Our Shield and Great Reward

 Our Shield and Great Reward

In Genesis 14 Abram had a war against Chadorlaomer to liberate captured nephew Lot. Abram had obtained a lot of loot from that war, but he did not even keep this. Instead he gave it back to the king of Sodom. He even gave tithes to Melchizedek.

Meanwhile the terrible vicissitudes of war could’ve well brought him fear. What if the allied kings would regather and destroy him? He caught them by surprise and he knew that it was God that had given him the victory as Melchizedek had said, but to human eyes this could still strike fear.

And he had given so much away? 

Sure, he had liberated Lot. But what was his reward in all this? He had fought for a good cause, didn’t he deserve something?

It is in this context with these possible thoughts that God appeared to him:


[Gen 15:1 NKJV] 1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I [am] your shield, your exceedingly great reward."


God would be his shield. With all the war He was his shield. He would protect him and keep him safe.

At the same time the reward of all his effort would be God Himself. Knowing Him, being with Him and having Him as his God would mean everything. And not just because of the stuff that God would give him, but actually because of God Himself and His character. He is the reward and that which we should desire.

Though we will probably not wage war like Abram, there will definitely be a spiritual war in life. And often we feel vulnerable for whatever reason. Whether it be our friends, family, enemies, demons, our sinful nature, bodily or mental disease or Satan himself, there are enough cases where there will be a spiritual war. But in all this God is our shield. 

And when we think that such a war is not worth it, let us remember that God Himself is our reward. And not just any reward, but our exceedingly great reward. We may think little of Him, but those who hold fast will find that God is worth all the effort that they could give and more.

He is both our protection and our reward. 

He has never changed in this regard and He will prove Himself to be exactly this.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Blessing in the Curse: When God Curses (Genesis 3)

When God Curses In Genesis 3 the first curses of God are given. God hates sin and it is in His character and nature to punish it. His principle is against evil. But even in these first curses His love can still be seen. With the thorn comes the rose and God can be graceful in His stern justice. First the serpent is given a curse, who does not even get the time to give an answer for what he did unlike Adam and Eve: [Gen 3:14-15 NKJV] 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You [are] cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Because you have done this . Done what? Deceived humanity and brought it to destruction. In God’s hate for what Satan did He shows His love for humanity. He actually cared about th...
Read more

Curses for the Genders (Genesis 3)

Curses for the Genders When humanity had sinned God cursed the man, woman and the serpent. We will here look at the curses given to the man and woman specifically since these reveal how people often work. They show how the relation between the two sexes often are. This is not the ideal, since it came from a curse. But it is what it is and God Himself had given these curses for a reason. In fact, in the curse for Adam He explicitly says it was for his own good. For the woman it is said: [Gen 3:16 NKJV] 16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire [shall be] for your husband, And he shall rule over you." For this article the last part is especially interesting. The wife would desire the husband. Closely related to this and what may explain which kind of desire this is, is that the husband would rule over the wife. Now this rule has often been abused. But when it is within God’s law it is a...
Read more

Loneliness and Marriage (Genesis 2)

 Loneliness and Marriage On the sixth day God created men. But this did not make it perfect and very good yet. Something was missing. [Gen 2:18 NKJV] 18 And the LORD God said, "[It is] not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Adam, the first man, was still alone. To put this loneliness into perspective Scripture gives this context: [Gen 2:19-20 NKJV] 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought [them] to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that [was] its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. The animals could not relate to Adam. They could not be His ‘helper’ or sustainer. No one was comparable to him. Not only are animals a different species, they were on a different level too. They did not have his intellige...
Read more