2814. Abraham’s Great Reward

No. 2814-49:25. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, June 14, 1877, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, January 18, 1903.

Do not fear, Abram: I am your shield, and your very great reward. {Ge 15:1}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3330, “Two Choice Assurances” 3332}
   Exposition on Ge 14:17-15:21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2814, “Abraham’s Great Reward” 2815 @@ "Exposition"}

1. You have probably heard a great many sermons on the first part of the text: “I am your shield”; so, on this occasion, I am going to leave that portion, in order more fully to consider the second part: “I am your very great reward.”

2. Notice, first, the circumstances under which these words were spoken to Abraham. It must have been in his memory that, not very long before, he had parted from his nephew Lot, and had given him his choice as to which way he would go with his flocks and his herds; and Lot, regardless of the character of the people among whom he was going to dwell, chose the well-watered plain of Jericho or Jordan, in which were the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He thought only of temporal advantages, and now he had lost everything in the battle of the four kings against five. Abraham had an eye for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, so he had not lost anything; in fact, he was able to restore to Lot all that he had lost. And now the Lord appears to him, and seems to say to him, “Your nephew Lot trusted in what he could see; he followed the leading of his own judgment, and chose what seemed to be for his own immediate advantage, and now he has lost everything. But, ‘do not fear, Abram: I am your shield, and your very great reward.’ You shall not lose. You have chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from you. You have no share of the well-watered plain of Jordan to lose. You need not fret, for you shall never lose your portion.” The patriarch might also have said, on his own account, “The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will trust in him.”

3. You, beloved, have probably seen others suffering the loss of all things, and brought to deep despair as the result; but do not be alarmed whatever happens to you. You have made God to be your refuge, and you shall find a most secure abode in him. You may have losses and afflictions; these are a part of your lot, but they shall not overwhelm you. You shall be no real losers in the end, but you shall be kept by the power of God, and shall be delivered out of every trial and affliction. He shall be to you also your shield, and your very great reward.

4. Again, Abraham had just at that time refused the gifts of the king of Sodom. They were his rightful spoil, and he might very properly have taken them, yet he would not do so, lest, later on, the king of Sodom should say, “It was not Abraham’s God who enriched him. It is no use for him to talk about living by faith, for it was my gifts, or the spoils of war that enriched him.” “No,” says Abraham, “you shall never be able to say that. Whatever I have, shall be God’s gift to me, — not the king of Sodom’s gift. I will be independent of men, I will be dependent only on the living God.” The Lord admires this spirit, so he comes, and says to his servant, “ ‘Do not fear Abram.’ Whatever you may have given up for my sake, — for my glory’s sake, — for the sake of my honour, — you shall not be a loser in any respect, for I will be your shield, and your very great reward.”

5. Have you, dear friend, made any sacrifices for Christ? Have you recently been called to imperil your own interests by pursuing the right course? Have you been steadfast even though you lost friendships? Have you been so firm in your adherence to principle that you have been judged to be obstinate? Well, if so, you shall be no loser through your faithfulness. As certainly as God is in heaven, you shall prove, in some way or other, that in keeping his commandments there is great reward. It is always a pity when any of the children of God begin to think that they can be enriched by the king of Sodom, or try to find their portion, in any measure, among the ungodly sons of men. God’s command to his people is, “ ‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘and do not touch the unclean thing’ ”; and his promise to those who do so is, “ ‘I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

6. We must also remember that, at the time the Lord spoke like this to Abraham, the patriarch was not the possessor of a single foot of the land which had been promised to him. All of it was to belong to his posterity, and, in God’s promise, Abraham held the title-deeds to the freehold. Those who were in possession were only leaseholders, and their lease would soon run out; but, at that time, Abraham did not even have a foot of ground that he could call his own; and when he wanted a sepulchre, he had to buy the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, in the presence of the children of Heth. So, in our text, the Lord seems to say to him, “Abraham, you have no possession in this land; you are a stranger and a foreigner in it; but ‘do not fear,’ I am your portion and your inheritance, — ‘your very great reward’. Although others look on you as a mere Bedouin wandering around with your flocks and herds, and pitching your tents here today and there tomorrow, with no settled resting-place, do not be troubled because of that.” It is the same with us, beloved, for the Lord has been the dwellingplace of his people in all generations, even as he was the dwellingplace of Abraham; and he would have Abraham know that it was so, and feel that he was not penniless, or landless, for the Lord was his “very great reward.”

7. One other circumstance is worth remembering. Abraham had just been paying tithes to Melchizedek, so now was just the time for the Lord to give him a blessing. Have you ever heard a sermon from the text, “ ‘Prove me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it?’ ” I have read discourses on that passage, but the common factor in the sermons has consisted in the fact that they were not honestly preached from the text, because it runs like this, “ ‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and prove me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts.” It was their bringing of the tithes that was to be the test as for the time when the blessing should be given to them, and the proof of God’s fidelity to his promise should be seen by the filling of their barns and houses by his bounty. Abraham had paid to Melchizedek, as the representative of the Most High, tithes of everything; then came the blessing: “Do not fear, Abram: I am your shield, and your very great reward.” Solomon’s word is still true, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases; and there is one who withholds more than is fitting, but it tends to poverty.” The most impoverishing money in the world is God’s money locked up in his own steward’s possession, — left to canker and to rust among the gifts of his providence; — not the man’s own possession at all, but stolen from his Master, embezzled, so that he might accumulate more and more, to die a little richer, and so be unfaithful to his stewardship. Oh my brethren, this may seem to some of you a thing about which we ought not to speak; but we will hold our tongue about nothing that is a part of the duty of Christians and the will of the Lord; and since we do believe that many professors bring a curse on themselves through neglect of this duty, we must speak of it. You will find that, in faithfully serving the Lord in this matter, he will give you such a blessing on your substance that you shall praise his name that he ever taught you the value of self-sacrifice and self-denial, and showed you how to consecrate your substance to him.

8. These are the circumstances under which these words were spoken to Abraham. Now let us consider the text itself: “I am your very great reward”; and let us ask, first, What is this reward? Secondly, What are the excellencies of this very great reward? And, thirdly, What then?

9. I. First, then, let us enquire, WHAT IS THIS REWARD? “I am your very great reward.”

10. It is not the land of Canaan. That was to be given to Abraham, but that was not his great reward. It is not a posterity, though he pined for it. No, it is not anything that God will give him; it is God himself. I — I — Jehovah, — the Hebrew is particularly emphatic in setting apart the word, “I, Jehovah, am your very great reward.” The Lord himself is the portion of his people. When Canaan was divided, there was a lot for Judah, and for Simeon, and for Reuben, and so on; but as for the Levites, the Lord was their portion, and we are like the Levites, as many of us who have believed in the Lord. The Lord is our portion, and he is such a portion as excels everything else that we might have.

11. I do not think that any human mind can ever grasp the fulness of meaning of these four words, “I am your reward,” — God himself the reward of his faithful people. This I feel sure of — that, although I can enjoy the sweetness of this text for myself, my feeble lips can never express even the hundredth part of its precious meaning; therefore, my brethren, do not depend on me, but appropriate the text for yourselves. Do not be content for me to cook and carve for you, but come and cut from the joint for yourselves, and cut large slices, too. Let each man take for himself all that he needs out of this glorious text as he meditates on it.

12. Think what a reward it is for us even to know God. Years ago, we knew that there was a God; at least, we heard so, but he was a perfect stranger to us. We never recognised him. Possibly, we asked his blessing on our meals, but it was a mere form. We did not see his hand in everything; in fact, we lived almost as if there was no God. If there had really been no God, probably we should have been all the happier. But now we know him; we know that he made the heavens and the earth, that he is the Preserver of men, and we see his hand in every gift of providence. As we walk around the earth, we are accustomed to say, “These are his glorious works. My Father made them all. Here is God’s pencil painting each flower. Here is God riding on the wings of the wind, and there is God walking on the waves of the sea. To us, God is everywhere.” It has made life so happy, — at least, I speak for myself, — to feel, “My God is everywhere.” Perhaps you remember that simple story of Mungo Park, {a} when he was lost in Africa, reviving his spirits by looking at a little piece of moss, and admiring its beauty, and saying, “Here is God at work even here,” and feeling that, if God was there, he was not really lost, he was still safe enough, for his Father was close at hand. It is worth while living when we have come into a practical recognition of God, when we have made the acquaintance of that glorious Divine Being who fills all in all. If we never had any reward but this, this would be a great one.

13. But we have gone on from knowing God to loving him, which is much more. A good man once said, “If God did not love me, yet if he would only allow me to love him for ever, I think that I could not be unhappy.” Surely you must know that to love God is a most blessed emotion. To look up to him in all his excellence and goodness; to admire him with all your heart; to realize that your lip cannot sufficiently extol him, or your mind think highly enough of him; this is a most profitable exercise. The very thought of God, for a man who truly loves him, is ecstasy. If my eternity could be spent in a dungeon with my heart full of love for God, it could not be an unhappy experience to live like that.

14. But, behind this, there is a far greater thing. Brethren, we know that God loves us. I never dare to try to speak about this great truth; it is a thing to think over rather than to talk about. I like to get away quietly in a corner, and just try to roll this sweet morsel under my tongue, to suck at it until I draw the very essence out of it, — God loves me; or, as the hymn puts it, —

    “I am so glad that Jesus loves me.”

For God to think about me, is something; for him to pity me, is more; for him to help me practically, is even more; but for him to love me, this is the greatest wonder of all. You know how you, being evil, love your own children; but your Heavenly Father loves you far more. You husbands know how you love your wives, yet there is One who loves his Church far more, for he gave himself for her. God loves you, my brother, God loves you, my sister, if, indeed, you have been brought to believe in Jesus; and to know this great truth is to have a “very great reward,” because, if God loves us, everything must be right.

15. I was going on to say what he would do for us, but it seems to be almost too selfish to go into those details; for, since he loves us, what is there that he will not do for us? Why! he has already done more for us than he ever can do in the future. He has already given to us his greatest gift, for he has given his Son to us, and in doing so he has given us all things. Your Father loves you, dear child of God, and therefore he will continue to feed you, and clothe you, and teach you, and support you, and preserve you, and educate you, until he has made you fit to see his blessed face, and then you shall no longer be here at school, but go home to dwell in his blessed presence for ever and for ever. Is this not a “very great reward,” — to know God, to love him, and to be loved by him? What more can we desire than this?

16. Yet we have even more than this; for, loving God, we come to realize that we have possession of him, so that we can say, “This God is our God for ever and ever.” We say of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” We have bowed before him, as Thomas did, and cried, “My Lord and my God.” Just think, for a minute, dear friends, what the possession of God means. God is yours in everything that he is. His omnipotence is pledged to strengthen you, — his omniscience is engaged to direct you. All his attributes are employed on your behalf. He is present everywhere; and, therefore, he will show himself strong everywhere for your defence. He is immutable, so he does not change in his love for you. He is eternal, so his mercy endures for ever. Even the sterner attributes of God smile on the saint; his justice, his righteousness, his glory, are all on the side of every believer. You say, “I am poor”; but how can you be poor with such a rich Father? You say, “I am heavy-hearted because of my low estate.” What! with God as yours, with Father, Son, and Spirit yours, — the everlasting God, the Creator of heaven and earth; as your Father and your Friend for ever and for ever; how can you be troubled by reason of the lowliness of your circumstances? Brother, chide your heart for its foolishness, end your sighing, and begin to sing. When we have God as our possession, we have a “very great reward.”

17. And the reward seems to grow all the greater as, in the course of years, God’s infinite mercy has transformed us, at least in part, into his likeness. God is so fully ours that we enter into fellowship with him, and receive his sacred influences until we are changed into his image, even by the Holy Spirit. As you read the story of Abraham, you can see many of the attributes of God reflected in the character of his noble servant. Now, child of God, you should mourn that you are so little like God, but you should also rejoice that you are already made somewhat like him; and that, when he shall appear, in whom your life is hidden, you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. Oh, it is worth while to have lived, is it not, notwithstanding all the cares of life, when this is to be the end of it all? Though man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward, blessed be God for an existence that has for its purpose that we should be made partakers of the divine likeness, and should be lifted up to be the sons and daughters of the Most High, and dwell with him in perfection for ever. I thank God for the great truth of the immortality of the soul with all the dreadful risks of everlasting wrath that surround it. It is worth the risk to have the possibility of becoming like God; and we, who have believed in Jesus, have gone beyond the possibility, for we have the earnest and the assurance, the pledge and the sign of the good work begun within us, which, when it is perfected, shall make us like God himself.

18. Oh my soul, bow yourself before the Lord in reverent and adoring gratitude! You were almost like the devil by nature, and what are you even now? You are dust and Deity combined, for the Holy Spirit dwells in you. That body of yours must crumble back to dust, and, eventually, it shall be remade, in glory, and in power, and then, creature as you are, you shall be near and like your God. Is this not a “very great reward” even now to be in process of preparation for so wonderful a climax as that?

19. I must also mention that God is our “very great reward” in another sense, namely, that he condescends to visit us, and speak with us. We have been moved by divine influences. I am, of course, addressing myself only to those who have been born from above, and are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. On you, beloved, God has already bestowed a great reward, for he has raised you from your death of sin, and his Spirit resides in you, fashioning and forming you into perfection. And the Lord has, I trust, often spoken with you. If not often, whose fault has it been? Some of us can testify that he has drawn very near to our spirits at times. Do you not remember some happy times when you felt that you could not have borne any more delight? I mean, when you were so happy that, to have been happier might have made you run the risk of death from excess of joy. Oh, the indescribable bliss, the heavenly joys, of a soul when it feels the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit who is given to it!

20. II. The time will not allow me to say more on that point, so now I come to enquire, in the second place, WHAT ARE THE EXCELLENCIES OF THE GREAT REWARD WHICH IS PROMISED IN THE TEXT?

21. Notice, first, that it is an infinite reward: “I am your reward.” Anything earthly that God pleases to give to us, we can take away, — carry it off, and house it somewhere. But when God says, “I am your reward,” we pause, and look, with mingled wonder, love, and praise. This reward is incomprehensible; who can carry it away? Who can even measure it? Who can fathom the depths of this ocean, or soar to this vast height? God gives to other men health, wealth, fame, pleasure; but to you, beloved, he gives himself. Their gifts are no more comparable to yours than the darkness is to the sun. In giving you himself, he has given you all that he is; truly, that is an infinite portion.

22. Then, next, this is a spiritual reward. There are some people, who will not value it because of this very excellency; and this may be a test between the regenerate and the unregenerate. The ungodly say, “If God will only give us our barns full of wheat, and our wine-press bursting with new wine, if he will only fill our purses with gold, and our houses with all kinds of earthly delights, that will be enough for us.” But you, believer, are of another mind, for you have seen through the emptiness and vanity of all material things. You say, “What is the mere pleasure of eating and drinking when a beast is my associate? What if I have honour among my fellow mortals? What is it but so much breath from other men’s nostrils, — so much clapping of the hands of fools? That is all it really is.” What is there beneath the sun that, for a man who is born by God, is worth his stooping down to pick it up? But when he gets his God, the new-born spirit within him, which hungers with an infinite hunger for the highest good, says, “Here I have all that I want. Father, Son, and Spirit, blessed Trinity, you are mine. My awakened spirit feels that this is a sea in which I can swim for ever. This is the element in which I can truly live.” To possess God is a great spiritual blessing, so the declaration of the text is true, “I am your very great reward.”

23. Notice, next, that this is an eternal reward, for he who has God as his own shall never lose him, since God does not change; and he shall never exhaust him, for who would even think that he can drain dry the infinite all-sufficiency of Jehovah? If God is yours, you have all for today, tomorrow, for time, for eternity, — all for every difficulty and circumstance of life, — all for the tremendous terrors of the day of judgment, — all for the ages of ages that shall never end; what more can you need?

24. To have God is, also, most ennobling. I do not know that there is anything in a great deal of wealth to make a man noble. Many men seem to get more greedy the more money they have; their soul cleaves to their dust. But he who gets God as his own, oh, what a privileged man he is! Talk about princes, here is a prince indeed. Emperors and great ones of the earth, — you may put as many of them as you please into a barrel, but, if they are not saved by the grace of God, they are not worthy, in the sight of God, of being compared with the poorest, weakest, most despised of all his people, to whom he is a “very great reward.” Oh you great ones of the earth, you might well be content to become beggars if you might only have God to be your everlasting portion!

25. And what a soul-satisfying portion and reward this is! If you have God as yours, my soul, sit down, and see if you can think of anything else; you cannot do so. Try and let your desires ramble over other fields; untether them, and give them liberty. But what can they ask for, seek for, wish for, beyond God himself? There are, alas! some Christians who do not seem to believe the truth of this, and they get dissatisfied with God. You have been serving the Master, my brother or sister, for some months; perhaps it is in the Sunday School that you have been working, but no one has taken much notice of you, the superintendent has not praised you, so you are discouraged. But, remember that, when you serve God, he is your reward.

26. “Oh, but, sir! I have been trying to do good in many ways. I have laboured hard, but people only misrepresent me.” Did you look for your reward in that way? If you did, I am glad that you are disappointed, because God says, “I am your reward.” To know that you love God, and that he loves you, that he is yours, and you are his, — that is reward enough for you. “Oh, but!” says a minister, “you do not really know how badly I have been treated. I have had many years of service in my congregation, and they are most ungrateful, and do not appreciate me, and even want to get rid of me.” But, my brother, God does not want to get rid of you; and he will appreciate you, for he loves you with an infinite love. Why did you look to men and women for your reward? A man may have no other rewards if he is content with God as his reward; but he who has any sinister or even secondary aim, in what he does in the cause of God, spoils it all. This is the fly in the precious ointment. We must get rid of everything of this kind, and be just as satisfied to serve God amid slander and reproach as we are to serve him amid the acclamations of the multitude.

27. “It is not easy to do that,” one says. No, beloved, nothing is easy that is good, except to God, and you must go to him to enable you to act like that. But never shun a duty because you think it is difficult. Sit down with your Lord alone, and he will speak to you, and comfort you, and strengthen you. Remember how Elkanah comforted his wife Hannah when she sorrowed because she had no children: “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” And as he drew her close to him, and she felt the warm glow of his loving heart, she realized that it was even so, and that gave her rest; and the Lord seems to draw each weary, sad, disappointed labouring one to him, and say, “Am I not better to you than all the praises of men? Am I not better to you than wealth? Am I not better to you than the health that you have lost? Am I not better to you than all the world besides?” And what is your answer? Surely it is this, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is no one on earth that I desire besides you.” Oh God, bring us to that blessed position, and keep us there! Then we shall have drunk in the meaning of our text, “I am your shield, and your very great reward.”

28. III. My third question is, WHAT THEN? Since God is our very great reward, what then?

29. First, it is quite clear that the rewards which are given to believers are by grace, and not by debt. Do you not see that in the text? Look at it again, and you will perceive it at once. If God is the reward of his people, it is not possible that any being could ever deserve to have God as his reward. It is very possible that a man should deserve the esteem of his fellow men, and I think that most people deserve what they really earn. It would be good if some could have more than they receive; wages are often less than they should be. We may deserve more money than we get, but there is no one who ever deserved God. To deserve heaven, has never been possible yet; but even if it had been, that would not be so much as deserving God. This is too big a portion ever to come to us on the basis of law, and merit, and good works; so, when the Lord says, “I am your reward,” it must be all of grace, and there is no possibility of earning this reward. When the men went into the vineyard, and agreed with the householder for a penny a day, they earned it; but when the reward is God himself, there is no one who has ever earned that, or who ever can do so. So, my soul, sing of free and sovereign grace; let your life song be —

    “Free grace and dying love,” —

because the portion you have received is such as could have come to you on no other terms than those of free, rich, almighty, covenant, everlasting grace; and therefore let God be glorified for ever and ever.

30. I want to call your attention, next, to the fact that, according to our text, we hold God on a very sure tenure; because, what a man holds as a reward, he knows to be his own. “Why!” he says, “I won this, and I may well hold it firmly.” Now, brethren, you and I have never deserved God. I have told you that is impossible, but he is as surely ours as if we had earned him, for he is our reward. A man, I say again, feels the utmost assurance that anything that comes to him as a reward is really his. Let us feel the same assurance and brave confidence concerning God, and even more than if we stood on the basis of deservings. “I am your reward,” says the Lord; then, “let no man cheat you out of your reward.” Hold it firmly; do not let the devil himself take it from you, or rob you of your joy in it. It is yours so surely and so safely that you may at all times rejoice in it as being yours on the most certain tenure.

31. Another practical thought may come in here; if God is our reward, let us take care that we really enjoy him. Let us exalt in him, and let us not be pining after any other joy. You have to go and live in a lonely place, where you will have few encouragements; but you will still have your God, so how can you feel lonely? You are coming down in earthly circumstances; your income is decreasing; but your God is not any less than he was, so you are not really a loser. One dear friend after another is being taken away from you; there is a great probability that the dearest one you have will soon go to the grave; yet the Lord lives, so blessed be your Rock. Rejoice in him. Possibly, you are soon going to the grave yourself; years are telling on you, and increasing weakness proves that, before long, you must put off this tabernacle. Well, even if it is so, he who is your All-in-all will not die. This world is not your rest or your portion; you are not, therefore, losing your portion, you are going home to it, for the Lord himself is “your shield, and your very great reward.”

{a} Mungo Park (September 11, 1771-1806) was a Scottish explorer of the African continent. He was the first Westerner known to have travelled to the central portion of the Niger River. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mungo_Park_(explorer)"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ge 14:17-15:21}

14:17, 18. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was the priest of the Most High God.

One who exercised both the kingship and the priesthood, — the only person that we know of who did this, and who, therefore, is a wonderful type of that marvellous King-Priest of whom we read in the 110th Psalm, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

19, 20. And he blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the Most High God, which has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him tithes of everything.

It must have been particularly refreshing to Abraham to be met by a man of kindred spirit, and one whom he recognised as his superior. No doubt he was weary, though triumphant; and so, just then, the Lord sent him special refreshment, and, beloved, how sweet it is for us when the greater Melchizedek meets us! Jesus Christ our great King-Priest, still meets us, and brings us bread and wine. Often, the very symbols on his table have been refreshing to us, but their inner meaning has been far more sustaining and comforting to our spirit. There is no food like the bread and wine that our blessed Melchizedek brings out for us, even his own flesh and blood. Well may we give him tithes of all that we have. Indeed more, we may say to him, “Do not just take tithes, oh Lord, but take it all!”

21. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and take the goods for yourself.”

They were all Abraham’s by right as the spoils of war.

22, 23. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to the LORD, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’:

Sometimes, a child of God will find himself cast, through force of circumstances, into very curious companionship. For the sake of Lot, Abraham had to go and fight the enemies of the king of Sodom; and sometimes, in fighting for religious liberty, we have had to be associated with people from whom we differ as much as Abraham differed from the king of Sodom; but right must be fought for under all circumstances. Yet, sooner or later, there comes a crucial test in which our true character will be revealed. Shall we personally gain anything by this association? We loathe it even while we recognise that it is necessary for the time being, but we have not entered it for the sake of personal gain.

24. Except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

They had a right to it. What we do ourselves, we do not always expect others to do. There is a higher code of morals for the servant of God than for other men; and we may often think of what they do, and not condemn them, although we could not do the same ourselves, for we are placed into a higher position as the servant of the Lord.

15:1-3. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram: I am your shield, and your very great reward.” And Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is my heir.”

Perhaps he did not doubt the promise, but he wanted to have it explained to him. He may have wondered if it meant that one born in his house, though not his son, was to be his heir; and that, through him, the blessing would come. He takes the opportunity of making an enquiry, so that he may know how to act. At the same time, there does seem to be a clashing between Abraham’s question, “What will you give me?” and the declaration of God, “I am your shield, and your very great reward.” There is a great descent from the language of the Lord to that of the most stable believer; and when you and I are even at our best, I have no doubt that, if all could be recorded that we think and say, some of our fellow believers would feel that the best of men are only men at the best, and that God’s language is of a nobler kind than ours will ever be, until we have seen his face in glory.

4, 5. And, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This shall not be your heir; but he who shall come out of your own body shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside, and said, “Look now towards heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to number them”: and he said to him, “So shall your seed be.”

Now his faith was tried indeed; he had no child, he himself was old, and his wife was also old, yet the Lord’s promise was, “So shall your seed be” as the stars of heaven. Could he believe it? He did.

6. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Oh, what a blessing to learn the way of simple faith in God! This is the saving quality in many a life. Look through Paul’s list of the heroes of faith; some of them are very imperfect characters, some we should hardly have thought of mentioning, but they had faith; and although men, in their faulty judgment, think faith to be an inferior virtue, and often scarcely look at it as a virtue at all, yet, in the judgment of God, faith is the most supreme virtue. “This,” said Christ, “is the work of God,” — the greatest of all works, — “that you believe in him whom he has sent.” To trust, to believe, this shall be counted to us for righteousness even as it was to Abraham.

7, 8. And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?”

What! Abraham, is not God’s promise sufficient for you? Oh father of the faithful, though you do believe, and are counted as righteous through believing, do you still ask, “How shall I know?” Ah, beloved! faith is often marred by a measure of unbelief; or, if not quite unbelief, yet there is a desire to have some token, some sign, beyond the mere promise of God.

9-11. And he said to him, “Bring me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.” And he took to him all these, and cut them in two, and laid each piece opposite each another: but he did not divide the birds. And when the fouls came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Here is a lesson for us. Perhaps you have some of these unclean birds coming down on your sacrifice just now. That raven that you did not lock up well at home, has come here after you. Eagles and vultures, and all kinds of kites in the form of carking cares, and sad memories, and fears, and doubts, come hovering over the sacred feast. Drive them away; may God give you grace to drive them away by the power of his gracious Spirit!

12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell on him.

He had asked for a revelation, a sign, a token; and, lo, it comes in the “horror of great darkness.” Do not be afraid, beloved, if your soul sometimes knows what horror is. Remember how the favoured three, on the Mount of Transfiguration, “feared as they entered into the cloud”; yet it was there that they were to see their Master in his glory. Remember what the Lord said to Jeremiah concerning Jerusalem and his people, “They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure for it.” That is the right spirit in which to receive prosperity, but as for adversity, rejoice in it, for God often sends the richest treasures to his children in wagons drawn by black horses. You may expect that some great blessing is coming near to you when a “horror of great darkness” falls on you.

13. And he said to Abram, “Know for certainty that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them for four hundred years;

It was to be a long while before the nation should enter into its inheritance. Here is a promise that was to take four hundred years to happen! Some of you cannot believe the promise if its fulfilment is delayed for four days; you can hardly keep on praying, if it takes four years; what would you think of a four hundred years’ promise? Yet it was to be so long in coming to maturity because it was so vast. If Abraham’s seed was to be like the stars of heaven for multitude, there must be time for the increase to happen.

14-17. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, I will judge: and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. And you shall go to your forefathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” And it happened, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

True emblems of the Church of God with her smoke and her light, — her trying affliction, yet the grace by which she still keeps burning and shining in the world.

18-21. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

He mentions the adversaries to show how great would be the victories of the nation that should come and dispossess them. Let us always look at the list of our difficulties as only a catalogue of our triumphs. The greater our troubles, the louder our song at the last.