A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 15 & 16 for Sunday, February 11, 2024, with the title, “Impatience.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  ??? Have you ever had something you got tired of waiting on God for, so you were tempted to take things into your own hands???

(When I graduated from seminary, I waited to be called to my first church, but one wasn’t opening up. We were really struggling financially with me only holding a part-time seminary job, so I was tempted to look into some full-time secular work. God didn’t open the door. And soon, after I had learned some very valuable spiritual lessons during that time in the “wilderness,” He DID call us to our first full-time church. But I had been tempted to get on a “detour” and take things into my own hands.)
You/your group can share experiences you’ve had, of being tempted not to wait on the Lord.

Then say something like: today we’ll see how Abram and Sarai were tempted to take things into their own hands instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise.

CONTEXT

Our focus passage this week begins with the words, “After these things …”, so we need to fill in what “these things” were!

In Genesis 12 we saw how God called Abram and promised to make a great nation out of him, from whom the Messiah would come, to bless the whole world. The whole rest of the Old Testament is the gradual unfolding of that story. 

We left off in Chapter 13 with Abram & Lot’s men quarreling, and Abram exercising Biblical “meekness” and giving Lot first choice — and God promising Abram the whole land (“the humble shall inherit the land” as Psalm 37:11 says).  In Chapter 14 Abram has to rescue Lot, who was carried away captive by a coalition army of 4 kings. Abram leads his men against them and wins a battle with the kings, rescues Lot and all the possessions they had taken, and Melchizedek comes out to meet him and blessed him, and Abram tithed all he had gained in the battle. (A “Pre-Law” tithe, by the way. The tithe is NOT just and “Old Testament Law” principle!)  The king of Sodom told Abram he could have all the things he rescued from the opposing kings, but Abram said no, he wasn’t going to take any of his possessions.

THAT brings us to Chapter 15, and our focus passage for this week. 

OUTLINE:

I.  God’s Promises: The Shield, The Reward, and the Heir (:1-5) 

II. The Response/Reckoning of Faith (:6)

III. The Failed Substitute (16:1-6)

TEXT

I. God’s Promises to Abram  (:1-5)

:1 says: “So after these things …” In other words, AFTER the battle of the kings of Chapter 14, when Abram refused to take anything from the King of Sodom,

“The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”

Here God promises Abram a three very important things: a shield, a reward, and an heir

A. First He promises to be a SHIELD to Abram. He tells him “Do not be afraid.”

??? WHY do you think Abram might have been afraid???

(Maybe he was afraid there would be continued conflict with the kings, and the people of the land. How many battles am I going to have to keep fighting?

OR maybe he was afraid that he was not going to have an heir (we’ll see evidence for this in a minute)

??? What are some of the things that WE can be afraid of today???

(Crime, sickness, death, loss of loved one, financial distress, business failure, broken relationships, conflict/anxiety — numerous things!)

??? What is God’s word to us TODAY about these fears???
(It is the SAME: “Do not be afraid.”

HOW MANY TIMES in scripture is this God’s message to His people: “Do not be afraid”?!

(Actually, I have read that the Bible says “Do not be afraid/fear not” 365 times — some have written books, with one “fear not”per day!  I have not counted them myself! But the point is; God REPEATEDLY tells His people, “Fear not.” He doesn’t want us to be afraid.)

And notice: right after He says “Do not fear,” He says, “I am a shield to You.” 

??? What does God say is the solution to our fear???

“GOD HIMSELF is the solution to Abram’s fear. God is bigger.  Trust HIM. HE will be your shield.”

+x Psalm 3:3 “My shield, my glory, the lifter of my head.”

Because God is our shield, we can know that anything that DOES come through His shield, He has allowed, for His purposes.  (I have a full message on Psalm 3:3, “My Shield” on shawnethomas.com.)

During the Apollo program to reach the moon, our astronauts had to trust the heat shield on the command module as they re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. As the module descended the heat of re-entry would have burned the module and everything in it, up — except for that shield, which was designed to absorb and repel that heat.  If that heat shield held up, the astronauts would live. If it didn’t, they would be burned up! They had to trust that shield.

(YOU MIGHT SHOW A PICTURE LIKE THIS)

That is very much like us with the Lord. God says He is our “Shield.” The solution for our fears in the “fires” that we encounter in this life, is to TRUST HIM to be the Shield He promised. He says, I will be your shield. TRUST HIM! 

B. The Promise of the REWARD. 

THEN He adds one more, very signifiant thing: NASB = “Your reward shall be very great.” 

This is literally, “your very great reward.” (KJV and NIV actually translate it that way.) In other words, God says, I am your shield, AND I am also your REWARD!  

This is a HUGE statement, and one that many people, even many Christians, fail to grasp: that GOD IS OUR REWARD! 

People think about what great rewards there might be for us in heaven: pearly gates, streets of gold, meeting all kinds of people, and so on. But our reward is a PERSON.

It’s like in the old fairy tales, when the knight slays the dragon and saves the kingdom, and his reward is the hand of the king’s daughter. His reward is a PERSON.

The Bible tells us that OUR reward as God’s people is also a Person: the Person of God Himself. “I am your great reward.”

We see this in multiple places in scripture, like Psalm 16:5, “The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup.” All the tribes of Israel had an inheritance in the land, but God had said in Deuteronomy 10:9 that the priests were to have no inheritance in the land: “Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance.” 

This is what David says here. “The LORD is the portion of my inheritance.”

And this is true for the Christian as well: what is our great reward in heaven? It is not “pearly gates or streets of gold;” it is not “the greatest horse or the greatest golf course; it is GOD HIMSELF. Like God said to Abram, “I AM your great reward”! 

Now, if that is anything less than thrilling to you, you need to enlarge your vision of God. We need to realize what all the Person of God has to offer us:

— Psalm 16:11 says “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Just to BE in God’s presence gives joy. It says He has pleasures to give us from His right hand that will last forever — we can’t even begin to imagine here on earth, the pleasures we will know in heaven in His presence. 

— Revelation 5 pictures the presence of God’s throne in heaven as like a rainbow of dazzling colors; flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, choirs singing — the presence of God will be more captivating than the best concert, more dazzling than the best fireworks show, more enjoyable than the greatest pleasure and more satisfying than the deepest joy we have ever known here on earth. Don’t worry about being “bored in heaven”! The Creator of Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon; the Creator of every living creature; the Creator of galaxies of stars; the Creator of all pleasure, is going to be there!

I believe we will never take our eyes off of Him. We will never do anything but worship and enjoy His presence. As one early church father said: For what would we turn our eyes from God to see? For what activity would we turn aside from the worship of God to do? NOTHING! NOTHING compares with Him! HE is the ultimate reward!  If we can’t get excited about God being our great reward, we need to get a better understanding of God! 

(There is another message on my blog if you’d like to read it for more background/illustrations on this text: search on my home page for Genesis 15:1, or the title, “The Reward of Faith.”)

C. The Promise of the HEIR (:2-5)

These are amazing promises that God made to Abram. But Abram doesn’t seem to be that impressed. He says in :2 “What will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house in Eliezer of Damascus?” (:3) And Abram said, ‘Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.’”

So Abram was like, these promises are great, but I don’t have anyone to pass them down to. And God had told him in Chapter 12, that He would make a great nation out of him, that would be a blessing to the world. But he didn’t even have a son!

??? What do you notice about the way Abram talked to God here???

(He was very honest. He was disappointed. He was looking for all these children that he thought God promised him, but he didn’t have any. But he didn’t “hide” that and tell God what he thought He might want to hear from him. He was honest with Him, and told Him how he really felt.

That’s a good example for us. We should be honest with God. (Our church has talked about this before; I have a sermon, “Honest to God” which addressed this. We can and should be very honest with God. Many of the Psalms are brutally honest — Job was honest with God, many of the saints in scripture were. 

So this is a good lesson for us: don’t just tell God what you think He wants to hear; be HONEST with Him. Share your heart with Him. He can’t really help you with the real issues of your life unless you are honest with Him. Abram was here — and we should be too.

So, with Abram being “Honest to God,” God can now deal with the real issue: (:4) Then behold the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’” So God promises: I AM going to give you an heir.

THEN :5 “And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’”

So evidently they had been speaking in Abram’s tent, because God then “took him outside” — and He showed him the stars, and told him to count them IF HE COULD!  That’s a daunting task. The stars are one of the most magnificent aspects of God’s creation — and they are VAST in number. Here’s a few numbers you can use in this lesson if you are led to:

— the stars visible to the human eye from earth are somewhere between 5000 and 10,000

— Scientists believe our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, has something like 100 BILLION stars

— They also believe that there may be 200 BILLION GALAXIES in the universe — each of hundreds of billions of galaxies!

I don’t think God is limited by any of these numbers. The point is, God’s saying: “Abram, you are going to have a LOT of descendants!” I know you are childless now, but you are going to be the father of a great, blessed nation — JUST like I promised you. Believe My promise!

And this is a good reminder to US, too: when we are discouraged by circumstances or events. We may not “see” or “feel” what God is doing — but He wants us to believe in Him regardless.

??? What are some times/situations when we might be tempted to be discouraged/not trust God???

(When we’re running short on money; is God really the Provider He said?

When a loved one passes away; we are tempted to mourn as if there was no eternity/act as if we won’t see them again. How can we know they really have eternal life?

You/your group can share many, many examples of such times.

Even in the difficult times of our lives, God wants us to believe in Him, and trust Him, even when all the evidence is to the contrary.   We see Abram’s response in a situation like this, in :6:

II. The Response of Faith (:6)

In :6 we see Abram’s response to God’s promise. It says:

“Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

THIS IS ONE OF THE KEY VERSES OF THE WHOLE BIBLE!

It is quoted FOUR TIMES in the New Testament:

— In Romans 4:3, as Paul is explaining salvation by faith, he refers to how Abram was justified by faith. He says in :2, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about — but not before God.” And then :4 quotes Genesis 15:6 “For what does the scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (He quotes it again in :22)

— Galatians 3, talking about how we are saved by faith and not works, quotes it again: “Even so, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’”

— James 2:23 quotes it yet again. 

This verse is so important because it gives us key information on how we are saved:

— “righteousness” = right with God.

The Hebrew word we translate “righteousness” is “tzedek.” It originally meant to be “straight” — to conform to the standard of what is right.

If I want to draw a straight line on a piece of paper, I get a ruler, because I know if I draw a line on my own, it will not be “straight,” it is not going to be “right.” That is what this word “righteous” means: it means to be “straight,” to be “right.”

“Righteousness” means first of all to be “right” with God. it means you are going down “the straight and narrow”; that you are doing what He tells you to do. But the Bible also makes it clear that “righteousness” also applies to your relationships with other people as well: that you are “straight” with them; “right” with them. So a “righteous” person is a person who is “straight”, or “right”, with both God and man.

— How does this happen: BY FAITH.  He “BELIEVED God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” NOT “he WORKED,” NOT “he earned,” etc., but he just “BELIEVED”!

— and it uses that important word, “reckoned”

This is an important concept. The Hebrew word here for “reckoned”, “Chashab,” means “to think, to account.”

We are “accounted” as righteous before God, when we put our faith in Christ. It is NOT that we ARE really so righteous; but God COUNTS/reckons/credits us with that righteousness, by faith.

II Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

See, in reality we are NOT that righteous. As Isaiah says, “All our righteousness is filthy rags.” We have all sinned, in thought, word, deed, and things not done. But in Christ, God “reckons”/counts/considers us as righteous — with the perfect righteousness of Christ — even though in and of ourselves, we are not — WHEN like Abram we put our faith in Him. Our “faith is reckoned as righteousness.” 

Martin Luther King is famous for his “I Have A Dream” speech in which he said: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” That’s a good goal for us to work towards in this world. 

But a few years ago R.C. Sproul Jr. wrote a Twitter post regarding our relationship with God, and said:  “I thank God that I am not judged by the content of MY character, but by the content of HIS character.” (1-15-18)

That is exactly what happens when you get saved. You are not that righteous; certainly not righteous enough to go to heaven. But in Jesus, God “RECKONS” you as righteous — He counts Jesus’ righteousness to YOU. God doesn’t judge you by the content of YOUR character, but by the content of HIS character. You are “reckoned as righteous” – “straight,” “right with God” – so the doors of heaven will open to you because of what Jesus did for you.  

Challenge your group: DON’T trust in how good YOU are to get you into heaven, but how good JESUS is! Trust HIS righteousness. And you can have the very righteousness of Christ as a gift, if you will put your faith in Jesus.

The Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus, and our being “reckoned” as righteous through faith in Him, is one of the key concepts in all of the Bible. This is a great opportunity for you to share this vital teaching of the gospel with your class this week!

III. The Failed Substitute (16:1-6)

Honestly I doubt that our class will get this far Sunday, but I’ll cover it briefly in case you do. God made such an amazing promise to Abram and Sarah — just like He has to us. But what we often do is take things into our OWN hands, to “bail God out” by doing things our way — but when we do that we fail miserably, and cause all kinds of problems along the way. 

Chapter 16:1 here says “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.”

:2 So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Now behold the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

(Now, lest we blame Sarai too much, Abram had his OWN plan too, didn’t he, with Eliezer of Damascus in Chapter 15!)

Notice a couple of things here:

— Who did Sarai blame for not having children? The Lord.

— Then what did she do? She came up with “her own plan” for getting a child.

Isn’t this what so often happens? God promises something, and we don’t see it happening, so we “take things into our own hands” and do it “our way” — but it always causes problems when we do.

THINK OF ALL THE PROBLEMS Sarai’s man-made plan brought. (We see several unfold in the next verses):

— it brought conflict between her and Abram (:5)

— it brought conflict between her and Hagar (:4,6)

— it brought about hardship for Hagar and Ishmael (:6+_

— it brought about conflict for the people of Israel when they came back to Canaan (enemies and wars)

— And it is STILL causing conflict today in the Middle East! 

This is what happens when we try to “finagle” things, and implement our own “man-made” plans, instead of persevering to God’s plans by faith.  

Maybe you or some of your class members are being tempted to do this in some area of your lives today. Maybe your church is about to “bail out” on God’s ways because you aren’t seeing the “success” you want or expect. DON’T compromise. DON’T try to take things into your own hands. Persevere in faith. Compromising God’s ways and taking things into your own hands always causes MORE problems — as Abram and Sarai see here. God’s got something better. Persevere and wait for Him! It will be worth it!

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