Abraham goes to war with five surrounding nations to save his nephew Lot. When he returns from the battle, I wonder if he had fears of retaliation by some of the other tribes around him. I think he might have been afraid of something like that happening because as Chapter 15 opens we read, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’”1 Why would God tell Abraham “not to be afraid” if he wasn’t afraid? But God promises to be a “shield” for Abraham. Boice reviews the battle that Abraham had against the four kings and concludes, “He (Abraham) had attacked with a small force, but he had won and recovered the spoils. They must have been furious, and Abram must have been wondering about the consequences of his heroic rescue of his nephew. While he was wondering, God came to him with a promise of protection, precisely the promise he needed.”1
The image of God as a shield appears eleven times in the Psalms.
3:3 – But thou, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
5:12 – For thou dost bless the righteous, O Lord; thou dost cover him with favor as with a shield.
7:10 – My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
18:2 – the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
28:7 – The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts.
33:20 – Our soul waits for the Lord, for he is our help and shield.
84:11 – For the Lord is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor.
91:4 – He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
115:9 – O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
119:114 – Thou art my hiding place and my shield; I hope in thy word.
144:2 – My rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under him.
God promises to protect Abraham on his journey through life. One translation says, “I will block anything that might hurt you.” God will be present with Abraham and will never desert him even in times of trouble and distress. This image is repeated for us in the Psalms and elsewhere that God is a shield for his people. He will secure us from all evils, always coming between us and harm. If this is the case, and it is, it should silence all perplexing, tormenting fears that Abraham could have. It should silence our fears also. Janzen wrote, “Life continuously leads us beyond what we know and can deal with familiarly. At each stage, with its accompanying anxieties, the word of God comes: “fear not.” Thus the whole of one’s life, and of a community’s life, is a process of learning to trust in the deep assurances of the God who gives life and who calls and promises in the face of what threatens life.”2
1 James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 528.
2J. Gerald Janzen, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 12–50, International Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids; Edinburgh: Eerdmans; Handsel Press, 1993), 36.