How is God an exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1)?

Abram having proven that he was not seeking gain for himself, but depending on the God of heaven and earth, then the Lord gives him His word of wonderful encouragement, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (v. 11). It is not simply that God would protect him and reward him, but rather that the Lord Himself was his protection and the Lord Himself his reward. Abram therefore was not merely to have confidence in what God would do for him, but to have confidence in God Himself. The Lord may allow circumstances to test us severely as to such things, but however adverse the circumstances, God's faithfulness and grace remain. Therefore, just as Abram had no reason for fear, so this is true for every believer: he may confide at all times in the Lord, and find the Lord Himself a wonderful reward as well as protection.

Abram having proven that he was not seeking gain for himself, but depending on the God of heaven and earth, then the Lord gives him His word of wonderful encouragement, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward" (v.11). It is not simply that God would protect him and reward him, but rather that the Lord Himself was his protection and the Lord Himself his reward. Abram therefore was not merely to have confidence in what God would do for him, but to have confidence in God Himself. The Lord may allow circumstances to test us severely as to such things, but however adverse the circumstances, God's faithfulness and grace remain. Therefore, just as Abram had no reason for fear, so this is true for every believer: he may confide at all times in the Lord, and find the Lord Himself a wonderful reward as well as protection.

"Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." No doubt there was a beautiful suitability in this revelation after what had just passed. Abram had refused what the world had to give, and God graciously owns this with complacency, and announces Himself his sufficient reward. If God were his shield, Abram need not fear the jealousy of the Canaanite, nor even the hostile reprisals of the kings he had defeated, nor yet from any other quarter. "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." God would be true to His own word. Here was a bulwark of protection, and source of supply, at once secured to His servant. But mark the effect. It awakens the sense of wants, and draws out too the expression of those wants. If Abram had long felt in secret any such desire, there is no reason to suppose that he had ever told it out to God before. Now he does. God had given him the land of promise, but with this he was not content, and God meant that he should have more. His unfolding Himself to him in this new way leads Abram to breathe out what he had perhaps never defined to himself before. He was not content with the general terms God had hitherto used to him. He says, "Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?" Where was the value of God's being ever so great a reward, if after all he was childless, "and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" What matter the lands he might have, if all was to go to his servant?

The first verse of Genesis 15 is intimately connected with all this. Not only had the hand of God been with His servant, but the eye of God had been upon him. Abram had renounced his original home in Ur; secondly, the more fruitful parts of the land of promise in favour of Lot thirdly, any portion or tribute from the sinful world, at the hands of the king of Sodom. All this had been observed, and now in a fresh vision God presents Himself to him as his shield and his "exceeding great reward."

If Abram had not had some confidence that God would be his shield he would hardly have undertaken to pursue the victorious kings and rescue Lot with a mere handful of men, as he had just done. But that he should have God for his reward went far beyond this. When he left Ur, he may have looked upon the land of promise as his reward, though he never actually possessed it. Now God Himself is to be his reward, and this surely is "exceeding great." Brought, as we are, into the light of God revealed in Christ, we are better able to estimate the greatness than ever Abram could have done.

"After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." The Lord would not suffer His servant to be a loser, by rejecting the offers of this world. It was infinitely better for Abraham to find himself hidden behind Jehovah's shield, than to take refuge beneath the patronage of the king of Sodom; and to be anticipating his "exceeding great reward," than to accept "the goods" of Sodom. The position into which Abraham is put, in the opening verse of our chapter, is beautifully expressive of the position into which every soul is introduced by the faith of Christ. Jehovah was his "shield," that He might rest in Him; Jehovah was his "reward," that he might wait for Him. So with the believer now: he finds his present rest, his present peace, his present security, all in Christ. No dart of the enemy can possibly penetrate the shield which covers the weakest believer in Jesus.

And then, as to the future, Christ fills it. Precious portion! Precious hope! A portion which can never be exhausted: a hope which will never make ashamed. Both are infallibly secured by the counsels of God, and the accomplished atonement of Christ. The present enjoyment thereof is by the ministry of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us. This being the case, it is manifest that if the believer is pursuing a worldly career, or indulging in worldly, or carnal desires, he cannot be enjoying either the "shield" or the "reward". If the Holy Ghost is grieved, He will not minister the enjoyment of that which is our proper portion — our proper hope. Hence, in the section of Abraham's history now before us, we see that when he had returned from the slaughter of the kings, and rejected the offer of the king of Sodom, Jehovah rose before his soul in the double character, as his "Shield and his exceeding great reward." Let the heart ponder this, for it contains a volume of deeply practical truth. We shall now examine the remainder of the chapter.

The occasion of these fresh communications is deeply instructive. Abraham had just refused this world's gifts and honours. Now we read, "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Having aroused the enmity of the world, over whom he had gained a victory, he will need a shield. Having refused the gifts of this world he will have the rewards of God. And God's protection, and God's rewards, far exceed all that this world can offer. With God for our shield we need not fear the reprisals of defeated enemies: with God for our reward we can dispense with this world's gifts.

140 The first occasion of these communications from God was Abram's definite refusal to take anything from the world, even where he had rendered it the greatest possible service. He would have nothing to say to it from a thread to a shoe-latchet. His faith had got the victory over its power. His value for his own relationship with God refused its proffered reward. God meets this in Abram, and says, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. His defence in battle had been God; his abundant reward, not the poor and perishing gifts of a world, to which its debtor after all always owes something - at least, acknowledges that he will receive from it - but the Lord Himself. Such, in general, is the blessed announcement made by the word of the Lord to Abram.

Abraham had already realised what it was to have the blessing and protection of the Almighty. After returning from the slaughter of the kings, Abraham had refused to enrich himself with the spoils of battle, saying to the King of Sodom: "… that thou mayest not say, I have made Abram rich" (Gen. 14:23). And after: "these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward." Although surrounded by hostile nations, who might have been plotting to attack him after his overthrow of the kings, Abram was to be assured that he had a sure protection in God Himself. Not all the united powers around could harm him when God was his shield: the power of the Almighty was more than a match for all that men could bring against him. Moreover, in refusing the rewards of the world, he had a sure reward in the God who would be his refuge.

Well, then, the overtures of the King of Sodom were refused, and thereby Abram was placed in a position of peril. What then was his resource? “The word of the Lord,” we read, “appeared to him in a vision, saying, ‘I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward’” (Gen. 15:1). God becomes the shield of his defence from the foe, and the great compensation for every loss—a precious experience surely for Abram, and a further result, so far, from “the slaughter of the kings” in the valley of Shaveh.

So in the case of our Patriarch; we find that his gain is beyond all human reckoning, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." The Lord will not suffer His servant to be a loser by rejecting the offer of the world. Surely it was unspeakably greater, and infinitely better to find himself protected by Jehovah as his shield, than to hide behind the patronage of the world in order to enjoy a more congenial path; and better far to find enjoyment and satisfaction in the knowledge of Jehovah as his exceeding great reward than to have the transient, ephemeral pleasures which the goods" of Sodom would minister to the heart. How forcibly do these precious realities come home to us, who stand in the noon-tide light of the revelation of the Father in the Person of the Son, in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the worthy object to fill and satisfy every heart.