God is Our Reward

October 2 2022

Genesis 15

         Well, the days of autumn have at last arrived and these cool damp mornings seem to be the perfect time for taking walks in the little woods next to our house. And taking walks is what I find I spend a lot of my time doing because as many of you know, Jennifer and I have a dog named Mazy. For whatever reason, Mazy has decided that she needs some one to tag along with her when she goes on her hunting trips in the woods which means that I get to go with her. Now, she doesn’t just want one trip to the woods, oh no, she wants sometimes four trips a day. Its either go with her or listen to her whine until you can’t stand it anymore and then take a walk with her.So, I spend a lot of time in the woods watching my nine pound fox terrier/Italian greyhound mix run at break neck speeds through the woods in hot pursuit of whatever squirrel or chipmunk just happens to be at the wrong place. The best way to describe her is to imagine giving a child a candy bar and a can of Mountain Dew and then taking them to a playground. Mazy runs and jumps and pursues with abandon, running from one brush pile to another, furiously hunting the lead of some scent she has picked up. I have to admit, I don’t do much walking in the woods; my chipmunk hunting skills are pretty bad, so I just to get to be the voice of encouragement. What is interesting though is that when I grow bored with watching Mazy attempt to catch the umpteenth critter of the day and head for home, Mazy quite often comes tagging along side of me. I find this kind of fascinating because I know how much she loves hunting in the woods yet even so, she, by her actions is telling me that she would rather be with me, going where I’m going than doing anything else. If you wonder why she is treated like a princess, there’s your answer.

         As I ponder on Mazy wanting to be with me more than she wants to do what she enjoys more than anything else in the world, I wonder just how bad do I want to be with God? I mean, if we think of our lives, and the things we just so really enjoy and desire, have you ever thought, as much as I love doing these activities, you know, I still would rather just want to be with God and go with God wherever he is going? What made me go down this rabbit hole of thought is something God tells Abram one day, that God was to be for Abram his exceedingly great reward. Just what was God trying to tell Abram and us when he whispers this in our ear? A reward, as we well know, is what we receive when all is said and done, that which hold on to at the end of the day, that which we say is what we treasure most and the one thing that has made giving up all other treasures understandable. So, when we hear the God is to be for us, the children of Abraham our exceedingly great reward, we our confronted by this statement because only we can really say for certain that God is, for us, a treasure to be desired above all else.

         There is, though a very good reason why God expects that he is for us to  be thought of as an exceedingly great reward, and that is something God says to Abram which overwhelmed his senses, that which we are told came to him in a vision, which is that God tells Abram, that God would be for Abram, a shield. You have to admit, this seems a rather odd image that God uses here to describe himself. I mean, just what is God trying to communicate to Abram, when he tells him that it is God who is his shield? Certainly, this image of a shield would have been on the mind of Abram as he has just returned from the battlefield having defeated the kings who had taken his kinfolk captive.  So its as if God is saying to Abram, do you remember how in battle you had you shield in your hand to protect you from sword and arrows, this is who I am to be for you. As we consider just how it is that God is to be a shield for Abram, what we also must hang on to is what God first promised Abram is that God was going to bless Abram, make out of him a mighty nation, and make his name great and if that were not enough, God through Abram, was going to bless all of the families of the earth. This is an extraordinary promise that is given to Abram, yet what is hard to pin down is just how do we define the meaning of this word, “blessed”? It has overtones of one person being gracious to another, of creating for another a place of happiness, of an abundant life, overflowing with peace and goodness. So, to this rather vague understanding of what God means when he says that he is going to bless Abram, and through Abram, ultimately us, in our scripture for today, I believe God is defining further what is meant  in this act of blessing. What God is saying is that he blesses us by being for us our shield.

         As it turns out, this idea that God is to be for us our shield is a very major theme as we move forward in the story laid out in the Bible. When you think about what a shield does, its easy to figure out that a shield comes between the person carrying it and whatever danger is thrown at them. So, this is what God is telling Abram, that God is going to come between Abram and whatever comes against him. So, here for the first time, we hear of God promising to Abram that he will be, in some way, his salvation. Abram has, apparently, done nothing to warrant such a gracious act by God, it is simply promised to him for no other reason than God desired to do so. This then just begs the question that if Abram has done nothing to warrant such an act on the part of God than why has God decided to do such a thing, to place himself between that which might come against Abram and the life of Abram. The answer is that God treasured Abram. When God tells Abram that it was God who was to be Abram’s great reward, he is simply stating that Abram was to think about God in the very same manner as God first had thought of him. In this way, what God is doing is defining their relationship, making it perfectly clear to Abram, that God treasured him to the extent that he was placing himself in the path of whatever might harm Abram because God treasured Abram and more than anything, God wanted to be with Abram forever. All God was hoping is that Abram might also reciprocate with a heartfelt acknowledgement that for Abram there was nothing more valuable to him than his relationship with God. Do you see how what God conveyed to Abram in a vision, here in the very first book of the Scriptures, becomes the central heartbeat of the story of God’s love affair with humanity which culminates in the revelation of Jesus?

         You see, these few sentences telling of a vision that Abram had where he understands that God will forever be his shield, this cannot and should not be, in some way disconnected with the rest of what we learn in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. Paul, quite famously, reaches back through scripture and latches on what is told to us here in the story of Abram, to teach his audience that it was by faith that God reckoned Abram was righteous in his eyes. Yet, what cannot be forgotten is that what is the foundation for Abram’s declaration of faith is this strange vision that he had where at last he understood that God was his shield and his most exceedingly great reward was God alone. When Abram was convinced that God was willing to place himself between whatever might come against Abram, when Abram then knew that God was pledging to be the one to preserve Abram’s life through his constant presence, all because God treasured Abram and wanted to be with Abram always, when we know all this then Abram believing in God seems to be just a foregone conclusion. I mean, if God treasures us enough to step in between us and whatever might take our life, why would we ever hesitate when he then asks us to trust him? What this story of Abram is teaching us is that we first must understand just how much God treasures us so that we might know God as our exceedingly great reward because if we do not first know God in this way we will have some other treasure that we desire other than God and God will become but a means to acquire that treasure. This belief that God exists to be the power which can obtain for us our greatest desire is the way of idolatry, a way that destroys our relationship with God. No, what matters most in our relationship with God is that we know just how much he treasures us so that we in turn treasure him above all else.

         What Abram desired is to have a family, a legacy which would continue on after his death. When the voice of God whispered in his ear that out of Abram would come a great nation it is understandable that Abram knew that at last, here was a chance for him to have what his heart desired most. Yet even so, what God desired is that he was loved and treasured and known as more than just some creative power which could be at a person’s beck and call. This is why it is important that Abram knew God as being his shield and that God was to be his exceedingly great reward before God could even bring up what he had promised to Abram. Where God had to bring Abram is to the point where he would ask God just who it was that he would give his reward, the richness of his relationship with God, who would receive this treasure after Abram was no longer walking this earth. At last then Abram had come to a point where his concern was not who would remember him but rather who would remember God through him. Who would Abram tell about the God who had called him to leave his country, his kin and family and go where this voice told him to go? Who would Abram tell of the God who spoke of being for Abram his shield and was in the end, Abram’s greatest reward? Only when Abram had come to the point where his concern was no longer about him and was instead about God and what God had done, only then did God know that Abram was ready to take a step forward in their relationship. There in the deepest darkness of the night God called Abram to come out under the evening sky. God told Abram to look up. Abram, God might of said, just how many stars are there that blaze across the sky? Can you count them all Abram? How many stars do you see? Abram, rightly knew that there were far more stars than he would ever be able to count. Then God whispered in the ear of Abram, “Your offspring will be as numerous as all of the stars that light up this dark sky!” Imagine the wonder of this new promise as Abram first heard it spoken to him. He knew that he and his wide Sarai, were way beyond being able to have children yet even so here was God begging Abram to trust in the impossible. What Abram knew though, was that this same God had claimed to be his shield, to be a God willing to step in between his life and whatever might come along and try and take this life from him. This God obviously is a God of the living, a God who valued his life and desired to protect it, and Abram knew that God did this so that he might take this relationship he had with God and entrust this to the one that God had promised him. Abram knew that God was going to make good on his promise so that this relationship with God, this God with us life, the God for us life, might continue to infinity and beyond.  So, Abram began to piece together this beautiful and wonderful plan of God knowing that he was being kept alive by God in order that through him others would come to know the God who treasured them and that God was to be for them, their exceedingly great reward. This is how the world is brought back to righteousness again when people at last realize that God is the source of their life because he knows them and treasures them and that God alone is the one to be treasured. But there is also more because not only are people to know that God keeps them and saves them and is the source of their life but also that God has done so for all people. You see, those who know God as their shield and great reward are to tell this good news to others so that they discover that such a life is a blessing, a life which is fruitful and grows abundantly throughout all of the earth.

         It is no wonder that Paul, writing in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Romans, tells us that the God in which Abram believed in is a God “who gives life to the dead and brings into existence those things which do not exist.” As Paul goes on, he retells the story of Abram, passed down, generation after generation, how Abram never wavered concerning the promise of God, but grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Abram knew that God was his shield, God was protecting him and keeping his life safe because Abram knew that he was treasured by God. As long as Abram was kept alive, the promise lived within his heart and Abram began to know God as the most exceedingly great reward. 

         You see, what Paul has written about faith here in the fourth chapter of Romans comes on the heels of his writing about Jesus who was put forward by God as the mercy seat through his blood. Paul is saying here that now it is Jesus who is the mercy seat, the covering of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was kept in the most holy place of the Temple and once a year the high priest would sprinkle blood there upon the covering of the Ark, so that God could hover over the Ark with his presence, in essence being a shield over his people who are represented by the covenant housed within the Ark. This is now how Jesus is for us, he is our shield, the one whose blood, whose very life has been poured out to cover over us, to stand between us and death so that we might have a secure life forever protected under the glorious wings of God. We have to ask then just why has God given his Son to be this for us? The answer as to why we have been given this safe life protected by God is so that we might know that our life is now to be speaking forth the good news of our God who has taken the nothingness of our life and he has made us his treasure. No longer does life have to be focused upon self-preservation for God preserves our life for all eternity. Now life can be about bringing forth life through the speaking of the good news to others, letting them know that beyond this life is a greater life, the life of the resurrection. What we believe then is that God keeps safe our life so that we might be a true descendant of Abram, to be one of the many stars he saw that night when he walked with God.  We are to believe that we are those who have been blessed through the faith of Abram, and, when this is our faith, God will count us among the righteous, those who know that God is the shield who protects their life. This truth is heard in the words of Jesus who, in the twelfth chapter of John, that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” You see, once we know that it is God who preserves our life, and that it is God alone who is our exceedingly great treasure, then we can know that God has given us this life so that we can be part of the great and glorious plan God has for our world. When we know our life is a gift from God then we can know that we are free to give this gift of our life for the sake of the gospel so that the good news might multiply and be fruitful. And the motivation for giving God all that he has given to us, all our greatest treasures is that he first treasured us. I pray you might always know God as being for you your most exceedingly great reward and that God might always be the treasure that you seek! Amen.