Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

May 9
Friday


PROMISES
STILL KEPT

READ:
Genesis 15:5-21
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When the sun went
down...there
appeared a smoking
oven and a burning
torch that passed
between those pieces.
__Genesis 15:17
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In the ancient Near East a treaty between a superior (a lord or king) and an inferior (his subjects) was called a suzerain treaty. The ratification ceremony required animals to be sacrificed and cut in half. The animal parts were then arranged in two rows on the ground, forming an aisle between them. As the suzerain walked between the halves, he was publicly declaring he would keep the covenant and would become like the slain animals if he failed to keep his word.

When Abram asked God how he could be sure His promises would come to pass, God used the culturally significant symbolism of the suzerain treaty to affirm His promises (Gen. 15). When the burning torch passed through the pieces of the sacrifice, Abram understood that through the pieces of the sacrifice, Abram understood that God was declaring it we His job to keep the covenant.

God's covenant with Abram and His assurance of its completion extends to followers of Christ. That is why Paul repeatedly refers to believers as sons of Abraham in his New Testament writings (Rom. 4:11-18; Gal. 3:29). Once we accept Jesus christ as Savior, God becomes the keeper in our covenant of faith (see John 10:28-29).

Because God is the keeper of our salvation, with renewed confidence in Him we trust Him with our lives. __Randy Kilgore

```````````````````He will never fail us, He will not forsake;`````````````````````
````````````````````His eternal covenant He will never break.````````````````````
````````````````Onward then, and fear not, children of the day;```````````````````
`````````````For His Word shall never, never pass away. __Havergal````````````````
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Our salvation is secure because
God does the holding

****************************Today's Bible Reading __ Genesis 15:5-21****************************

5 Then He brought [Abram]
outside and siad, "Look now
toward heaven, and count
the stars if you are able to
number them." And He said
to him, "So shall your
descendants be."


6 And he believed in the
LORD, and He accounted it
to him for righteousness.

7 Then He said to him, "I
am the LORD, who brought
you out of Ur of the
Chaldeans, to give you this
land to inherit it."

8 And he said, "Lord God,
how shall I know that I will
inherit it?"

9 So He said to him, "Bring
Me a three-year-old-female goat, a
three-year-old-ram, a
turtledove, and a young
pigeon."

10 Then he brought all these
to Him and cut them in two,
down the middle, and placed
each piece opposite the
other....

12 Now when the sun was
going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Abram.... 13 Then he
said to Abram: "Know
certainly that your
descendants will be strangers
in a land that is not theirs,
and will serve them, and
they will afflict them four
hundred years....."

17 And it came to pass,
when the sun went down and
it was dark, that behold,
there appeared a smoking
oven and a burning torch that
passed between those pieces.

18 On the same day the LORD
made a covenant with
Abram, saying: 'To your
descendants I have given this
land, form the river of Egypt
to the great river, the River
Euphrates__ 19 the Kenites,
the Kenezzites, the
Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites,
the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the
Canannites, the Girgashites,
and teh Jebusites."