OUR LORD WHO IS OUR FORTRESS AND OUR REWARD

Genesis 15 verses 1 - 3 records a vision that Abram had  where a conversation between he and the Lord God took place. It reads this way;

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 

 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

In the preceding verses in chapter 14, Abram, after returning from the daring rescue of members of his household and other households that were raided, declined to take a share of the plunder that came from the rescue mission.

In this context, the Lord assured Abram that the Lord himself would protect him as a fortress and that the Lord would be his very great reward.

This was certainly a very lavish promise by the Lord to Abram but Abram responded in way that revealed the foremost fear in his heart.

Abram brought up before the Lord the fact that he had no heir and thus, the reward he would gain would only fall to his servant Eliezer.

Abram's fear may have concealed from him the depth of the assurance that the Lord God had offered him.

While Abram was considering the things like goods and land that could be inherited from one person to another, the Lord had offered Himself as Abram's shield and his very great reward. In other words, God was saying that Abram would be getting the Lord as his eternal protector and eternal reward which would  be a vastly superior inheritance to any earthly belongings.

The Lord, in an awesome gesture of grace and magnanimity, showed Abram the eternal scope of his reward by pointing out to him the stars in the night sky and revealing to him that his descendants would be as numerous as the uncountable stars and that the promised heir whom he did not yet have, would be the one through whom the reward of God would come.

Let us bless our Lord who kept His promise to Abram and through the Son of God who died for the whole world, redeemed even us to join in the vast family that is Abram's promise from God.

Amen.