The verse for today is:
Genesis 15:1 “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”
First, on it’s own face value, we have our Father the most high God Yaweh directly telling Abram to not be afraid, and that God will protect him as his own personal shield, and will reward Abram as well. Which in and of itself would be an amazing passage with which to walk in fearlessness. Yet it starts with “after these things”. So what exactly were “these things”? Well, kind of a lot actually, and it adds amazing depth.
Genesis 14 is probably one of the most interesting passages in Genesis, but often gets overlooked. You have 4 kings, the kings of Shinar, Elam, Ellasar and a king of Nations all gathered together to make war. Genesis 14:5 tells us they slew the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim. The Rephaim are not just a tribe or a city. They were Giants. These guys are the unholy offspring of the Fallen and the daughters of Eve. These guys are huge, consort with demons, and can potentially walk between the worlds. They are not a small enemy, and these 4 kings wiped them out.
Then these guys decided to go loot Sodom and Gomorrah, which were still good places in those days. They not only took the treasures of the city, but they rounded up people as slaves. These people included Lot, Abram’s nephew (yes, THAT Lot, of pillar of salt fame) (Genesis 14:12).
So what does Abram do about these well armed, well trained, giant slaying rough customers? He arms his trained servants (all 318 of them) and pursued them into Dan, and while events aren’t specifically recalled in the Bible, Abram is described as returning from “slaughter of Chedorlaomer” (Genesis 14:7) so you can guess how that went. Abram has his enemies delivered unto him by Yaweh.
So that becomes the context of Genesis 15:1 now. This is AFTER the events of the slaughter. After having this entire army delivered unto him, Abram is afraid, because he is childless. Certainly this is a fear many of us can relate to in the modern world. You have the nice house, the nice job, the fancy car, but there is SOMETHING more important that’s missing from your life. Whether it’s children, or a good wife, or some deeper purpose that you just can’t lay hands on.
Abram is worried that his steward will take over his house when he dies, but the Lord promises Abram that the steward’s child will not be his heir. He promises that the heir to Abram will come from Abram’s own bowels. He tells Abram to count the stars in the sky (if he can) and thus his seed shall be multiplied across the Earth (genesis 15:5). We know now this is his promise to use Abram to restart the nation of Israel after it was completely lost to Apostasy, but that’s a story for another day.
So the original message of Genesis 15:1 remains intact. God promises to be our shield against the ills and darkness of this world, and he promises to reward us for our faithful servitude. The message didn’t change, but how much more powerful is it with context? No matter what you are struggling with, the Lord has delivered more powerful things into the hands of his servants. Your day might be bad, but it’s not “Rampaging 13 year army of giant slayers” bad. I can assure you.
Take heart from this passage my brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Father has promised to be our shield, and promised us great rewards for our faith. Go to him with your troubles. Pray to him. We have an advantage that Abram didn’t even have, because of Christ’s sacrifice, the Holy Spirit dwells WITHIN us. We are even closer to God than Abram was. Take him your troubles, your fears, and most importantly, BE NOT AFRAID.