Genesis 15:1-7: a reflection

1After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 2Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.” 4Behold, the LORD’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” 5The LORD brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.” 6He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness. 7He said to Abram, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

God comes to Abram with an astonishing promise and an even more astonishing gift of himself: Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield, your very great reward. But Abram is troubled by one glaring problem: he is childless, and all God's promises of descendants seem impossible. God takes him outside and says, Look at the stars; count them if you can; so shall your offspring be. And then the pivotal verse: Abram believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Notice what faith looks like here. Abram had every reason not to believe. He was old, childless, and the promise of descendants as countless as the stars flew in the face of all the evidence. Yet he believed the LORD, took God at his word against the visible facts, and that faith was credited to him as righteousness. His right standing with God came not from achievement but from simply trusting God's promise. This is the verse the whole gospel of grace is built on.

And notice the greatest gift in the passage: before any promise of stars, God says, I am your shield, your very great reward. The reward is not merely what God gives; it is God himself. Whatever you are waiting on God for, against whatever discouraging evidence, this is faith: to take God at his word, as Abram did, and to know that the greatest reward is not the thing promised but the God who promises. Believe him against the odds, and rest in the God who is himself your reward.

Lord, Abram believed your promise against all the evidence of his childlessness, and it was credited to him as righteousness. When I am waiting on you against discouraging odds, give me that faith: to take you at your word rather than trust only what I can see. And remind me that you yourself are my shield and my very great reward, greater than anything you give. Let me rest in you.