A Prodigal Reward that cannot be Earned
We all like rewards. Corporations have picked up on this and have given many incentives to make people buy their products. But what is one reward that we cannot earn? Genesis chapter 15 answers this question in a profound way.
After Abram came from rescuing Lot, he perhaps had more problems to deal with than he had before this event. For one, he was most likely emotionally, mentally and physically spent. From a political/strategic vantage point, he handicapped himself by rejecting a treaty with the king of Sodom and had few other allies (the Amorites Mamre, Eskhol and Aner, Gen 14:13). Most of all, he still had no male heir. So God came to him at a time when he needed words of reassurance. In a vision, God told Abram not to fear, for himself was both his protection and great reward (Gen 15:1). God promised to protect Abram from harm so that he could fulfill His promise to him and his descendants (Gen 12:1-3). What's even more remarkable is that God offered himself to Abram as his very great reward. In other translations, the phrase, "[I am] your very great reward", is rendered, "your reward will be very great." From the subsequent context, it seems as though either interpretation could be taken without losing the perplexing magnanimity (extreme generosity) of the offer. The greatest reward that man can have is God himself; God offered himself to Abram. But why does God do this? Moreover, how can he? The Bible is clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Furthermore, the wages (in the Hebrew language wages and reward are interchangeable) that we have clearly earned from our acts of sin result in a payment of death (Rom 6:23). So how on earth could Abram be the recipient of any kind of reward? Let's read further.
It's almost comical, yet telling, that Abram didn't take God's offer of a reward to heart. Instead, he lamented about not having a genetically related heir to carry on his name. Notice Abram's language, "Sovereign LORD, what can you give me...?" And similarly, "you have given me no children..." This was Abram being brutally honest about his deepest heart's desire and perhaps his doubt in God's plan. But wasn't Abram justified in his lamentation, for after all, God did offer him offspring. But when we look at the whole of Abram's life, we come to understand that God's promise of a miracle child was not an end in and of itself; His plans were much greater than this. Rather, God wanted to fulfill his promise of sending the Redeemer of mankind and the Holy Spirit to His chosen people from all nations (Gen 22:15-18, Gal 3:14). Additionally, God wanted Abram and all of his descendants to dwell with Him in His everlasting kingdom (Heb 11:10, Rev 21:3).
Abram didn't understand this and could only see his immediate and practical need, which was a male descendant. But does God leave him there? Not at all; he graciously takes Abram by the hand and leads him to belief. God led him outside and him look at the innumerable stars in the sky. He used them as an analogy stating how numerous his offspring would be. This was an amazing visual description of what God had the power to do. Abram couldn't physically see or even mentally fathom the fact that he would have this many offspring. Abram and Sarai were both physically limited in terms of the process of conception due to their old age. But despite all of these real factors, Abram believed God. And astonishingly, this belief, called faith by the author, is credited to Abram as righteousness (Gen 15:6).
What's the importance of righteousness? We learned from Genesis chapter three that man's relationship is cut with God because of his disobedience towards His decrees. From that moment, God set in a motion a plan to make us right with him again; his desire was to be in a holy relationship with us for the rest of eternity. The Bible is clear that man can do nothing to earn this right standing (Rom 3:19-20). Instead, we are at the mercy of God. In his righteous, fully justified wrath, He could extinguish us because of our sin. But instead, God in merciful fashion, relents and extends salvation to us. This salvation comes through faith (Rom 3:21-24). Biblical, saving faith is synonymous with confident trust in a reliable source (Heb 11:1). Abram is called the father of faith because he was the first person to put his trust in God concerning the coming of the Messiah through his bloodline (Rom 3:18-25); he is the model of faith for all of those who would believe. The nature of our right standing before God then has nothing to do with us, but rather what God does on our behalf. The only thing that we are required to do is to respond positively to the faith that God has planted in our hearts. As said before, even our faith is a gift. But if we do not respond to this gift and instead harden our hearts, then there is no way for us to be right before God (Heb 4:1-3). So to us, if we hear this offer of salvation today and have been given the faith to believe, let us not harden our hearts, but instead respond rightly.
What we have witnessed through Abram's life is utterly amazing. God rewards Abram with a right relationship with Himself through faith. This is a model of belief for us all. Similarly, we have many practical things that we want and need. At the end of the day, our wants and needs boil down to two essential things: protection from harm and fulfillment. As we see through the promise give to Abram, God graciously offers these things. Ultimately, God will protect us from harm and transport us to his eternal kingdom someday. God also fulfills our deep need for Himself.
I elaborated on this section a bit because I think that it really contains the core message of the Bible. It was God meeting Abram in his limited frailty and offering him what he could not purchase or earn.
Furthermore, God offers the land of Canaan to Abram's descendents. What's more is that in order to help Abram to trust more, he makes a covenant with him. The pot of fire in between the sacrifices in the vision represents God, meaning that it was God who would mainly uphold the covenant. He told Abram of future events partly that we may look back at this prophesy and believe in the divine inspiration of scripture.
Hagar, We Wish You Well
In chapter sixteen, things seemingly take a turn for the worse. Abram and Sarai falter in their faith. Instead of waiting on God's promise to give them an heir, they choose Hagar, a slave to be a surrogate mother for their child. This was a culturally acceptable practice back then. However, Abram and Sarai were recipients of God's promise. They were to believe in God instead of doing what was the cultural norm. Naturally, through their hasty actions, problems ensued. Hagar became proud that she gave a child to Abram. Maybe she would also be the recipient of the promise. Sarai retaliated by beating her, causing Hagar to run away. This seemed like such a sad situation. But to them, it was no big deal for she was just a slave. But to God, she was a real person, not just a possession. God meets her in the desert at a well and reassures her of her well-being as well as that of the child in her womb. God pours out an unimaginable blessing upon Hagar. He would protect her and make her son great. But what's most striking is that God showed Himself to her (Gen 16:13). This is is so striking because she was not a direct recipient of the promise given to Abram. Moreover she was just a slave. This account reveals that God cares for everyone; he does not take into account social status, gender or lineage. God loves because He is love (1 John 4:8). I'm not sure, but perhaps we will see Hagar in heaven.
Nip, Tuck in the 21st century (B.C.)
I wish that I could do this section more justice, but this post has become a bit long. Abram had compromised his faith for thirteen years (Gen 16:16, Gen 17:1). Righteous people make mistakes. In fact Martin Luther coined a Latin phrase that describes this well: Simul Justus et Peccator. It means, simultaneously a sinner and a saint. While this is no excuse to sin, it is an accurate representation of what we are. We will falter in our faith until the day Jesus comes again. But, we can recover through repentance (1 John 1:9). God visited Abram in this passage in order to help him do that. God's command to walk before him and be blameless was a call to repentance. He had compromised greatly, but God still extended grace to him. His call to be blameless was not something that Abram could do. He was not calling him to shape up and live morally by his own effort. Rather, it was a call to once again put his faith in the promise given to him in chapters 12 and 15.We see his repentance, when he fell face down. It was as if he was rededicating his life to God, fully putting his trust in Him.
We see that God accepts this repentance as He begins to detail the covenant that He would make with Abram and his descendants. In order to solidify his faith, He changed Abram's name to Abraham. He went from exalted father to father of many nations. Similarly Sarai's name became Sarah. God also told Abram to name his son Isaac (which means 'he laughs') because Abram had laughed at the thought that God could give him a son at his old age. The sign of Abram's belief in this covenant was that of circumcision of himself and all of those in his household. Circumcision was not itself a merit badge of righteousness. Rather, it was a sign of what Abram believed. It was a reminder of what he had given up to take hold of what God wanted to give him.
On one final note, we must not neglect the mistakes of Abram. God cannot be mocked (Gal 6:7-8). The birth of Ishmael would give rise to a peoples who would be forever hostile to God's chosen people, the Jews. His sinful mistake made ripples across history. We can learn from Abram that while God gives grace and forgives our sin, we and perhaps our descendants must bear the consequences of the negative choices that we make. However, we can take heart that as believers, God does not merely punish us for our sins, but instead he disciplines us for the sake of our sanctification and spiritual growth (Heb 12:7-11)
We all like rewards. Corporations have picked up on this and have given many incentives to make people buy their products. But what is one reward that we cannot earn? Genesis chapter 15 answers this question in a profound way.After Abram came from rescuing Lot, he perhaps had more problems to deal with than he had before this event. For one, he was most likely emotionally, mentally and physically spent. From a political/strategic vantage point, he handicapped himself by rejecting a treaty with the king of Sodom and had few other allies (the Amorites Mamre, Eskhol and Aner, Gen 14:13). Most of all, he still had no male heir. So God came to him at a time when he needed words of reassurance. In a vision, God told Abram not to fear, for himself was both his protection and great reward (Gen 15:1). God promised to protect Abram from harm so that he could fulfill His promise to him and his descendants (Gen 12:1-3). What's even more remarkable is that God offered himself to Abram as his very great reward. In other translations, the phrase, "[I am] your very great reward", is rendered, "your reward will be very great." From the subsequent context, it seems as though either interpretation could be taken without losing the perplexing magnanimity (extreme generosity) of the offer. The greatest reward that man can have is God himself; God offered himself to Abram. But why does God do this? Moreover, how can he? The Bible is clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Furthermore, the wages (in the Hebrew language wages and reward are interchangeable) that we have clearly earned from our acts of sin result in a payment of death (Rom 6:23). So how on earth could Abram be the recipient of any kind of reward? Let's read further.
It's almost comical, yet telling, that Abram didn't take God's offer of a reward to heart. Instead, he lamented about not having a genetically related heir to carry on his name. Notice Abram's language, "Sovereign LORD, what can you give me...?" And similarly, "you have given me no children..." This was Abram being brutally honest about his deepest heart's desire and perhaps his doubt in God's plan. But wasn't Abram justified in his lamentation, for after all, God did offer him offspring. But when we look at the whole of Abram's life, we come to understand that God's promise of a miracle child was not an end in and of itself; His plans were much greater than this. Rather, God wanted to fulfill his promise of sending the Redeemer of mankind and the Holy Spirit to His chosen people from all nations (Gen 22:15-18, Gal 3:14). Additionally, God wanted Abram and all of his descendants to dwell with Him in His everlasting kingdom (Heb 11:10, Rev 21:3).
Abram didn't understand this and could only see his immediate and practical need, which was a male descendant. But does God leave him there? Not at all; he graciously takes Abram by the hand and leads him to belief. God led him outside and him look at the innumerable stars in the sky. He used them as an analogy stating how numerous his offspring would be. This was an amazing visual description of what God had the power to do. Abram couldn't physically see or even mentally fathom the fact that he would have this many offspring. Abram and Sarai were both physically limited in terms of the process of conception due to their old age. But despite all of these real factors, Abram believed God. And astonishingly, this belief, called faith by the author, is credited to Abram as righteousness (Gen 15:6).
What's the importance of righteousness? We learned from Genesis chapter three that man's relationship is cut with God because of his disobedience towards His decrees. From that moment, God set in a motion a plan to make us right with him again; his desire was to be in a holy relationship with us for the rest of eternity. The Bible is clear that man can do nothing to earn this right standing (Rom 3:19-20). Instead, we are at the mercy of God. In his righteous, fully justified wrath, He could extinguish us because of our sin. But instead, God in merciful fashion, relents and extends salvation to us. This salvation comes through faith (Rom 3:21-24). Biblical, saving faith is synonymous with confident trust in a reliable source (Heb 11:1). Abram is called the father of faith because he was the first person to put his trust in God concerning the coming of the Messiah through his bloodline (Rom 3:18-25); he is the model of faith for all of those who would believe. The nature of our right standing before God then has nothing to do with us, but rather what God does on our behalf. The only thing that we are required to do is to respond positively to the faith that God has planted in our hearts. As said before, even our faith is a gift. But if we do not respond to this gift and instead harden our hearts, then there is no way for us to be right before God (Heb 4:1-3). So to us, if we hear this offer of salvation today and have been given the faith to believe, let us not harden our hearts, but instead respond rightly.What we have witnessed through Abram's life is utterly amazing. God rewards Abram with a right relationship with Himself through faith. This is a model of belief for us all. Similarly, we have many practical things that we want and need. At the end of the day, our wants and needs boil down to two essential things: protection from harm and fulfillment. As we see through the promise give to Abram, God graciously offers these things. Ultimately, God will protect us from harm and transport us to his eternal kingdom someday. God also fulfills our deep need for Himself.
I elaborated on this section a bit because I think that it really contains the core message of the Bible. It was God meeting Abram in his limited frailty and offering him what he could not purchase or earn.
Furthermore, God offers the land of Canaan to Abram's descendents. What's more is that in order to help Abram to trust more, he makes a covenant with him. The pot of fire in between the sacrifices in the vision represents God, meaning that it was God who would mainly uphold the covenant. He told Abram of future events partly that we may look back at this prophesy and believe in the divine inspiration of scripture.
Hagar, We Wish You Well
In chapter sixteen, things seemingly take a turn for the worse. Abram and Sarai falter in their faith. Instead of waiting on God's promise to give them an heir, they choose Hagar, a slave to be a surrogate mother for their child. This was a culturally acceptable practice back then. However, Abram and Sarai were recipients of God's promise. They were to believe in God instead of doing what was the cultural norm. Naturally, through their hasty actions, problems ensued. Hagar became proud that she gave a child to Abram. Maybe she would also be the recipient of the promise. Sarai retaliated by beating her, causing Hagar to run away. This seemed like such a sad situation. But to them, it was no big deal for she was just a slave. But to God, she was a real person, not just a possession. God meets her in the desert at a well and reassures her of her well-being as well as that of the child in her womb. God pours out an unimaginable blessing upon Hagar. He would protect her and make her son great. But what's most striking is that God showed Himself to her (Gen 16:13). This is is so striking because she was not a direct recipient of the promise given to Abram. Moreover she was just a slave. This account reveals that God cares for everyone; he does not take into account social status, gender or lineage. God loves because He is love (1 John 4:8). I'm not sure, but perhaps we will see Hagar in heaven.Nip, Tuck in the 21st century (B.C.)
I wish that I could do this section more justice, but this post has become a bit long. Abram had compromised his faith for thirteen years (Gen 16:16, Gen 17:1). Righteous people make mistakes. In fact Martin Luther coined a Latin phrase that describes this well: Simul Justus et Peccator. It means, simultaneously a sinner and a saint. While this is no excuse to sin, it is an accurate representation of what we are. We will falter in our faith until the day Jesus comes again. But, we can recover through repentance (1 John 1:9). God visited Abram in this passage in order to help him do that. God's command to walk before him and be blameless was a call to repentance. He had compromised greatly, but God still extended grace to him. His call to be blameless was not something that Abram could do. He was not calling him to shape up and live morally by his own effort. Rather, it was a call to once again put his faith in the promise given to him in chapters 12 and 15.We see his repentance, when he fell face down. It was as if he was rededicating his life to God, fully putting his trust in Him.
We see that God accepts this repentance as He begins to detail the covenant that He would make with Abram and his descendants. In order to solidify his faith, He changed Abram's name to Abraham. He went from exalted father to father of many nations. Similarly Sarai's name became Sarah. God also told Abram to name his son Isaac (which means 'he laughs') because Abram had laughed at the thought that God could give him a son at his old age. The sign of Abram's belief in this covenant was that of circumcision of himself and all of those in his household. Circumcision was not itself a merit badge of righteousness. Rather, it was a sign of what Abram believed. It was a reminder of what he had given up to take hold of what God wanted to give him.
On one final note, we must not neglect the mistakes of Abram. God cannot be mocked (Gal 6:7-8). The birth of Ishmael would give rise to a peoples who would be forever hostile to God's chosen people, the Jews. His sinful mistake made ripples across history. We can learn from Abram that while God gives grace and forgives our sin, we and perhaps our descendants must bear the consequences of the negative choices that we make. However, we can take heart that as believers, God does not merely punish us for our sins, but instead he disciplines us for the sake of our sanctification and spiritual growth (Heb 12:7-11)
The Ultimate Reward: What does it mean that God gave himeself as a reward to Abram? God had already promised him protection and offspring so what else is Abram getting? Before this Abram ubilt altars and called on the Name of the Lord so Abram already made God his God.
ReplyDeleteI think it might mean that Abram and God have crossed a line in their relationship where no longer is Abram only a follower of God but now they are becoming better acquainted, more like friends. I like to think that when Abram left his homeland and followed God's promise he was the level that Adam was after he had been removed from Eden. Now, after Abram's faith has credited him righteousness he can draw closer to God, perhaps as close as Adam was to God when he was in Eden. I can only say this because I have once read about Abraham and I know that in the next chapter God appears to Abraham in a "non-formal" way. I am trying to say that God lets Abraham treat him as a guest in his tent and God acts like any respectable person would act if we would come and want to speak to Abraham. Plus the dialogue between Abraham and God is more "earthly". I do not want to spoil tomarrow's reading so I will stop here.
Stan, that's good insight on the development of their relationship. I often glaze over the fact that God met Abraham in his tent. It kind of reminds me of John 1, 'the word became flesh and dwelt among us.' It's awesome that we have a close relationship as well through the righteousness that he gives.
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