What constituted belief in YHWH for Abraham was “facing the fact,” Romans 4:19, “that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and Sarah’s womb was also dead,” so no way could they produce the offspring YHWH had promised them. 

The only way YHWH could fulfill his promise, then, was if he did it for them. Which is exactly what Abraham believed, that in YHWH there really was a “God who gives life to the dead, and calls things that are not as though they were” (17). And for believing that he was credited with righteousness (3) – one hundred percent right standing with God. 

Paul then gives a second example in King David, because David at one point had messed up his life so badly that he had to face a fact too, that his sins had rendered him “as good as dead” as well, and no way could he make up for the horrors of what he’d done (6) unless God did it for him. Which is exactly what David believed – that in YHWH there really was a God who gives life to the dead – which in his case was forgiving his sins and not counting his sins against him (7-8). And for believing that he too, like Abraham, was credited with righteousness (6). 

Both these examples Paul then uses to lead into what constitutes belief in YHWH for us today, because what was written about Abraham is “also for us” (23-24). And what was written about David is for us too, because we’re also faced with the fact that sin rendered us as good as dead, and there was nothing we could do about it either. But Jesus did what was needed for us, by being “delivered over to death for our sins” (25). 

And that’s what we’re being asked to believe, just like Abraham was being asked to believe that YHWH would give him a son. But YHWH also offered proof to help Abraham believe, by telling him to look up at the stars, as obvious proof that he, the Creator of all those stars, was fully capable of producing just as many descendants for Abraham. And it was then that Abraham believed (Genesis 15:5-6). 

And God’s done the same for us, having “raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:24), because there’s our proof that he “gives life to the dead” to help us believe he’ll raise us from our old dead selves too. 

And that for us is what constitutes belief in YHWH, that in both Jesus’ death and his resurrection we believe God has done for us what we could not do. But “Why is our belief so important?”….(next blog)

In Genesis 15:5 it was YHWH himself who brought Abraham to belief in him, through his intimate knowledge of Abraham and how to get through to him. But he also had a reason for bringing Abraham to belief in him, which was to credit his belief as righteousness (6). 

There’s no mention in verse 6, however, as to what that meant, or that Abraham understood what it meant, or that YHWH himself actually spoke it in the vision. It’s just a statement, almost out of the blue, but designed to fit in here at this stage in Abraham’s life. 

Which is odd, because Abraham had already done a lot of believing in YHWH. He’d upped sticks and left his homeland when YHWH told him to – without even knowing where he was going (12:1). He’d sought evidence from YHWH that his promise of many offspring was true (15:2-3), and the only evidence YHWH had given him was a look up at the stars and try to count them, and so would his offspring be (5). But Abraham had believed it, despite no sign of a child in the making. 

That’s some kind of faith, because in both cases Abraham was flying blind. All he had to go on was YHWH’s word. YHWH said leave, so he left. YHWH said he’d have an uncountable number of offspring like the stars in the sky, so Abraham took his word on it. And yet that was all YHWH needed to credit Abraham with righteousness. And especially at this point in Abraham’s life too, when there was no proof whatsoever that what YHWH had promised him was happening, or would happen. 

Twice now Abraham had simply taken YHWH at his word. YHWH had spoken, Abraham believed him. But it was YHWH who’d brought him to this point, because belief was the key. That’s what counted as “righteousness,” or (in our terms) put Abraham one hundred percent on the right track in God’s eyes.   

But why is this important for us to know? Because according to Romans 4:23-24, “The words, ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us.” So tucked away in Genesis 15:6, that one little verse set the scene for all Abraham’s offspring through the ages, as to what YHWH is doing in our lives. He’s bringing us to belief in him, because the result of that belief puts us one hundred percent on the right track in God’s eyes too. 

With that in mind, then: “What constitutes belief in YHWH today?”….(next blog) 

In his growing understanding of YHWH, Abraham feels free to question him. In Genesis 15:1, YHWH has just promised Abraham he will greatly reward him, which stirs a question that’s obviously been bothering Abraham about YHWH’s promises, because in verses 2-3 he says, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless. You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 

It was respectfully asked, in recognition that YHWH was the “Sovereign Lord,” but it was also dawning on Abraham just how intimately concerned YHWH was for him. In a vivid vision in verse 1, YHWH had told him not to be frightened, because he would always be Abraham’s shield. It was a lovely and well-timed encouragement from the great YHWH himself. 

But there was still this very practical question bugging Abraham as to how YHWH was going to pull off all those amazing promises through his offspring, when Abraham didn’t have any offspring. The blessing of the entire world hinged on Abraham having a child of his own, so it would be jolly nice if there was some sort of evidence to prove this was all legitimate and real. 

So what YHWH does is “take Abraham outside” (5), presumably still in the vision of verse 1, and he tells Abraham to look up at the stars and count them “if indeed you can count them.” Good point. Had Abraham ever done that, actually stop at any time in his life, look up at that vast array of stars that somehow got there, and even think of trying to count them when there were so many? 

As Abraham’s eyes take in the vastness of it all, that’s when YHWH chooses the moment to say to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Another good point, because if YHWH could create all those billions of stars, could he not create billions of offspring too? But was that what made Abraham believe YHWH’s promises were legitimate and real? Was that the evidence that convinced him? Or was it YHWH himself?  

Because verse 6 simply states, “Abram believed the Lord.” It wasn’t the Lord’s logic about the uncountable number of stars. It was YHWH himself, staring up at the stars with Abraham, who’d brought Abraham to belief – in his amazing ability to see right into Abraham’s mind, and in his intimate love for him know exactly how to get through to him.  

But YHWH also had a reason for bringing Abraham to this point, because “What was the result of Abraham’s belief?”….(next blog)   

Imagine YHWH doing for us what he did for Abraham in Genesis 15:1. In a vivid dream (or whatever a “vision” was), YHWH tells Abraham not to fear. He’s fully aware of the scary situation Abraham is in – of a deranged psychopath likely seeking revenge for the embarrassing defeat Abraham had inflicted on him in the previous chapter (14:14-16).  

Imagine the relief and the gratitude Abraham must have felt to have YHWH be that real to him, and exactly at the time he needed it too. In response – still in the vision – Abraham bursts out with “O Sovereign Lord,” like saying, “O you wonderful God, thank you, you knew that’s what I needed.” 

It’s the first time he’s responded to YHWH like that, as though a new door has opened in his mind about YHWH, which is interesting, because what it triggers is the freedom in Abraham’s mind to question YHWH. He’s never done that before either, but in all the things that have happened in Abraham’s life so far, YHWH has been developing and growing Abraham’s relationship with him.  

And working backwards through Abraham’s “O Sovereign Lord,” there are now three things he’s understood about YHWH: first of all, that he’s “Lord” – YHWH in Hebrew – the same “I AM” YHWH in Exodus 3:13-15 who clearly stated his desire for a personal relationship with his people. He’s a relational God, not like the many impersonal gods Abraham grew up with in his homeland. 

Secondly, he understood YHWH as “Sovereign,” which in Abraham’s own words in Genesis 14:22 meant “God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,” the great powerhouse in the universe who’d enabled him to defeat his enemies (20). 

But thirdly, he now saw YHWH as “O,” as a being he felt he could express his most personal thoughts to, including a question that was bothering him, as to how YHWH could bless all nations through him and his offspring when “I remain childless” (15:2). “You have given me no children,” he adds rather bluntly in verse 3.

Does the Sovereign Lord take offence? No, he takes Abraham outside for a look at the stars, and in the way he said, “So shall you offspring be,” it melted Abraham’s doubts (6). 

But “What was it that made Abraham believe?”….(next blog) 

YHWH had just told Abraham in Genesis 15:1 he had nothing to fear, because if things got scary YHWH would be his shield and his “very great reward.” 

Which was good to know because the four kings and the thug whom Abraham had just defeated in an embarrassingly successful night-time raid that had his enemies fleeing for their lives in their night clothes, would surely be thirsting for revenge. And who knows when they’d strike – and with massively superior forces too.

Had Abraham put his entire family in serious danger? But isn’t that one of the great dilemmas of living in this world? Psychopaths and egotistical bullies are the worst people to embarrass, or expose as lazy, incompetent, arrogant, reckless sadists, as we see in our own world when people with such weaknesses are exposed and they live only for revenge. 

But YHWH clearly understood that, because it was right after the possibility of a counter attack by the bullies, that he personally “came to Abram in a vision” (1). But a vision so clear it becomes a two way conversation, as if they were talking to each other in person. So why a vision instead of ‘in person’ then? 

Well the timing and content of the vision suggest Abraham was well aware of the repercussions of his actions and he really was scared, so he was probably taken up with getting everyone ready for the counter attack. YHWH, therefore, speaks to him in a quiet moment, telling Abraham he has nothing to be afraid of, because YHWH himself will be his defence, and Abraham’s trust in him will be greatly rewarded. To which Abraham replies in those three crucial words: “O Sovereign Lord.” 

He could have said just “Sovereign Lord,” like we might start a prayer with “Almighty Father.” But he started with “O,” because (for us too) an “O” adds to how deeply we feel, like saying to someone in pain, “O my dear, I hope you get well soon.” Well, this kind of “O” is how Abraham now felt toward YHWH, and it came to him to say it right after YHWH had expressed how personally he felt toward him too. 

So through the very real circumstances in Abraham’s life, YHWH has been growing Abraham’s relationship with him – to the point in Genesis 15:2 “When Abraham feels free to question” him….(next blog) 

One thing Abraham did not escape from in his relationship with YHWH was the reality of living in this world – a severe famine in Canaan (Genesis 12:10), a Pharaoh taking a shine to his wife (15-19), quarrels between his herdsmen and his nephew Lot’s herdsmen (13:6-7), and even a full blown local war too (14:1-3). 

Passing off his wife as his sister – that got the Pharaoh eyeing her up as his own – was Abraham’s own fault, but the other problems, like the herdsmen upsetting the family business, and the violent rebellion spilling out against a tyrannical overlord (14:4), weren’t his fault.  

Either way, whether it was problems in Abraham’s own head causing him grief, or problems in other people’s heads, we see YHWH using them to grow Abraham’s relationship with him. In the sticky situation with the Pharaoh, for instance, YHWH personally got Abraham out of that mess, but he also let Pharaoh give Abraham the tongue lashing he deserved. Which helped Abraham get to know YHWH very quickly as both kind and stern (echoes of Romans 11:22). 

YHWH then grows the relationship further when the victors in the territorial war cart off Abraham’s nephew Lot and all his possessions (14:12). Amazingly, Abraham takes it upon himself and his own private army to rescue Lot, but that means taking on a combined army of four kings led by a vicious thug. By a daring night raid, however, the enemy is sent packing and Lot and all his possessions are recovered (14-16).

It’s an amazing victory over impossible odds, because YHWH wants Abraham to know he does this kind of thing as well, as told in person to Abraham by Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, who not only passes on YHWH’s blessing for the victory, but also that it was the mighty, supreme God himself who “delivered your enemies into your hand” (18-20).

So “Do not be afraid, Abram,” YHWH tells him in Genesis 15:1, “I am your shield, your very great reward.” And YHWH had been exactly that in Genesis 14, rewarding Abraham with victory in an impossible situation, protecting him from overwhelming odds, to give Abraham a thoroughly good reason for not being frightened as to what might happen next. 

So for Abraham, and for us too, there’s no escaping the reality of living in this world, but through it all YHWH was growing Abraham’s relationship with him, as we see in Abraham addressing YHWH for the first time in Genesis 15:8 as “O Sovereign Lord”….(next blog) 

What happened to Abraham gives us clues as to what happens to us as his children through the generations. As Paul said, we’re “blessed along with Abraham” (Galatians 3:9), and as “our father” (Romans 4:16-17) Abraham trod the ground that we’d be treading, learning about the relational YHWH as he did, and being changed by knowing his love too. 

So how did knowing YHWH’s love change Abraham? Well, in a nutshell, he became a rather loving chap himself. After his thorough scolding by the Egyptian Pharaoh in Genesis 12:18-19 for selfishly seeking to preserve his own life by palming off his lovely wife as his sister, resulting in “the Lord inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household” (17), Abraham learnt something about YHWH’s love, in both his mercy and correction, that changed him in how he dealt with the next dilemma in his life. 

It was on his return trip to Canaan from Egypt that another problem arose. He and his nephew Lot had both accumulated so much livestock that “the land could not support them while they stayed together” (6) and “quarrelling arose” between their herdsmen (7). 

At which point, Abraham could have sought a selfish solution to preserve his own interests (just as he’d done in Egypt), and being the senior of the two men he could have put his foot down and demanded his way. But how YHWH had dealt with him in Egypt had clearly made a major impact on Abraham, because he came up with a solution for himself and Lot that was enormously gracious and generous – and totally unselfish. 

He starts off by saying to Lot, “Let’s not quarrel, we’re brothers” (8) – so rather than pushing his seniority in the family, Abraham puts himself and Lot on the same level, as “brothers.” And on suggesting they part ways so their herds aren’t piled up in one spot, Abraham gives Lot first choice as to what part of the land he would like (9). 

Lot likes the look of “the whole plain of Jordan” to the east (11), because it’s “like the garden of the Lord” (10), perfectly set up with everything he needed. Abraham, meanwhile, remains in Canaan (12).  

YHWH is delighted that his love for Abraham has now made Abraham loving too, because right after Lot leaves he tells Abraham he’s giving “all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever” (15). 

More in the next blog, then, about “Abraham’s growing relationship with YHWH”

An altar to Abraham was like a living thing. To him it was a living memorial of the promises YHWH had made to him, and a living reminder of YHWH choosing him and his family through the generations as the means by which those amazing promises would be fulfilled.

The altar was just a pile of rocks but it had a living purpose, because it continues fulfilling its purpose in our lives today – as we see in 1 Peter 2:5, when Peter describes the Christians of his day as being “like living stones.” 

It seems like a contradiction in terms to call lifeless stones and rocks as “living,” but amazing things happen in the lives of those who recognize what YHWH has promised for our world, and the staggering realization that he’s working out his promises through rocks and stones like us.

Take what happened to Abraham, for instance. Right after building his altars in Genesis 12:7-8, a severe famine struck in verse 10. So the very land – in which YHWH had just promised to make Abraham a great nation (2) – had become impossible to live in. Out of the blue, then, Abraham is faced with a decision he never saw coming. So, how did he react, knowing what YHWH had promised?

Did he “call on the name of the Lord” like he’d done at the building of his second altar (8), and in faith look to YHWH for a solution? Not in the Holy Spirit record, he didn’t. Instead, he ups sticks (10) and drags his wife and possessions down to Egypt – where things get worse when he realizes his wife’s beauty could get him killed if someone takes a shine to her (12). But again, no record of him trusting YHWH for a solution. Instead he figures his life will be spared if he passes his wife off as his sister (13).

So this is what it’s like being a living altar: we know YHWH is working out his plan through us, but he also allows life to throw impossible situations at us. Why? So that, just like Abraham, we learn two things: that first of all, we can make a right botch of things when not trusting YHWH and trying to resolve our impossible situations ourselves. And secondly, that YHWH is totally aware of our flaws, but in those flaws he reveals his love and mercy, as he did in Abraham’s case by putting a stop to the Pharaoh taking Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as his own (17). 

Abraham was learning about a loving God he could trust in, so “What did knowing YHWH’s love do to Abraham?”….(next blog)    

As Abraham’s offspring something remarkable has been given to us by YHWH. It was pictured originally by the land of Canaan that YHWH gave to Abraham and his offspring as an everlasting possession in Genesis 12:7 and 17:8. But what Paul understood that to mean in Romans 4:13, was that YHWH had promised “Abraham and his offspring they would be heirs (or possessors) of the whole world.”  

The “land of Canaan,” then, pictured the entire world and the children of Abraham inheriting it, which is exactly what Paul preached as “the message of salvation” in Acts 13:26. This was “the good news” he referred to in verse 32, that “What God promised our fathers (verse 33) he has fulfilled for us, their children.” In other words, ever since Jesus was “raised up” (33), the promises YHWH made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the “fathers”) are now being fulfilled in us, their children. Meaning that the blessing of all nations promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is in the process of happening in his living children right now.

And it’s when this reality of YHWH and what he was promising hit Abraham, that’s when he built an altar of rocks. It stood as a sort of permanent “living” memorial and reminder of the brilliance and love of YHWH, not only in his plan for all humanity, but also in his plan for them as the ones he’d be fulfilling his plan through. 

It’s not surprising, then, that this picture of a living altar in celebration and constant reminder of YHWH’s plans for the world, hit Peter the same way. 

Because Peter, when describing our purpose as Christians, used the analogy of “living stones” in 1 Peter 2:5. We are “like living stones,” he wrote, “being built into a spiritual house.” And it tied in perfectly with why Abraham built his little “spiritual house” of rocks too, because in verse 9 Peter writes, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises (excellence) of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

Abraham’s altars or Peter’s stones, the meaning for us is the same. We are living stones and altars in this world, “being built into a spiritual house” displaying the brilliance and love of YHWH. Wherever we are, and wherever we go, therefore, that’s who and what we are. So next blog: “What’s it like being a living altar?” 

In Genesis 12:7, Abraham built an altar in response to YHWH’s promise, “To your offspring I will give this land.” He built the altar, therefore, not only in recognition and amazement that the great YHWH had chosen him and his offspring, but also in recognition of why YHWH had chosen them. 

He’d chosen them, verse 7, to give them the land he’d brought them to. So that little portion of Planet Earth was now theirs, which made sense, because in verse 2, YHWH had just promised to make Abraham “into a great nation.” To be a nation meant having land.  

But having land and becoming a great nation – what was going on here? Well, it clearly meant that YHWH had a plan right here on this planet. It was here that the Creator of the universe was concentrating his power and wisdom to accomplish something remarkable. Which in itself was amazing to Abraham – but there was more, because YHWH had also said he was involving Abraham and his descendants as the means by which he was going to accomplish his plans. 

But there was more still, because in Genesis 17:8, YHWH also said he was giving the “whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.” Oh, so YHWH’s plan for Planet Earth through Abraham and his descendants was forever too.  

And not in heaven forever? No; YHWH was planting his flag in the good old soil of Planet Earth, just as he’d done in the Garden of Eden, but this time he was guaranteeing the everlasting blessing of this planet through Abraham and his family. And Abraham, bless his heart, not only believed every word of it, he immediately built an altar as a memorial of the moment – that would also serve as a visual reminder that he and his descendants were the means by which YHWH was working out his ‘forever plan’ on this planet. 

In other words, he and his offspring were now living altars providing visual evidence in their lives as to what YHWH was up to. And this was why YHWH had chosen them, to help people see what he was up to on this planet, because it could be seen happening in them.   

Which helps us see why YHWH chose us too, then, doesn’t it – because as Abraham’s offspring it means we’re living altars as well. So, what it’s like “Being a living altar”?….(next blog)