Abram the Doubting Believer
Abraham the Believer: Part 7
Genesis 15:1-21
By Dave Redick

Yes, mature believers doubt sometimes. If you are a Christian who has logged some time in the faith and perhaps even experienced some victories, you may find yourself entertaining some doubts once in awhile. I call it the "doubting believer's struggle." It isn't the doubt of the atheist or the hardened skeptic. It is the honest doubt of a person struggling to live by faith.

A few summers ago I camped alone for a few days in Central Oregon. Most of you know that is high desert country, quite unlike our green, often cloudy, rainy, west-of-the-Cascades environment here. The extremely clear skies on that side of the mountains provide some spectacular summertime star-gazing opportunities. On one of the nights I was there, I slept in the open back of my pickup truck, right out under the stars. It was late summer, about mid-September. We were right at the beginning of a period of meteor showers. The stars seemed extra bright that night - so close that you could reach right up and pluck one of them out of the sky. This magnificent view was even more impressive when punctuated by the occasional streak of the atmosphere consuming yet another piece of space debris.

There are many things to contemplate as you lay out under the stars. You can think about the incredible size of the universe and how our God is even bigger than that. You can also realize how hopelessly small and insignificant we are if you take God's concern for us out of our knowledge. In the words of King David so long ago,

"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?"(1)

As I lay there thinking about a lot of things, I ran my mind over the night, so long ago, when God took doubting Abram out beneath the stars and told him to count them if he could. Then God told him that the total of his descendants would be that same countless number.

I was really getting into it and feeling quite a sense of spiritual bond with Abram on that occasion when suddenly my Labrador Retriever, Cowboy, who was curled up at the foot of my sleeping bag, decided he was thirsty. With no warning, he baled out of the back of the truck and ran down to the river. I could hear him out in the dark, lapping up the water, so I knew the reason for his hasty exit. What I couldn't see was that he had done what most Labradors love to do. He had waded out into the water – up over his back. Before I realized what was happening out there in the dark, 60 pounds of wet dog came flying back over the side of the truck. He landed right on top of my sleeping bag – dripping wet! You probably know what happened next. He started shaking the water off and by the time he stopped I was just as soaked as he was.

Needless to say, my spiritual focus came to a soggy halt for the evening. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why dogs were considered unclean animals under the Old Covenant!

Looking again at the life of Abraham, this time in Genesis 15, we come to a place where the patriarch is struggling with his faith. Up to this point Moses, the writer of Genesis, reports on Abraham's faith without letting us in on any of his private struggles. But now we see, in a very private moment, with no one present but himself and God, some of Abram's innermost fears and doubts. Perhaps it is hard for us to imagine that this great man of faith who left his home in Ur when God called him, and who had been so obedient since, could have any doubts. Yet here we find him doubting. I call him in this passage, "Abram the Doubting Believer."

Abram had walked with God for perhaps ten years to this point. He had been up and down, over and across the Promised Land. God had blessed those who blessed him and cursed those who cursed him. Since the successful defeat of Chedorlaomer, his was a household name in Canaan. Yet suddenly, in the wake of great victory, he found himself in the high weeds of doubt.

Yes, mature believers doubt sometimes. If you are a Christian who has logged some time in the faith and perhaps even experienced some victories, you may find yourself entertaining some doubts once in awhile. I call it the "doubting believer's struggle." It isn't the doubt of the atheist or the hardened skeptic. It is the honest doubt of a person struggling to live by faith.

Abram's doubts caused him no small amount of fear. The story begins in Genesis 15:1 with:

Verse 1 begins with the words, "And after these things…." After what things?

Even seasoned saints have periods when the weeds of doubt and fear spring up.

While it can be very real, it doesn't have to be fatal to your faith.

Perhaps Abram feared reprisals from Chedorlaomer. After all, this fierce foe could return with reinforcements and attack at any time. Perhaps he feared the people of the land. Before he had been simply a resident nomad shepherd. Since his victory over the invaders, he was now a celebrity – someone any young upstart leader might want to challenge. Whatever the case, God reassured him: "I am a shield to you."

But another fear occupied Abram's mind. God had promised to multiply his descendants, a prospect that seemed less likely with each passing day. Abram and Sarai were still childless.

If a man had no heir in that day, custom allowed him to adopt one of his servants to designate as the heir. Custom allowed it - but it wasn't what Abram had expected. Yet it seemed so obvious now that this would be the outcome. He and Sarai were getting on in years. Their biological clocks were ticking. Reproductive years were waning. If God intended to provide a biological heir, why hadn't he done so by now?

Have you ever questioned God's timing or wondered why He didn't resolve an issue more quickly? Some of us probably have. Most of us probably will. It happens to sincere believers. Such doubt isn't the case hardened, rebellious faithlessness of a confirmed unbeliever. Rather it is the reasonable doubt of one who wants to believe but is having trouble when the numbers don't add up. Such a person needs reassurance.

You might recall John the Baptist's doubts after Herod threw him into prison. Though He had proclaimed boldly in the months just before that Jesus was "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,"(2) things didn't happen as he had expected. Finally, wondering what was going on, or perhaps questioning whether he had misunderstood something, he sent two of his disciples to inquire of Jesus, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?"(3) How could a fiery prophet like John come to doubt Jesus' identity?

To note there is that God the Son didn't scold John for his honest doubts. In fact, He reassured him with these words: "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."(4) Things were going exactly as they were supposed to go, and I'm certain that with this reassurance, John's faith was strengthened.

God the Son didn't despise John's honest doubts and God the Father didn't despised Abram's honest doubts here in our text, either. In both cases, these men were given the reassurance of God's word.

Have you struggled with doubts? Are you struggling now? God doesn't hate you for it. You simply need the reassurance that comes from reviewing His word. Like the father of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9:24, you need to say, "I do believe; help my unbelief!"

It was this word of the Lord that reassured Abram. No further proof was offered. No miraculous signs. Simply the straight word of God. "This man shall not be your heir!"

Sometimes our doubts cause us to pull away from the things of God. We reason, "How could God be pleased with me in this doubting condition?" Yet a period of doubt is not a time for pulling away. No indeed! It is a time to draw closer to His word. We need a word of reassurance from God and we won't find it by retreating.

Two things would help Abram's faith here. First, as already mentioned, simply the reassurance of God's word. God was not telling Abram something new here. That's why I say "reassurance." He was simply repeating an earlier promise. Back in Genesis 13:16-17, He had told Abram, "And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered." What He told Abram hadn't changed. Earlier it was dust. Now it was stars. Neither could be counted. These words in Genesis 15 revealed no new truth. Often the doubting believer doesn't need to see new truth. Rather, he or she needs to be reassured of the truth already known.

But there is a second thing here to reassure him. Abram was hearing from the One who made both the dust and the stars! It's as though God is saying, "You have my word that I will do it and you have the evidence above your head and beneath your feet that I have the power to do it!"

My friends, we have the very same reassurance today. We have His word as to what He will do and we have the evidence of the creation all around us to remind us that He has the power to do it.

Abram chose to do as he had been doing since he left Ur. He chose to believe in the Lord rather than take the counsel of his fears.

Those words in verse 6, "Then he believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" are very important. They are quoted three times in the New Testament(5) to show us that our justification is and always has been by faith. It has never been possible for God to accept any of us based on our own righteous behavior. God couldn't accept Abram on that basis either. That's because every last one of us is a sinner.(6) From this passage and its quotes in the New Testament, we learn about what we call "imputed righteousness." It is our only hope to ever be right with God. Imputed righteousness is that perfect righteousness that we don't have ourselves (we aren't capable of it.) It is transferred to our account because God, in His grace, sees our faith and our desire to live for Him. He gives us what we cannot produce ourselves. It's the most marvelous Bible discovery a person can make. It's the idea that even through we're not perfect and never will be, if we strive to live lives of faith, we can be counted as perfect and go to heaven.

But there is something else here. Did God suddenly impute righteousness to Abram on this occasion only? It sounds like it in the New American Standard Version of the Scripture. "Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."

This is the first time the word "believe" is used in the Bible. It is also the first time the idea of reckoning righteousness is found. It would be easy to conclude, therefore, that up until this time, Abram hadn't had faith and thus, hadn't had righteousness reckoned to him. Yet this is not the case. Abram had been living by faith since he left Ur. The Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 11:8-9, "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents… ." (7)

Abram didn't just suddenly believe God here in Genesis 15. He had believed God since he received that first order to move. Moses' comment on this occasion was intended to indicate that it was Abraham's living by faith and not this one act of faith that was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Actually, the KJV, NIV, RSV, NKJV, and even the ASV all say, "And he believed in the Lord" or simply, "He believed in the Lord," rather than "Then he believed in the Lord." Moses' comment was intended to indicate that Abram's life of faith and not this single, passing, act of faith is where imputed righteousness is found.

Why do I point these things out? Because there are those who say that we are saved by a single, passing statement of faith rather than a faith that changes our lives and orients us toward God. Thus, some person goes forward in an evangelistic meeting, repeats words after some preacher, but it makes absolutely no difference in his life. Yet he and others around him believe he is saved. My friends, that is not the kind of faith that caused God to reckon Abram as righteous. A moment of faith that does not translate into a life of concern and love for the things of God is not saving faith.(8)

Abram's second fear was:

Abram had been in the land for many, yet it was still controlled by others and not him. Even his great victory over Chedorlaomer had not resulted in any deed of land. Again, he needed reassurance from God. What he received was the strongest assurance a human being can receive from God.

Each animal was killed and divided in half. The halves were arranged opposite each other, perhaps on the ground or perhaps on an altar, with a space between them. Though Abram probably knew exactly what this was about, it seems foreign to us. I'll explain in just a moment. For now, we need to keep reading.

Note the time factor. The sun was going down. Earlier God took Abram out under the stars. Apparently he passed the rest of that night under the stars, then all of the daylight hours of the next day. That explains why Abram had to drive off the birds of prey. He was out there all the next day under the daytime sky, waiting to see what God was going to do.

Waiting is something we need to get used to if we're going to be children of God. He seldom does things in a hurry. On the contrary, He commends patience in us as a virtue. As I heard someone say on the radio this past week, "God expects us to slow down for Him. He seldom speeds up for us."

One cause of "believer's doubt" is God's frequent delay, which actually, isn't delay at all. God's timing is always perfect. It is our impatience that makes it seem like delay. How should we deal with it? Psalm 37:7 says, "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him."

This communication from God came in a dream, unlike the vision mentioned earlier. It is a prediction of the harsh Egyptian bondage and subsequent exodus that would come in the future for Abram's descendants. It is also God's answer to Abram's question back in verse 8: "O Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?"

Notice that there is another wait involved – some 400 years. Why so long?

The "Amorite" mentioned here is the name of one of the nationalities of people living in Canaan in Abram's day. You see, God was dealing with the other people of the land, too. He loved them, too. Those who say that God ignored the rest of the world and favored only one family or nation just don't know the Bible very well. The people of Canaan, who would ultimately be driven out of the land after the Exodus, were given their chance to live up to the law written in their hearts.(9) God was showing patience with them, thus the delay of Abram's descendents possessing it.

I wish I had time here to further discuss God's concern for the whole world. I don't. If I did, I think I would call the message, "For God So Loved the World." Perhaps we'll deal with it another time.

The key to understanding what happened here is verse 18: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram… ."

Jeremiah 34:18-19 tells us the significance of this matter of splitting the animals and passing between the parts. I don't have time to read the passage now, but I will give you the meaning of it. When people made a covenant in that day, one of the ways to confirm it was for the parties to sacrifice an animal, cut it in half, and walk between the halves. It was an act designed to show that the participants were serious. If they didn't keep the covenant, the same thing should happen to them as happened to the animal.

Does the thought of sacrificing an animal causes you to register a bit of horror? Good. You're on the right track. We all get serious in the presence of death and when there is a covenant made, God wants us to be serious, because He is. This covenant of land was no passing, whimsical afterthought with God. It was a solemn, serious commitment to give the land to Abram's descendents.

God reassured Abram of His promise regarding the land by making a covenant inaugurated with blood. He came down to man's level and bound Himself and His name to do what He said He would do. Such a solemn act is a wonderful truth to those of us who are occasional "doubting believers."

God has not left us to continue in our doubt. He has made a covenant with us, too. It doesn't pertain to land. It is rather a covenant of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. It involves blessings for us now and later. It too, like that ancient covenant made with Abram and his descendants, was confirmed with blood, so it is serious and should be taken seriously. Do you remember Jesus' words?

"Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins."(10)

If God's offering the life of the animals sacrificed in Abram's day could reassure Abram, how much more should God offering the life of His own Son reassure us!

Are you a doubting believer? Welcome to reality. God's saints of the past struggled with doubt at times, too. But you don't have to live in your doubt continually. There are steps for you to take. I suggest these:

Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

If you have been down and discouraged in quiet moments away from the public eye, feeling weak and ashamed of your lack of faith, it is time to turn back to the word of God. No other single step will do as much for you.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we believe you. Please help us in our unbelief. The great promises that you have made to us seem at times so distant - so difficult - so impossible through our eyes of flesh. Help us, we pray, to realize the magnitude and the surety of the covenant You have made with us. Thank you for your ways. Thank you for the knowledge of You that we have been so privileged to have. Strengthen the doubting believers among us, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Footnotes: Use your "back" button to return to your place.

1. Psalm 8:3-4
2. John 1:29
3. Matthew 11:3
4. Matthew 11:4-6
5. Romans 4:3; 2-22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23.
6. Romans 3:23
7. Hebrews 11:8-9
8. Matthew 7:20-23
9. Romans 2:14-15
10. Matthew 26:27-28

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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