I think Abram must have gone on a negotiating course. Elsewhere he argues God down on the number of righteous people needed to save Sodom and Gomorrah. And I have a pet theory that if God had said to Abram, rather than to Noah, that he was going to send a flood and wipe everything out, then Abram definitely wouldn’t have said nothing and quietly got on with building an extremely large boat like Noah did. Abram would probably have talked God into a high tide rather than 40 days and nights under water.
In today’s OT reading, either Abram’s trying out some new deal-making techniques – or he got out of bed the wrong side. Abram tells God: “I’ve heard this all before”, challenges God to be clearer about what he’s really promising, then, when he gets that clarification, he asks God to prove it! Does that remind you of anything in the news at the moment?
We also have this odd story about a sacrifice, with animals cut in half, mysterious firepots and torches. Which is all a bit alien to us; some relic of a time long past. And to cap it all, there’s Abram in a thick and dreadful darkness whilst in a deep sleep.
But we also have some verses which are strangely missed out. In verses 13-16, God makes a significant amendment to his existing covenant, his contract, with Abram. And he does it whilst Abram is sleeping, perhaps so that he doesn’t have to argue with him again!
So, what the heck is going on – and why should we care?
Sympathy for Abram
We should have some sympathy for Abram. 3 chapters ago in Genesis for us, but around 10 years earlier for Abram, God had said to him: come with me and I’ll give you descendants and land. Abram had kept his side of the bargain. He’d left home and gone when God had asked him to – but so far: nothing, nowt. No children, no land. Abram is now in his 80’s and you can forgive him for saying, with perhaps the sadness of someone still waiting for a child: “Look at me, Lord. You promised me children and they’ve not come. So, what are you going to do instead?”
In response, God says: “Hang on in there. I’ll see you right”. Then he uses that amazing visual aid. He says to Abram “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be”. Abram had said look at me… God said look up, look beyond. I’m going to wildly exceed your expectations.
Perhaps here in Bircle, on a clear night, you can see the starry sky in all its glory? You can imagine, night-after-night, Abram coming out of his tent, looking up and for better or worse being reminded of that promise.
Patience
If we’re to take something from this, then sometimes we need patience too. Things don’t always happen straight-away, but we need to hang on in there. We need to see beyond our immediate circumstances and count the stars.
“And Abram believed God and he credited it to him as righteousness.” We normally think that it’s God crediting Abram. But the wording is unclear – and it could be the other way around. Perhaps it’s Abram crediting God? Abram saying that God was trustworthy, despite from Abram’s perspective, plenty of evidence to the contrary?
Do we still trust God when it doesn’t seem to be going the way we thought or when nothing at all seems to be happening? When we seem to have waited long enough? You have to hand it to Abram for hanging on in there.
Prove it!
Then God promises Abram land, again. But this time, for some reason, Abram says: prove it! Somehow Abram accepted that he’d have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky – even though he was in his 80’s and his wife barren – but the promise of getting this particular parcel of land somehow seemed to him a tad unlikely! A promise too far…
Seems almost rude. But don’t we sometimes do the same? We accept the big picture but some-how we quibble with the details, the small stuff, and get distracted. How often do we argue about the smallest things yet somehow the really important matters we just take for granted?
So, Abram says: “prove it”. And God says: “OK, I will”. Then the funny stuff with the animals happens. But what we see here was not unusual for the time. Blood covenants were made by separating animals into two and both parties passing together between the halves. The difference here was that it was just one party, God, who made all the moves. Abram was asleep! The covenant was all on God. This wasn’t a Trump-style negotiation, you do this big thing for me and I might give you something very small in return. God made a binding commitment on himself – and asked nothing more from Abram in return.
Faith is….
Now Abram wasn’t a paragon of virtue and, in many respects, not particularly likeable. Passing his wife off as his sister, effectively making her a prostitute, not once but twice, to save his own skin, is hardly the mark of the hero figure that we sometimes make him. Indeed, one commentator that I came across picked out parallels between Abram and the snake in the garden of Eden.
But those failures should reassure us. Faith is God not letting go of us despite what we’re like – rather than us not letting go of God. He doesn’t hold on to us because we particularly deserve it. We can be flawed just like Abram. But from beginning to end, the Bible is all about God in search of man, God looking out for us so that we can be in relationship together.
A deep sleep
And Abram sleeps, a deep sleep. Perhaps we’re reminded of Adam? During his deep sleep, Eve is made. During Abram’s deep sleep long-term commitments were made for hundreds of years into the future. But there’s both good news and bad news for Abram, because it will be many generations before his descendants inhabit the land, before the promise is fulfilled, and they will be enslaved in strange lands in the meantime.
God is mapping out, in advance, the enslavement in Egypt and the Exodus – but he’s doing it whilst Abram is sleeping. That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? Had God had enough of Abram’s backchat? Did he not want another argument?
Well, I think it was more about God caring for Abram, knowing it would be too much for him to take. Protecting him against something that might be too painful to bear or comprehend. Perhaps it was like those hypnosis DVD’s to help you quit smoking or eating too much – God talking to Abram’s subconscious in a way that he’d remember and make part of his being? If God had put a different disk on, then Abram may have been cured of his sweet tooth or his 60-a-day habit. But, as it was, the future of his descendants was mapped out for him.
Our own journey
Abram journeyed with God for many miles and for many years. For a long time, there wasn’t much to show for it. In the next chapter, Abram does get a son but it’s not with his wife, it’s with Hagar, Sarai’s servant. The treatment of Hagar is uncomfortable reading. We have to wait another 14 years for Sarai’s son Isaac to come along, with more mis-steps along the way.
And we’re now in Lent, in the journey towards Easter. In our own journey, sometimes the promises of God take twists and turns before they come to pass. We too suffer reverses and disappointments but God’s long-term purpose, his covenant with us, is still there.
Of course, at Easter we remember that the ultimate blood sacrifice was Jesus – and yet again the covenant was all on God. He took it all on himself.
You and I need to trust that God knows what’s best for us. Whatever we think we’re offering, God’s playing a long game for our benefit. We can be flawed and imperfect too but God’s still there for us. We need to look beyond our immediate circumstances. To look up, to look beyond and count the stars…
Under her wings
And in our Gospel reading today we’re reminded that very often it’s our reluctance to be looked after rather than his reluctance to provide that care. Luke 13:34 – How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
That verse looks back at Psalm 91: He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall trust. God has a mothering desire to care for us, to look after us, to be in relationship with us. In Psalm 91 that offer was accepted. In our verses from Luke it wasn’t, they weren’t willing. They walked away from the deal.
So, what about you and me? As we head towards Easter are we willing to accept what God has to offer us, to accept life in Jesus, to be gathered under his wings – or do we turn Him away? The wonderful news, whatever we’ve said in the past, is that it’s never too late for us to now say “yes”. Amen.
“The Negotiator” was delivered by Ian Banks at St John’s, Bircle, on Sunday 16 March 2025. It was based on Genesis 15:1-12,17-18.