A lot can change in 25 years. Twenty-five years ago, I was 40 years old. Crystal was seven. Shane was five. We had been in Denver 2 years. Denver was all farmland. There were three service stations and a Red & White grocery store. There were no fast food restaurants. If you wanted a more modern store or a place to eat, you could go to Charlotte, Huntersville, Hickory, or Lincolnton.
There were two places in Denver where you could rent your favorite movies on VHS tapes. However, you had to remember to rewind before you returned them to the store. Eventually the VHS would be consumed by the new DVD format and the stores would
sub-come to the movies being made available on cable TV and portable outlets.
If you were in an area that did not have cable, as we were, you got a satellite dish in your yard. It was huge enough to track the space station as it passed over. Of course, at that time there was no space station. If I had tried to put this contraption on my home, the roof would have given away. But soon, DirectTV invented a portable dish that would sit on your house with no problem.
When we finally got cable, we discovered the wonders of wonder. It came with something new called TiVo. You could record your favorite show on those good old VHS tapes and watch them later. Of course, now we have DVR and can record two programs at the same time and store them until we get the chance to watch them, which currently would take me a solid week of 10-hour days of watching TV.
The drug stores all had places to turn in your rolls of film from your family vacation. You could pick them up three days later. Then digital cameras came along and cameras using film became obsolete. To this day, I have a bag with rolls of film in my closet that has never been developed.
Popcorn moved from the stovetop into the microwave. Salads began coming in bags already mixed. Canvas tennis shoes became Air Jordans. The Stairmaster found its way from out of homes and into gyms, creating the gyms with all that fascinating exercise equipment, most of which I do not use.
Twenty-five years ago, Visa introduced a check card that was tied into your checking account. We now call them debit cards. Carrying money became passé. This led to pay at the pump service stations, killing a time when someone did it for you while cleaning your windshield, checking your oil, and your tire pressure.
Twenty-five years ago, the first handheld cell phone came out. The DynaTAC 8000x became available. It weighed almost two pounds and cost $3995. It would be another 15 years before Debbie would drag me kicking and screaming into the cell phone age.
The first portable IBM-compatible PC, more commonly know as a laptop, would hit the market. The Compaq Portable weighed 28 pounds and toped the $3000 range.
Of course, we will never know how many AA batteries it takes to run a laptop. That’s because Sony came out with a durable rechargeable battery to run that laptop. Since then it’s found in cell phones, digital cameras, almost any portable electronic device.
And to keep ourselves amused in these last 25 years, we were given the Karaoka machine to sing ourselves down the highway. As a side note, the most popular song on the Karaka machine is Patsy Cline’s “Crazy.” This is just the tip of the iceberg of changes that have taken place over the last 25 years.
Today we will look at a 25-year chunk of Abram’s life. He would see some events take place. He would witness some changes in his life. But he would not see the ultimate promise fulfilled during this time. So let’s begin journeying with Abram again.
Last week Abram had separated from Lot over land disputes. Lot chooses to go toward Sodom. Abram remained in Canaan. Soon afterwards, Sodom fell to invading kings and Lot and his possessions were carried off. Abram rallied his military and rescued Lot and his stuff. Lot returned to Sodom while Abram had an encounter with Melchizedek, the priest of the God Most High.
As we enter this next part of the story, it’s been about 430 years since the flood took place. It is very conceivable that by this time there is between one to two million people living on the earth. As Abram is pondering all these people that are dwelling in the land he is realizing that old age has overtaken him. He’s sitting in the dark feeling overwhelmed when God comes to him in a vision. Abram is quick to point out his dilemma to God.
God takes Abram outside and tells him to count the stars in the heaven. He tells him that his descendants will be like those stars.
When I read this, it takes me back to my days in the Navy. As we were cruising off the coast of Vietnam we kept all lights off outside at night. I would at times go sit outside and stare at the heavens. There was not a spot anywhere not covered with stars. With no light pollution in Abram’s time, I imagine that was what he was seeing.
His response is found in Genesis15:6. “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Next God once again promises him the land of Canaan to take possession of it. This promise he questions. Genesis 15:8.
“But Abram replied, ‘O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?’”
In response, God performed a ceremony that Abram would recognize as a solemn custom. The next day, at God’s bidding Abram brought a heifer, a goat, and a ram, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram understood what to do. He killed them and cut the animals in half, all except for the birds. He understood that he was about to enter into a covenant agreement with God. They would each walk between the cut carcasses as a symbolic way of stating that breaking the covenant would lead to certain death.
As the sun is setting and Abram is waiting for God, he falls into a coma like sleep.
It was then that God revealed his plan to Abram. “Abram your descendants will possess this land but first they will go into a land where they will be foreigners. (Does that ring a bell with you?) They will be slaves for four hundred years. There they will be treated cruelly. But I will punish that nation and they will come out with great wealth, (kind of like what you did.) As for you, you will live to a ripe old age and die in peace.”
Then God sealed the agreement. Genesis 15:17-18. “After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—”
A couple of lessons to be learned here. Abram had been promised as many descendants as the stars in the sky although he had no children. But did you notice the fact that God told him that he would not live to see the day?
Hebrews 11 is called the faith chapter of the Bible. It mentions those that we have discussed so far. People like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. Hebrews 11:13 tells us “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.”
Hebrew continues on mentioning Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Joseph and his sons, Moses, the children of Israel, Rahab, all the prophets, and all the early Christians. Hebrews 11 ends on this note. Vs 39 “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.”
How quick do we give up if God’s promises are not instantaneously? God promised me a church that would accomplish certain things. So far, I haven’t seen any of those things accomplished. But then I remember Edward Kimball. Does anyone know who Edward Kimball is? He was a Sunday school teacher at Congregational Church of Mount Vernon in Boston. He talked to a student about how much God loved him. His conversion sparked the start of his student’s career as an evangelist. This student was Dwight L. Moody. Moody held a meeting in Chicago in the late 1870 that was attended by J. Wilbur Chapman. After the service, he received personal counseling from Moody that helped him to accept the certainty of his salvation. Needing someone to help organize his evangelistic meetings, he brought on staff Billy Sunday. Sunday would later become an evangelist. Sunday held an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte in 1934 and invited Mordecai Ham. Attending one of those meetings was a 17-year-old boy named Billy Graham. That night he would give his life to the Lord.
All of this began with a Sunday school teacher that few remember.
We don’t always see God’s promises come to fruition. Right now, I may be influencing someone here or one of the kids in the back to become the next great move of God and I may never see it. Those promises God made to me may be taking place right now.
Let’s go back to Genesis 15:17-18. “After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—”
Notice Abram watches a firepot and torch, representing God, pass between the halves. But Abram doesn’t. God is making a covenant with Abram but not asking Abram to do the same. God realized that if Abram entered into a covenant he would not be able to keep it. This would lead to Abram’s death. So God delayed our liability concerning our entering into the covenant.
Instead, Jesus made the covenant with God on our behalf. Due to mans inability to follow the law of God, Jesus allowed himself to be torn apart. He suffered under the beatings of the whip and the nails on the cross.
Time continues. Abram has no children because Sarai is barren. So his wife decides to build the family through her servant, Hagar. She allows Abram to take Hagar as a concubine. Men having concubines was a common practice. Hagar was like a second wife with Sarai retaining her first position.
Hagar is an unwilling participant in this. When Sarai learns that Hagar is pregnant, she becomes bitter toward her. She blames Hagar for her bitterness. She blames Abram for her bitterness.
Abram recognizes that Hagar is still the property of Sarai so he returns her to Sarai to do as she wishes. Hagar is mistreated and runs away. After she encounters the Angel of the Lord in the dessert, she returns. There she gives birth to Ishmael, whose name means God Hears.
Soon Abram is 99 years old. God is about to establish a new covenant with Abram. And in establishing that new covenant will change his name and his destiny.
Genesis 17:4-6“This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram (exalted father). Instead, you will be called Abraham (father of many), for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!
The sign of the covenant would be circumcision, the cutting away of the foreskin of the males. Any male born into, bought into, or captured into the family of Abraham would be required to suffer through this ritual. It was a flesh covenant intended to separate Abraham’s descendants from all others. Sarai would also go through a name change and become Sarah. So Abraham did as he was told.
Soon afterwards, as he was sitting at the entrance to his tent he saw three men approaching. He recognized them as being important visitors. Two were angels, one was the Lord. He prepared them a meal and waited for them to eat. It was here that two things would be revealed to him. He and Sarah would have a child next year. And Sodom, where Lot lived, was going to be destroyed for their wickedness. Abraham pleaded on their behalf to no avail. Lot would be spared but he would lose all of his possessions and his wife in the destruction. Lot would spend his last days living in mountain caves outside the city of Zoar.
Although God had changed Abram’s name to Abraham, some habits were hard to break. Abraham encountered Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and introduced Sarah as his sister. The king took her into his household as a token of peace. Before he could touch her as his wife God came to him in a dream and warned him of Abraham’s trickery. In order to appease God Abimelech gave Abraham more cattle, more slaves, and the choice of all the land that lie before him.
So after skittering two near disasters with his wife, God was about to deliver on his long awaited promise. And we will wait until next week to discover that promise.
