I said good-bye on the phone to April on Sunday morning.  It wasn’t all sad—she said she’ll be returning in a couple of months.  She mentioned that she might even be able to fly up and visit us then.

            We had a good, long talk, and in the conversation, I told her briefly what I was going to share at our little meeting that morning.  It was about the first covenant that God made with Abraham and its relationship to what Jesus did at the Last Supper.

            It’s a bit of a weird story there in Genesis 15.  But it helps to know that the Lord used a formula for covenants that was in practice at that time, in that culture, when He made His promise to Abraham.  The Lord had told Abraham that he would possess the land in which he was standing.  When he asked, “How am I to know that I’ll possess it?” the Lord had an interesting answer, as He so often does.

            Actually, He didn’t answer, really, at all—at least it wasn’t an reply in any conventional sense.  Instead of a direct answer, He told Abraham to set out a sacrifice.  Cut some animals in pieces and make two rows.  This is what men did in that time to make a covenant with each other.  They would then walk between the pieces, as if to say, “This is serious.  May this happen to me if I don’t keep my end of this covenant.”

            What kind of answer was this?  We’ll find out in a minute.

            Abraham did what God told him to do.  However, as we read how the covenant was enacted, we discover a very significant fact: only God walked between the pieces of the sacrifice—Abraham was simply an observer.  By walking through the sacrifice alone, the Lord was telling Abraham, “You and your offspring will not be able to keep your side of this agreement—only I am able.”

            God’s answer to Abraham’s question, “How am I to know that I’ll possess this land?” was, “I will keep My promise.”  That was Abraham’s answer.  Abraham wouldn’t be able to keep his side of the covenant and neither were his offspring—except one, centuries later: Jesus.

            What lesson did we take from this on Sunday morning?  Well, since this was our time to celebrate communion, we learned that the same truth still holds.  We are not—will never be—able to keep our side of this new covenant that God has made with us.  We will fail.  But God will not fail.  He has kept His promise to Abraham for millennia and will keep His promises to us.  Because we are broken, we find that we are unable to keep our end of this covenant relationship—only He can.  And that is how we, who are unholy, are made holy and righteous—through Jesus’ wonderful sacrifice and promise to always forgive us and never let us go.  

            I was a good Sunday.