Abram and Sarai: He has my job, what do I do?

6th in a series on Men and Women in the Bible dealing with waiting, disappointment and unemployment.

Abram and Sarai: He has my job, what do I do?

Genesis 15

This morning at Career Prospectors we talked about the Hidden Network of the job search.  The job that we often want is not advertised or someone else already has it.  In ancient kingdoms the strategy was to bump off the king in order to take his place, but I suppose that’s not an option today.  The presuppositions with which I am operating are that we each have God-given gifts and abilities and that we can find jobs where we can flourish and be a valuable, contributing member to society.

Abram and Sarai had been promised by God that their descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan. At ages 75 and 65 they had set out from all that they knew to a land unknown.  By the time we get to Genesis 15 Abram is in his early 80’s.  The promise of a descendant has not been fulfilled.  Abram complains that after waiting for years it appears that his servant will be the only heir, so God reaffirms that indeed it will not be so, but, “a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”

Abram has a moment of clarity and accepts the truth of God’s word.  Unfortunately, Abram’s confidence doesn’t last and he questions God’s promise regarding taking possession of the land.  Aren’t we like that as well?  One moment we have the confidence to take on the world, the next we don’t have the strength to get out of bed.  We are a fickle people.

And what kind of promise is this?  Two seemingly impossible things:  1) To have a child in old age and 2) To inhabit a land that is already inhabited.  The job search is fraught with fear and doubt.  When we imagine a job we love, we may discover that someone already has it.  When we interview we  may experience discrimination albeit ever so subtle.  We may say with
Abram, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

As God was with Abram He will be with us.  God put up with Abram’s fear and doubt and provides a demonstration.  He performs what the ancients knew as the Suzerain treaty.  A treaty between two unequal parties.  Animals are cut in two and laid apart with a path in between.  The weaker of the kingdoms walks between the animals and says, “If I ever break this treaty, may the same happen to me as happened to these animals.”  But in Genesis 15 Abram(the weaker party) prepares the animals and then waits.  I have experienced this as well.  I feel confident that God is leading me only to have to wait some more.  

But then something amazing happens.  Abram falls into a deep sleep and a smoking pot passes between the animals.  What happened?!? It appears that the smoking pot, representing God Himself, passes through the sacrificed animals.  Thus God is saying, “If I ever do not fulfill my promise to you, may this happen to me.”  Something a powerful kingdom or ruler would never do.  But this demonstrates the kind of God Christians worship.  A God who would sacrifice Himself in order to save the people He loves.

The principles that we can apply to our own lives are the following:

1. Abram learned that the reward for obedience wasn’t necessarily the promised heir or even the promised land, but God Himself.  Too often we put our focus on that elusive job or what we imagine as what we need and we miss a relationship with our Creator.
2. Waiting has value.  What can we learn in the process?
3. We appreciate the end result of the promise more when we have experienced the deprivation of exile and punishment.  Therefore, unemployment can produce better employees than steady employment.
4. View our circumstances in light of God’s past behavior.  We have to ask in periods of uncertainty if we can be certain of Him.

I’ll never forget hearing my Old Testament professor tell us the story of Genesis 15 through the lens of the culture of that day.  God used the cultural practice of the Suzerain Treaty to demonstrate how He often reverses misconceptions of Himself and even our worldview.  Choose today what you will believe:  circumstances that appear dire and hopeless or the God who has demonstrated faithfulness in the past and offers hope for the future.  

God says this through Jeremiah to a people about to go into seventy years of exile: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”