Accounted Righteous

Genesis 15:1–6 NASB95

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Abraham’s Dilemma

Abraham had received a promise from the Lord.

Genesis 12:1-4

Genesis 12:1–4 NASB95

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

The promises were quite vast.

Make Abraham and his descendents a great nation.

Birth of a nation through one man.

Bless Abraham.

I’m sure the promise for this “blessing” is multi-dimensional.

Wealth

Health

Family

etc.

Make his name great.

Honor

Dignity

Fame

Serious impact on others.

Blessing

Curse

But there was a problem.

Abraham did not have a son and his wife was barren.

Not only was this a huge roadblock for the first promise, it was a major roadblock for all the other promises as well.

Can’t birth a nation without offspring.

Can’t have honor amongst others without an offspring during his time.

The lack of an offspring was considered cursed by God. Thus, people would look down and detest you.

Then we come to Genesis 15, and the Lord comes to Abraham in a vision and says, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” And Abraham responds with, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless...”

You can kind of hear Abrahams frustration here.

Imagine you have a vision of the Lord and He tells you to completely uproot your entire life. Move to some random place and says I will bless you. You follow through, get to the location, and everything seems to be going wrong… Then God shows up again and says, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward!”

Wouldn’t you be…a bit frustrated? “Lord, you said… you said… and looks, this is how things are right now.”

Faith Accounted as Righteousness

I personally believe, Abraham’s frustration is somewhat justified.

The Lord responds to Abraham an promises that he will indeed have an offspring.

Then we get to the most remarkable part in verse 6.

Genesis 15:6

Genesis 15:6 NASB95

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Believed

The word “believed” in verse 6 is heʾĕmin in Hebrew.

It means to place absolute trust in someone WITH CONFIDENCE.

It’s not simply believing someone will come through with their promise, it’s actually putting your trust in that persons character.

Abraham believed the promise and the words he was hearing because of his trust in that the Lord is a promise keeper.

The emphasis here is not trusting the fulfillment of the promise because it’s a “promise” but because of the “one” making the promise.

Consequence of Faith

Because Abraham believed and had in faith in the Lord, the Lord “credited” his faith as righteousness.

The term “reckoned” in NASB or “accounted” in NKJV is ḥāšab in original Hebrew.

ḥāšab means “to assign value”

Meaning, Abraham’s faith in the Lord was assigned as a value of righteousness.

Now of course, the term “righteous” has a broad range of nuances but generally it is associated with behavior that conforms to a standard.

Abraham’s faith counted towards him as someone who conforms to the standard.

Standard of what? Standard of God.

Abraham’s faith in God’s attributes and as a promise keeping God…and entrusting his future to what God will do as opposed to what he could do for himself.

Conclusion

We want to live a righteous life.

We want to be counted righteous.

Yes, Godly deeds are not being counted out.

But true righteousness is having faith in God.

God is a promise keeper.

He has promised us all something.

I’m not talking about salvation and eternal life.

I’m talking about personal promises.

God has actually promised me a revival in FBNHP

God has promised me a revival in my personal life.

Though I do not know how that revival will look like yet, just as Abraham had no idea what those promises fulfilled will look like.

To be counted righteous is believing in God that He will fulfill His promises because it is Him who has made those promises.

Trust God and wait.