Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
The mind of Abram is here lifted up to the spiritual and the eternal.
(1) thy shield.
(2) thy exceeding great reward.
Abram has two fears – the presence of evil, and the absence of good. Experience and conscience had begun to teach him that both of these were justly his doom. But God has chosen him, and tells Abram that He (God) will stand between Abram and all harm, and God will be to him all good. With such a shield from all evil, and such a source of all good, he has no need to be afraid. The Lord, we see, begins, as usual, with the immediate and the tangible; but he sets a principle that reaches to the eternal and the spiritual. We have here the opening germ of the great doctrine of “the Lord our righteousness,” redeeming us on the one hand from the sentence of death, and on the other to a title to eternal life.
In Spirit and In Truth The Word 