Helping God
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Abraham had been given a promise in Genesis 12 that he would be a great nation...yet he was still without child. How could he be a great nation if he didn't have a child? Didn't God realize that a child was necessary? So when God once again restates these promises to Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham tries to help God out. Abraham presents Eliezer, a child born in his house and wants him to be the heir. Yet God quickly and clearly tells Abraham that the heir will be one that is born of Abraham's seed.
Abraham had all of these great promises from God...yet Abraham was ready to sell himself short in fear that God would not be able to fulfill the promises. God was going to fulfill these promises and it was going to be done in a much greater way than Abraham could ever imagine.
We have promises of God. Yet sometimes I believe we sell ourselves short of just how wonderful those promises will be. God is able to fulfill those promises in a more grand way than we can ever imagine. Yet, like Abraham, it requires trust and patience. Our trying to "help God" fulfill His promises to us will only get in the way of His glorious plan!
Spoiler alert This isn't the last time that Abraham tries to help God fulfill these promises!
Genesis 15:1, "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” [2] But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” [3] Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” [4] And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” [5] Then He brought him outside and said, “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 heifer, 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; but he did not cut the birds in two. [11] And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.[12] Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. [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. [14] “And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15] “Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. [16] “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”[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, from 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 Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
