Genesis 15:1-6 - Homiletics

Under the stars with God.

I. DEJECTED BEFORE GOD .

1. Apprehensive of danger . Victorious over the Asiatic monarchs, Abram nevertheless dreaded their return. Signal deliverances are not seldom followed by depressing fears; e.g. David ( 1 Samuel 27:1 ) and Elijah ( 1 Kings 19:10 ). Having emancipated the people of the land by breaking "the yoke of their burden, and the staff of their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor," he yet feared an outbreak of their hostility. The enmity of those they serve is not an infrequent reward of patriots: witness Moses ( Exodus 17:4 ) and Christ ( John 10:31 ).

2. Disappointed in hope . Notwithstanding repeated assurances that he would one day become a mighty nation, the long-continued barrenness of Sarai appears to have lain upon his heart like a heavy burden. Partaking to all more or less of the nature of a deprivation, the lack of offspring was to Abram an acute grief and serious affliction. The pent-up yearnings of his nature, rendered the more intense by reason of the promise, could not longer be restrained. In language full of pathos he complains to God about his childless condition. So "hope deferred maketh the heart sick" ( Proverbs 13:12 ).

3. Anxious about the promise . He could not discern the possibility of its fulfillment, with years rapidly advancing on himself and Sarai. It is doubtful if any saints, more than Abram, can predict beforehand how the Divine promises shall be accomplished. Yet a recollection of whose promises they are should enable them, as it might have assisted him, to perceive that not a single word of God's can fall to the ground. But, owing partly to limitations in the human mind and imperfections in the human heart, doubts insensibly insinuate themselves against even the clearest and the strongest evidence. And when danger, disappointment, and doubt conjoin to invade the soul, dejection must inevitably follow.

II. COMFORTED BY GOD .

1. A shield for his peril . Divinely given, all sufficient, ever present. " I ," Jehovah, "am," now and always, "thy shield"— i.e. thine impregnable defense. And the like protection is vouchsafed to Abram's children when imperiled: as to character, Divine ( Proverbs 30:5 ); as to extent, complete, universal, defending from all forms of evil, warding off assaults from all quarters ( Psalms 5:12 ); as to duration, perpetual ( Psalms 121:8 ).

2. A solace for his sorrow . Happy as the birth of an heir in Sarai's tent would make him, Jehovah gives him to understand that not that was to be his recompense for the trials he had passed through, the sacrifices he had made, and the feats he had performed since leaving Ur, but himself. God's saints are prone to seek their happiness in God's gifts, rather than in the Giver. Here they are recalled along with Abram to the sublime thought that God himself is his people's best reward, and that the possession and enjoyment of his friendship should abundantly compensate for the absence of creature comforts, however dearly prized and ardently desired.

3. A son for his heir . Instead of Eliezer, whom in his perplexity he thought of adopting as his son, a veritable child of his own is promised. Let saints learn how blind is human reason, and how feeble faith becomes when it tries to walk by sight; let them also notice and consider how sure are God's promises, and how inexhaustible are God's resources.

III. BELIEVING IN GOD .

1. The object of Abram's faith. That at this stage of the patriarch's history attention is so markedly directed to his faith can only be explained on the supposition that he now for the first time clearly and implicitly received, embraced, and rested in the promise of a seed, and consequently of a Savior. And the faith which justifies and saves under the gospel dispensation has an outlook nothing different from that of Abram. The object which it contemplates and appropriates is not simply the Divine promise of salvation, but the specific offer of a Savior. God is the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus ( Romans 3:26 ).

2. The ground of Abram's faith. Neither reason nor sense, but the solemnly given, clearly stated, perfectly sufficient, wholly unsupported word of God. And of a like description is the basis of a Christian's faith—God's promise in its naked simplicity, which promise (of a Savior, or of salvation through Jesus Christ) has, like that delivered to Abram, been solemnly announced, clearly exhibited; declared to be perfectly sufficient, but left wholly unsupported in the gospel ( John 3:36 ).

3. The acting of Abram's faith. It was instantaneous, accepting and resting on the Divine promise the moment it was explicitly made known; full-hearted, without reservation of doubt or uncertainty, implicitly reposing on the naked word of God; and conclusive, not admitting of further opening of the question, "being fully persuaded that God was able also to perform that which he had promised" ( Romans 4:21 ).

IV. ACCEPTED WITH GOD . Whatever exegesis be adopted of the clause, ''it was counted unto him for righteousness," the transaction which took place beneath the starry firmament is regarded in the New Testament as the pattern or model of a sinner's justification, and employed to teach—

1. The nature of justification, which is the reckoning of righteousness to one in himself destitute of such excellence, and, on the ground of such imputed righteousness, the acquittal in the eye of the Divine law of one otherwise obnoxious to just condemnation. Possessing no inherent righteousness of his own, Abram had the righteousness of another (not at that time revealed to him) set to his account, and was accordingly justified or declared righteous before God.

2. The condition of justification, which is not works, but faith, Abram having been accepted solely on the ground of belief in the Divine promise ( Romans 4:2-5 ); not, however, faith as an opus operatum or meritorious act, but as a subjective condition, without which the act of imputation cannot proceed upon the person.

3. The time of justification, which is the instant a soul believes, whether that soul be cognizant of the act or not, Abram again being justified, according to the Scripture, from the moment he accepted the Divine promise, though it is not said that Abram at the time was aware of the indemnatory act passed in his favor in the court of heaven.

Lessons : —

1. God's saints may sometimes be cast down in God's presence ( Psalms 43:5 ).

2. It is God's special character and care to comfort those who are cast down ( 2 Corinthians 7:6 ).

3. God's promises are the wells of comfort which he has opened for the solace of dejected saints.