10.1.24

This week we are looking at the trustworthiness of God. Most of us believe that God is trustworthy in general - for the big things - down the road. But when it comes to the day to day struggles that are right in front of us, our faith staggers under the weight of uncertainty.

Yesterday we saw that trusting in God is necessary. The way God created us, we will (MUST) place our trust in something. This means that if we aren’t trusting in God, we are trusting in something. And everything else we place our trust in will inevitably fail us. Nothing ultimately satisfies. Nothing lasts. And so we need the solid anchor of being tethered to God.

Today we see how this tethering is possible. The author takes us back to the example of Abraham. God had made a covenant with him. And along with that covenant, many promises. He was promised the land he was still wandering through. He was promised a son who would become a great nation. But he had none of that. It was now 25 years after those great promises were made, and Abraham was still wandering as a vagabond, childless, and aging beyond the child-bearing years.

And like us, Abraham staggers under the seemingly empty promises from God. And he asks, “How can I know for sure?” So God comes and reiterates those covenant promises by enacting a covenant renewal ceremony. Think of two kings meeting to sign a great treaty. Their typical process was to take animals, cut them in two, have the two kings pass between them, symbolizing that, if we fail to keep up with our end of ht is bargain, may what happened to these animals happen to us.

And so it was no surprise to Abraham when God asked him to prepare the animals for the ceremony. But to here’s is utter shock, God himself passed between the pieces and never asked Abraham to join him. In essence, what God was saying was, I will keep both ends of this bargain - my part AND your part. And so it’s a promise you can count on - it’s an unbreakable promise, because it depends fully on God, not on you!

Many people struggle with trusting in God. Not because they don’t believe he is capable of being faithful. But because they know they are incapable of being faithful. And so they doubt God will stick with them. They fear God will give up on them or withhold his blessings because of their lack of faithfulness. And the account of Abraham reminds us that God’s promise of faithfulness to us depends wholly on his faithfulness to us. And the cross proves that he was willing to follow through on that promise. He WAS cut off. He DID endure the curses of the covenant for us. And so we can know for sure that God will never abandon us, no matter how faithless and foolish we are.

This is why the writer emphasizes so much that God has sworn by himself, and cannot swear by anything greater. No matter how bleak your circumstances may look today…no matter how inconsistent your commitment to him has been, he is faithful to never leave you or forsake you. He promises it. He swears by himself. And the cross proves that he means business!