What are you afraid of? What is it that frustrates you? Maybe your fears come from the “what ifs” in life, what if this happens or that happens. Maybe they are the fears of what other people think of you or the fear of failure. Maybe it’s the fear of things from the past, things that you can’t go back and change. What is that frustrates you? Maybe it’s many of the same things. As you look at your life things have not exactly worked out the way you had planned or wanted. Maybe it’s frustration with a person in your life who you watch make one bad decision after or another or the waiting on someone to get something done. When you think about it, fear and frustration many times go hand-in-hand. We are afraid because we feel vulnerable. We are frustrated because we’re not in control. Fear and frustration both come from recognizing our limitations, that we’re not in control. What is the solution to those fears and frustrations? The Lord reminded Abraham, as he reminds us today, of the solution in the account that we heard of in Genesis 15.
This account takes place just after Abraham had returned from a battle in which he had to rescue his nephew Lot and his family. This took place before what we heard of last weekend when the Lord was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family were living in Sodom when an alliance of kings attacked Sodom and took captive all its citizens including Lot and his family. When Abraham heard what had happened to his nephew Lot, he formed his own military alliance and attacked the armies of the kings that had taken Lot hostage. Abraham was victorious and Lot and the other citizens of Sodom were freed and able to return home in safety.
While Abraham was on the winning end of this battle it was a stark reminder of the constant danger in which he was living. Although Abraham was extremely wealthy, he was still a foreigner in the land of Canaan. He did not own even an acre of the land that God had promised to give to him and his descendants. The wealthier he became, the more he lived with a target on his back. And to top it all off, Abraham did not accept the religions of his neighbors, but worshipped the Lord who he claimed was the one and only true God. Having seen what happened to Lot and his family, Abraham was reminded of the constant danger in which he lived as a wealthy foreigner in the land of Canaan.
Given that background, that might help us to understand why the Lord came to Abraham and said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1). The Lord reassured Abraham of his protection while living in a land that was often quite dangerous. The Lord reassured Abraham that what the Lord gave to him would extend into eternity, something that only the Lord could provide. Yes, Abraham had nothing to fear with the Lord on his side.
But Abraham was also seemed to be quite frustrated. Don’t you sense that frustration in the way that Abraham responded to the Lord? Listen again, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir” (Genesis 15:3). Years earlier the Lord had promised Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2) but Abraham and his wife Sarah still did not have any children. How was this nation ever going to come about if Abraham didn’t have any children? It had been years since God made that promise and still Abraham and his wife Sarah had not a single child! How or when was the Lord going to keep this promise?
The Lord reassured Abraham, “A son who is of your own flesh and blood will be your heir” (Genesis 15:4), and to reinforce his promise he gave Abraham a visual. We hear, “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be’” (Genesis 15:5). Whenever Abraham got frustrated or began to doubt the Lord’s promise, Abraham could go outside and look up and be reminded of what the Lord had promised him.
How did Abraham respond? We’re told, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Did you hear that? There is the solution to fear and frustration – it is faith, trusting that the Lord will do what he has promised. Abraham trusted the Lord, and through that faith, received what the Lord promised – righteousness. You see, this was so much more than just Abraham having a son or being the father of the nation of Israel. This was about Abraham being right with God, something that he knew he could not achieve on his own. It was through Abraham’s descendants, the nation of Israel, that God promised to send the Savior who would bring righteousness to a world of unrighteous poeple. Jesus would come into this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a Jewish virgin girl named Mary. Through Jesus’ perfect life lived in the place of every human being, and by his suffering the punishment of hell for every person’s sins, Jesus would attain the righteousness that all people, Abraham included, are in need of. To all those who trust in God for the righteousness he promises, God credits to us the righteousness of Jesus. Through faith in Jesus, sinners like you and me and Abraham are declared right with God! The Apostle Paul referred to this account of Abraham when he wrote, “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were not written for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:23,24).
That is the faith that combats fear and frustration. “How?” you might ask. Abraham had faith in the Lord and through that faith received the righteousness God gave to him, still he woke up the next day living in a very dangerous place where famine or foreign invaders could wipe him and his family out. And although Abraham had faith in the Lord, he still didn’t have a son. In fact, he had to wait years before his son Isaac was born! And maybe you feel the same way. You trust in the Lord to provide the righteousness you need for heaven. You believe that Jesus has taken away your sins and that one day you will go to heaven, but...we still live in a dangerous world that sometimes feels quite terrifying, maybe even feeling that we are being targeted because of our Christian faith and our Biblical beliefs. Although God has promised to take us to heaven one day, not a single one of us has been there yet. We’re still waiting. So how does faith help to combat these fears and frustrations that we have?
Faith points us to the one that we have faith in. That might seem so simple, but I think it is so often missed by people today. You hear people talk about faith or encourage others to have faith, but it is often faith without foundation. It’s like a beautiful building built on a swamp. It might look pretty, but it’s going to sink and eventually collapse because it has no foundation. Who or what does your faith depend on? Who are you placing your faith in? That is the most important question when it comes to faith. Who was the object of Abraham’s faith? “Abram believed the Lord.” The foundation of Abraham’s faith is the same as ours – we believe the Lord.
How does that help combat the fears and frustrations that we have? Fear and frustration are normally the result of feeling vulnerable, realizing that you are not in control. In other words, that fear and frustration comes from trying to make ourselves the foundation of our faith. That’s a pretty “swampy” foundation because as strong and smart as we think we might be, we have our limitations, we have failed more times than we’d probably like to admit.
How much better to have the Lord at the foundation of our faith. For this is the Lord who remained faithful to his promise to Abraham. He did make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation from which the promised Savior did come. This is the Lord that continues to add to Abraham’s family each time someone comes to faith in Jesus, and through that faith is declared right with God and ready for heaven, just as Abraham was. As the Bible says, “Those who have faith are children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). If you need a reminder of God’s faithfulness, go outside some clear night and look up at the stars and recall how God has brought you and countless others into his family. And how did God do that? Look up again. But this time not at the stars, but to the cross. For is it there that you find a God who is able to take the scary and sad, and transform it into a source of comfort and peace. For it is at the cross that God made the payment for our every sin of every sinner. And when you look up at the cross, how can you not but look over at the empty tomb. There is your assurance that your God has control even over death itself. This is the God who promises to you just as he did to Abraham, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
Those are quite the hands to rely upon, to have faith in – the hands of a God who formed the world and set the stars in the sky, who through his Son Jesus has brought righteousness to the world, a God who will one day rescue you from this world and welcome you with open arms to join him and all those “stars” of Abraham’s family who just like you have believed in the Lord and receive the righteousness of Jesus. This is the faith that fights fear and frustration. This is the faith that God has given to you. Amen.
