Please turn with me to Genesis 15.  We’ll come there in a bit.

In the Gospel of Mark - the ninth chapter (Mark 9:14-29) - Mark records an argument that was going on between nine of Jesus’ disciples and some of the scribes educated in Judaism.  The argument focuses on a father and his son.  The son has been possessed from childhood by this demon that throws him into convulsions on the ground.  The nine disciples - try as the might - can’t cast out this demon.

So there’s this intense argument going on as to why the nine disciples can’t cast out the demon.  Apparently while the disciples and the scribes are arguing - the father and son no longer the focus - the father and son get pushed back to the outside of the crowd.

When Jesus and John, Peter, and James arrive on the scene the crowd rushes forward to meet Jesus.  In the front of the crowd is this father and son.  Jesus asks, “What are you talking with the disciples about?”

The father explains, “I brought my son to you.  He’s possessed with a demon that makes him mute - slams him to the ground - he foams at the mouth - grinds his teeth - goes stiff - throws him into fire - throws him into water.  Your disciples couldn’t cast it out.”

Jesus gives this stinging rebuke to the disciples about their lack of faith.  Earlier in Mark’s Gospel Jesus had commissioned His disciples with the ability to cast out demons.  But apparently they were so focused on looking good for the crowd - doing the casting out demons thing - that they were trusting themselves and not God for the power for the exorcism.  So Jesus rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith.

The father cries out, “If you can do anything, take pity on us.  Help us!”

Jesus says, “If You can?”  Hear the rebuke in that?  “If You - Jesus - Almighty God - can do anything to help us - If You can?  All things are possible to him who believes.”        

Immediately the father cries out, “I do believe.  Help my unbelief.” 

That plea by the father is a plea that everyone of us can relate to.  I believe.  But my belief falls short.  Help my unbelief to become belief.

Do you ever find yourself here?   Or, here?   Maybe more like this?   Being pulled apart - praying - pleading with God - and wondering where God is?  Why doesn’t He answer?  I believe.  But, I’m struggling to hang on and have faith. 

In Genesis 14 - what we looked at last Sunday - is about Abram charging up north towards Damascus - to defeat four powerful kings and to rescue his nephew Lot - a huge victory with lots of people - great recognition - fanfare - ticker tape parades - banquets - speeches.  Very dramatic.  Very public.

Coming to chapter 15 - there is none of that here.  Chapter 15 is very personal.  God coming to Abram - to meet Abram one-on-one - in a conversation that takes place over two days - a conversation that is purposeful in strengthening Abram’s faith in God.  A conversation - that as we walk through this conversation - we’re going to see things here that are helpful to us as well.

Genesis 15 - starting at verse 1 - day one of the conversation:  After these things - after all that God has promised Abram and all that Abram has been learning about trusting God - the whole rescuing Lot thing in chapter 14 - after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great,”

Pause there.  There’s a pattern in chapter 15 that we need to be clued into in order to follow this conversation.  Here’s the pattern:  God Speaks.  Abram Questions.  God Answers.  Try that together:  “God speaks.  Abram Questions.  God Answers.”  That pattern is going to be repeated two times during this conversation - here in chapter 15.

Verse 1 is the first part.  The what part?  The God speaks part.

God initiates the conversation.  God comes to Abram and makes this statement.  “Don’t be fearful of what’s to come.  I’ll be your shield - your protector - I’ll defend you.  Your reward shall be very great.”

In Hebrew the sentence reads something like, “Your benefit will be made great exceedingly.”  It has the idea of reward being made so huge that its beyond imaginable proportions.

Wouldn’t it be great if God showed up in a vision and said that to you?

Part one of the pattern?  God speaks.  Part two?   Abram questions.

Verse 2:  Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me - how am I suppose to get this incredible reward - since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  And Abram said, “Since you have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”

Remember back in chapter 12 - when God appears to Abram - way back up in Haran - God comes to Abram and offers Abram to give him and his descendants a land - a place to dwell with God in security - offers to make Abram into a great nation of great influence - to bless Abram - to satisfy the deep longings of Abram’s heart - and through Abram and his descendants to bless all the nations of the world - the greatest blessing being Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.

The key that opens the door to all those descendants and blessing is what?  Children.  Or at least a child.

When Paul writes about this  conversation - in Romans 4 - Romans 4:19 - Paul writes that Abram “without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

Have you ever contemplated your body?  Be honest.  Even if its a quick glance in the mirror.  When we’re young we’re looking to see how we’re developing - sometimes impressing ourselves with how we look.  Be honest.

Strange things happen as we get older.  The six pack turns into a keg.  Gravity is cruel.  Things start to fall off and fall out.  They say that aging is in the mind.  Well, the mind is willing but the flesh is weak.

About 25 years have gone by since God first made His offer to Abram.  Abram - pushing 100 - Abram contemplated his body.  Thought about Sarah - his wife - pushing 90.  Thought about God’s promise of descendants - and asked “How?  How will this happen?” 

Eliezer of Damascus was probably a servant acquired by Abram someplace along the way in his travels.  The custom of the day said that a man could adopt one of his male servants to be his heir.  Abram and Sarai are biologically childless.  So Abram’s proposal - his answer to the “How will this happen?” question - is to propose Eliezer.  Maybe that’s how God will make this happen.

Notice that Abram never doubts that God will make it happen.  That God will fulfill His promise.  Abram’s question is “How will it happen?”

Same question Mary asks the angel.  Gabriel tells her, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus...”  Mary asks, “How can this be, since I’m a virgin?”  (Luke 1:30-34).  It’s not a question of doubting - but of process.  How will God personally work all this out in my life.

“I believe.  I’ve brought my son to you.  But help my unbelief.  Help me with the part of this I’m struggling with.”

Ever been there?  God I know that you promise to take care of me.  But, right now I’m having trouble seeing it.  God, I know that I’m suppose to trust you with what’s going on a work - or what’s going on with my parents - or my wife or husband or kids - or whatever.  But, I’m not seeing how there can be any solution to any of this.  I need you to connect the dots.

Ever face the temptation to take things into your own hands?  To propose solutions to God and ask Him to bless them?  Maybe this is the way - the path - how God wants to work this one out.  There’s a struggle here that we all run into.

God speaks.  Abram questions.  Third - what?   God answers.

Verse 4:  Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir - Eliezer’s not the one - but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”  

God doesn’t blow Abram away.  “How dare you question me!”  POOF - no more Abram.  Its okay to question God.  To admit - even to God who already knows that we struggle - its okay to admit that we struggle with how God does things.

Jacob wrestled with God - all night long - struggled over who would control the destiny of his life.  In the end God blessed Jacob.  Instead of blowing him away - God gave him a new name:  Israel - meaning “he struggles with God.”  (Genesis 32:24-32)  Characteristic of Israel’s ongoing relationship with God.

To live life with the living God - to live trusting God who’s ways are unfathomable to us - is not easy.  We struggle to live by faith.  And that’s okay.  God is gracious - merciful - loving.  Invites us to speak with him.  To share our hearts with Him.

God lovingly gives Abram the answer:  “Your heir is going to come from your own body.”

Verse 5:  And He - God - took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” - and of course you can’t.  Even today - with all our technology - we still can’t accurately count the stars.  But of course God can - since God made them - knows each one of them by name - And He - God - said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”  Without number.

David writes in Psalm 8:  “When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”  (Psalm 8:3,4)

Abram - grab some perspective here.  How is God going to enable the body of a man pushing 100 and a women pushing 90 to produce a child?  Who knows?  Physically - from a human perspective - its impossible.  But, the God who created the universe - who created us - even with the ability to reproduce - God Most High - possessor of heaven and earth - God can.  That’s all the connection between the dots that you need. 

Verse 6:  Then he - Abram - believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Righteousness - the sense of being right - is something that we crave.  Its one reason why people are always trying to justify themselves.  To prove ourselves as adequate - competent.

This isn’t hard to see.  Our society - rather than admitting our own failure at morality and our failure to rightly govern ourselves - to master our emotions and behavior - our society simply changes the rules - or eliminates them.  What was understood as morally abhorrent just a few years ago is now considered normal.  Watch how people conduct themselves - what they wear - how they speak - how they treat each other.  Watch the media.  So powerful is our desire to be righteous that we’ll keep lowering the standard hoping that at some point we can measure up.

In Romans chapter 7 - Paul - writing about his own struggles with living rightly - Paul confessing his own failure and inadequacy - Paul writes, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from the body of this death?”  (Romans 7:24)

What Abram learned is that God is the only answer to our inadequacy.    Righteousness is the opposite of inadequacy - of failure.  It comes as a gift of God’s grace.  God gives it to us.  We must by faith receive it.  Abram believes that God Most High is adequate to fulfill His promise - biologically - even through the inadequate body of a 99 plus year old man.  Even if Abram doesn’t see how all the dots are connected He knows that God will connect the dots.

Paul writes in Romans 4 - starting at verse 20:  “With respect to the promise of God, he - Abram - did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God has promised, He was able also to perform.  Therefore it was also credited to him as - God calls him - righteousness.”  (Romans 4:20-22)

The same is true of us spiritually:  Righteousness - a justified - right relationship with God - can only be a product of God’s grace - not something that we’re adequate to achieve by our own ability.  Even physically - to live life with the indwelling God - to live as He’s created us to live - can only come by His indwelling power at work within us.

Grab this:  God is not put off by our inadequacies - spiritually - physically - mentally - emotionally.  God can make something great out of people like us.  The same majestic sovereign powerful God who created the heavens - who spoke to Abram on that night - that same God has the ability to work within us and through us - even in the circumstances of our lives.

Whether we understand how - is not the issue.  The bottom line of faith is whether we will trust that God can.  Who can?  God can.

Going on - conversation - day two - verse 7:  And He - God - said to him - Abram - “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”

Part one is what?   God speaks.  Day two - God again speaks to Abram.  A reminder that it was God who called Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan.  A reminder of God’s sovereignty over the events of Abram’s life.  A reminder that where they’re standing is the land that God has promised to Abram and his descendants - the place where God will dwell with His people - God’s sovereignty over future events.

Abram comes back with a question:  Verse 8:  He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”

Good question.  That part of the world had armies passing through all the time.  Its filled with nomads and different people groups - always in conflict.  Constantly there were wars and upheavals.  4,000 years later and people are still fighting over the same land.  How is one family going to hold onto all of that?

Abram asks, “In the midst of all the turmoil - the upheaval - the uncertainty I see around me - how?  How can I know that its possible?”  Its a question of whether or not God can control history and how future events will unfold.

God speaks.  Abram questions.  God - what?  Answers.

Verse 9:  So He - God - said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”  Then he brought these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.  The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

God’s answer begins with a craft project.  God directs Abram to spend the day gathering animals and birds.  Each animal is cut in half.  Then Abram makes a kind of pathway by placing one half of each animal on one side of the path and the other half of the animal on the opposite side of the path.  The whole time he’s doing this Abram is fending off vultures trying to get at the meat.

Verse 12:  Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.

By evening Abram is worn out.  Remember this guy is pushing 100.  This wasn’t an easy thing to do.  Abram is exhausted - spending his whole day - gathering and cutting and shooing.  At sunset he falls into a deep sleep. 

The sleep he falls into is like that - literally - in the original Hebrew it has the idea of sleeping like a dead man.  That sleep comes with fear and great darkness.  The word fear in Hebrew as the idea of the kind of fear one has before an idol - before one’s god.  “Darkness” - in Hebrew has the idea of “misery” - no rest at all.  Think about a deep sleep that makes your skin crawl and you wake up all sweaty and clammy.

Its a sleep in which Abram is wrestling with the sovereignty of God and the unknowns of future history.  There’s a sense of God’s awesomeness and the dread of what may happen.

Verse 13:  God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.  But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.  As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.  Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

In the midst of this darkness - God reveals to Abram the future history of his descendants.  We know the fulfillment of all this - down to the fine detail.  400 years of slavery in Egypt.  God raising up Moses to lead them out.  The parting gifts from the Egyptians - the wealth of Egypt that God’s people left Egypt with.  Israel entering the promised land - Canaan - under the leadership of Joshua.  The Amorites getting wiped out - because they’d rejected God’s warnings - went on living and growing in wickedness.  God’s doing exactly what God reveals to Abram that He - God - will do in the life of Abram’s descendants.

Verse 17:  It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch - all of which is symbolic of God’s presence - which passed between these pieces.  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates; the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Grigashite and the Jebusite.”

All of which God did - even to extending the borders of Israel - under the rule of Solomon - all the way to the Euphrates River.  What we see today as a fact of history.

Some scholars have pointed out that each of the animals were three years old - symbolic of the public ministry of Jesus.  The different types of animals and the birds have symbolism.  The heifer or ox - God’s patience.  The female goat - God’s nourishment and refreshment of our souls.  The ram - God’s power.  The birds picture God’s gentleness and grace - God’s Spirit at work.  The sacrifice of the animals points to the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.  The birds of prey may be symbolic of Satan’s forces that seek to destroy God’s people. 

All of which may be God’s intent.  We don’t know for certain.  But the possibility of what all this symbolizes - maybe relating to Jesus - is interesting to think about.  It fits the larger picture of what God is up to here.

What we do know is that the dividing of animals and walking between the halves was probably some form of ancient contractual ritual - a way people sealed their agreements.  The bottom line is in verse 18:  On that day the Lord made a covenant - an agreement - with Abram.

God is the one who passes between the halves of the animals.  God is the one who makes this agreement with Abram - promising its fulfillment.  God is the one who establishes His covenant with us through Jesus Christ.

Abram’s question was what?  “How?  How can I know that its possible?”  Can God can control how future events will unfold?  Or, we might ask, “Can I trust that God will take care of me?  That God will work out the issues of my life?  How in control of things is God anyway?”

The answer for Abram lies in learning of the greatness of God.  In the midst of the turmoil and uncertainty of where Abram was living - in the midst of the darkness - with fear gripping his heart - Abram witnesses the smoke and fire of His God - establishing His covenant using a means that Abram would have understood - leaving no uncertainty in Abram’s mind - God explaining how He - the sovereign God - that He will work out the details of future history - for Abram’s descendants and the nations around them.

There is a great amount of uncertainty these days - with war - the economy - the decline of morality - who will lead this nation in coming years.  In reality those questions are nothing new.  Life is full of uncertainty.  We’re constantly reminded of our weaknesses - our inadequacies.  Our inability to control our own future.  All that is nothing new.

In the midst of what goes on in our lives is the sovereign God who promises us life with Him today and forever.  He is the God who makes us to be righteous - adequate - and who will accomplish what He has purposed to do in our lives.  Can God deliver on His promise?

Whether we understand how - is not the issue.  The bottom line of faith is whether we will trust that God can.   Who can?  God can.

This morning you may be a long time follower of Jesus - or maybe you’ve only come to Him recently - one of the great encouragements for us in this conversation that God has with Abram is that the bottom line is not whether or not we have doubts.

What is encouraging is the process God takes Abram through - takes us through.  Its very personal.  God initiating conversation with us - hearing our doubts and concerns - then lovingly - graciously - mercifully - invests Himself in helping us to increase our faith.  To move forward trusting Him.

Whatever the turmoil in your life - even if its hard to hang on - don’t stop talking with God.  Don’t ever stop trusting Him.  And when you struggle with faith - don’t ever hesitate to let Him know - to pour out your heart to Him and to ask Him to help you.  Because He will.  Who can?  God can.

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Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright© 1960,1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.