Now, without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

He rewards those who seek him.

God is not afraid to be attributed as a rewarder.

He tells us he is.

He told him he was, all the way from the very beginning.

What he's telling us is,

you know, your reward may be here and it may be there. You may not see it in this lifetime,

but I will tell you this. I will reward your faithfulness to me, he says. I will reward it.

Why would Abram be afraid?

I read one commentary today, and I'll always think that a scholar knows better than I do,

but it still sort of hit me strangely, as he said.

He talked about the fear of the armies that had fled from the four kings,

and he said, but Abram was not a man of fear.

I believe that. I believe that. I do. I do.

But I don't know how often God would waste breath to tell someone not to be afraid who wasn't afraid or wasn't about to be afraid or hadn't been afraid. I just don't know. Why would he waste

that? When he says then to Joshua in Joshua chapter one, do not be afraid.

Is it because Joshua was not afraid?

I mean, you have to be.

You don't tell someone not to be something when they're already not that.

So somehow there was a fear he was coming to undo. I thought and thought, what would be

some of those reasons? What are the possibilities? I thought one, I don't know if I can explain

this well. I'm going to try to. But I wonder if

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