Genesis 15: 1-12

"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield;

Abraham was called from Haran, near modern day Basra, to travel thousands of miles to Israel at the age of seventy-five. If you received a call like that, how would you receive it, indeed, would you even hear such a call if it was made?

There is an ancient technique of praying through the scriptures, called lectio divina in which scripture is read, and when a phase, or sentence leaps out, you stop, and read it over and over again in contemplation, giving space for God to speak into our lives. The technique then encourages us to pray about it, so that God can speak and we can hear. The four stages are; letting the words sink in, letting the word or phrase reverberate, speaking to God, and being with God. This is one of the ways I have taught to prepare sermons.

What jumped out of the genesis passage was; "Do not be afraid, I am your shield.

If we are to surrender our lives to God, if we are going to answer God’s call to move on from where we are and follow him, we need to have a lot of confidence that God will indeed look after us. In Biblical terms, this is about covenant. The legal agreement in Biblical times was based on covenant.

The question here is; will God keep his promise to protect us?

Abraham was no different from us, in terms of uncertainty. There he is, seventy-five, having uprooted and travelled to Israel. God has promised him that he would have offspring, but, it hadn’t happened. Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Abraham was unhappy that his inheritance would pass to his chief servant. Abraham is not only childless, but there was the question of land, another fundamental in Hebraic society.

The interchange He has with God is superficially about children and land, but much deeper, the question is; is God reliable to deliver on his promise of salvation?

In the first part of the dialogue on children, as in the second on land, it begins with a divine speech which echoes God’s previous promises; "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." And, on the land issue, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." These speeches provide a springboard for Abrahams concerns, God’s promises of children and land seem to be hollow. Abraham has travelled a long way, exposing Him and his family to hardship and danger, now he faces a servant inheriting whatever he has. God immediately answers, "This man shall not be your heir; come outside "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." "So shall your descendants be." And Abraham believes. There it might have ended, but God’ s honour is in dispute, and so he moves to the question of land; “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." Abraham retorts, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" How reliable are you Lord?

Abraham falls into a trance and for all practical purposes leaves the narrative.

God takes over and gives an oath to deliver on salvation.

The narrative describes some ritual which we do not fully understand. However, some things are clear, this is not a mutual arrangement, such as the sort of agreement we might enter into where both parties have some responsibility. This is a one sided covenant, God promises will be fulfilled.

In Old Testament legal culture, the oath was always accompanied by a curse, essentially if the oath was not fulfilled, then the person would suffer the curse they themselves agreed to. God gives his promise, and, according to Hebraic culture, then declares a curse on himself if he does not deliver.

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates”. God has the divine obligation in this legal arrangement. God is not free, he has promised to save us. Thus, God’s promise is reliable, because He is not free to abandon it.

Looking at it from our perspective, three thousand years later, we have to ask ourselves, what is the evidence? has God abandoned us, or has he reached out to us?

For me there is no doubt about it. He has reached out to us, in Jesus, he has reached out to us through His church, and to each one of us in private dialogue.

Three thousand years of divine obligation to be reliable for his created beings is proof enough for me.

"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield;

"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield;

"Do not be afraid, Rab, I am your shield;

Lord, when I hear your call, and I will answer it.

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