You Can't Prey Here

A Reflection on the First Reading for March 17th, 2019:
Second Sunday of Lent

​Genesis 15:5-12,17-18 


Taking Abram outside, the Lord said, ‘Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can.’ ‘Such will be
your descendants,’ he told him. Abram put his faith in the Lord, who counted this as making him justified.

‘I am the Lord’ he said to him ‘who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to make you heir to this land.’ ‘My Lord,’ Abram replied ‘how am I to know that I shall inherit it?’ He said to him, ‘Get me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these, cut them in half and put half on one side and half facing it on the other; but the birds he did not cut in half. Birds of prey came down on the carcases but Abram drove them off.

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, there appeared a smoking furnace and a firebrand that went between the halves. That day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram in these terms:

‘To your descendants I give this land,
from the wadi of Egypt to the Great River.’

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Abram – better known to us as Abraham – is a fascinating figure. We see him here at a pivotal moment in salvation history. Abram receives the covenant, a promise from the Lord for a home and generations of descendants. A beautiful moment that reveals things about God and things about Abram.

I think what really struck me about this passage, though, was less the offering itself, and more Abram’s reaction to the birds of prey. He drives them off. If you know anything about birds of prey, this is no easy task. They’re persistent and would have been drawn to the scent both during the carving up of the animals and as Abram waited for night to fall. I wonder how that felt, that time between when he offered up the animals and when night fell and the smoking furnace and firebrand appeared. How much trust would Abram have needed?

How many times has the Lord made clear to me the exact offering He wanted from me, but the time between my offering it and the Lord using it has been a source of anxiety for me? How hard has the struggle been to hold fast and chase off the birds of prey? Faith in what we have not seen doesn’t just apply to our final end of Heaven, but also to all those little moments in our lives when God calls us to trust that our offering is seen and will be used.

"Faith in what we have not seen doesn’t just apply to our final end of Heaven, but also to all those little moments in our lives when God calls us to trust that our offering is seen and will be used."

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I know when that moment comes, when the furnace and the firebrand appear, I’m awed and grateful. Even though my trust hasn’t always stood firm. The thing Abram does that I know I can learn from is how he actively monitors his offering. He chases off the birds. He protects his offering for the right moment. We all have offerings that the Lord asks of us and equally we all have those birds of prey in our lives. The devil prowls about with greater ferocity than any bird, but if we trust in the Lord and keep aware of those occasions of spiritual attack, we can be there to witness the miracles God has planned.

Abram is an old man when the Lord finally gives him a son, but Abram is stalwart, gives his offerings in total trust and ensures the birds of prey cannot destroy those offerings. God has offered us the greatest land, Heaven, and has given us the most glorious family, the Body of Christ. What more proof do we need for the Lord’s promises?

Let us Pray:
Lord, we thank you for the love you have shown your children from age to age. Help us to be faithful servants like Abraham, trusting in the promises you have made to us. Teach us to recognize the birds of prey in our lives that seek to snatch away our offerings and strengthen us for the battle. We ask this humbly through the Most Holy Name of Your Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Stephanie Potter

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