Bible Text: Genesis 15 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: Abraham

Doubts are a normal part of the Christian life. It’s not that we want them to be or that we try to have them, they just pop up from time to time. And when they do it can be easy to beat ourselves up for having them or try to ignore them. But there’s a much better way to deal with doubt and in Genesis 15 we will see how Abram did so and how God responded to him.

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Dealing with Doubt
Genesis 15

There was a time when I was a sophomore in college when I really struggled with doubt. I had gone to college to become a youth pastor, but in my Sophomore year I was really unsure. Not only did I have doubts about God’s direction in my life, but I had doubts about his very existence. And I remember asking myself, “How can I devote my whole life to ministry, when I’m wondering if God really exists?” So I made some drastic changes before the end of the year. I changed my major from youth ministry to secondary education and was planning to go that direction when I came back in the fall.

Doubts are a regular part of the Christian life. We all go through seasons when we question things about our faith. I just experienced one of these seasons this past year as I was preaching through the attributes of God. Week after week I came face to face with biblical claims about God that were beyond my ability to comprehend. That became troubling to me. It’s one thing to have to settle every once in a while for believing something you don’t understand; it’s another thing to land there for 15 weeks in a row! So I struggled with nagging doubts. I didn’t want to; they were just there. And it wasn’t like I could just will them go away. I had to deal with them.

You’ve probably had doubts as well, and when we do it’s easy to think we’re terrible Christians and that we should never question God. So we often try to just ignore them and hope they go away. But I don’t think God is bothered by our doubts as we think he is, and it’s not like we can hide them from him anyway. Doubts are a normal part of the Christian life. Just look at the men and women in the Bible – there are many examples of incredible faith, but these same people had times of doubt. You see it in Moses, you see it in David, you see it in Peter and Paul, and you even see it in Jesus when he was at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Doubts happen and that’s a fact. And rather than trying to ignore them I think we need to learn how to deal with them. In our passage for today we are going to see that Abram too had doubts and by looking at how he dealt with them and how God responded to him, my hope is that we will learn how to deal with doubt in our own lives as well. Abram had just returned from a miraculous military victory where he had defeated a previously unstoppable army and rescued the people of Sodom. Last week we saw how he understood that it was God who won the victory, so if ever there was a time you would think someone shouldn’t experience doubt, it was then. But that’s not what happened.

Read Genesis 15:1-6.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

So God reaffirmed his promises to bless Abram, saying: “Fear not, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram looked around at the reality of his situation and had some doubts – he and Sarai were childless, and they weren’t exactly spring chickens anymore. How could his reward be very great if he didn’t have any children? That would be his greatest reward. Any other reward would be ultimately worthless if he didn’t have a son to give his inheritance to. He’d have to leave everything to Eliezer, his trusted servant, and that’s not exactly what he had in mind when he left Ur to come to Canaan. So how is this all going to work out? How is God going to keep his promises if he doesn’t have a son?

Notice that Abram didn’t try to hide his questions and doubts. He openly brought them before the Lord, and I think that’s the first thing we need to do in dealing with doubt. It’s not like God doesn’t know we have doubts. We don’t need to ignore them or pretend we’re not struggling. We need to openly bring them before him. That’s what Abram did, and notice how God responded. He didn’t shame him: “How dare you doubt me! Don’t you have any faith?” Instead he responded by telling him, “Eliezer will not be your heir. Your very own son will be your heir.” And then he took Abram outside to look at the starlit sky, “See all these stars? So shall your offspring be.” So when Abram brought up his questions and doubts to God, God spoke to him and reassured him that what he had promised he would do.

I had a similar experience during my time of doubt in college that I spoke of earlier. I remember clearly one night in the Spring when I was walking all alone from my apartment down to the main building, with all the questions on my mind. There was something inside me that prompted me to look up and when I did I saw a magnificent starlit sky and I remember in that moment God speaking to my heart and reassuring me that he was real and I could trust him. He didn’t condemn me for my doubts, he patiently walked with me and at just the right time he spoke to me and washed the doubt away. That’s similar to what God did with Abram. God spoke to him and reassured him that his promises were true. And Abram believed him. But there were other doubts that were nagging at him.

Read Genesis 15:7-8.
And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

Again, he looks at the reality of his situation and he’s got some serious questions. How am I supposed to take possession of this land when there are already tens of thousands of people here? The land was already occupied. There were the Perizzites who were nomadic herders in the rural areas who had first inhabited the land. And there were the Canaanites, who had migrated after the tower of Babel and built cities for themselves. So there were multiple communities and city-states already in possession of the land. How in the world were Abram’s descendants going to take possession of it? It didn’t add up. So again, Abram openly asks God: “How am I to know that you are going to keep this promise?” And again, God doesn’t jump all over him. It’s an honest question and God answers – this time in a very strange way.

Read Genesis 15:9-11.
9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

This sounds like bizarre witchcraft or something. God told him to bring three animals and two birds, which he did, but then Abram proceeded to kill them, cut them in half and then form a path with them. What is going on!? Well Abram knew exactly what was going on, and it wasn’t witchcraft. According to Bob Beasley in 101 Portraits of Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures: “In the ancient middle eastern world, suzerains (kings) ruled vassals – underlings who worked the land. The suzerain was to protect the vassals, and for that protection, the vassals promised to be loyal to the suzerain and give him a portion of the produce of their land. In order to memorialize their oaths of allegiance to the suzerain, the vassals would cut animals in half and sacrifice birds and other smaller animals and set them in a row on two sides so that a path was formed down the middle. Then, the vassals would walk between the pieces. By this process, they were swearing a solemn oath to the suzerain that, ‘If we do not abide by the oath we have sworn to you, you may do to us what we have done to these animals.’ It was an oath unto death.”

So that’s what Abram was setting up. God answered his question by setting the stage to make a covenant with him. So Abram set it up and he warded off the birds of prey during the day as he waited to see what God was going to do.

Read Genesis 15:12-16.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

So in this dream, God gave Abram a preview of how things were going to happen. His offspring wouldn’t take possession of the land right away. In fact they would end up becoming slaves in another land for 400 years, which turned out to be Egypt. But after that, God would bring them out with great possessions and they would take over the land at that time. So God wanted Abram to know that the fulfillment of his promise would not take place in his lifetime – he would live a long life and die in peace, but he would not yet have possession of the land. That wouldn’t happen for 400 years.

And during that time things would be happening back in Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites – another name for the Canaanites – would become complete. They would fall into complete wickedness and rebellion against God. That hadn’t happened yet, but it would over the next 400 years. All the people of Canaan would become corrupt and thoroughly wicked – men, women, and children. And when their corruption was complete, Abram’s descendants would come back to take possession of the land. God’s judgment would fall on the Canaanites and they would all be devoted to destruction because of their rampant wickedness and the Israelites would take possession of the land. So that’s how things were going to happen.

After this dream, Abram woke up and God appeared to him one more time to complete the covenant Abram had set up.

Read Genesis 15:17-20.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

So again, God promised Abram he would give that land to his offspring and he guaranteed it through the covenant. When Abram woke up he saw what looked like a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the animal carcasses – just like the vassal would do. What was happening is called a “theophany” – a physical manifestation of God. In the same way that God would later appear to the Israelites in the wilderness, he appeared to Abram – through a cloud and a pillar of fire. And in that form, he passed through the animal carcasses, swearing an oath that he would keep his promises to Abram. That’s how far he went to reassure him and settle the doubts that Abram had. And in the future, when those doubts rose again, Abram was to remember what God did in order to put his doubts to rest.

When we go through seasons of doubt, we need to do the same thing, only God has something much more significant for us to remember. Paul tells us what this is at the end of Romans 8. He reminds us of the precious promises of God in Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” These are wonderful promises that can bring us great hope and joy – but how do we know God will keep these promises to us? Paul gives us God’s proof in verses 31-32: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

When we experience doubts about God’s promises, God wants us to remember Christ’s death on the cross. If God went so far as to sacrifice his own Son for us, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? How will he not fulfill his promises for those who are in Christ? Paul says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.” Christ’s death on the cross is God’s proof to us that can destroy our doubts.

So when those nagging doubts arise, we learn from Abram’s story that we should bring them before the Lord – don’t try to hide them – he knows about them anyways. Bring them before him so that he can bring reassurance. He will not condemn you; he will walk beside you and at just the right time he will speak to you. And then remember the cross where Jesus died. Remember that’s how far God went to make you his child, and if he did that, you can know that he will also fulfill all his promises to you as well.