Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.””
(Genesis 15:2-3)

God is not afraid of discussion. God is not afraid of our opinions or our desire for clarification. He doesn’t OWE us an explanation, but He is not afraid of our desire to clarify details. This isn’t unbelief. This is making sure you didn’t hear wrong. This is seeking guidance (Luke 1:34), not rejecting the message (Luke 1:18). We have an advantage over Abram and all others in the Old Covenant, because we have Holy Spirit living inside us and can have conversations with Him. We don’t need a fleece (Judges 6:36-40). We have a superior way to confirm God’s will.

Eliezer of Damascus is believed to be Abram’s highest servant (Genesis 24). He was the elder of Abram’s house, the steward, the man who ran everything. If Abram had no children, it made sense for this man to be the heir of everything.

Abram isn’t challenging God. Abram is pointing out that it was hard to believe in this blessing God was speaking about because he had not been given an heir. There was no one to carry on Abram’s name or his line. He BELIEVED the promise that the land would be given to his descendants, but the reality of the promise hadn’t arrived yet. Abram was in essence asking whether or not God was changing His mind and going to do things another way. It wasn’t doubt, it was clarification to make sure doubt didn’t rise. Abram WANTED to believe because Abram trusted God. Abram was thinking of that promise. Abram was investigating that promise. Abram was trying to see HOW it would come to pass because what he was seeing – and had seen since the promise was given (Genesis 12:7, 13:14-16) – didn’t match the promise.

God’s promises aren’t about our PERFORMANCE. They are an opportunity to choose to trust Him and BELIEVE. It is our belief and trust in Him that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). Regardless of what we see in the natural world, we need to hold to what we see in the spiritual world. Belief trumps reality when it is grounded in our trust in Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:18).

The sage Sforno writes: ‘ובן משק ביתי הוא דמשק אליעזר, he is only a slave, known only in his home town. There can be no question but that similar actions performed by a slave who is in constant fear of his master’s disapproval, even if in fact the same as those performed by the master’s son, are different in quality, and in effect from one another. The same chores performed by the son are motivated by love instead of by fear.’

The sage Ramban writes: ‘AND ABRAM SAID, O LORD ETERNAL, WHAT WILT THOU GIVE ME? “Behold, Thou hast saved me from the kings, but Thou hast not assured me against extinction. Thou hast only said that Thou wilt give me great reward, but what can my reward be without children?”
Now it had not occurred to Abraham that this great reward would be in the World to Come for there is no necessity for such a promise; every servant of G-d will find life in the hereafter before him. But in this world there are righteous men, unto whom it happened according to the work of the wicked. It is for this reason that the righteous have need of assurance. Moreover, very great implies that he will merit both worlds with all the best therein without any punishment whatever as befits the really righteous people. Moreover, an assurance is given for that which a person fears. [Hence, he needed no assurance concerning the hereafter. But he feared being childless; therefore G-d] rejoined and explained that His assurance included that he should not fear this either, as He will make his children as the stars of heaven for multitude.
You may ask: Has it not been told to Abraham already, For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, and so, how could Abraham now say, Since I go childless…lo, my household slave will be mine heir? And why did he not believe in the first prophecy, as he would believe in this [second one which G-d will now relate to him?] The answer is that the righteous ones have no trust in themselves, fearing they might have sinned in error. Thus it is written At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it; but if that nation turn and do evil before Me, then I repent of the good. Now when Abraham saw himself advanced in years and the first prophecy concerning him had not yet been fulfilled, he thought that his sins had withheld that good from him. And perhaps he now feared that he would be punished for the people that he killed in the war, as our Rabbis have said. They have expressed a similar thought in Bereshith Rabbah: “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. From this we derive the principle that there is no assurance for the righteous ones in this world, etc.” WHAT WILT THOU GIVE ME, SINCE I ‘HOLECH’ (GO) CHILDLESS? They have explained the word holech as meaning “I die childless,” even as is the meaning of that word in the verse, For man is ‘holech’ (going) to his eternal home. The correct interpretation appears to me to be that at first he [Abraham] complained: “What can my reward be since I have no children and I go as a vagrant and vagabond alone in a strange land, like a tamarisk in the desert, no one going out, and no one coming in in my house except Eliezer, a stranger that I brought to me from Damascus, not from my family, and not from my country.” Then Abraham said, “Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed as Thou hast promised me, and lo my household slave, the one mentioned, will be mine heir, as I am old without child, and my time will come to die childless. I am thus punished, having lost the reward which Thou hast promised me at first.”’