Let's turn back to the portion we've read, to the book of Genesis, and chapter 15, and our text, verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Two strands of thought here this morning. Abraham's fear. Fear not, Abraham. And then secondly, Abraham's consolation. I am thy shield. God speaking to him. And I am thy exceeding great reward. and in that order. First, in Abram's fear. Some people say, and they look at chapter 15 for this, the words that begin the chapter after these things, and they refer us back to chapter 14, where Abram had been successful in defeating the five kings. He had gone to aid his nephew Lot, and he had defeated the five kings. And they say, there's the danger now that these five kings could rally again, get greater strength, and come up against him, and that that was the cause of his fear. There's no evidence for that. There's no evidence at all for it. What then are we to look at here for Abram's fear? Well, it must be related to what we have in the context, and in the context we have the promises, promises that were made by God to Abram. And that makes us go back to chapter 12. Can I just go back to it? It's just a couple of pages back, and you find these promises there in chapter 12. First of all, in verse 2, in verse 3, Verse 2 says, I will make of thee a great nation. That was the first promise. Numerous descendants were to come from Abram. And then we'll take the next one as what we find in verse 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. not only descendants, but a place, a homeland for the descendants. Unto thy seed will I give this land, the land of Canaan. That's where Abram was at this time. He was in tents, dwelling in tents there. And the Lord saying, unto thy seed will I give this land. And that's the second promise. And the third promise is really, Back in verse 2, it's the greatest promise of all. I will make of thee a great nation, but notice, and I will bless thee, and thy name great and shall be a blessing. And there in verse 3, and I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. And this is it. In thee shall all the nations of the earth, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The promise of the coming Messiah that would come in direct descent from Abraham himself. A numerous descent then. The land of Canaan to be the homeland and particularly the promise that from his descendants was to come the Messiah in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Abram's fear then, or Abram's distress maybe, was related to these promises, particularly in the first instance to the first promise. regarding the numerous descendants. And I have a distress of mind on that because many years have passed since the promise was made and it's childless. And it looks as if He and his wife have passed the time of life when children could come to them. And if he's not going to have a child, how is he going to have a numerous descent? And how is this Messiah to come in direct descent? And that was causing a distress of mind to him. It shouldn't have. You should have believed in the Lord. which of us can cast a stone at him. And the Lord is gracious. The Lord was dealing with him in the full knowledge of what was going through Abram's mind. Abram may be in thought, nobody knows about this but myself. It's causing me a lot of disturbance, emotional disturbance, but oh, what a shock it must have been But God says, in effect, I know what's going on through your mind. Fear not, Abram. The Lord is aware. And the Lord is aware and the Lord is gracious. There may be a fear, first of all, when he realizes it. But then the Lord says, fear not, Abram. You find a place. Abraham himself says in verse 2, Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless? And this steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. It looks as if the children are to come not through my, it's not going to be a congenital son from me, it's not going to be a biological son from me from whom this descent is going to come. It looks as if it's going to be through a legal heir. It looks as if it's going to be through the Salias or Damascus. And that's what was causing a distress of mind. It shouldn't have, as I said, but it was where it was. And the Lord is gracious to him. Verse 3, Abram said, verse 4, And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir. This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth, must have been night, and he showed him the stars, myriad of stars in the sky, and he said, just as numerous as these stars, so numerous will be your descendants that shall come from direct line of thyself, your own congenital son, and this line would be." Well, that was the first part of the Lord's comfort room. But then there was another area that was also an area of anxiety, an area of distress to Abraham. It was concerning the homeland, concerning the land. If I'm going to have numerous descents, where are they going to stay? It's the Lord himself who opens this matter. Verse 7, the Lord said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of her of the Chaldees, and to give thee this land to inherit it. And the Lord, having opened the subject, well, Abraham comes into it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And the Lord is going to graciously comfort him on this area as well. And notice the way he does it. He says to him in verse eight, take me an heifer of three years old, Take me a sea goat of three years old. Take me a ram of three years old. Take me a turtle dove. And take me a young pigeon. And he was to take each of these animals, the turtle dove, not the turtle dove, the ram, the heifer and the goat. He was to take each of them, he was to kill it, and he was to divide it in two. Divide it in the midst is the way the Bible puts it. The meaning is he was to cut it in two, two parts. And then he was to take the two parts and make parallel lines, one part of the she-goat there, one part of the she-goat there, over against one another. Same with the goats. and same with the rams, two lines with the pieces over against one another in these parallel lines. And Abraham would know immediately, we wouldn't have understood, but Abraham knew immediately what God was doing. This was the forum of people entering into covenant with one another in that day. particularly in the area and the land in which he was dwelling in tents. You find sometimes that what they did was they took a donkey, killed it, divided it in two parts, one part over against another, and then the two people entering into a bargain, a covenant, a transaction, they walked between the sundered parts of the animal, and they were in fact saying, if I fail to keep my part of the bargain, let me be like that animal. Abram knew immediately this is God speaking of a covenant. But you'll notice this covenant is different. There's the she goats and so on. With the covenant of the people of that day, the two people in the transaction walked between the lines together. But in this covenant that we have here, God alone walks through the aisle formed by the divided animals. The covenant is all of God. covenants all of God. God himself is in effect saying, let me be like these animals if I fail to keep my word. Now, you might say, where's the mention of God here? Well, the mention of God is there in the burning lamp and the smoking furnace that passed between these broken animals. It's what we call a theophany. It is Christ appearing, sometimes in human form, before his incarnation, before he took our natures into union with himself. You find that, for example, with Joshua, speaking to the man who appeared to him outside of Jericho. It was Christ. But it's not always in the form of a man. Sometimes it's in another form. When the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, they were led by the cloud by day and the fire by night, a theophanic form of God going before them. And that's what we have here as well. God is himself, as it were, in theophanic form, passing between these lines and entering into covenant with his people. And at the same time as that is happening, this is in a vision that appears to Abraham, but in the vision, there's more than just a visionary part to it. There's a verbal part. He hears God speaking. And the promise is being made concerning the land. And the words that are spoken, let's find them. Look at verse 13. And he, leaping God, he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve there, and they shall afflict them 400 years. Now we know, as we look back on history, we know what that was. They were to go down to Egypt, the seed of Abram, the children of Jacob, went down to Egypt, and they were there for 400 years. And after the 400 years, they were brought out in the time of Moses, as you know, and let out of it with great wealth, with great riches that Pharaoh had bestowed upon them. But to look at, continue in verse 13, and he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a strange land, that is not theirs, and shall serve there. They will be afflicted there, as you know from history, and they shall afflict them 400 years, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge in the time of Moses, and afterward shall they come out with great substance. The land was to be theirs then, The land wasn't going to be there immediately, but it was going to be there after a time. Not only when Moses brought them out of Egypt, but later on when the iniquity of the Amorites was full, land of Canaan would be invaded and Well, step by step, it would become the land of Israel, it belonged to Israel. So that's the promise that God is entering into, I will be thy shield. Notice, can I just go back a wee bit there? Why did he, I will be thy, I will be thy protection, is the sense of the shield. What did he need protection from? Well, there was a trial of faith there. How am I going to have such numerous descendants when I'm childless at present and looks as if that's going to continue? How am I going to have a homeland when I'm just wandering in tents here at the moment? That was a test of faith that the Lord was imposing upon him. But when you find these tests of faith, you find that Satan comes in. God brings the tests into our lives with good intent to strengthen our faith, but Satan will come in with evil intent to make his own insinuations. It's impossible that these promises are going to be fulfilled, impossible that it's going to be fulfilled Don't trust them. And he needed to be protected from that. This was causing, there was a distress of mind, a fear that was a distress of mind with him. He needed protection and the Lord was aware of it. The Lord protecting him regarding the descendants, the promise regarding the descendants, it was just sin. And the Lord now protecting him regarding the promise regarding the homeland. and the people that was to be there. Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield. I am thy protection. I will protect you regarding the insinuations of the evil one, regarding my promise about descendants. I will protect you also regarding the insinuations of evil one regarding the promise about the land. And we've just looked at both of these and the Lord's promises to him. First of all, the descendants, look, as numerous as the stars in the sky, so will be your descendants that will come from your own bowels. And now the land, this covenant for him, God himself walking between the divided parts, God going into it and giving on his own word, as it were, Let me be like the divided animals, if I don't keep this promise, this land is going to be used, not immediately, take 400 years, time of affliction, and you'll have to wait also until the Amorite iniquity is fulfilled, but it will be used. But there's also another part to this text, not just I will be your protection, I will be your shield, but I will be your exceeding great reward." And we have to look at the same picture of the animals that we have here, that same picture that we have from verse seven onwards, to see what's meant to us. because this covenant forum is not just referring to the promise regarding the land, but also referring, I believe, to the promise regarding the Messiah who was to come. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. What ground have I for thinking that the covenant form that we have here from verse 7 onwards refers not just to the land, but also to this promise regarding the Messiah? Well, two things. One, particularly, Verse 12, and when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and low and horror of darkness fell upon him. It's these words that make me think that the covenant was not just regarding the land, but regarding the Messiah in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. and lo and horror of darkness fell upon him." You see, this covenant made with Abram was a... The covenant is made in eternity. It's a covenant of grace. It's a covenant of grace and a covenant of redemption, doesn't matter what you call it. Was it made in eternity? But it's revealed in time in different steps. It's revealed in time in the covenant with Noah, covenant of preservation, but particularly made with Abraham, a covenant of promise. And then it's made with Moses, the time of Moses, a covenant of law, not that the law had been there in Abram as well, Abram's promise as well. Walk before me and thou be thou perfect. That was the law with Moses, but with Abram, but with Moses, it's there in a fuller form. The Ten Commandments given, ceremonial law given, civil and judicial law given. different steps, Abram's promise, and then what you have with Moses showing that the law leading us to Christ, and then ultimately the new covenant with Christ himself. And the darkness is there in the covenant with Abram. and horror of darkness, you find something of that with the Moses one as well. The cloud that came over the mountain of Sinai, that would have brought darkness, but particularly it's there in the covenant with Christ, in the new covenant where Christ is there. He owes her darkness. the three hours of darkness on the cross. When Christ, as it were, was walking between God, Christ taking upon himself the Roman place of his people as sinners, meeting the claims of God's holy justice upon them in their Roman place, stared at the horror of darknesses, It's there that this covenant with this new covenant is being formed. It's there that the covenant promises are being ratified in the blood of Christ with hell deserving sinners. And it's there in that covenant and in the ratification of it through the blood of the Son of God in our nature. It's there that more that the fear not Abram, I am thy shield. It's there that the great reward, it's there that the great bliss, the great felicity of his people must consist, not just Abram's, but all who are the children of Abram by faith. there that their felicity consists. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward in the covenant that is ratified in the blood of the incarnate Son. There that he who knew no sin in himself was made to be sin for us, walked between the pieces, bore the curse in a Roman place, that we might know the felicity of that covenant. Lo, I am with you always. That we might know the felicity of that covenant where he is saying, I will be your God and you shall be my people. It's there that he is saying in covenant, a promise to them, I will never leave you. My loving kindness will unfold you. I am committed towards you. I have taken this commitment upon myself, this determination upon myself that you shall be saved to the uttermost. Your salvation will be entirely of grace through my finished work. That loving kindness, that loving commitment will include when we go astray. The chastisement that he will bring upon his people, the jealousy that he has for them, he will bring them back. Restore them, it will cost them. Pain, it will cost them. Chastisement is not without pain, but it's within the love of God, in the covenant of God that he deals with them. There is a commitment that when he has begun a work, he's going to bring it to its conclusion. No. Where is your own great reward today? Where is your felicity? This is where it must be centered. I am thy shield. I will protect you. from the insinuations of the evil, but here in Christ and him crucified, I will be your exceeding great reward. We thank thee or the covenant that is all of grace. We thank thee for the one who came and taken bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, who stood where we ought to stand, who bore in himself the wrath and curse due to his people as sinners. who fulfilled all righteousness, who could say, it is done, it is finished, who is risen triumphant over sin, death, and Satan, who now lives to bestow upon his people what he has died to win for them. He passed through the darkness that they might know him as the light of life. that they might know Him in a covenant commitment. Lo, I am with you always. That they would know in that covenant the jealousy of our loving Father, determined that even a string people will be brought back, restored time and again. where he takes them from a fearful pit and from the mighty clay, that he is the one also of whom the psalmist says in Psalm 23, that he is the one who takes them again and again from the slippery places into which they've placed their old selves. O Lord our God, we pray that thou would go before us, that thou would bring clarity to us where there is in-clarity, that thou would make Christ precious to us, that he would be our exceeding great reward. Take away our iniquities in our hearing and in our speaking. For Jesus' sake, amen.