If you think about it, what God said is actually rather strange. Abraham has left his homeland, has shown his trust in God for his material wealth, and has shown courage in fighting several kings in order to rescue Lot. So why does God need to tell him that He is his shield (ie God is his protection)? Moreover Abraham is absolutely loaded. He left Haran with a number of goods and seems to have been continually accumulating wealth ever since. So why does God need to tell him that he is Abraham's great reward? Abraham has clearly shown that he knows God is the one who provides for him.
Verse 2 contains the answer. Abraham did have fear in his heart and did not consider himself truly prosperous, for he had no heir and so a servant would inherit all his wealth (or so it seemed to him). Now passing on your inheritance is still important today (one of the reasons why many people object to inheritance tax, it is not just "greed"), but was doubly so in Abraham's day. Moreover, God's original promise to him could not be fulfilled if he did not have a son.
You see God sees the heart, and knew exactly what He was saying in verse 1, and how relevant it was to Abraham. Moreover, the purpose was to bring Abraham's fears to the surface. Sometimes we can think we have to pretend to be "alright", but God would far rather we brought out doubts and fears directly to Him rather than allowing them to fester, then He can deal with them.
Often things happen that bring stuff in our life to the surface. Some event happens, or someone preachers a word that we wish we had never heard! But our Father loves us, and when He does things that bring our failings to the surface it is not done so he can condemn us, but so that He can heal, restore and teach us.
One final point on this. To an outsider looking at Abraham he would seem to have it altogether, everything going well. In fact there were deep issues at work in his heart. We often look at other Christians and might think they have everything sorted out, while we have a host of problems. This is usually not the case. It is also one of the reasons why we should always pray for our leaders, we might think they are so much more mature Christians than ourselves, but they need prayer just as much as anyone.
Verse 2 contains the answer. Abraham did have fear in his heart and did not consider himself truly prosperous, for he had no heir and so a servant would inherit all his wealth (or so it seemed to him). Now passing on your inheritance is still important today (one of the reasons why many people object to inheritance tax, it is not just "greed"), but was doubly so in Abraham's day. Moreover, God's original promise to him could not be fulfilled if he did not have a son.
You see God sees the heart, and knew exactly what He was saying in verse 1, and how relevant it was to Abraham. Moreover, the purpose was to bring Abraham's fears to the surface. Sometimes we can think we have to pretend to be "alright", but God would far rather we brought out doubts and fears directly to Him rather than allowing them to fester, then He can deal with them.
Often things happen that bring stuff in our life to the surface. Some event happens, or someone preachers a word that we wish we had never heard! But our Father loves us, and when He does things that bring our failings to the surface it is not done so he can condemn us, but so that He can heal, restore and teach us.
One final point on this. To an outsider looking at Abraham he would seem to have it altogether, everything going well. In fact there were deep issues at work in his heart. We often look at other Christians and might think they have everything sorted out, while we have a host of problems. This is usually not the case. It is also one of the reasons why we should always pray for our leaders, we might think they are so much more mature Christians than ourselves, but they need prayer just as much as anyone.
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