The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 What Is Going On? What Does This Mean? How Does This Affect Me? 1

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 What Is Going On? Abram asks God for a sign. Will I have a child? Will I have a land? These promises are given to Abram’s descendants, not to him. Abram only owned a small piece of land as a burial site. “How can I know?” – a good question. 2

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 What Is Going On? God gives Abram a covenant as a sign. God prepares to make a covenant. Abram obviously knew of this practice. Animals are cut in pieces to show responsibility. What happened if the covenant was broken – Jeremiah 34:17-20? 3

Jeremiah 34:17-20 (NASB) 17  “Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18  I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts—

19  the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf— 20 I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 What Does This Mean? All this speaks of future things. All these animals are used as sacrifices in the future tabernacle and temple. A spiritual darkness and terror come over Abram, and he is told future things. We do not know what the “smoking pot” and “blazing torch” mean, but they are the same words used at Mt. Sinai and the Pillars. 4

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 What Does This Mean? God and God alone passes between the pieces. This is the whole Gospel. God says if I do not fulfill these things, it will be my death. God also says, if you do not meet up with these things, it will be my death – Isaiah 53:8. 5

Isaiah 53:8 (NASB) 8  By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 How Does This Affect Me? Hebrews 6:17-20 gives us the importance of all that God is saying in Genesis 15. 6

Hebrews 6:17-20 (NASB) 17  In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18  so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 19  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,  20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 How Does This Affect Me? Hebrews 6:17-20 gives us the importance of all that God is saying in Genesis 15. God became the anchor of our soul through the promise of this covenant. His immutability became mutable. His immortality became mortal. He who was infinite became finite. He who was all powerful became powerless. He who was the author of the impossible became the ordinary. 7

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 How Does This Affect Me? All our problems come because of our lack of faith in His covenant promise. We waiver because we lack trust in God. We are angry because we do not trust His justice. We hate because we do not know His love and grace. Our lack of trust leads to issues of self- control and self-esteem and even control. 8

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 How Does This Affect Me? If Jesus is going to be the anchor of my soul, then I need to Trust more, ask Jesus “How do I know?” Focus on the big things and not the small. If Jesus is the one, then see Him for who He is, and all else will fall into place. 9

The Anchor of My Soul Genesis 15:7-21 Application Is Jesus the anchor of your soul? Have you trusted Jesus for your salvation? Are you trusting Him in all the other stuff? If not, what are you going to do about it? 10