Well, last Sunday we left off the story of Abraham, and as we left him, he was, we imagine,
lying on his back in the field, looking up into the night sky, counting the stars.
God had made a wonderful promise to him that he would have numerous descendants.
He made a covenant with him that day, and Moses tells us in Genesis, back in chapter
15, that Abraham believed.
But the passage of time has a way of doing a number on our faith.
And even though Abraham has been given new details about how these promises will be fulfilled
and tangible symbols of God's assurance, doubt begins to creep in again.
This time, through the back door of his own household.
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.
But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar.
So she said to Abram,
The Lord has kept me from having children.
Go, sleep with my slave.
Perhaps I can build a family through her.
Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
So after Abram had been living in Canaan 10 years, Sarai, his wife, took her Egyptian slave
Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
He slept with Hagar.
And she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
Then Sarai said to Abraham,
You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.
I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she's pregnant, she despises me.
May the Lord judge between you and me.
Your slave is in your hands, Abram said.
Do with her whatever you think best.
Then Sarai mistreated Hagar.
And the story goes on from there.
It's been 10 years now since Abraham has entered the promised land.
On three different occasions, the Lord has said that he would give Abraham offspring.
And the last time, which we heard about last Sunday,
he said that it will be a son of your own flesh and blood.
But the time has passed by.
And a little bit more time.
And still, no sign of this promised child.
This son.
It's been 10 years now since they first arrived in Canaan.
And they've tried and tried and tried.
Sarai is now 75 years old.
Menopause is long come and gone.
And still, no children.
Finally, we get the sense here that Sarah just can't take it anymore.
She's done with hoping in this impossible situation.
And so she comes up with a plan to kind of help God's promise come true.
But even as she first speaks of her plan to her husband, Abraham,
we can already tell that this is not a good thing.
Notice the words that she uses as she speaks to Abraham.
She says,
The Lord has kept me from having children.
Perhaps a little bit of frustration and bitterness there.
She gives the Lord the credit or perhaps the blame for why she has not yet conceived.
She gives Hagar, her maidservant, to Abraham.
Notice those words she says right at the end there, verse 2.
Perhaps I can build a family through her.
It seems as though Sarah is done with anticipating and waiting for what God has promised to do.
God has promised to build a family for Abraham.
But the Lord, he's the one who has kept me from having children.
Perhaps I can get the family that I desire for myself through this other way.
And to all of our disappointment, Abraham agrees with her.
This is the moment where we were hoping that Abraham would say,
No, Sarah.
I am yours and yours alone.
God made a promise and he's going to keep it.
And so we just need to keep waiting patiently.
But unfortunately, he doesn't say that.
He agrees to go along with the plan.
This whole episode is just dripping in how it's written with parallels to the Garden of Eden.
To that moment when Adam and Eve blew it together.
The writer, Moses, is signaling that what is happening here is not good.
This was a bad decision.
And we're not going to read the rest of the chapter, but we read a little bit of it there.
The results of this decision?
Heartache, pain, suffering, abuse, marital conflict.
The family, the sense we get is nearly torn apart.
This was not a decision of faith.
And at the end of it all, Hagar does bear a son for Abram.
And technically, he is Abram's flesh and blood.
But is this how the Lord meant for it to go?
The way that this whole story is framed by Moses tells us no.
Chapter 17.
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him.
13 years later.
Ishmael now is just entering into his teenage years.
We can only imagine what this has been like for Abram.
As a 99-year-old man.
80 to 90-year-old man.
And the Lord appears to him again.
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said,
I am God Almighty.
Walk before me faithfully.
And be blameless.
Then I will make my covenant between me and you.
And will greatly increase your numbers.
So the Lord appears to him again.
And there's probably two things in there that I think, at least to me,
kind of strike me as odd.
With what the Lord says to him.
For the first time in all of this, since the very beginning,
God is giving Abraham something to do.
A command to obey.
Requirements.
Up until now, it's been, I will bless you.
Period.
I will do all this for you.
Period.
He walked through the animal halves himself.
I'm going to make sure I keep all of my promises to you.
Period.
And now suddenly, it seems that there's conditions.
That the Lord expects something of Abraham.
Walk before me faithfully.
And be blameless.
That's interesting.
We'll come back to that.
The second thing that we notice is that the Lord seems to command these two things
as a condition for making his covenant with Abraham.
And then I will make my covenant with you.
And right about now, we're probably all thinking,
well, wasn't the covenant already made with Abraham over a decade ago?
That's what we talked about last Sunday.
How can the Lord now suddenly put conditions into it?
The simple answer is, and it's going to come out as we read on,
is that this is not a second covenant.
This is an expansion.
This is an official confirmation of that same covenant that's already been made.
And we'll see that in a moment.
So the Lord appears.
He kind of gives these introductory statements, these commands, this promise.
He sets it up.
And then in verse 3,
Abram fell face down.
And God said to him,
As for me, this is my covenant with you.
You will be the father of many nations.
No longer will you be called Abram.
Your name will be Abraham,
for I have made you a father of many nations.
I will make you very fruitful.
I will make nations of you.
And kings will come from you.
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you
and your descendants after you.
For the generations to come,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
The whole land of Canaan,
where you now reside as a foreigner,
I will give you as an everlasting possession to you
and your descendants after you.
And I will be their God.
So again, the Lord makes promises to Abraham.
One of the first orders of business with this covenant,
we're going to change your name.
No longer will you be called Abram.
Now you're going to be called Abraham,
which means father of a multitude.
And here's the first of the big promises.
I'm going to make you a father of nations,
of many nations.
Way back when the Lord first spoke to Abraham,
it was,
I will make you into a great nation.
But now the Lord enlarges the promise.
I'm going to make you the father of nations, plural.
Not just some,
not just a few,
but a multitude of nations,
many nations.
Wow.
The Lord goes on.
I will make you very fruitful.
Kings will come from you.
You see a lot of kings in the land right now?
Just wait and see.
Kings will come from you.
Some of your descendants will be them.
And there's more.
This covenant that I'm establishing with you,
it will be an everlasting covenant,
says the Lord,
between me and you,
and between me and your descendants after you.
And speaking of everlasting,
this land in which you're still living as a foreigner,
23 years later,
this land will be your everlasting possession.
This land will be your everlasting possession.
Permanent.
And then after all these great promises,
God makes the ultimate promise.
He says in verse seven,
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you.
to be your God.
I will be your God.
To be your God.
And the God of your descendants after you.
And I will be their God.
He says again in verse eight.
If all that God has promised up until now to Abraham isn't amazing and wonderful enough,
God now promises this incredible thing,
to be their God.
God.
And it's here that we,
the promises that have been made kind of come into focus and we start to see.
God is not interested in just giving Abraham the ultimate sweepstakes,
a huge contract for a generous portion of land and a,
and a huge family tree.
That's not what this is all about.
Those,
those are,
those are part of it.
But with this is all about this covenant that I'm establishing with you is so
that I will be your God and you will be my people.
This is about a relationship between God and Abraham.
A covenant relationship.
The closest picture that we have of this,
we don't really have covenant relationship that we,
you know,
that's like this today except marriage.
That's kind of the closest picture we have.
It's,
it's a relationship covenant where both people exchange promises.
And make vows to one another,
to be loyal to each other,
to be devoted to one another exclusively and permanently.
This is kind of a beginning of a picture of what God is envisioning,
what God desires with Abraham and with his descendants,
a permanent,
deeply committed,
devoted,
loyal relationship between me.
as God and you,
Abraham and your descendants.
It's to be a two way relationship.
And suddenly as we go back to the beginning comment where the Lord said,
walk before me faithfully and be blameless,
that it makes sense.
This is what the Lord has been after all along.
It's not just been about,
I'm just going to give you a bunch of stuff so you can be happy.
And then we'll go our separate ways.
No,
this has been about forging a relationship,
a deep relationship,
a committed relationship.
And so of course there's the expectation on Abraham's side of things,
that he will live in submission to God.
This is not a human,
human covenant.
This is a God and human covenant.
So we should expect that obedience is part of the overall picture.
That walking faithfully devoted to the Lord is part of this for Abraham.
I will establish this with you to be your God.
This is the ultimate promise in this whole covenant package.
This is really the goal and the direction of this covenant.
Verse nine.
Then God said to Abraham,
as for you,
you must keep my covenant,
you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you,
the covenant you are to keep.
Every male among you shall be circumcised.
The Lord goes on to lay out what is going to be both a condition and a sign
of this covenant relationship.
relationship and it's circumcision.
Abraham is to be circumcised.
Every male in his household is to be circumcised.
And from now on,
every male born into the household is to be circumcised at eight days old or a
week old.
Choosing not to be circumcised is choosing to break the covenant and will result in
being cut off from the people,
from the promises.
The Lord makes this circumcision a part of the covenant.
But he also says very clearly in here,
it is to be a sign of the covenant.
And so the question I want to answer this morning is how does that work?
And why circumcision of all things?
I mean,
probably most of us are wondering that.
Why that?
This is another example of God taking a human custom or tradition that was already
around and happening in the ancient world and setting it apart for his own
purposes.
So what's the symbolism here?
I don't want to be too graphic,
but first of all,
circumcision involves cutting off the foreskin.
It points back to the covenant that was cut with Abraham.
That's the language that was used last Sunday.
The animals that were cut in two.
Cutting is how this covenant is formed.
And so the symbol,
the sign of it involves cutting.
Second,
circumcision is permanent.
There's no going back from that.
There's apparently some kind of surgery today that they do,
but it doesn't sound like it really does a whole lot to,
to really reverse it.
It's irreversible.
It's a permanent thing.
Just as this covenant is permanent,
it's an everlasting covenant.
There's no going back on the words,
the promises that I've made to you.
And so the sign of it is permanent and it will serve as a constant reminder to
those who bear it.
Third,
the organ,
we call it that,
which undergoes the procedure is the organ for sexual reproduction.
And that corresponds to the promises that have been made.
That he would have seed,
offspring,
and be very fruitful.
They're directly related to one another.
And fourth,
it's a way for God to have his mark on his people.
But it's not like branding.
Something that you would do for cattle,
just to help other people distinguish
whose,
whose is your,
which ones are yours,
and which ones belong to someone else.
This mark is upon the most intimate and private part,
where God alone sees it.
And this points to the sacred,
and close,
and exclusive relationship that this covenant is all about.
This was a requirement that God gave to Abraham.
It was also a sign of the covenant.
And I want to stress this,
that this sign right from the get-go was always intended to go with,
walk before me faithfully and be blameless.
The relationship aspect.
Just because you were circumcised in the ancient world,
didn't automatically make you the Lord's.
In fact,
there's a couple instances later on in the Old Testament,
where some people missed that circumcision moment,
and later were circumcised,
and kind of brought back into the covenant.
And the Lord allowed that.
And as we'll find out with Ishmael in a moment here,
merely being circumcised is not enough to claim this covenant,
and the promises that were made in it,
for yourself.
The Lord is not interested in just giving another religious duty,
another empty ritual for his people to do.
His intention right from the get-go is that this goes along with a full-hearted devotion to him,
to this relationship that's being established by the covenant.
They're meant to go together.
And we can see this as early as Deuteronomy,
when the Lord is already talking about the need for his people to have their hearts circumcised.
He wants to see the covenant relationship lived out in here,
and not just on the outside in the body.
After spelling out the details of this sign of the covenant,
we hear a little bit more of what the Lord has promised in verse 15.
God also said to Abraham,
As for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai.
Her name will be Sarah.
I will bless her, and will surely give you a son by her.
I will bless her so that she will become the mother of nations.
Kings of peoples will come from her.
Verse 17.
Abraham fell face down.
He laughed and said to himself,
Will a son be born to a man 100 years old?
Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90?
This is one of my favorite moments.
Carl's not here today, but I want you to picture him.
He's 91.
Add eight years to that.
Here's Abraham.
He's already fallen down once on his face before the Lord,
and so you imagine that he's kind of on his knees,
and the Lord tells him that he's going to bless Sarah
and give him a son by Sarah, his 90-year-old wife.
And this is his response.
He falls down on his face, and he laughs.
Look at what it says.
Note that it says,
He said to himself,
not to God.
He said to himself,
Will a son be born to a man 100 years old?
Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90?
We don't really know exactly what he means by this.
I mean, some would say maybe he's got doubt and unbelief.
This is, that's ridiculous.
Others would just say, maybe he thought the Lord was joking with him.
Maybe he, maybe he just thought it was funny that,
what this would mean if the Lord really did this.
I mean, here I am 100 years old,
and I'm going to have a child,
a two-year-old that I'll be chasing around.
People are going to laugh at me.
This is,
we don't know exactly what he was thinking,
but he thought it was funny.
And he laughed.
The next thing that he says,
if only Ishmael might live under your blessing.
Lord, I'm 100 years old.
Let Ishmael, the son I've already got,
have the blessings.
That's good enough for me.
You don't have to do it this way.
This is, this is crazy.
I mean, look at us.
We're senior citizens here.
Then God said,
yes,
but your wife, Sarah,
will bear you a son,
and you will call him Isaac,
which means he laughed.
I will establish my covenant with him
as an everlasting covenant
for his descendants after him.
And as for Ishmael,
I have heard you.
I will surely bless him.
I will make him fruitful
and will greatly increase his numbers.
He will be the father of 12 rulers,
and I will make him into a great nation.
But my covenant,
I will establish with Isaac,
whom Sarah will bear to you
by this time next year.
When he had finished speaking with Abraham,
God went up from him.
So what's the Lord's answer?
Abraham asks if Ishmael might bear the blessing,
might inherit the blessings and the promises.
The Lord's answer is,
well, yes, I will bless Ishmael,
but my promise is this covenant
will be for Isaac and his descendants
and not for Ishmael.
There's no reason given here.
It just seems that the Lord has his plan.
One guy looking at this
said it seems the Lord is stubborn.
I won't use that word.
I think it seems the Lord is committed
to his plan.
Not through Ishmael,
but through Isaac.
The promises,
the land,
it'll be for Isaac
and not Ishmael.
But notice how the Lord does
listen to Abraham in this moment,
which is amazing.
May Ishmael live under your blessing.
Yes,
I have heard you.
I know that you love your son.
He's precious to you.
And yes,
I will bless him.
And the Lord is not stingy
by any means
with how he promises
to bless Ishmael.
I mean,
many of these promises
are things that
the Lord has already said
to Abraham.
I will make him
into a great nation too.
You'll be the father
of a multitude of nations,
but I will make him
into a great nation.
I will greatly increase
his descendants,
just as I said
I would do for you.
But there's also
some differences.
He'll be the father
of 12 rulers,
12 tribal leaders.
not kings.
And that bit about
the land
and I will be
your God
and you will be
my people.
That's not there.
My covenant,
the greater promises,
the covenant
through which
I will be your God
and you will be
my people
is for Isaac
and his descendants
and not for Ishmael.
finally,
the Lord
gives Abraham
the specific promise
that long ago
he was waiting for.
By this time next year,
Sarah will bear you
a son.
A definite time frame.
Something to look forward to.
And so what does Abraham do
in response to all this?
Verse 23.
On that very day,
Abraham took his son Ishmael
and all those
born in his household
or bought with his money,
every male in his household
and circumcised them
as God told him.
Abraham
acted in faith.
He took the Lord's word seriously.
He did what the Lord
told him to do.
Notice those little words
in 23.
On that very day.
It's actually twice
in that little paragraph there.
On that very day,
he obeyed God
immediately.
And he didn't just go halfway.
He did the whole household.
He went the full way
just as God
told him to do.
And this was no small thing.
Just a few chapters back,
we know that Abraham
has 318 trained
fighting men
in his household,
servants.
By now,
probably up to 400.
We're talking
setting up a tent
and getting
potentially 400 guys
to go through this.
And yet he does it
right away,
exactly as the Lord
told him to do.
Full-hearted faith
and full-hearted obedience.
Well, what do we learn
from all this?
What does Abraham
learn about God
through all this?
There's a lot here.
We see
back towards
the beginning here
that
while God
promises
to bless
the socks
off his people,
he doesn't just
give them a free pass
to,
oh,
you can live
however you want.
No,
there are good
and right expectations
that come along
with this.
This is about
a covenant relationship.
This is not just about
me giving you
a bunch of stuff.
It's the same for us
in the new covenant
with Christ.
As the apostle
Peter said
in his letter
to the churches,
he said,
be holy in all you do
just as the Lord
is holy.
Paul said it
in his letter
to the Philippians.
As you've always
obeyed,
continue to work
out your salvation
with fear and trembling.
Yes,
submission to God,
to the Lord,
obedience
is part
of the relationship.
It's not the basis
for the relationship.
That's grace.
That's the gift
of God.
But it's a part.
And speaking of relationship,
that's another thing
that we really see here.
The Lord is not just
interested
in giving us
all this stuff
and then having us
go our separate ways.
All along,
this has been about
establishing
a relationship
with a people.
And not just
any relationship,
not just a friendship,
but a deeply
committed
relationship
in which
he is fully
devoted to
his people
and his people
are fully devoted
to him.
The kind of relationship
that can only
really be
described by the word
covenant.
And even beyond that,
blood covenant.
The act of circumcision
was fitting
to describe
just how
sacred,
how close
this relationship
is to be.
How permanent.
We see again here
in this passage
that God is ever
so gracious.
I mean,
think of all the things
that God promised
to Abraham.
Father of multitude
of nations.
All this land,
I'm going to give it
to you.
Why?
What has Abraham
done to deserve this?
I mean,
look at how he
responded to Sarai
just a moment earlier
with this whole
Hagar
incident.
we're reminded
from last Sunday
that the Lord
did not see
Abraham
as righteous.
So why is he
getting all of this
grace,
this gift,
this promise,
this blessing?
Not because he
deserves it,
but because God
is gracious
and merciful
and wants to
give it to him.
to the sinner
from Ur.
We also see
the Lord's
graciousness
in how he
responds to
Abraham.
I mean,
here Abraham
is on his face
and he laughs.
God makes
one of the most
incredible promises
to him
and he laughs
in the face
of God's promise.
And the Lord
doesn't strike him
down.
he's gracious
to him.
He even
listens to
his request
that Ishmael
would be blessed
to.
He says,
yes,
I will.
We learn
from Abraham
that living
by faith
means taking
God seriously.
It means
obeying
immediately
and fully.
But if there's
one thing
that really
stands out
to me
in all this,
it's how
Abraham learns
here that
God will
keep his
promises
but that
he will do
it in his
way
and in his
time.
We sure
see that
here,
don't we?
God will
keep his
promises
in his
time.
The initial
promise was
made 25
years ago.
We've been
here for 10
years,
still no
progress,
still no
sign of a
son.
So we'll
try to help
God along
with it.
And even
then,
the Lord
waits another
14 years
till Abraham
is nearly
100 and
Sarah 90
before he
lets them
know that
it will be
yet one
more year
until the
promised
son is
born.
If there's
one thing
that we see
here,
it's that
God is
not in a
hurry.
He's
patient.
Abraham
and Sarah,
they think
he's late.
they think
he's slow.
But the
Lord has
his appointed
time and
he will
keep his
promise in
his time.
Perhaps
there's things
in your life
right now for
which you've
been waiting
for God
to act,
to intervene,
to do
something.
Prayer,
prayers that
you've
prayed.
Maybe you
feel like
God is
slow or
late.
maybe like
Sarah,
you're just
about ready
to take
things into
your own
hand and
find a
way to
get it
done
yourself.
But know
this,
our time
and the
brevity of
our lives
poses no
threat to
the promises
of God.
He is
able to
keep his
promise
no matter
what.
how Abraham
and Sarah
would have
been spared
all that
heartache and
pain and
suffering,
their family
nearly being
torn apart,
had they
only waited
for the
promised
son.
Secondly,
we see that
God will
keep his
promises in
his way.
He will
keep them
in his
time and
he will
keep them
in his
way.
God's
way didn't
seem to
be working
and so
Abraham and
Sarah
cooked up
a plan,
a different
way.
And for
13 years
Abraham has
been holding
this baby
boy,
he's been
chasing around
this little
boy,
now this
boy is
13 years
old,
he's been
looking at
Ishmael
as the
one through
whom God's
promises
would come
true for
13 years
and then
God appears
to him
and says,
no,
it won't
be through
Ishmael.
It'll be
a different
way.
It'll be
through Isaac.
I'm going
to do it
a different
way.
I'm going
to do it
the impossible
way.
I'm going
to reverse
menopause
for your
90-year-old
wife and
have her
bear a
son and
do it
that way.
And even
though Abraham
asks,
do it
this way,
the Lord
says,
no,
this is
the way
that I
will fulfill
my promise
to you.
This is
what you're
going to
name him.
The promises
of this
covenant
will be
his,
they will
not be
Ishmael's.
God will
keep his
promise,
but he
will do
it in
his
way.
Perhaps
there's
things in
your life
right now
that you
feel are
not going
the way
that you
want them
to.
Things in
which you're
wondering,
how can
you allow
this to
happen,
Lord,
when you
said,
fill in
the blank
in your
word.
If you
really love
me,
if you
really care
about me,
why is
my story
going like
this?
But it's
here we
see that
God doesn't
always do
things our
way or
according to
our plan.
Does it
mean he's
unfaithful,
unkind,
unloving,
distant,
uncaring?
No.
We must
remember as
Abraham saw
very clearly
that day
that he,
Yahweh,
is the
God.
And we
are not.
He is
able to
keep his
promises,
but he
will do
it in
his
way.
This
kind of
makes us
uncomfortable
sometimes,
I think.
We want a
God that
we can
control.
We want a
God that
will at
least give
us a
sense that
we're in
control.
people.
But the
Lord,
Yahweh,
is free.
He's not
bound by
our
expectations
of him.
He's not
bound by
our
limited
point of
view.
He will
keep his
promises,
but the
horizons of
his promises
often stretch
far beyond
what we can
see or
expect.
and he
will keep
them in
his way.
And so
the question
this kind
of drives
us to
words is
this.
Will we
learn to
trust him
and walk
before him
faithfully
no matter
what?
No matter
what we
see or
don't see.
No matter
what we
feel or
don't feel.
No matter
whether the
situation is
improving in
the present
or not.
Will we
learn to
trust him
no matter
what?
And so
this morning
as we
close,
where do we
find Abraham?
Again,
we find him
lying on
his back,
this time
staring up
at the
ceiling of
his tent
with the
searing pain
in his
loins.
but confident
and rejoicing,
expecting
with great
anticipation
the miracle,
the impossible
that the
Lord is about
to do in
just a
year's time.
And that
is just the
prelude
of the
bigger and
greater promises
that God
has made.
all of this
part of this
wonderful
relationship
that God
has initiated
with him
and brought
him into
and confirmed
today
through this
covenant.
let's pray.
Thank you for
your word,
Lord.
It speaks
of a time
long ago,
but in
many ways
we go
through similar
things in
our lives
today.
Thank you
for the
encouragement
of your
word.
Teach us
to walk
by faith,
to live
by faith,
to make
our decisions
by faith,
not based
on what
we can
see,
Lord,
but based
on what
your word
tells us,
the promises
that you
have made
to us.
We thank
you that
you have
made great
promises
to us.
You've
spoken about
your return,
about a
great kingdom
that we
will be
a part
of
someday.
Lord,
by our
own
evaluation
of things
and time,
it's a
long time
in coming.
It's been
2,000
years.
But we
choose to
trust that
you will
keep your
promises,
not only to
Abraham,
but also to
us,
no matter
what.
It's in
Christ's name
that we
pray.
Amen.