God made a promise to Abram..."Your reward shall be very great".
But Abram couldn't see it: "You've given me nothing" (because promises don't produce a son in the moment).
God said, "I'll give you an heir". Then they looked at the stars, and Abram believed.
But then Abram asks the question we all have, nestled in the heart that wants to believe, "How will I know?"
(How will any of us know? When do His words of promise go deep enough to pull out the hope that lies buried in the trying to hold on to heart?)
God tells us to believe. He gives us His word to cling to, but it's still so blinding, this faith grasp.
So God says, "Here, I'll show you".
He called for a sacrifice, and Abram responded. God's man cuts the animals in half, and then he waits.
The sun goes down, and the birds of prey come in to attack.
There's terror and there's darkness, because for a moment, God is silent (and it only takes a moment).
There's fear, because there's no response from the One who promised. And what he was asked to sacrifice is now under attack.
Terror and great darkness surround the willing heart, and what seemed possible the moments before seems anything but now.
"Know for certain, Abram,..."
God speaks; not with just one word, or with two, but with three (because God knew the fear was deep, and the deep places need more; the deep has to come a long way for the resurrection light to seep through).
But the resurrection does come. And there would be an Isaac at the end of the sacrifice--the sacrifice that followed the one God was promising in that moment of terror and darkness. The first sacrifice sealed God's promise to die; the second one would say that Abram would be willing to die as well.
"Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life" (Psalm 42:7-8).
What was the reward God promised Abram that day? I think it was this: When the Deep calls into the deep places of our lives...where sacrifices must be made, where terror and darkness comes in to unsettle, where uncertainty reigns,...a song will rise.
And when the Deep calls to the one who has chosen to love the Deep, the deep who holds the most precious sacrifice he has will call out, "Here I am!"
And what is received won't just be great; it will be very great, just as God's word promised it would,...
"Yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform" (Romans 4:20-21).
