Thursday
After this (the rescue of Lot), the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward. . . .”
He (the Lord) also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other. . . .
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.”
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram.
(Genesis 15:1, 7-10a, 12-15, 17-18a, NIV)
The great Old Testament patriarch Abraham [aka Abram] had an intimate relationship with the Lord God. Hebrews 11 tells us that “by faith, Abraham, then called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going… By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise” (Hebrews 11:8, 11).
Today’s verses record God’s covenant with Abram, symbolized by the way in which the Lord passes a blazing torch between the carcasses of animals that have been halved at God’s instruction. As a part of God’s promise to Abram, the Lord tells him that you “will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age” (verse 15). In this context, the word shalom has a different meaning than we have seen so far. Here, it suggests completing one’s life in the fullness of time and dying at a good old age! To “die in peace” means to end your temporal existence when your time on earth has been completed according to God’s gracious pleasure.
The word shalom has a similar meaning when, according to Jeremiah 34:5, King Zedekiah of Judah is forewarned that Jerusalem will be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and that King Zedekiah will be captured but will not die by the sword. The Lord promises him that he will “die peacefully.” Once again, the words “die peacefully” indicates a quiet death when one’s life is fully completed.
This is the Lord’s desire for us and our family members. This is a prayer we can articulate for older parents and grandparents: that they die in shalom, not in pain, self-doubt, anguish or fear. That they die trusting the Lord, who is preparing to take them home, now that their life has been fully completed.
Prayer
Father, we praise you as the Lord of history. We are thankful that you control the events in our lives and that we can trust you. We rest in the confidence that the very length of our lives is in your hands. Amen.