Look up to God
Genesis 15
Key verse 15:5
Good morning. Happy Sunday. Today’s passage is about God told Abram to look up at the sky and count the stars when he was very down. Why do we need this passage? You know Dec 25th is Christmas day. Then, do you know April 14th is “Look up the Sky Day”? On the day, people are encouraged to look up the sky and enjoy the wonders of nature and space. In modern days, many people are busy, down, fearful, and depressed. So, it is recommended that at least one day per year, they go outside and forget their situation for a while. However, when they come back, they are going to face the same circumstances and be hopeless once again.
In today’s passage, Abram was very down. God promised him that he would make him a great nation when he moved to Canaan, the mission land. But nothing has happened. He still did not have a son. Then, God took him outside and told him, “Look up at the sky and count the stars”. God helped him to look up to God and put his faith in God once again. By God’s help, when he believed God, God also credited it to him as righteousness. So, through this message, let us understand how God helps us through learning about God’s guidance for Abram in this passage.
First, do not be afraid, Abram. Shall we read verse 1? After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. What does ‘after this’ refer to? In chapter 14, Abram heard his nephew Lot taken as a captive by the army of the four kings (king Kedorlaomer). He called his 318 trained men and pursued the army to rescue Lot. With God’s help, he beat the army and restored Lot. But now, in reality, he was so nervous and anxious. What if the kings gather their army and revenge him? They will surely retaliate against him.
Like Abram, are you afraid of something these days? Then, let us listen to what God said to him once again. In verse 1, God said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward”. Abram did not need to be afraid. Why? Because God is his shield. As you know, a shield protects one’s life from a sword, spear, and arrows in battle. No matter how strong a sword is, if a soldier has a shield, he can protect himself with the shield. God is almighty, powerful God. Nothing can defeat him. If God protects Abram, who could dare to harm him? No one.
God also said to Abram, I am your very great reward. Why did God say this? In chapter 14, Abram took all the goods after defeating the 4 kings. If he wanted, he could keep all the goods for himself. Then, like Bill Gates, he would be the richest man in the whole world. However, for the sake of God’s name, he gave up all the plunders. He seemed to be foolish. You know how hard it is to open your wallet to give offerings to God and help those who are in need? Yet, Abram did not take any good things for God’s sake. God saw this. God wanted to become his very great reward. Abram lost materials, but he gained God.
Our God is the one who speaks to us when we are afraid. In Isaiah 7, the king of Aram (Syria – the superpower nation at that time) and the king of Israel joined together to attack the kingdom of Judah. When people of Judah heard their allies, they were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. But in the right timing, God said to them, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—It will not take place, it will not happen” God was their shield. God promised them it would not happen. As God said, in history, the allied armies did not invade Judah.
Last week, Franco quit his band. It was not an easy decision since he had spent many hours/days/years in the band and put his hope for the music. When he was about to talk with the band leader, he was super nervous and anxious. He did not know how the band leader would react. But on that morning, he read this verse: Do not be afraid, Franco, I am your shield, your very great reward. Through this Bible verse, he was able to calm down and find courage. When he talked with the leader about his decision, surprisingly, the leader did not yell at him nor persuaded him to change his mind. Rather, he understood that his path and Franco’s path are different. He respected Franco’s decision. Through this, Franco realized God is helping him when he puts his trust in God. He personally experienced how God is his shield and his very great reward.
Verse 1 is not just for Abram or Franco. It is for all of us. God wants to be our own shield and our very own reward. Let’s put your name and repeat verse 1 one more time: Do not be afraid, Joshua. I am your shield, your very great reward.
Second, look up at the sky and count the stars. In verse 2 and 3, Abram questioned God about his offspring. In verse2, he said “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless.” In verse 3, he said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir. Basically, he seemed to complain, ‘God, why you did not give me what I want: a son. I do not expect something great from you; all I want is just one son’. We do not know how old Abram was at that moment. But according to Genesis 16:16, he was 86 years old when he got Ishmael. According to Genesis 12, at the age of 75, he came to Canaan. So, we can guess, approximately 10 years have passed so far. For the last 10 years, how much he was patiently waiting for God’s blessing: his own son. In Genesis 12, God promised him, “leave from your people and go to the land I will show, then I will make you a great nation”. So, he left even if he did not know where he was going. In Genesis 13, he even gave Lot a choice to choose the land first. In Genesis 14, when the king of Sodom said “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself”, then he said, I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.” How much he tried to please God, how much he tried to live by faith. However, nothing happened. For the last 10 years, God was silent. He and his wife were getting old. For the past 10 years, if something did not happen, then, for the next 10 years, nothing will happen either.
Then, what was God’s response? Let’s read verse 4 and 5. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
God once again confirmed Abram that a son from your own flesh and blood will be your heir. Afterward, God took him outside, away from his tent. What was he doing in his tent? We can guess that he was depressed, just lying down like a paralyzed man on his bed. Maybe he was counting his age or his wife’s age or his possessions. God took him out of his tent and told him, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Abram looked up at the sky: so many beautiful and shining stars in the dark sky; big one, small one, across the sky. In America, because of air pollution, we do not see many bright stars in the night, but in the middle East or at the top of mountains, you can see these bright stars in the dark night. Abram counted the stars as God told him; one, two, three, wow! There are so many. I cannot count them all. Then, at the moment, God said to him, So shall your offspring be. The almighty God created the stars out of nothing. Giving Abram a son is no problem; it is a piece of cake. God promised Abram that I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars for you.
Like Abram, God is helping us to look up at the sky. What is our dark sky? It is our circumstance. What is the stars in the dark sky? It is God. God is saying “look up to me in heaven”. He is still shining in our dark situation. He does not want us to look at our circumstances. Our situation may make us worried, anxious, and fearful. Instead, when we look up to God, we can find hope and help in God.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Psalm 121:1-2 says, I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
C.S. Lewis once said Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for God, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
Third, God credited it to him as righteousness. Shall we read verse 6? Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Abram believed the LORD. In other words, he believed God’s promise despite his personal circumstances. How could he believe God’s promise at that time? We often emphasized Abram’s faith. But as we closely look in this chapter, it was God who helped Abram believe his promise. To do so, God used visual presentation such as the stars in the sky. Also, in Genesis 12, God rescued him when he messed up in Egypt. In Genesis 14, God delivered Abram’s enemies into his hands that he could rescue Lot as well. God blessed him to experience God’s power that he could believe God even if all things were against him.
Back to verse 6, when Abram believed the LORD, how did God consider his faith? It says he credited it to him as righteousness. God credited it to Abram as righteousness. In other words, God said, ‘Abram, in my eyes, you are righteous” Here, the concept of righteousness appears for the first time in the Bible. Overall the word “righteousness” appears around 540 times.
Verse 6 shows how we too can be righteous and justified before God. Romans 3-5 talks about being righteous between God and a sinner. It says there is no one, not even one righteous before God. In God’s eyes, all are sinful, filthy, and dirty. No one is going to be righteous by the works of the law or doing good deeds. As I shared last week, no matter how often you have observed the traffic law even if it is 999 times, you violate the law just one time, they will charge a penalty. However, thank God. God’s righteousness is given to us by his own grace through Jesus. Jesus shed his blood on the cross to pay for our sins. God gives us faith to believe (in fact, Ephesians 2:8 says For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God) that Jesus died on the cross for me. By God’s help, when Abram looked up to God and believed God’s promise, he was credited as righteousness. In the same way, when we look up Jesus on the cross and believe God’s promise (whoever believes him shall not perish but have eternal life –John 3:16), God considers us righteous in his sight. Praise God.
So far, related to be righteous, we can see here what Abram wants and what God wants are different. Abram wished to have his own son with God’s help. That was his main interest. When his wish did not come true, he was very down. He was afraid of his future. However, what God wants is to let Abram look up to God, believe God’s promise, and build up a right relationship with God. Also, not just one son and then live a comfortable life, but instead have God’s vision – through one person Abram, all peoples on earth will be blessed.
Like Abram, we want something like success, blessing from God. I would say our main interest is not God, but his blessing. So, like him, when we do not get what we wish, we are so afraid, very hopeless, and depressed. However, God is different. He who created the stars in the sky can give us what we desire even tomorrow. Yet, before this, he wants us to look up to him despite our circumstances, grow as a man of God, have God’s vision, and most of all develop a right relationship with him.
For me, it took 12 years to get permanent residency in America. When I saw other people, they seemed to solve my problem easily. So, I cried “Father” in the early morning, either on a rainy or a snowy day. However, God was silent. I was extremely anxious and stressed. Now when I look back that time, my interest was not God but with God’s help that I could quickly receive the green card. However, God was more interested in changing me: to put my trust in him in any situation, have God’s vision as a spiritual father of many college students, and develop my personal right relationship with him. Nowadays, I think it is the same thing going on. Since I moved to DE, I have prayed that God would bless Delaware UBF established quickly and one spiritual son, like Abram, ancestor of Delaware UBF, working with me to build up the body of Christ Jesus together here in UD campus. When these things seem not to be working, I have been very anxious and worried. However, through this passage, I realized that God wants me to look up to him, he is almighty God who created the stars in the sky that I should have God’s vision for me, patiently wait. Then, in his right timing, he will make what I have prayed for.
Fourth, God made a covenant with Abram. Now, look at verse 7. God reminded Abram who he was in the past. Verse 7 says “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” Before Abram believed God, he was an idol worshipper. In our term, he was an unbeliever. You know, how hard it is for an unbeliever to believe in Jesus? But with God, nothing is impossible. God brought Abram out of his unbelieving world. And in this verse, God promised Abram that he and his offspring would possess the land where Abram lived. At that point, Abram did not have a square of his own land. So, Abram asked God, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” Then, God did not say to Abram, ‘Abram, repent, why you did not believe me?’ Instead, how did God help him believe his promise?
God made a covenant with him. In verse 9 – 11, God first told him to bring some animals. He brought some animals and birds, cut them in tow and arranged the halves opposite each other. This is the way of how two partners made a contract in Abram’s time. And then, in verse 12 – 16, God foretold him; basically Exodus, and then God will give his offspring, the whole land from the Wadi (River) of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. In history, this promise was fulfilled in the times of king David.
Look at verse 18a. On that day, the LORD made a covenant with Abram. God made a covenant with Abram. Is not God’s promise enough for him? Why is the covenant still necessary? The covenant is legal and formal partnership contract, not empty promise (people promise, let us say some people make a vow to God or they enter into marriage vow, then based on conditions, when they think they can keep it, they keep the promise, however, when they think they cannot, they do not want to keep their promise), however, God’s covenant is different. 100% sure, no matter what happens, by any cost, no matter how long it takes, even if Abram failed, God is going to keep his promise because he bound himself to the covenant. We are going to learn about covenant more later in Genesis 17.
In conclusion, when Abram was afraid, God said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” When he was down, God took him outside and said, “look up at the sky and count the stars”. God helped him believe God’s promise, then, when he believed God, God credited it to him as righteousness. If we look at our current circumstances, calculate this way and that way or count this thing and that thing, there is no answer. However, when we look up to HIM, shining in the dark situation, we can put our trust in him, have God’s vision for us, and develop right relationship with him. Then, in his right timing, he will give us what we want as God gave Abram his son Isacc later. I pray instead of being anxious, we may look up to God, patiently wait and fix our eyes on him, because he knows what we are going through, he knows what we need, he knows what is best for us, and he knows when is best for us.
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