Your Shield, Your Very Great Reward

Your Shield, Your Very Great Reward

When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been carried off by a cadre of kings who overtook Sodom and Gomorrah, he led his own army to attack them and bring Lot and the other captives back. Afterward, in appreciation, the king of Sodom offered Abram all the goods he had recovered. But Abram refused. Instead, he offered a tenth of what he had to Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of God Most High.

Soon after, God spoke to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1, NIV).

God told Abram, “I am your shield,” meaning, “You didn’t lose any protection by not relying on the king of Sodom. I am your protection.” He said he was Abram’s “very great reward,” meaning, “You didn’t lose anything of value when you declined to divide the booty with the king of Sodom. By having me, you have the greatest treasure you could ever own.”

All that God wanted to be to Abram is what he wants to be to all children of Abraham in Christ.

Christ is our shield. He stands between God, whose majesty has been legitimately offended, and the offender, who is deservedly perishing, and presents himself to receive each blow. All the blows fall on him. All the fury of an avenging God is spent on the breast of God’s beloved Son. Because Christ himself is our shield, we can meet the wrath of God, the rage of Satan, the deathblows of self, and the soul-murdering world—and live.

Christ is also our very great reward. He is not merely our means to a reward. He is our reward. God meets all our needs “from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). While we experience Jesus as our shield, going before us and sheltering over us, we experience Jesus as our great reward as he makes his home within us.

God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Shield of salvation, there is no place of safety but under your sheltering wings, so that is where I hide. Great Reward, there is nothing I lack if I have you, so in you I am content.