Our Genesis reading today is the foundation of it all. It tells of the covenant between Abram, soon to be Abraham, and God, the Lord, the one uncreated creator of all. It is the very beginning of the providential acts of God, out of love, for restoration of humanity following the events of Eden and the Flood. It recounts the first covenant but also alludes to and draws us onward towards the fulfilling of that covenant in the new covenant of our Saviour Christ, and what that means for all humanity, what that means for us.
Now, all this may seem easy enough, even though the grandeur of it is hard to comprehend – but the text itself is deep and mysterious and complex.
The key is to look at how Abram and God interact, how Abram as the future father of Israel and God relate and cooperate. And while clearly Abram is human and God is well, God, there is much here that points to an almost equal partnership than we initially may suspect.
Looking at the first six verses of our glorious text we see God and Abram talking back and forth. God promises to shield Abram and that he will be rewarded. Reward in the ancient Jewish culture was often associated with children, with descendants to continue on one’s name. Abram immediately counters this, protesting that he remains childless. A statement from God; a rebuttal by Abram
Then Abram double downs, repeating that he has no children and stressing the shame and indignity that a slave born in his house will be his heir. God responds in turn stating, ‘no’ Abram’s own issue will be his heir. A statement from Abram, a rebuttal by God.
This conversation appears to be one between equals, back and forth statements, each not convincing the other. So, God now moves from words to actions:
5 He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
Actions speak louder than words, and the very act of looking at and trying to count the stars changes Abram – “And he believed the Lord ; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
There are some important points here. The first is the movement and transformation within Abram, from disbelief to belief occurs via the sight of the stars. Belief here, as indicated in the Hebrew, is best understood in the sense of ‘trust’ and ‘confirmation’. Something changed in Abram so that, despite his misgivings in verses 1 to 4, he could now trust God. Perhaps it was the overwhelming majesty and splendour of the stars, their numberless plenitude pointing to the God of fullness, their radiant points of light pointing to the unsupportable source of all light.
In any case, belief occurs, and the stage is now set for the enactment, the physical expression and sealing of the covenant. But what exactly has been promised here, what exactly is this covenant.
God instructs Abram, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
It is easy to see, and is the common modern western understanding that God is telling Abram his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. But even in the English, something else can be seen here: ‘So shall your descendants be’ … Abram descendants shall be as numerous as the stars … but also as the stars. Starlike. Radiant. Expansive. Heavenly.
This is certainly how many early church leaders and authorities saw this passage, Philo of Alexandria, the author of Sirach and others: the promise is not only quantitative, number of offspring but also qualitative, the nature of those offspring.
Being like stars had a particular meaning in Ancient Southwest Asia – the stars were divine or semi divine beings, the astral realm, the realm of the Gods and specially blessed, deified human beings. The promise here is that, at some point the descendants, in the Hebrew, literally, the seed of Abram will be transformed, will be become perfect in the sight of the one perfect light of God, will shine with the inner nature they, and we all possess, being made in the image and likeness of God. The promise is that one day, humans will become who they really are, children of God, reflecting the glory of God, just as each star reflects the limitless light beyond all stars.
Now if this promise seems extravagant, overflowing with enthusiastic abundance and faith in humanity, then its physical embodiment is even more ebullient.
We are now witness to what was a common western Semitic treaty or covenant ritual. Animals are sacrificed, divided into two, each half representing one party to the treaty, in this case Abram and God. God is entering the treaty as an equal party to Abram; divinity and humanity are on equal footing, participating together, making a binding agreement as one. How extraordinary is this?
And then a deep sleep falls upon Abram, a deep and terrifying darkness. He loses himself and enters the divine darkness, the unknowing of God. And we remember that a similar deep sleep fell upon the genderless earth creature, ADAM in Genesis chapter 2. On that occasion the deep sleep led to the separation of women and man, the resolving of the One into two, male and female, so that multiplication, reproduction, children, descendants would emerge. Here, in his deep sleep, Abram is himself changed by God, so that his seed, his descendants will also come forth, but come forth as numerous and as like the stars themselves.
But there is more, so much more: “a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces of animals”. Again, this is part of the common western semitic treaty ritual, a ceremony to enact a bond between two parties. Significantly however, the symbolism and common understanding of the ceremony was that the party who passed the smoke and fire between the parts of the animals would, if they broke their oath, suffer the fate of the animals themselves. And here, the party placing themselves on the line is God – Abram is asleep.
God takes upon himself the fate of the sacrificial animals to bind himself to the covenant. God commits himself this thoroughly and this completely to humanity. God is so sure of the covenant and the eventual starlike destiny of the human race he enters this ceremony utterly and willingly and without reservation. God commits fully himself to Abram, to the Jewish people.
And of course, this first covenant is taken into and fulfilled in the new Covenant of our Saviour Christ. To quote Paul from Galatians, as we heard on Sunday , if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
So, for us now, belonging to Christ, trusting in God like Abram who trusted God while looking at the stars, for us now, God has also so committed himself. Thoroughly and overwhelmingly and utterly, and completely in love. Amen.