My Reward Is with Me: The Reward Promised to Abram and the Lord Who Comes Bringing It
Old Testament: Genesis 15:1
Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.
Old Testament, also: Isaias 40:10; Isaias 62:11
Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him. ... Behold the Lord hath made it to be heard in the ends of the earth, tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Saviour cometh: behold his reward is with him, and his work before him.
New Testament: Apocalypse 22:12-13
Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
The connection
Abram had just come back from battle, and the king of Sodom offered him the spoils. Abram refused all of it: "from the very woof thread unto the shoe latchet, I will not take of any things that are thine, lest thou say I have enriched Abram" (Genesis 14:23). "Now when these things were done", God answered the refusal: "Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great" (15:1). The reward God promised was not something He would hand over, but Himself. Isaias hears that reward coming: "Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him" (Isaias 40:10), and again, "tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Saviour cometh: behold his reward is with him, and his work before him" (62:11). On the last page of the Bible, Christ says the prophet's words of Himself: "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Apocalypse 22:12-13). What Isaias said of the Lord God coming, Christ says in the first person, and the reward promised to Abram, which was God Himself, comes in Person. St Justin Martyr reads Isaias 40 as the voice that prepared the way for Christ: "Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and [His] arm comes with authority. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." St Augustine says plainly what the reward is: "What then, is there no reward belonging to God? None except Himself. The reward belonging to God, is God Himself." The Catechism teaches that the merits of our good works are themselves gifts of God's goodness: by grace we are made His adopted children and co-heirs with Christ of the promised inheritance (CCC 2009).
Moral sense
Abram refused the king's reward before God offered him Himself. Christ teaches the same about alms, prayer and fasting done to be seen: "Amen I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matthew 6:2). What is done to be seen is paid on the spot; what is done for God is paid in God. "Thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee" (6:6), and nothing given for Him is too small: a cup of cold water given in a disciple's name "shall not lose his reward" (10:42).
Anagogical sense
Christ promises those who suffer for Him, "your reward is very great in heaven" (Matthew 5:12), and the last chapter shows what the reward is: "they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads" (Apocalypse 22:4). Abram was promised the reward in a vision; the saints will see Him face to face.
The Fathers
St Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 50, on Isaias 40 as the forerunning of Christ: "Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and [His] arm comes with authority. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. As a shepherd He will tend His flock." St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 72 (73 in Schaff): "What then, is there no reward belonging to God? None except Himself. The reward belonging to God, is God Himself." St Augustine, City of God XVII.3: "the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Himself, and whose chief and entire good it is to have Him, and to be His."
Warrant
Patristic. St Justin Martyr reads Isaias 40, "Behold, His reward is with Him", as the prophecy of the forerunner who prepared the way for Christ (Dialogue with Trypho 50), and St Augustine teaches that the reward is God Himself (Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 72, 73 in Schaff) and speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem, "whose reward is God Himself" (City of God XVII.3). Checked in the Greek: the same word, misthos, reward, runs through all four. Isaias 40:10 has idou ho misthos autou met' autou, kai to ergon enantion autou, and Apocalypse 22:12 has ho misthos mou met' emou, apodounai hekasto hos to ergon estin autou, the prophet's words turned into the first person, with his ergon, work, carried over. At Isaias 62:11 the Septuagint reads idou ho soter soi paragegonen echon ton heautou misthon, behold thy Saviour is come having His own reward, as the Douay does. At Genesis 15:1 the Septuagint reads ho misthos sou polys estai sphodra, thy reward shall be very great; the Hebrew, anokhi magen lakh, sekharkha harbeh meod, can be read either way, and the Latin, ego protector tuus sum, et merces tua magna nimis, which the Douay follows, makes God Himself the reward, as St Augustine reads it. The pairing of Genesis with the Apocalypse is the entry's own. Dunk found the entry in one of his earliest studies, tracing reward from Genesis to the Apocalypse.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2009.
The verses
Genesis 15:1 · Isaias 40:10 · Isaias 62:11 · Apocalypse 22:12 · Apocalypse 22:13
