Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.08 – February 1968

Mystery... Tremendous And Fascinating

Sermon by Rev. A. I. DeGraaf on Genesis 15:7-20

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:18-29

Psalter Hymnal: 278; 51; 334; 340; 327

Brothers and sisters in Jesus

"Abram believed the LORD and it was counted unto him as righteousness."  That is the contents of the verse preceding our text and of the previous sermon.  And we saw that to believe in the right way is NOT to believe that somewhere there is a God, NOT to have this God at a distance, but to believe IN Him, to HIDE in Him, to BELIEVE HIM, too: when He speaks: He Is Truth.

But Who is this God?  Whom we may get so near to?  Do we realize how HOLY He is, how tremendous?  There was a time in which church people talked about the Lord God so easily, so sweetly... "the dear Lord in heaven," they said, and it was all made of sugar... a kind granddaddy somewhere 'up there' in a nice Mansion up high.  This was also the time, in which many people had no use for God any more: they thought that what with science and Progress and evolution mankind could very well fix its own affairs and granddaddy in heaven was really no more needed...!  In that time, about a century ago, there lived a German theologian called Rudolf Otto, who protested like a prophet against this kind of woolly-lamb-and-butterscotch religion, and who in a book called: The Holy One wrote of the Almighty and Holy God that He is A MYSTERY, a TERRIBLE mystery, terrifying and tremendous, a consuming fire, in whose hands to fall is all together fearful..  Well we have read about that, in Hebrews 12.  There the writer says that God still is a terrible God, not only in the Old Testament when even those who TOUCHED Mt Sinai had to die...but still now in the New Testament.  Yet Otto saw, that that was not the only thing to be said.  This terrible God is at the same time FASCINATING, drawing us towards Him and kindling in our hearts not only fear and terror but also love and longing for Him.

Brothers and sisters, everyone who knows his Bible will have to agree that it is very necessary to keep both very well in mind: for THIS IS how the LORD showed Himself to Abram.

* * * * *

Abram believed God... yes but that faith of Abram is like your and my faith: it is not an easy resting on a pillow, but: a wrestling with the LORD like Jacob was to do in the night...  Abram DID believe the Bible says.

Yet he asks God: "Whereby shall I know that YOU shall fulfil your promises to me?"

In a holy boldness Abram draws near to the Lord and asks for a sign.  Abram knows his own weakness, and therefore asks the LORD to strengthen him.

And the LORD GIVES that sign.

He tells Abram to kill 5 animals: a heifer, a goat and a ram, and 2 doves.  Then he must cut the three big animals in half and lay them down so that a path would be formed between the halves.  Now this was not new to Abram.  He must have realized straight away what this meant: when two men, say two kings, made a COVENANT, a PACT, a BOND OF FRIENDSHIP, in those days, this is the way they would do it: they would take some animals, kill them, cut them in half and lay the halves apart and then TOGETHER they would pass between the halves and that would mean 2 things:

(1) Whoever breaks this covenant may be killed and torn apart like these beasts, and

(2) Like these half animals belonged together once to be one, living whole body, so we two belong together as one body, one living bond of friendship and brotherhood.

Abram must have trembled: God almighty, creator of all heaven and earth... will make such a bond of friendship WITH ME...?  And in holy anticipation he killed the beasts and laid them out... made it all ready... and then waited.  For then a whole day nothing happened.  The animal bodies lie in the hot sun and sure enough there come the vultures and hawks... the birds of prey to have a go at this raw meat...!  But Abram stays there all day and chases them away.

He waits... and he cares for the sign of the Covenant with God!  Brothers and sisters do you see it?  What this means for you?

For the Mighty God of heaven and earth has His Covenant with us, too.

0h – no more the blood of slain animals is to seal it, but a table where HE will sit WITH US, where we may share with HIM the Offering slain for sinners who is at the same time: The Eternal Son of God, the bread... of Life... the Blood... of the eternal Covenant!

He understands when our faith has trouble to hold Him fast and ask for a sign...!  He ordained that sign for the sake of our weakness, our doubting nature...!  But then he lets us wait...!  Wait for Him.

And the birds of prey come... Satan comes and seeks to rob us of our assurance in Him, he wants to rob us even of the sign God gave... He wants to destroy our faith.  And now God waits... lets US wait... what will we do?  Shall we not wrestle to keep the sign clean?  Shall we not chase the birds of prey away?  Shall we not PRAY that the LORD prepare our hearts, shall we not say with the words of the psalm: My soul waits for the LORD, and in HIM shall I hope?

There is a lot of easy religion in the world, of people who are willing to get to heaven, but who ARE NOT PREPARED TO WAIT FOR THE LORD AND DO NOT SEEK TO PRAYERFULLY WATCH OVER THE SIGN OF HIS COVENANT TO KEEP IT CLEAN AND KEEP IT IN ORDER, they do not get out of the Lord's Supper what they could because they have allowed the birds of carelessness and worldliness and prayerlessness to pick away at it.

And the sign of their baptism... they have allowed it to fade away into becoming a vague thing without any meaning, instead of the very promise of a faithful God!  O watch those birds!  O pray and watch!  Tell your children of the tremendous thing it is that we have an eternal covenant with God!  And remove all casualness and easy-going-ness from your way of serving Him!  For then in His time He will again come and you may meet Him.

Then when that day of watching was over, a deep sleep fell over Abram and in it GOD the LORD appeared to him, and a HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS fell on Abram.

Suddenly Abram discovered that the God who had come SO CLOSE to him... was a God in Whose hands it was terrible to fall.  This God, in darkness, tells Abram that indeed his seed will inherit the Promised Land... but not 'just like that', not in an easy-going religion.

The LORD tells Abram of the oppression, by Egypt and paints before Abram's eyes the bitterness of Pharaoh's persecution, and the hard, fiery trial of the journey through the wilderness...!  Only after all that, when purified, when most men and woman had died in the desert, only then would they come to the glory of the crossing of Jordan.  For God is a holy God, and this is what sin does – even the life of a saint who SHALL reach the promise but not but after suffering and warfare...!

But further than this goes this message, doesn't it?

For do we not see here, also, how THE GREAT SEED OF ABRAM would come to glory... ONLY AFTER SUFFERING?  How He would come out of the grave in majesty and joy... but only after the bitter cross!  For our sin is sin against a HOLY and terrible God, and no cheap solution is there to make peace again.  No easy way leads to the heavenly city.  Tonight we again see the BROKEN bread, and we hear the sound of the SHED blood.  And we know – we know – or do we?   Can we...?  Can we REALLY KNOW how terrible it is to fall into the hands of the LIVING GOD?

No...!  Never can we know as THAT ONE knew, who cried out: "My God, my God...!" in the lightless night of horrendous hell....!

But then it is enough.  Then it indeed IS FINISHED.

Then Abram sees the FIRE, like Moses saw it.

The Fire and the smoke in which God was to dwell in the Tabernacle and in the temple.

That fire – that consuming fire... went over the path between the dead beasts.  NOT WITH ABRAM as would have been the case if this were a covenant between man and but man alone.

As if God therewith would say:
   "Abram it does not a bit depend on you.
    It CANNOT a bit depend on you
            that this covenant ever shall stand.
   I SHALL STAND GUARANTEE OF IT... ALL ALONE.
   I shall MYSELF see to it – see to all of it – that this Covenant shall be carried out!

Not even Abram with his strong faith – father of all believers – cannot TOGETHER WITH THE LORD build a new earth, a lasting Kingdom.  Only God... only the Redeemer – the only Redeemer of God's elect... not Abram can help Him... not Mary can help Him... not you and not I can help Him... it is as the Prophet said: "I have trodden the press alone and none was with Me...!" Not Peter can wake with Him, not James and not John... alone he is to sweat the drops of Blood and alone HE is to conquer the powers of hell...!

And yet...HE does as if we are in it, too.  Yet He walks between the animals ABRAM had slaughtered...!  The smoke and the fire... they go between the animals as later they were to go before the people of Israel through the desert...!  As they were to lead a nation of wayward, stiff-necked, hopeless sinners into the Promised Land.  O the mystery of God – tremendous and horrendous... and yet fascinating, attracting, pulling us towards HIM until we rest at His heart!  Oh the wonder of HIM Who did it all alone and yet called US His friends, His brothers...!  The Marvel of HIM Whose Redemption is so complete, that we need NEVER doubt that we have an eternal covenant with HIM!

Amen.