Promises, Promises
Sermon
Years ago, an Englishman's word was his bond. It was a proud boast which required only a handshake to seal any agreement, but sadly, it didn't stand the test of time. It was too easy to renege on a handshake and deny that it had ever taken place.
Somewhat more binding agreements were undertaken by oath, sworn with a hand placed on the Bible. This is still the method used in English courtrooms, but although the penalties for perjury are considerable, they don't entirely prevent people lying in court, as one or two famous cases have shown in relatively recent years.
And the vows made in church in marriage ceremonies are no longer considered by most to be binding for life, but simply for as long as either or both parties choose to keep the covenant.
These days, the only sure way of getting a binding agreement is in writing, probably in triplicate and witnessed by half a dozen reliable people! Even then the contract can be broken, but at least there is redress for the injured party. And many couples now refuse to marry unless they have drawn up a pre-nuptial agreement which determines how the goods will be divided should they ever decide to split.
In an ideal world where we were able to fully trust each other, perhaps no sealing of contracts would be necessary. We would simply agree and that would be that. But because people have proved themselves to be unreliable and untrustworthy, we're now obliged to sign and seal all contracts.
But it seems odd that a contract with God should have to be signed and sealed. Surely God can be trusted to keep his promises? Yet in the very first contract between God and human beings, made with Abraham around 4,000 years ago, there is an elaborate signing and sealing ceremony.
Abraham was worried because he was childless. These days, it's a deep sadness and maybe a lifelong sorrow to be childless unless you choose to be childless. But in the ancient world it was far more serious than that. The only way people could survive at all was to grow their own food and hunt their own food. Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers before they settled and became peasant farmers and it seems from the Bible stories that Abraham was a bit of both. He was sometimes settled and sometimes nomadic. In that harsh environment anyone who was unable to feed himself was doomed, and more than anything else people needed land on which to grow food. But they also needed people to work the land, hence they needed offspring. Land and seed were the two great necessities for survival. The bigger the family, especially if they were sons, the more chance you had of surviving.
God had already led Abraham from his home at Ur, some five hundred or so miles east near the Persian Gulf, to what was later to become the Promised Land, but Abraham was merely a sojourner there. He neither possessed it, nor did he have any children to work it, so as he grew older life was becoming increasingly threatening for him.
But then God made an incredibly important promise to Abraham, a promise which was the foundation of the Jewish people and which was to reverberate down the centuries and still reverberates to this day. God promised Abraham the two essentials he needed for survival. God promised Abraham both land and seed.
Abraham couldn't quite believe his ears. If we assume that God spoke to Abraham out loud, it might seem strange that Abraham couldn't quite trust God. But if like God does with us, God spoke to Abraham through Abraham's thoughts and feelings, then it seems much more reasonable that Abraham couldn't quite trust what he thought he'd heard. Perhaps it was wishful thinking. Perhaps he'd got it wrong and it was just his own heart speaking to him.
So Abraham wanted it all in writing. He wanted the covenant between himself and God, if indeed it was between himself and God, ratified in the time-honoured way of his community. Agreements were usually ratified by walking between the divided pieces of animals while the contracting parties invoked on themselves a fate similar to that of the slaughtered beasts if they should fail to keep their word.
It was God who initiated the signing of the covenant. When Abraham asked rather pitifully, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess the land?" God said to Abraham, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Abraham brought all these and cut all of them except the birds in two, laying each half over against the other. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove them away.
Then as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. But while he was asleep, something amazing happened. We're told that a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces, so that when Abraham woke up it was clear that God himself had walked between the pieces, just as Abraham had walked between the pieces.
Fire in the old Testament denotes the presence of God, but no-one can gaze upon God and survive, so it was essential that Abraham should be asleep while God ratified the covenant. But what a powerful spiritual experience for Abraham. Before, he thought he'd heard God speaking to him. He thought he'd heard God promise him land and seed, the two things he needed for survival but which seemed entirely out of his reach. Now God had shown him that he was right. Abraham now knew that he had indeed heard God and had interpreted God's word correctly.
God still acts in much the same way today. He speaks to us through our hearts and minds and through other people and through the Bible and in hosts of other ways. But being human, we tend to doubt whether we've heard God at all and certainly to doubt whether we've heard God correctly. Some psychologists reinforce our doubts by saying that there is no God and that everything we think we hear comes from ourselves, from our own inner being. But where can we find God except in our own inner being? That's where God is, so of course we hear God through our own inner being.
Those who need proof that God has spoken should ask for proof, just as Abraham asked for proof. If we really need to know beyond all doubt that God has spoken to us or called us or promised us something, we must ask God to make it plain to us. God will find a way of telling us so clearly that we then know for certain deep in our hearts.
The risk is that we've got it wrong and God hasn't spoken to us at all. But Abraham took that risk and became certain and his life flourished as a result of it. God still keeps his promises today and we can rely on him. It's worth the risk to know for certain that God is speaking to us, because our lives will flourish too as a result.
Somewhat more binding agreements were undertaken by oath, sworn with a hand placed on the Bible. This is still the method used in English courtrooms, but although the penalties for perjury are considerable, they don't entirely prevent people lying in court, as one or two famous cases have shown in relatively recent years.
And the vows made in church in marriage ceremonies are no longer considered by most to be binding for life, but simply for as long as either or both parties choose to keep the covenant.
These days, the only sure way of getting a binding agreement is in writing, probably in triplicate and witnessed by half a dozen reliable people! Even then the contract can be broken, but at least there is redress for the injured party. And many couples now refuse to marry unless they have drawn up a pre-nuptial agreement which determines how the goods will be divided should they ever decide to split.
In an ideal world where we were able to fully trust each other, perhaps no sealing of contracts would be necessary. We would simply agree and that would be that. But because people have proved themselves to be unreliable and untrustworthy, we're now obliged to sign and seal all contracts.
But it seems odd that a contract with God should have to be signed and sealed. Surely God can be trusted to keep his promises? Yet in the very first contract between God and human beings, made with Abraham around 4,000 years ago, there is an elaborate signing and sealing ceremony.
Abraham was worried because he was childless. These days, it's a deep sadness and maybe a lifelong sorrow to be childless unless you choose to be childless. But in the ancient world it was far more serious than that. The only way people could survive at all was to grow their own food and hunt their own food. Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers before they settled and became peasant farmers and it seems from the Bible stories that Abraham was a bit of both. He was sometimes settled and sometimes nomadic. In that harsh environment anyone who was unable to feed himself was doomed, and more than anything else people needed land on which to grow food. But they also needed people to work the land, hence they needed offspring. Land and seed were the two great necessities for survival. The bigger the family, especially if they were sons, the more chance you had of surviving.
God had already led Abraham from his home at Ur, some five hundred or so miles east near the Persian Gulf, to what was later to become the Promised Land, but Abraham was merely a sojourner there. He neither possessed it, nor did he have any children to work it, so as he grew older life was becoming increasingly threatening for him.
But then God made an incredibly important promise to Abraham, a promise which was the foundation of the Jewish people and which was to reverberate down the centuries and still reverberates to this day. God promised Abraham the two essentials he needed for survival. God promised Abraham both land and seed.
Abraham couldn't quite believe his ears. If we assume that God spoke to Abraham out loud, it might seem strange that Abraham couldn't quite trust God. But if like God does with us, God spoke to Abraham through Abraham's thoughts and feelings, then it seems much more reasonable that Abraham couldn't quite trust what he thought he'd heard. Perhaps it was wishful thinking. Perhaps he'd got it wrong and it was just his own heart speaking to him.
So Abraham wanted it all in writing. He wanted the covenant between himself and God, if indeed it was between himself and God, ratified in the time-honoured way of his community. Agreements were usually ratified by walking between the divided pieces of animals while the contracting parties invoked on themselves a fate similar to that of the slaughtered beasts if they should fail to keep their word.
It was God who initiated the signing of the covenant. When Abraham asked rather pitifully, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess the land?" God said to Abraham, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Abraham brought all these and cut all of them except the birds in two, laying each half over against the other. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove them away.
Then as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. But while he was asleep, something amazing happened. We're told that a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces, so that when Abraham woke up it was clear that God himself had walked between the pieces, just as Abraham had walked between the pieces.
Fire in the old Testament denotes the presence of God, but no-one can gaze upon God and survive, so it was essential that Abraham should be asleep while God ratified the covenant. But what a powerful spiritual experience for Abraham. Before, he thought he'd heard God speaking to him. He thought he'd heard God promise him land and seed, the two things he needed for survival but which seemed entirely out of his reach. Now God had shown him that he was right. Abraham now knew that he had indeed heard God and had interpreted God's word correctly.
God still acts in much the same way today. He speaks to us through our hearts and minds and through other people and through the Bible and in hosts of other ways. But being human, we tend to doubt whether we've heard God at all and certainly to doubt whether we've heard God correctly. Some psychologists reinforce our doubts by saying that there is no God and that everything we think we hear comes from ourselves, from our own inner being. But where can we find God except in our own inner being? That's where God is, so of course we hear God through our own inner being.
Those who need proof that God has spoken should ask for proof, just as Abraham asked for proof. If we really need to know beyond all doubt that God has spoken to us or called us or promised us something, we must ask God to make it plain to us. God will find a way of telling us so clearly that we then know for certain deep in our hearts.
The risk is that we've got it wrong and God hasn't spoken to us at all. But Abraham took that risk and became certain and his life flourished as a result of it. God still keeps his promises today and we can rely on him. It's worth the risk to know for certain that God is speaking to us, because our lives will flourish too as a result.
