After Abram’s meeting and interaction with Melchizedek, Abram has a vision and meeting with God, through a vision. In this vision and interaction with the Lord, Abram is promised that “… one who will come from your own body will be your heir.” (Gen 15:4) In fact, the Lord then tells Abram to go outside and count the stars – if he’s able – because that’s how many descendants Abram will have.
I mention this to set the time of day of this vision. It is clearly nighttime, otherwise Abram would not have seen any stars. Keep that in mind.
Abram, in a sense, asks for some “proof” – “… how shall I know…?” (v8) and the Lord gives him some instructions to gather some animals and bring them to him. So Abram does. He cuts them in two and placed them opposite of each other. Then he waits on the Lord. Verse 11 says that Abram waited so long, he had chase away vultures who were trying to come eat the dead carcasses. Verse 12 begins to discuss what happens as the sun begins to set.
Gen 15:17: 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.
OK. Abram has been up all night (remember, he counted the stars), thru the morning, the afternoon, the evening and into the night again before the Lord showed up and passed through the sacrifice and made covenant with Abram.
I, for one, am very impatient with the Lord. In my “everything gets wrapped up in a 30 minute episode” world, I expect that I will pray it, and God will do it, and then I’ll move on to the next thing.
Sometimes God’s timing isn’t my timing. Sometimes following His directions can be a little confusing. I can imagine while Abram is chasing off the vultures, he’s thinking “Uh… Hello… Lord…. remember me? Down here! It’s me Abram…. I got the animals you asked for. What do you want me to do next?” ….. (silence) …. (crickets chriping) … (more silence) ….
I know I feel that way sometimes. “OK God. I’ve done X-Y-Z as you asked me to. Now what?”… “Hello!”… “Are you there?”….” Did I do something wrong?“… This is where the enemy likes to start throwing in the seeds of doubt. This is where he says I didn’t hear God right, or I missed God, or I’m out of God’s will. Sound familiar?
The pictures of the vultures is a GREAT visual here! I don’t believe for a minute that it is coincidence that it’s in the bible. Moses didn’t need any “filler” when he penned it. There is a spiritual truth to that physical episode. Isn’t the enemy just like those pesky vultures? How often does the enemy come and try to steal, destroy and eat away at that which God has told us, or promised us, or instructed us to do! Just like Abram, we have to drive them off! (v11)
But, in His timing, God DOES come and he DOES deliver and he DOES promise and he DOES bless. Thank you God!
Teach me Dad to wait for you in quiet confidence and in complete belief and faith.
Running After Papa…