Many years have passed since Abram was called to go forth from his
father's house, assured that God would make of him a great nation. They
had been years of growing power. He has been dwelling at Mamre, as a
prince among the people of the land, a power. There sweeps down on
Southern Palestine the earliest of those invasions from the vast plains
of the North which afterwards for generations were the standing dread
of Abram's descendants. Like the storm pillars in their own deserts,
are these wild marauders with the wild names that never appear again in
the history. Down on the rich valleys and peaceful pasture lands they
swoop for booty, not for conquest. Like some sea-bird, they snatch
their prey and away. They carry with them among the long train of
captives Abram's ungenerous brother-in-law, Lot. Then the friend of
God, the father of the faithful, musters his men, like an Arab sheikh
as he was, and swiftly follows the track of the marauders over the
hills of Samaria, and across the plain of Jezreel. The night falls, and
down he swoops upon them and scatters them. Coming back he had
interviews with the King of Sodom, when he refuses to take any of the
spoil, and with Melchizedek. Abram is back at Mamre. How natural that
fear and depression should seize him: the reaction from high
excitement; the dread that from the swarming East vengeance would come
for his success in that night surprise; the thought that if it did, he
was a wandering stranger in a strange land and could not count on
allies. Then there would come, perhaps, the remembrance of how long God
had delayed the very beginnings of the fulfilment, 'Seeing I go
childless.'
To this mood of mind the divine vision is addressed. 'Fear not--I am
thy shield' whatever force comes against thee, 'and thine exceeding
great reward,'--perhaps in reference to his refusal to take anything
from the spoil. But God says this to us all. In these antique words the
very loftiest and purest principles of spiritual religion are set forth.
He that loves and trusts God possesses God.
He that possesses God has enough for earth.
He that possesses God has enough for heaven.
1. It is possible for a man to have God for his. 'I am thy
Reward,'--not merely Rewarder, but Reward.
How can one spiritual Being belong to another?--plainly, By mutual love.
The Gospel assures us of God's love, and makes it possible for ours to
be fixed on Him.
Faith gives us God for ours.
The highest view of the blessings of the Gospel is that God Himself
becomes our reward.
How sad the insanity of men appears, in the ordinary aims of their
life, its rewards and its objects of desire! How they chase after
variety!
How much loftier and truer a conception of the blessing of religion
this is than notions of mere escape and the like!