THE LIGHT OF VISION (6)

“After these things the WORD of the Lord came to Abram in a VISION, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield…” – Genesis 15:1a

GOD dissolved Abram’s doubt and fear and reinforced his Faith by the LIGHT of VISION: “After these things the WORD of the Lord came to Abram in a VISION, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen.15:1). “After these things” – after Abram had given a tithe to Melchizedek, king of Salem, and refused the riches of Sodom (chapter 14), it seems like something stirred in him. God had promised that he’ll become a great nation with a great name, but these appeared to be delayed. Doubt and fear were setting in! So, after the victory of Genesis 14, God said, “Do not be afraid, Abram.” He spoke in picture-language, describing Himself as his Shield. Since Abram had just refused the reward of the King of Sodom, he also needed to be assured that God was his “exceedingly great reward”!

This was not the first time God was speaking in picture language to sharpen Abram’s vision and strengthen his Faith. Earlier, the Lord had taken him to the sea-shore and said: “I will make your descendants as the DUST of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered” (Gen.13:16). By this terrestrial image, Abram could SEE the perfection of God’s promises in the innumerable dust of the earth. Abram’s perception with his spiritual eyes defined the limits of his possessions: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Gen.13: 14b-15). Perception by the Light of Vision is vital to our Faith!

In today’s text, the Lord brought Abram under the night sky and said: “LOOK now toward heaven, and COUNT the STARS if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be” (v.5). This represents the celestial dimension of the Vision. These vivid images – dust, shield, stars – kept his faith alive while awaiting the fulfilment of God’s promises. The Light of Vision in his heart kept his faith from wavering in the face of contradicting physical evidences, negative biological symptoms, and an almost hopeless situation.

Against the natural order of things, Abram held on to Faith: “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be” (Rom.4:18). He was a man living between the promise and the fulfillment, but the Light of Vision helped to strengthen and reward his faith: ^“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom.4:20).