![]() He was having a sleepless night and the trouble was that he was afraid. God appears to Abram in a vision, but when he comes, his first words are, "Fear not!" This reveals what is going on in Abram's heart. The heart of this passage does not lie in its great phrases, however, but in its connection with the preceding events of Abram's life. And then there is that familiar word in the last verse, "And he believed the Lord and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." The fires of the Reformation were lit from that ringing phrase! This is the first intimation of this character of God in Scripture. The third phrase is, "I am your shield." In a thousand wonderful variations, we find this thought repeated frequently: God is our refuge and our strength God is a tower of refuge God is an overshadowing rock blessed is he that hides under the shadow of the Almighty. The second phrase is the word that came to Abram, "Fear not!" How often this is God's word to man, throughout this book. The word of the Lord came to many men, just as it came to Abram, and they wrote as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit, and then actually sat down and studied their own writings to learn what God had said, (1 Peter 1:10-12 RSV). (Genesis 15:1-6 RSV)ĭid you catch the first one, in the very first line, "the word of the Lord came"? The recurrence of this phrase many times afterward in Scripture emphasizes the God-breathed character of the Bible. See if you can recognize them:Īfter these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus" And Abram said, "Behold, thou hast given me no offspring and a slave born in my house will be my heir." And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir your own son shall be your heir." And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Four such phrases appear in this paragraph for the first time in the Bible, though they are repeated many, many times afterward. By this is meant that the first time a word or phrase is used in the Bible, it is used in such a way or in such a context as to highlight the basic meaning of it throughout the rest of Scripture. ![]() ![]() The opening paragraph of Genesis 15 strikingly illustrates for us what is commonly called in Bible study, the law of first occurrence.
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