Greater Israel
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, 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, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”
But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you 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.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, 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 descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”
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This is not the first Time the Lord makes the covenant with Abram, and Abram is growing old and, though still patient, a bit skeptical of the promise. The flaming firepot story is awesome but not fearsome, a fiery spectacle in which the Lord accepts Abram's offering by consuming it, By Fire is the means, the Lord breathing the delicious aroma of the cooking meat. In so doing the Lord accepts Abram's sacrifice of blood and closes the deal with the covenant promise.
As Israel's story progresses, the son Isaac is born; and the promise of land eventually comes true as Moses dies on the mountaintop and Joshua leads Israel across the Jordan into the Promised Land.
On a pragmatic level, it shows that people and the Lord do not necessarily have the same sense of urgency. We have only Time, the Lord has Eternity and is never compelled by our being in a hurry, eh?
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The sacrifice and smoking firepot and flaming torch are the spectacle that make the story fascinating, but that's not what it's about. The story ends with its point: as the map shows, the Promised Land stretches from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. Not just the little piece that is Israel today. Will that promise ever come to pass? You may rationalize it away, but that's the promise.
Our translation calls God "the Lord," but the Hebrew cites God naming himself to Abram, "I am יְהוָ֗ה Yahweh" and Abram calls him not "Lord God" as our English translation goes, but "Adonai Yahweh," "Lord Yahweh." Because God's name יְהוָ֗ה Yahweh is not to be spoken aloud and is usually pronounced "Adonai" , a Hebrew reader might read "Adonai Adonai," which would not sound right, so the English translates it "Lord God," saying "God" for "Yahweh." I like to find peculiarities in Bible stories, and that is one.
Highly unlikely that our supply priest celebrant & preacher for Sunday, or anyone but me, would preach on the Genesis reading anyway, so it's a great Sunday school lesson.
RSF&PTL
T89&c