The Cost of Covenant

"As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him."

This dreadful and great darkness befalls Abram just as the Lord tells him that his offspring will be sojourners and slaves. I sometimes wonder if "covenant," a sharing word by nature, doesn't include the sharing of sadness and suffering. In this particular covenant, as with most of that day, the death and division of animals is involved, with both parties walking through that very death and division.

Jesus, on his trek toward the cross, tells his disciples that any follower of his must daily take up his own cross. Sharing? Sharing as part of covenant? I often talk to folks who have made a decision for Christ, or have decided to make a good change in their life, who say, "but now I'm so lonely, hurting, unsure, (you fill-in-the-blank)." But perhaps that is just the point at which we are walking with God through the covenant.

Just before this covenant, Abram has had a great victory and made a great God-honoring decision; but then it is clear that his childlessness is weighing on his mind. God tells him his plans and Abram believes him (counted as righteousness). Then, there is this deep sleep, this dreadful and great darkness, this death and division. But it is in the sharing of all this with God that the covenant is cut.

Let us not fall short of what God has for us because we are unwilling to share in the cost.