LastCall: I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Bob Caldwell

God’s Promise Reaffirmed   15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 15:6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. God responds to this growing faith exhibited by Abram in Chapter 14 by giving him greater assurances of what He will produce in Abram’s life. First and foremost God promises to give Himself and all that He is as an endless treasure to Abram. When God commits Himself to us, it enables us to say with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). This foundation of our faith, God’s commitment to us, enables us to believe He will be a shield of protection, no matter who or what attacks us. That He will be an exceedingly great source of provision no matter how many losses and inadequacies we face in life. Abram responds in faith to God’s promise; he “believes.” This simple but genuine faith became the basis of Abram’s righteousness before God. In this fallen world we will not ever be able to be acceptable to God in our own righteousness. Our own righteousness is never going to be enough. But here we discover what can make us acceptable to God—faith in who God is and what He’s promised to do. That is the pathway to find acceptance before God to simply and wholly believe.
Genesis 15:1-21  God’s Covenant with Abram 1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. 7 Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” 8 And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
Abram is reassured of God’s commitment to fulfill His promises. v. 1 fear not – We are not told why Abram needed to be encouraged not to fear. What this does however reveal is that the great acts of faith and victory experienced in Chapter 14 do not leave the servant of God immune from struggling with insecurity and doubt. I am your shield – God Himself promises to be the protection and defense of Abram. This is a promise to all believers as well (2 Sam. 22:2-3; Ps. 18:1-2, 84:11, 115:11). exceeding great reward – God Himself is the greatest reward, for in Him is the source of all other things. It is for this reason the apostle Paul declared that if God has given us Christ, will not God therefore with Him “freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). v. 2 I go childless – Abram questions this promise of God (v. 1) in light of the fact that his wife is barren and thus reveals one of Abram’s greatest fears. He fears that God, who has not yet removed her barrenness, may never remove it. Eliezer – This man, who was the steward (overseer) of Abram’s wealth and household, would be the heir of all Abram’s possessions if he died childless. v. 6 he believed – This visual illustration renews Abram’s trust and confidence in God as one who created all the stars out of nothing and therefore was equally capable of creating descendants out of “nothing”—the barrenness of his wife. accounted...for righteousness – Accounted is “hasab” in Hebrew and refers to something being credited or imputed. It is an accounting term and creates the image of Abram depositing his faith in God which is credited in his account as being righteousness. Faith in God is therefore seen as the most righteous act a person can do before God. v. 8 how shall I know – Here we see Abram seeking to add to his faith by having further grounds for faith. This is reminiscent of the words spoken by a petitioner of Jesus when he said “I believe Lord, help my unbelief.”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
v. 10 each piece opposite – The larger sacrificial animals were cut in half and laid opposite each other with a walking path between them. The dove and pigeon were left whole and one laid at the end of each row. v. 11 vultures – These birds of prey likely represent the enemies of the people of God that must be withstood. v. 12 horror and great darkness – God brings Abram into a prophetic sleep that produces a deep sense of dread which speaks of intense testing that will befall Abram’s descendant. v. 13 strangers – This refers to the Jews sojourn in Egypt where they would be foreigners. four hundred years – In fact the Jews were in Egypt 430 years, after going there under Joseph to escape the famine in Palestine (Ex. 12:40). The use of 400 seems to be generalization using a round number. v. 14 I will judge – Each of the plagues that God brought upon Egypt were a judgment upon a specific false Egyptian god. An example was when the Nile was turned into blood as a judgment upon the god of the Nile the Egyptians worshipped. great possessions – The years the Jews spent in Egypt as slaves were honored by God, who allowed the Jews to leave with the wealth of Egypt to use in establishing their rule over the promised land. v. 16 iniquity of the Amorites – The Amorites, which were the largest tribe in Palestine, were used as a term that referred to all the Canaanites. God sought to wait until the judgment that the Jews would bring upon the Canaanites would be completely justified. v. 17 a smoking oven – This oven was a cylindrical fire-pot with a fiery torch or brilliant flame streaming from it. passed between – This bright flame represented God as passing through these sacrificial pieces which in their culture would be seen as ratifying this covenant between God and Abram. I have given this land – It seems that for a brief time during King Solomon’s and Jeroboam II’s reign (1 Kings 8:65; 2 Kings 14:25), the territory referred to here came under Jewish rule.

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