Pastor Vicki Zust was the rector of St. Paul’s, Clarence, NY. Having completed a 2 year cycle of reading the entire Bible she decided to try something different. As she writes, "So I went through the Old Testament and wrote down the stories that a lot of our theology and history depends on. It turns out there are 40 of them." I am excerpting them here.
#6 God’s Covenant with Abram. Read it here in Genesis Chapter 15."He’s not Abraham yet, he’s Abram.
" He’s had quite the life before God comes directly into his life. He’s gone to Egypt (and told everyone that his wife is his sister). He’s rescued his nephew. He’s been blessed by Melchizedek.
" After all of this, God’s word comes to him in a vision and tells him "Don’t be afraid". God usually starts his interactions with humans by telling us not to be afraid. God also tells Abram that his reward will be great.
" Abram answers back that he doesn’t have any children, so what does it matter, God promises him that he will have as many descendants as the stars in heaven.
" Notice that in this first covenant, Abram doesn’t have to do anything. God just promises that he will bless Abram.
" Abram asks for some proof, so God cuts a covenant with him, by cutting some animals in half and then God makes some more promises and has flame pass between the halves of the animals. God promises specific land to Abram and his descendants. This is the origin of "The Promised Land"