Genesis Lessons 17: 1-8, 15-22 - A New Identity
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in Gen. 15:1-7, 13-16, as we continued our study of Abram, we saw him struggle with confusion and doubt over the fulfillment of the huge promises God had made to him. When Abram complained about being childless, God reassured him that (1) He would give him a blood heir and (2) that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. And when he asked God to clarify the promised land his descendants were to possess, God covenanted that it would be an area from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers. When Abram "believed," God "counted it to him as righteousness," which foreshadowed salvation by grace under the New Covenant. The main principle we learned was that as we live life between God's promises and their fulfillment, we must be able to see past our personal circumstances and trust completely in God. Very simply, we make God's promises real by believing in them.
As we continue Abram's story in Gen. 17:1-8, 15-22, we'll learn that on the problem of God's promise to provide him an heir of his own blood, Abram and his wife, Sarai, demonstrated weak faith when they decided to second-guess God by taking matters into their own hands. At Sarai's urging, Abram took Sarai's servant, Hagar, as his concubine, and she bore him a son named Ishmael (lit. "God listens'' [Gen. 16:1-15]). We come into today's text approximately 13 years after this event. In it we will hear God further delineate what scholars refer to as the Abrahamic Covenant.
Read Gen. 17:1-3a - I WILL MAKE MY COVENANT BETWEEN YOU AND ME.
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly." 3a Then Abram fell on his face.
v. 1a: "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him," - It's now been 24 years since Abram departed Haran to "go" where God led. Because he's said to be "ninety-nine" at this time, it means that 13 years of silence have passed since Ishmael's birth was reported in Gen. 16:15-16. In this instance, God appears to Abram uninvited. Events are taking place on God's time table, not Abram's, and it was wholly on God's initiative that Abram was chosen and blessed in the first place. While he's a good man as men go, he's far from perfect.
v. 1b: "I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless," - God announces Himself as El Shaddai, which underscores His infinite powers. The command "walk before me" pictures someone making himself subservient and submissive to the leading of a powerful master. To "be blameless" doesn't imply moral perfection but means showing the highest humanly possible standard of devotion and respect toward God.
v. 2: "that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly." - God originally established His covenant with Abram in Gen. 12:1-3 and now further clarifies two of His requirements: "walk before Me, and be blameless." If Abram will obey these requirements, God promises two specific rewards: to (1) "multiply you" (2) "greatly." Implied in this is that Abram's human effort to produce an heir (Ishmael) was trivial compared to what God had planned for him.
3a: "Then Abram fell on his face." - This is a gesture of humility and respect, something someone might do in the presence of a king. By doing this, Abram acknowledges the great gulf of inequality between himself and the one and only El Shaddai. In this egalitarian world we live in today, people have the idea that everyone is equal. We must never, ever allow such thinking to result in a lack of respect for God. He's not just another person: He's our Creator, Master, and Savior.
Read Gen. 17:3b-8 - YOUR NAME SHALL BE ABRAHAM
3b And God said to him, 4 "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
v. 3b-4: "And God said to him, 4 "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations." - God is always the one who initiates the covenant and establishes its terms.
Thus, He will establish the benefits (vv. 4-8) and the requirement He expects Abram to fulfill (vv. 9-14). He promises that Abram will not only be a 'great nation' (Gen. 12:2) but "the father of a multitude of nations." (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, and Islam even today).
v. 5: "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations." - Names can be important, more than just mere labels. In this instance, God changes Abram's name to match his new destiny. In Hebrew, Ab means 'father' and Ab-ram means 'father exalted,' and combined with hamon, which means 'multitude," his new name becomes "Abraham" which translates to 'father of a multitude.' And the phrase "I have made you" refers to a completed action. God has already set these events in motion. All Abraham has to do is obey God and patiently wait on them to be revealed.
v. 6: "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you." - Notice the threefold progression in this verse: (1) "exceedingly fruitful" points to many blood descendants; (2) father of many "nations"; and (3) father of "kings." We remember the Israelites of course and kings like David and Solomon; however, we need to remember Ishmael who had 12 sons (father of Arabic peoples); and also the descendants of Esau (father of Edomites, Kenizzites. and Amalekites), and there are others.
v. 7: "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." - Here, God expands the covenant even further. It will not only apply to Abraham, but will also apply to his "offspring...throughout their generations," a perpetual, never-ending covenant. Therefore, there will never be a time when God is not the God of Abraham's descendants.
v. 8: "And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." - Now God moves from Part I of the covenant, Abraham's descendants, to Part II, the promise of the land they will possess. This restates the areas described in His earlier promise made in Gen. 13:14-15. We need to remember that most of the promises God made to Abraham will not be fulfilled during his lifetime. In referring to the Patriarchs in the faith Hall of fame, the writer of Hebrews later said: "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth" (Heb. 11:13)
Read Gen. 17:15-22 - SARAI YOUR WIFE SHALL BEAR YOU A SON
v. 15 And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" 19 God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year." 22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
v. 15: "And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name." - After changing Abram's name to Abraham in v. 5 to signify his new future as the father of multitudes of nation, God tells Abraham to change Sarai's name to Sarah (Heb. lit. princess) to signify her new role as the 'mother of multitudes of nations.' Note that God doesn't inform Sarai directly but assigns the task to Abraham.
v. 16: "I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." - Here's the bombshell: As God promised two chapters back, Sarah is going to become pregnant and bear him a son! That's how "she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."
v. 17: "Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" - Scholars are divided on Abraham's reaction: some say he laughed out of temporary disbelief, but a majority of commentators believe that he was laughing out of pure joy rather than doubting God's Word.
v. 18: "And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" - Here, in an emotional flipflop, Abraham goes from joy to fear that God might remove Ishmael by death because his promised son by Sarah would, in effect, take his place. So, he pleads "that Ishmael might live before you!" (Note: previously, in Gen. 16:12, God sent an angel to Hagar, Ishmael's mother, to assure her that her son would "dwell over against all his kinsmen"; in short, that he would survive and prosper.
v. 19: "God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him." - Here, God is saying, "No," Ishmael is not to be your Covenant heir-that your son with Sarah, to be named "Isaac," will be the one who will carry on your "everlasting covenant" with me. The name Isaac in Hebrew literally translates to 'he laughs.'
v. 20: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation." - We might call this a yes but answer. Though Ishmael would not become heir of the promised covenant, God promises to bless him and "make him fruitful and multiply him greatly." However, the 12 princes would not be princes of Israel and his 'nation' would be the nomadic Arab tribes of the Sinai Peninsula region. In the Koran, the prophet Mohamed claims to be a descendant of Ishmael.
v. 21: "But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year." - God concludes His revelations with the newly renamed Abraham in this verse. Besides changing his name, God has commanded Abraham to "walk before" Him and "be blameless," and additionally, in skipped verses 9-14, as a sign of the Covenant between them, has commanded that "Every male among you shall be circumcised," and that any one who fails to do this "shall be cut off" from this blessing. Finally, God reveals the timeline for His blessings: By this time in one year, Sarah will give birth to a baby boy to be named Isaac.
v. 22: "When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham." - So, God's lengthy addendum to the Abrahamic Covenant ends here. That he "went up" shows that His appearance to Abraham was a real event, as opposed to something that Abraham imagined. As before, Abraham must (1) believe and (2) act on what God commands, and he does. His obedience, without hesitation, presents the most outstanding aspect of Abraham's character. It is an attitude that shows him to be the ultimate model of godly faith-obedience in the face of doubt (Rom. 4:3)-that provides a powerful example for modern Christians to follow in the here and now. But, as we will see, God's testing of Abraham's faith is not yet over.
APPLICATION-Walking Before God in Faith
