to do that.
Now, Joe lived a very “directed” life… he had a plan for every part of his life. My friend told me that Joe “never took a gulp with having a plan.”
Part of his plan was that he expected to find the woman he intended to marry while in college. He had a list of qualities that he was looking for in a wife, and in the 1st semester of college, he saw the girl he wanted sitting in the front row of one of his classes. And he made up his mind to woe her and win her heart. And he did.
Things weren’t much different when he entered the Pharmacy business. He found a Pharmacist who would train him and who would agree to sell him his business when he retired. And – sure enough – when the older man retired, Joe bought him out and set about doing what he’d always dreamed of doing.
He would work late and hard.
And after work, he would deliver orders to his customers personally, so that he could talk with them and pray with them about their problems, and talk to them about God.
He was realizing his dream – helping people and serving God.
But, in spite of how hard he worked, the business had trouble making money.
AND THEN, after a few years of Joe struggling with his business the older pharmacist came out of retirement and literally stole the business out from under him.
Understandably Joe was angry. AND he was frustrated… how could God let this happen to him?
He found himself without a business and he had to struggle, working for other Pharmacies just to make ends meet.
Day after day, Joe would pray for God to help him make sense out of what had happened. Then, one day, Joe’s brother came to him and made a suggestion. He said – why don’t we go in together and start our own pharmacy?
And they did… and this new pharmacy took off like a rocket. Joe made more money than he’d ever made before, hand over fist. He and his brother became wealthy men.
And they were able to help both their customers and their church.
When my friend talked to Joe after all this had happened, Joe – the man who had always had such a meticulous plan laid out for his life told my friend: “I don’t have a plan, I don’t have all the answers but I am committed to being whatever God wants me to be.”
