Counting Stars and Cutting Covenants

‘Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can.’ It is one of the great invitations in all of literature, this moment when God takes a childless old man outside his tent and gives him the night sky as a birth announcement. And Abram believed. Not because the evidence was compelling—it was, by any reasonable measure, absurd—but because he knew the One who was speaking. What follows is the strangest ritual in Genesis: animals cut in half, a smoking fire pot passing between the pieces. In the ancient world, both parties to a covenant would walk through the divided animals, as if to say, ‘May this be done to me if I break my word.’ But here, only God passes through. Abram sleeps. The covenant is entirely one-sided—a promise borne on the shoulders of the Almighty alone. We are, most of us, better at counting our inadequacies than counting stars. God seems to prefer the latter.

00:00 God’s Covenant with Abram
03:00 Hagar and Ishmael
06:00 The Covenant of Circumcision
08:00 Sarah Shall Have a Son
10:00 Three Visitors at Mamre

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4 Questions to get your conversations started:
1.    What stood out to you this week?
2.    Was there anything confusing or troubling?
3.    Did anything make you think differently about God?
4.    How might this change the way we live?

QUICK START GUIDE
3 ways to get the most out of your experience

1.    Use Immerse: Beginnings instead of your regular chapter and verse Bible. This special reader’s edition restores the Bible to its natural simplicity and beauty by removing chapter and verse numbers and other historical additions. Letters look like letters, songs look like songs, and the original literary structures are visible in each book.

2.    Commit to making this a community experience. Immerse is designed for groups to encounter large portions of the Bible together for 8 weeks–more like a book club, less like a Bible study. By meeting every week in small groups and discussing what you read in open, honest conversations, you and your community can come together to be transformed through an authentic experience with the Scriptures.

3.    Aim to understand the big story. Read through “The Stories and the Story” (p. 329) to see how the books of the Bible work together to tell God’s story of his creation’s restoration. As you read through Immerse: Beginnings, rather than ask, “How do I fit God into my busy life?” begin asking, “How can I join in God’s great plan by living out my part in his story?”

And for more great Bible podcasts for Christians and small groups, check out https://lumivoz.com or search for Lumivoz in your podcast app of choice.