Eliezer

I am your shield, your very great reward.

But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.

And so what is Abram? How old is Abram right here?

Eight, page thirty-six.

In Genesis twenty-four twenty, Etheria takes it for granted, as usual, that Abraham's eldest servant is the same as Eliezer of Damascus, fifteen twenty, though it is merely an assumption.

Again, on page twenty-five, it appears that she accepted the identification of the Salem of Melchizedek, Genesis fourteen eighteen, with the place of that name near Sikar, not as others do with Jerusalem.

See F. Jerome ad evangelim, paragraph twenty-seven, and Onym.

The Bible reads, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.

We see that there's been a battle and then we see the blessings of God.

But there's a third aspect to the setting and the scene here which I want to draw your attention to.

I've called this the bewilderment of Abraham look at verse two and three I think we find Abraham is perplexed Abraham is grappling with some things here in his walk of faith and Abraham said Lord God what would thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus so this is Abraham's response to God's promise to be his reward and he responds with an inquiry he responds with a question And he's grappling with this whole matter of the fact that God had promised to make of him a great nation, but as yet he had no seed.

Now, I don't believe that this was a statement of fleshly doubts on the part of Abraham so much as it was the inquiry of faith.

In Genesis 15, it says that sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you and your reward will be great.

But Abram replied, O sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son? Since you've given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all of my wealth.

You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir? The Lord said to him, no, your servant will not be your heir.

You will have a son of your own who will be your heir.