Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

High times of success and prosperity are only too often followed by seasons of depression.

Abram had indeed conquered the kings of Assyria, but his very victory might expose him to their vengeance, or draw down the jealousy of those around him.

He was but a stranger in a strange land, with no other possession than a promise,—and not even an heir to whom to transmit it.

In these circumstances it was that “Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision,” saying, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”—that is, Myself am thy defence from all foes, and the source and spring whence thy faith shall be fully satisfied with joy.

[Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975), 88–89.]

Main Thought: When looking around gets you down, it's time to look up to God in faith.

Sub-intro: Context - Covenant with Abram - Four Major Events Occur (Gen.

15:1-21)

I. Abram’s Fears Relieved (Gen.

15:1-5)

Note - God Deals with Abram's Fear for the Seed

Even when life is dark, you can still see the stars.

Someone has well said, “When the outlook is bleak, try the uplook.”

[Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Obedient, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1991), 47.]

Note - The Abrahamic Covenant Summarized:

The Promise of a Seed [Children] Forever (Gen.

15:1-6)

The Promise of a Land [Real Estate] Forever (Gen.

15:7-21)

The Promise of a Blessing [Favor/Prosperity] - Messiah (Gen.

12:3)

A word in season; how good it is!

God's words are always in season.

He knows how to speak a word to them that are weary.

His consolations are neither few nor small.

[Dr.

James Smith and Robert Lee, Handfuls on Purpose: For Christian Workers and Bible Students, n.d., Ge 15:1–6.]

A. God’s Presence, Protection & Provision Promised (Gen.

15:1)

Note - Abram Needed to Remember that God would Protect him ("shield") & Provide for him ("exceeding great reward")

Protection and provision are blessings that the world is seeking and the politicians are promising whenever they run for office.

Candidates offer voters protection from war and danger on the streets as well as provision for jobs, health care, education, and old age.

Some of the promises are kept, but many of them are forgotten.

Almighty God is the only One who can offer you protection and provision and keep His promises.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps.

84:11).

[Wiersbe, 46.]

B. Abram’s Proposal (Gen.

15:2-3)

Note - Abram Suggests to God that Eliezer to Become His Heir

According to the law of that day, the Code of Hammurabi, Eliezer, his steward, his head servant, who had an offspring, would in time inherit if Abram did not have a child.

[J.

Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary, electronic ed., vol. 1 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 66.]

His concern was expressed by a marvelous word play on his household servant’s origin: this Eliezer of Damascus (Dammeśeq) is the possessor-heir (ḇen mešeq, lit., “son of possession”) of my estate (15:2).

It is as if Abram was stressing to God that “the omen is in the nomen”—a mere servant would become his heir.

[Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed.

J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 55.]

Note - Abram's Question ("what wilt thou give me") Became an Accusation ("to me thou hast given no seed")

C. God’s Proclamation (Gen.

15:4-5)

Note - Eliezer Could Not Be the Heir, Because the Heir Must Come from Abram's Body

Perhaps, after the great excitement of the battle and victory, and the marvelous experience with Melchizedek, and then after everyone had gone and Abram was alone, a spiritual reaction began to set in.

God’s promise of a seed was still not fulfilled, and he was still in the midst of a dangerous and wicked country.

Abram began to be a bit doubtful and fearful of what the future might hold.

“Fear not!” came the word of the Lord.

This is not the first time the word “fear” occurs in Scripture, but it is the first time “fear not” occurs.

Once before, “the voice of the Lord God” is mentioned, and it was that voice that caused Adam to “fear” (Genesis 3:10).

This points up the striking contrasts between Adam and Abram.

Adam was the father of all men; Abram is the “father of all them that believe” (Romans 4:11).

Adam had a fig leaf, but Abram had a shield.

Adam received a curse, Abram a reward.

For the believer, Christ is both protection from all harm and provision of all needs.

He provides our “shield of faith” (Ephesians 6:16)—indeed the “whole armour of God,” so that we can “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10, 11).

He is also our “exceeding great [literally ‘abundant’] reward.”

We need not be enriched with the wealth of the kings of the East, because “he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

“Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isaiah 8:12, 13).

[Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1976), 324.]

II.

Abram’s Faith Realized (Gen.

15:6)

God Proclaims Abram's Justification

Promises do us no good unless we believe them and act on them.

[Wiersbe, 47.]

A. Personal Faith; Propositional Faith

Note - Abram's Faith Is Both Personal ("in the LORD") and Propositional ("the word of the LORD" in vv.

4-5), i.e. his faith was based on what God had spoken (Rom.

10:17)

Considering something to be trustworthy is an act of full trusting or believing.

This is the emphasis in the first biblical occurrence of ˒aman: “And [Abram] believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen.

15:6).

The meaning here is that Abram was full of trust and confidence in God, and that he did not fear Him (v. 1).

It was not primarily in God’s words that he believed, but in God Himself.

Nor does the text tell us that Abram believed God so as to accept what He said as “true” and “trustworthy” (cf.

Gen. 45:26), but simply that he believed in God.

In other words, Abram came to experience a personal relationship to God rather than an impersonal relationship with His promises.

[W.

E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 15–16.]

The concept of the Word of God includes both the written Word, Holy Scripture, and the living Word, God the Second Person.

After the Word was made flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, and after He died and rose again, He proclaimed: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8).

He is the sum of all that can be communicated.

Alpha and Omega are, of course, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the language chosen by God in which to inscripturate His new covenant with man.

This proclamation seals the oneness of the written and living Words.

[Morris, 323.]

B. Precedented Faith

Note - This Is Not the Beginning for Abram's Faith, But Another Statement of It; e.g.

see Heb. 11:8-10

We are not saved by making promises to God but by believing the promises of God.

[Wiersbe, 48.]

Note - Abram's Justifying Faith Does Not Begin Here, But This Is Another Example of His Exercising that Kind of Faith

If Christian usage of “amen” is to be informed by the OT, then to say “amen” to a prayer should imply a commitment to pray and also to live, where appropriate, in such a way as to further the fulfillment of that prayer.

[Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 428.]

III.

Abram’s Future Reassured (Gen.

15:13-16)

Note - God Prophesy's the Future of Abram's Seed

A. Temporary Relocation of His People

Note - They Will Sojourn in a Foreign Land for 400 Years

Note - This is the approximate, rounded off 430 years of Exodus 12:40, or the "bondage" portion may have been just 400 years.

See also Acts 7:6

B. Terrible Affliction of His People