Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are going to read Genesis 15:1-3:

After these things the word of JEHOVAH came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord JEHOVAH, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

I will stop reading there. We have been reading theses verses and we have looked at verse 1 in our last few studies, so we are going to move on.

As we look at verse 2, first we must acknowledge that God knows the hearts of His people. He knows what is going on deep down within us, even when we do not. So, God knows that Abram is troubled, even though Abram had not said anything. Abram was not complaining. We do not find a record of Abram complaining or bringing up the issue of an heir or a seed. But God first comes to Abram and He says, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” God is seeking to comfort him, encourage him and strengthen him in the inner man, basically telling him, “Look, you have everything because you have me. Yes, I know you are looking for a child.” Of course, Abram was looking for a child because the Lord had come to him previously and told him that he would receive a child. We can see that in Genesis 12:1:

Now JEHOVAH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Then it says in Genesis 12:7:

And JEHOVAH appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto JEHOVAH, who appeared unto him.

God told him He would make him a great nation: “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” This was not the only time God said this. By the way, in Genesis, chapter 12 Abram is already 75 years old as he is coming out of the land of Haran. He was a 75-year-old man and his wife Sarai was 65. Then some more time passed and we read in Genesis 13:14-17:

And JEHOVAH said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Again, this was very specific information that came from God to Abram, wherein he was told he would receive the land eternally, both him and his seed. We do not know how old Abram was in chapter 13. We know he was 75 when he came out of Haran, so he may have been a year or two older. We are now in Genesis 15 and we are almost to chapter 16, where Sarai will give her handmaid Hagar to Abram as a wife in order to have a “seed” or an heir because they were both concerned that they were getting too old. God had promised them a seed and, perhaps, this is how it was to work out. We know that when Ishmael was born, Abram was 86, so it is likely that in Genesis 15 (after the battle Abram fought against the four kings) that Abram was around 84 or 85 years old and Sarai was 10 years younger, which would be 74 or 75.

Again, Abram was just a human being. He was a child of God, but he was a man with a body of flesh and he certainly would have rehearsed the things God had said to him, again, and again. Whenever he would have begun to doubt or worry and think about his age or about Sarai’s age, he would have considered what God had said regarding giving the land to him and his seed. It would have quieted his fears and quieted those doubts that were trying to pop up in his mind that would lead him to doubt the Word of God. So, you cannot help but think that Abram would have told himself or he would have told his wife Sarai, “We have to trust God. We have to wait on the Lord because God did not give us a specific time for the seed, but He said He would give the land to me and my seed.”

Time kept passing. The passage of time is often used by God to strengthen a “test.” Anybody can wait on the Lord for a day or a week or a month. Anyone can wait when the object of our desire is close at hand, but as time passes and there comes year after year, it serves to increase the doubt and to undermine the trust in the Word. It comes against that trust and faith in the Word of God – it assaults it. It begins to gnaw at the things the individual believer has heard from the Word. Abram hearing the Word of God is just like us when we hear the Bible. The passage of time continues to assail, day after day, to where it is necessary for the child of God to say, “No – I am not going to think about it, but I am going to trust in the Lord.”

God knows of the struggles within, so He said, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”

Then the problem within Abram surfaces in Genesis 15:2:

And Abram said, Lord JEHOVAH, what wilt thou give me…

God had said, “I am thy exceeding great reward. I am your wage. I am your hire.” Now Abram is going to commune with God in a very intimate and personal way. We are not to think that this discussion between God and Abram took place with a crowd around. It was very private, although it is recorded on the pages of the Bible for our benefit. Abram brings his problem and the cause of his anxiety before God. Is that not what God is telling us to do? “Be careful with nothing; But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Prayer and supplication is exactly what Abram is doing. Abram is making his request known in a heartfelt way and he is also reminding God of God’s own promise to him. “Lord JEHOVAH, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”

By the way, the name “Eliezer” is an excellent name because it means “God of help.” Eliezer was a steward in Abram’s house. His parents were servants and he was born a servant in Abram’s house. Abram did not have to purchase him, in other words, as it said in Genesis 17:12:

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

So, Eliezer was not bought with money. He was born and raised in Abram’s house and he was a faithful steward, so he rose to a position of authority and prominence among the servants, so Abram thinks of him as his heir at that point because he had no seed. If he were to die, he would have left his wealth to this Eliezer of Damascus.

Remember, a while back we discussed the location of “Damascus” as a place of salvation. When Saul was on the road to Damascus, Christ appeared to him and he was taken to Damascus and there received his sight back. If he was not saved there, it was certainly a picture of salvation. Also, in Galatians, chapter 1 the Apostle Paul was moved by God to speak of Damascus in Galatians 1:17:

Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

He was saved in Damascus and then went to Arabia, where mount Sinai was located and the Ten Commandments were given, which represent the entire Word of God, the Bible. So, after salvation (typified by Damascus) the child of God goes to the Law (the Bible) to find out how we are to live and how we are to love the Lord Jesus Christ by keeping His commandments, but we always return to “Damascus,” or we always return to the fact that we are saved by grace alone.

So, this man Eliezer (God of help) was of Damascus, a place of salvation. Certainly, he was a good man and, in all likelihood, he typifies the child of God because he was born in Abram’s house. Again, Abram would be “Father Abraham,” typifying God and we are all born again in to the house of God, the spiritual house God built, and we are stewards. We are caretakers or stewards of the mysteries of the Bible and we are servants. We are not the “seed” ourselves. Remember, the promise of the seed, in the first instance, was singular and points to Christ and we are counted for the seed in Christ. In a way, this passage is contrasting the believers with the Lord Jesus Christ, the “seed” and the Son of God that was declared the Son through the resurrection from the dead.

Then it says in Genesis 15:3:

And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

Again, you see the emphasis. This is very helpful to us because Abram was not going to God complaining and murmuring. He is not saying, “God you said I would have a seed, but I do not have a seed. You told me this years ago. It has not happened, so where is it, God?” That would be a very arrogant way to approach God. It would be very proud, but Abram was not doing that. He was simply casting his care upon the Lord and revealing the burden of his heart. Very humbly he is pointing out to God that at this specific time that his steward Eleazer is his heir because God had not yet given the seed. He is not complaining or murmuring, but he is reminding God of His promise. We could say he was bringing up a Scripture concerning what God had said about giving Abram a seed and inheriting the land for evermore.

I said that is very helpful to us because we are also recipients of the promise. The promise to Abram is the same promise to us: we will inherit the land for an everlasting possession. We are counted as the seed. We are the heirs. I will go to that verse again, even though I turn to it often. It says in Galatians 3:29:

And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

God has promised us the land of Canaan for an eternal habitation and an everlasting possession. Have we received that land of Canaan, which is the new heaven and new earth for an everlasting possession? No – we have not yet received our inheritance. We received the down payment in salvation and the indwelling Holy Spirit is the “earnest of the spirit.” It is the earnest of God’s promise that He will complete our salvation and transport us into the new heaven and new earth where we will dwell forever and ever. But we have not yet received it, so do we go to God about it? Yes - especially at this time in history because we have been looking for the end at which time the promise would be completed and all the things spoken to Abram would be fulfilled for him and for us.

We thought it would happen back in 1994 and then on May 21,2011 or even October 21, 2011. We have been disappointed and we had need of correction in some of these areas, so many of us have gotten tired and grown weary: “It is so long.” Of course, in some ways it has been a long time, as we look at time as a finite creature, but from God’s perspective it is not long at all. But some have just grown weary and they have become critical and they are complaining and murmuring and they have concluded, “It is never going to happen. God is not fulfilling His promises, so I am going back to the world.” When we add time to these kinds of circumstances, it strengthens the test. The prolonged judgment period makes it even more grievous and even more a trial of faith and it is very tempting to go to God and complain: “O, Lord, we trusted in you, that you would deliver us. We trusted that we would have received the promise by now. Where is it, O, God?” We may speak to God in accusatory language and point the finger at Him, as though He has failed us. Of course, He has not failed us. Everything is working out according to His perfect plan and His perfect timeline. It is we that must get acclimated to God’s timetable, not the other way around, so we do not want to be arrogant about it.

However, we can go to God as Abram went to Him and bring up the subject. We can say, “O, Lord, O, Lord, we thank you for your great salvation program and all the blessings you have blessed us with and we do not deserve even one. But it is only because your Word has declared these things to us and we know your Word is true and faithful altogether and we know you are going to fulfill your Word. And, O, Lord, we look to you with good expectation for the completion of your program for all things in this world, so we may enter in to the glorious kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth. We praise your name for your faithfulness in fulfilling the things you have promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the saints. And, O, Lord, we do cry out to you.”

God has no problem with His people reminding Him. Remember in the book of Revelation, the saints that are in heaven in their souls cried out to God, in Revelation 6:10:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

We can very humbly bring to remembrance the things that God has said concerning the end of the world and all the future expectation of the promises that lie in store for each child of God. And God can reply to us, as it says in Hebrews 10:35-38:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith…

The Bible says that faith is “the evidence of things not seen.” You see, we continue to look with eyes of faith to see God and see His attributes and His characteristics as being completely faithful, always fulfilling the things He has said and doing the things He has spoken. We trust God. We not draw back, as it goes on to say in Hebrews 10:38-39:

…but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

The people of God wait on the Lord. We are not alone. We are not special in that way. There is no temptation taken us that is not common to man or common to the children of God. Was it pleasant for Abram to wait 25 years before God fulfilled the earthly aspect of the promise in granting Sarai a child in her old age? No – it was not easy at all. It was full of difficulties and we can see that with the people of God throughout Biblical history. It is always necessary to wait on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is a characteristic of a true child of God. A professed believer that is not saved will not be able to wait upon the Lord.