God Is My Shield and My Great Reward (Genesis 15:1-21)

God Is My Shield and My Great Reward

 

Genesis 15:1-21

 

In today’s capitalist society, a person is often evaluated by what he has. The size of the person’s property becomes the scale determining the height of his social status or the successfulness of his life. Using philosophical terms, we can say that ‘having’ determines ‘being.’ This is not my word but what German philosopher Erich Fromm said in explaining problems in the modern society. According to his analysis, contemporary people tend to identify “my property” with “myself.” Simply saying, “I am what I have.” That is, if one has nothing, he himself becomes nothing. In such a society, people struggle to have more in order to be greater. We are not satisfied by having enough for our living. We desire to have more without limitation and not knowing satisfaction. It is because ‘being’ is fully dependent on ‘having.’ In order to be somebody, one has to have something. Under this paradigm, people compete with one another fiercely. Then, the world is becoming a violent jungle where predators devour their preys. However, the Bible guides us into a totally different world. This is a realm ruled by God. In this realm, being is not determined by having. It is the opposite. That is, being determines having. This is the point of what I want to say through today’s message.

 

The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” This word of the Lord suggests that Abram fell in fear at that time. What made Abram fearful? According to today’s passage, there were two issues between God and Abram. one was about the son, and the other was about the land. When God called Abram about 10 years ago, God promised Abram to make him into a great nation (12:2), and to give the land to his offspring (12:7). Still, however, Abram was childless, and did not own a patch of land. At that time, he was very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold (13:2). Nevertheless, he did not have a son who would inherit the property. For the worse, as he and his wife Sarai grew older, their hope of having a son was also fading away. Furthermore, considering Abram wandering here and there without any land to settle down, his great wealth could be an attractive target for the ferocious people in the foreign land. In this way, although Abram obeyed God’s calling, he did not get anything so far. Seeing himself without a son and without land, Abram fell in despair. Having nothing, he thought himself “nothing.”

 

To Abram as such, the Lord said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Here God introduces himself to Abram as “your shield” and “your great reward,” not just a shield and reward but “your” shield and “your” great reward. With this word, God told Abram about “His Being” to Abram. That is, God’s being is deeply connected to Abram. God wanted to be some being “in his relationship with Abram.” He wanted to be Abram’s shield and Abram’s very great reward. God wanted to protect Abram from every risk and threat and God himself to be Abram’s joy and meaning. The Bible describes God’s being in many different ways. The Lord is merciful and faithful (Psalm 115:1). The Lord never gives up his plan and does all that he pleases (Isaiah 46:10). Nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:17). These words do not just for explaining how God is. These words reveal what kind of being God is “to me.” Therefore, while listening to God’s word, we must always listen “in the relationship between God and me.”

 

God the Lord is Abram’s shield and his very great reward. This does not mean that God is Abram’s possession, but indicates the intimate relationship between God and Abram. That is, Abram trusts and rejoices God, and God protects and blesses Abram. This is “a living relationship” based on love and faith. Having or possession is also a kind of relationship between the owner and the owned. With regard to this relationship, however, Erich Fromm called it as “a dead relationship.” I own property but there is no living value such as “love” or “faith” between me as the owner and the property as the owned. According to Erich Fromm, a more fearful truth is that it seems that I possess my property but, as a matter of fact, I am possessed by my property. It is because “my being” is fully dependent on “what I have” and therefore “I am not I apart from what I have.” For this reason, people, out of fear and greed, are attached to their possessions even harder, and after all, they do not possess their property but become possessed by their property.

 

Although the Lord introduced himself as “your shield and your very great reward,” Abram’s heart was still bound to his childless problem. He complained to God. “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” To Abram, having a child was an “absolutely” important matter. Without a son, God’s being his shield or reward or whatever else good thing God may give to him, it was not so meaningful. To Abram, “his having” was much more important than “God’s being.” Nevertheless, God still loved Abram and gave him a more specific and concrete promise. “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” Then, the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars if you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” Abram accepted these promises and believed the Lord. Then, God credited it to Abram as righteousness.

 

God’s promises to Aram were that the Lord would give a son through the bodies of Abram and Sarai, and Abram’s descendents would be as numerous as stars in the sky. Actually these promises were far away from Abram’s current situation. He was still childless and their old age was making it harder for them to produce a child. Apart from Abram’s realities as such, however, God gave him the “whole and perfect” promises. To God, Abram’s and Sarai’s old age and their current childlessness did not matter at all. Even God was able to give them a son right now. Then what mattered to God? What mattered to God was whether Abram believed the Lord “wholly and perfectly.” What mattered to God was Abram’s being before the Lord. God became Abram’s shield and his very great reward. As God become “a being” to Abram, the Lord also expected Abram to be “a certain being” to God. Abram was expected to be “a man who trusts and rejoices the Lord God fully.” When this “being” problem is solved, Abram’s “having” problem, namely, his childless problem is solved naturally. And we can say that when Abram believed the Lord, the problem had already been solved.

 

Through Abram’s childless problem, God shaped and molded Abram little by little. This “shaping” is Abram’s gradual change into a person who trusts and fears the Lord. As in today’s passage, Abram gave up having a son and tried to take a servant as his heir. Then, seeing his wife Sarai barren, Abram had his son Ishmael from his maid servant Hagar. As time had passed further, he finally got the promised son Isaac from his wife Sarah. When Ishmael harassed Isaac, Abram, obeying God’s instruction, sent Ishmael away. In the last part of this training, God commanded Abram to offer his one and only son Isaac to God as a burnt offering, and Abram obeyed. When Abram laid Isaac on an altar and was about to slay him, God’s angel appeared and said to him, “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abram who was willing to offer his only son to God as a burnt offering was quite a different being from Abram who was complaining to God about his childlessness in today’s passage. In the past, he did not mind to complain to God or to do whatever he could regardless of God’s will as long as he might have a son. But now, he became a man who trusted and feared the Lord. He feared God even until giving up his only son, the most precious of his having. In Genesis 22:16,17 God said to Abram: “I swear by myself that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendents will take possession of the cities of their enemies.” When Abram became a certain being before the Lord, God blessed him as much as man could not imagine even with his utmost imagination.

 

In the world, one’s having determines his being. In God, on the contrary, my being determines my having. When meditating on today’s word deeply, however, we can see that it is not my being that determines my having. It is actually “God’s being for me.” When I trust and fear the Lord and accept God’s being for me, I become a truly blessed person. In other words, the happiness of my life is fully dependent on “God’s being in me.”  God is “my shield and my very great reward.” Abram believed that God was his shield and my very great reward. Even when God did not give anything to him, even when God withheld what he had given, Abram still believed God’s being his shield and his great reward. As he believed, then, God became Abram’s shield and his great reward. When Abram became a believer, he had a lot as he believed.

 

God is my shield and my reward, and I am God’s believer and follower. In this “living relationship of love and faith,” every good thing happens and all kinds of blessings come upon our lives. In God who is mighty, what we have is not so important. God can give more or he can withhold what he has given. What is “absolutely” important to me is that the Lord be “the living, only, true God” to me. And it is that I be a person who trusts and fears the Lord wholly. Then, God pours his grace and blessing upon us in incredible ways. I pray that all of us may enter and stay in this grace and blessing.