Genesis chapter 17
Last week we were looking at the previous chapter and that messy story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar.
And in the midst of all of that mess, God was revealed as the God who sees.
The God who sees everything.
Nothing escapes his notice.
And not in some distant and detached kind of way,
but in a very near and intimate sense.
He sees our suffering.
He sees our hearts.
And he sees our fears.
And today we're going to hear God reveal himself as God Almighty.
In Hebrew it's pronounced El Shaddai.
You might have heard that name before.
And not surprisingly, God reveals himself by this name
to those people who seem to be doubting God's power to do what he had promised.
So let's read that story together in Genesis chapter 17.
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.
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 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 as an everlasting possession to you
and your descendants after you
and I will be their God.
Then God said to Abram,
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.
You are to undergo circumcision
and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and you.
For the generations to come,
every male among you who is eight days old
must be circumcised,
including those born in your household
or bought with money from a foreigner,
those who are not your offspring.
Whether born in your household
or bought with your money,
they must be circumcised.
My covenant in your flesh
is to be an everlasting covenant.
Any uncircumcised male
who has not been circumcised in the flesh
will be cut off from his people.
He has broken my covenant.
God also said to Abram,
As for Sarah, your wife,
you are no longer to call her Sarah.
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 be the mother of nations.
Kings of peoples will come from her.
Abram fell face down.
He laughed and said to himself,
Will a son be born to a man
a hundred years old?
Will Sarah bear a child
at the age of 90?
And Abram said to God,
If only Ishmael
might live under your blessing.
Then God said,
Yes,
but your wife Sarah
will bear you a son
and you will call him Isaac.
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 twelve 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.
On that very day,
Abraham took his son Ishmael
and all those born in his household
are bought with his money,
every male in his household
and circumcised them.
As God told him,
Abram was 99 years old
when he was circumcised
and his son Ishmael was 13.
Abram and his son Ishmael
were both circumcised on that very day
and every male in Abraham's household,
including those born in his household
or bought from a foreigner,
was circumcised with him.
So Father, we pray now
as we think on your word
that you would grant us
that spirit of wisdom and revelation
so that we might know you better.
And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
There's something irresistible, isn't there,
about laughing at someone else's expense.
I'm sure you've all seen those videos
on television
of somebody falling off something
or walking into something
and not being able to stop yourself
from laughing at them.
Or if you're a little bit younger,
maybe you've watched endless YouTube videos
of people attempting to do something
only for it to go disastrously wrong.
Well, these chapters of Genesis
read like a compilation of Abram's
Abram's dumb ideas.
It's like some version of a Dumb and Dumber movie
tracking Abram and Sarah's travels
throughout the ancient Middle East.
Or some black and white Laurel and Hardy movie
where Sarah turns to Abram
only to scratch her head and say,
well, that's another fine mess
you've gotten me into.
These stories would be laughable
if they weren't so serious.
God has promised Abram
that he would make him into a great nation
and that through Abraham
blessing would come
to all the nations of the earth.
But with every one of Abram's dumb ideas,
he seems to put God's promise in danger.
You might remember there was that
Sarah is my sister fiasco back in chapter 12.
Abram and Sarah travel to Egypt
because there's a famine in the land.
But as they join the queue
at the Egyptian passport patrol,
Abram suddenly gets into a panic.
He knows that Sarah is a beautiful woman.
He knows that she's going to be noticed
by all of the men that they meet.
And he has a pretty low view of Egyptians.
He thinks that they're going to kill him
to take Sarah as their wife.
So he comes up with a great idea, doesn't he?
Let's pretend we're not married.
Let's just say that you're my sister.
Well, things may not work very well for Sarah,
but at least Abram's life will be spared.
Well, she's most certainly noticed by the Egyptians.
In fact, the Pharaoh himself
hears about this beautiful foreigner.
He starts to treat Abraham well for Sarah's sake.
And Abram suddenly begins to accumulate wealth,
all under the pretense that Sarah is his sister.
Until God intervenes.
The Lord sends serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household,
and Pharaoh seems to know that this is something
to do with Abram and Sarah.
The Sarah is my sister story
was a dumb idea from the beginning.
As time goes on,
Abram seems to be giving up on God's promise.
He assumes in chapter 15
that it's his servant Eliezer
who's going to be his heir.
Maybe up until now,
Abram had relied on the fact
that there was always his nephew Lot.
Maybe it was through him
that this blessing would come.
After all, they have no children themselves,
and well, Lot is family.
But at this stage,
Abram and Lot have parted ways.
Abram looks around him.
He has no children.
His nephew has left.
It's looking as though his servant Eliezer
is all that remains.
In chapter 15,
Abram speaks to God as the sovereign Lord.
Yet he doesn't live
as though this is the sovereign Lord.
Like many of us,
there's a big gap
between what Abram knows
and how Abram lives.
We can address God, can't we,
as our loving, heavenly Father.
And yet doubt that God's actions
are for our good.
We can address God
as the all-wise God,
and yet ignore
the teaching of his words.
Addressing God as sovereign Lord
doesn't mean that Abram lives
as though God is the sovereign Lord.
But the sovereign Lord
gently assures Abram,
this man will not be your heir,
but a son
who is of your own flesh and blood
will be your heir.
In spite of Abram's doubts,
God points him back
to his promise.
Then last week,
we heard the story
about their servant's son,
Ishmael.
Time has gone on
and God appears to be doing nothing,
so Sarai takes things
into her own hands
and arranges Hagar
to be her surrogate.
Well, it's at this point
that the story goes
from dumb to dumber.
Abram and Sarai
have done all that they can do
to see God's promise fulfilled.
They've sought to protect
Abram's life in Egypt.
They've assumed
that the promise
would come through someone else
like Lot or Eliezer.
They've tried to produce
a child of their own making.
They have done everything
that they could
but rest in God's promise.
You see,
Abram's dumb ideas
are all rooted
in his view
of God.
Not so much
what he sees
of God
but what he
fails to see
of God.
And there is nothing
as important
in life
as having a right
view
of God.
In his book
Knowing God,
Jim Packer opens
with these words,
disregard the study
of God
and you
sentence yourself
to stumble
and blunder
through life
blindfold
as it were
with no sense
of direction
and no understanding
of what surrounds you.
This way
you can
waste your life
and lose
your soul.
Well,
Abram certainly
looks like someone
stumbling
and blundering
through life
blindfolds.
And if Jim Packer
is correct,
when God appears
to Abram here
in Genesis 17,
Abram's greatest
need
is to know
God
better.
It's not
family counselling
though I think
we can all agree
that that wouldn't
have done them
any harm.
It's not advice
on how to conceive.
Like any desperate
couple,
I'm sure they would
have tried anything
that anyone
suggested to them.
Abram's greatest
need is to
know
God
better.
So when God
appears to Abram,
he begins by
revealing
something
about himself.
Abram's greatest
need
is to
know
the God
who has
made
the promise.
The first
words God
speaks to
Abram
are these,
I
am
God
almighty.
I
am
God
almighty.
Thirteen
years have
passed since
Ishmael was
born.
Abram is now
ninety-nine
years old.
And here's
what the
New Testament
has to say
about Abram
and Sarah
in Hebrews
eleven.
By faith
even Sarah
who was
past
childbearing
age
was enabled
to bear
children
because she
considered him
faithful
who had
made the
promise.
And so
from this
one man
and he
as good
as dead
came
descendants
as numerous
as the
stars in the
sky
and as
countless
as the
sand on
the
seashore.
Now it
seems to
me that
the writer
is far
kinder to
Sarah
than he
is to
Abraham.
Maybe he's
just being
polite.
Sarah is
past
childbearing
age.
She is
past
grandparenting
age.
She is an
old woman.
The thought
of her
conceiving
was well
inconceivable.
And Abram
were told
that he
was as
good as
dead.
No
fertility
clinic in
the world
would even
look at
them.
There was
absolutely
nothing
to work
with.
But isn't
that the
very point?
This was
never
something that
Abram and
Sarah would
do.
It was
always something
that God
was going
to do.
for them.
It was
something that
God
Almighty
would do
for them.
This is
what Abram
and Sarah
needed to
know.
That the
God who
made the
promise
is God
Almighty.
In actual
fact all
through the
book of
Genesis this
name El
Shaddai is
tied up with
this promise
to make
the descendants
of Abram
into a
great nation.
God
Almighty
would do
this.
You see
God Almighty
is self
sufficient.
And not just
in the sense
that we might
use that term
today.
Self
sufficiency
has become a
very popular
lifestyle,
hasn't it?
Growing your
own food,
generating your
own energy,
making your
own clothes.
But the
truth is that
none of those
things are
actually self
sufficient.
They're all
dependent upon
other things.
You still can't
cut your hair
without scissors.
You can't grow
food without
seeds.
You can't make
clothes without
needles and
threads.
You can't
generate energy
without wind
and sun.
Not even to
mention that we
wouldn't exist
without mothers
and fathers.
Our best
attempts at
self-sufficiency
are only a
pale reflection
of God's.
In fact,
there's no real
comparison at
all.
Because God
needs no
thing and
no one.
He is the
only one
who is
truly
self
sufficient.
Now,
such a God
stands in
complete contrast
to the
pagan gods
of the
ancient world.
They were
needy.
They were
high maintenance
gods.
They were
dependent upon
humans to
give them
all they
needed.
And they
could get
pretty angry
if their
worshippers
didn't give
them what
they wanted.
You might
remember in
Acts 17,
the apostle
Paul confronts
the people
of Athens
with a God
who is
altogether
different from
these high
maintenance
gods.
here's what
he says,
the God
who made
the world
and everything
in it
is the
Lord of
heaven and
earth
and does
not live
in temples
built by
human hands
as if
he needed
anything.
Rather,
he himself
gives all
men life
and breath
and everything
else.
God
is the
God
of the
Bible
is God
almighty.
He needs
nothing.
He needs
no one.
Rather,
he is the
giver
of everything.
That's what
Abram needs
to know.
This God
is El
Shaddai,
God
almighty,
the self
sufficient
one.
He doesn't
need Abram
to do
anything.
He doesn't
need a
servant.
He doesn't
need a
nephew.
He doesn't
need an
illegitimate
child.
He is
God
almighty,
self
sufficient,
needing
nothing and
needing
no one.
self
sufficient.
But he's
not only
self
sufficient,
he is
all
sufficient.
Maybe
you've
worked with
someone who
is self
reliant.
They don't
need anyone
or anything.
They're at
their happiest
when they're
working away
on their
own.
They don't
need anyone
else to
contribute.
They don't
welcome
advice.
They don't
need help.
But their
self
reliance
isn't a
good thing
at all
because they
would do
so much
better with
the input
of others.
Well God
is not
like that
self
reliant
co-worker
who achieves
substandard
results because
he resents
the help
of others.
Because God
almighty is
not only
self
sufficient,
he is
all
sufficient.
He has
everything
he needs
within
himself
to do
whatever
he
pleases.
You see
even
Abram's
dumb
ideas
have not
derailed
God's
promise.
Sarai's
scheming
is not
going to
frustrate
his purpose.
The king
of Sodom
nor the
pharaoh
of Egypt
will be
allowed to
hinder his
plans.
Because the
God who
has made
these
promises
is none
other than
God
almighty.
You and
I sometimes
make promises
that we
fully intend
to fulfil
but something
gets in
our way.
We make
plans but
at the
last minute
through
circumstances
we can't
control
will our
plans fail
to materialise.
it wasn't
that we
didn't
want to
do it
it wasn't
that we
lacked the
ability to
do it
but something
prevented us
from doing
it.
Well no
thing
and no
one
gets in
the way
of God
almighty
doing all
that he
promises.
is this
is what
Abram
needs.
He doesn't
need to
understand
how God
is going
to do
what he
promised.
He only
needs to
know that
the one
who has
made the
promise
is El
Shaddai
the self
sufficient
one
the all
sufficient
one
God
almighty.
but knowing
more about
God
caused
Abram
to a
deeper
commitment
to God.
Look at
the rest
of verse
one.
I am
God
almighty
walk
before
me
and be
blameless.
You see
knowing more
about God
caused
Abram
to a
deeper
commitment
to God.
God
almighty
will
fulfill
all of
his
promises
to
Abram.
Abram
doesn't
need to
concern
himself
with
that
at
all.
Rather
Abram
needs to
concern
himself
with
walking
faithfully
with
God
almighty.
Abram's
knowledge
about
God
must
change
how he
lives
before
God.
We could
say that
it's an
if-then
kind of
thing.
We see
those kind
of statements
in the
New Testament.
Jesus
says,
if you
love me,
keep
my
commandments.
He isn't
making his
love for
his disciples
conditional
upon their
obedience.
Instead,
he's saying
that if
they love
him,
then they
will do
what he
commands.
If-then.
The way
that they
live flows
from their
relationship
to Jesus.
The Apostle
Paul will
use the
same kinds
of arguments.
Since
then you
have been
raised with
Christ,
set your
hearts on
things above
if-then.
Our
relationship
with Jesus
changes
our
lives
and our
affections.
Now that's
what's
happening in
the second
part of
verse 1.
I am
God
Almighty.
Walk
before me
faithfully
and be
blameless.
Abram's
knowledge
of God
must change
how he
lives
before
God.
And the
same is
true of
each one
of us.
Now a
strange thing
happens in
these chapters
doesn't it?
God changes
the names
of Abram
and Sarai.
In verse
5 Abram
will be
Abraham
father of
many.
And verse
15 Sarai
will be
Sarah
princess
because from
her will
come
kings.
It all
sounds
wonderful
doesn't
it?
But tell
me this
who has
the right
to change
anyone's
name.
Who has
the right
to do
that?
Well
God
Almighty
does
because
God
Almighty
defines
our
identity
as he
did with
Abram
and
Sarai.
We live
in a
time where
self
is the
God
of the
age.
Gender
is no
longer
defined by
biology.
no one
can tell
a woman
what to
do
with
her
body.
Consent
is the
only
sexual
boundary.
And when
we're
surrounded
by that
kind of
culture
all of
the time
that
bows
the
knee
to
the
God
of
self,
we can
too easily
forget
that it
is God
Almighty
who defines
our
identity.
That our
lives are
not our
own to
do
with
as we
please.
That we
are to
walk
before
God
faithfully
and be
blameless.
You see
God
Almighty
defines
our
identity
because
we
belong
to
him.
And
everything
we have
belongs
to
him.
Now I
don't know
if you've
ever shared
a house
with somebody
else.
Maybe at
college you
shared a
house with
other
students.
Well it
was my
experience
during
college
years
that there
was only
one way
that you
could have
any hope
of putting
something in
the fridge
and it
still being
there when
you went
back later.
You wrote
your name
on it.
You not only
wrote your
name on it,
you wrote
your name
all over
it.
You wrote
your name
all over
it in
big bold
capital
letters so
nobody
could miss
it.
this is
Martin's
and you
can be
sure that
it still
would be
gone from
the fridge
when you
went to
find it.
Well in
the rest
of this
story that
filled the
most of
our reading
actually
it's as
though God
takes a
big black
marker
and writes
his name
in big
bold
letters
all over
Abraham
and everything
that Abraham
owns.
It's the
sign of
circumcision.
I'd love to
have counted
how many
times the
word
circumcision
or circumcised
was said
in that
chapter.
But that's
what God
is doing
with each
cut of
the flesh
God
Almighty
is saying
this is
mine.
He
belongs
to me.
And the
fact that
Abraham
belonged
to God
changed
how
Abraham
was to
live.
Didn't
the Apostle
Paul write
to the
church in
Corinth
you are
not your
own
you were
bought
at a
price.
and that
price was
the death
of God's
own
son.
We were
covenant
breakers
deserving to
be cut
off from
God
and his
people
and that
was what
circumcision
signified
but Jesus
was cut
off in
our
place.
We are
not our
own
we were
bought
at a
price
therefore
Paul says
honour
God
with
your
bodies.
They are
not yours
to do
with
as you
please.
If you
belong to
Jesus
they belong
to him
and it's
he who
defines
your
identity
and has
a right
to say
how you
live
and how
you use
your
bodies.
In fact
how you
use
everything
that belongs
to you.
So as
those who
have been
bought
at a
price
by the
death
of
Jesus
as
those
belonging
to him
let us
live as
people who
trust God's
promises in
Jesus.
Let's
trust the
God who
is both
self-sufficient
and all
sufficient.
Let's not
only address
him by this
name when
we pray
El Shaddai
God
Almighty
but let
us learn
to live
as though
the God
we pray
to
really
is
what he
says he
is
God
Almighty.
Let's
pray
together.
Father
we confess
that too
often we
go through
life like
Abram
and Sarah
feeling to
rest in
the promises
of God
and doing
everything we
possibly can
to
fulfil
your
promises
to us.
Oh
Father may
we learn
that such
a path
takes us
to the
end of
ourselves
and forces
us back
to you
and may
we learn
to be
people who
trust
you.
May we
grasp
that you
really are
God
Almighty
that nothing
is outside
of your
control.
That not
one thing
or no
one can
frustrate
your purposes
for your
people.
And Father
may we
learn to
rest in
that
knowledge.
And
Father we
pray that
we are
people that
as our
knowledge of
you
increases
that so
our commitment
before you
increases
that we
walk before
you
faithfully
in light
of the
knowledge of
what we
know of
you.
Father may
we grasp
that everything
we have
belongs to
you.
That we
were bought
at a price
by the
death of
your son
the Lord
Jesus.
That just
as you
had the
right to
rename
Abram and
Sarah
to define
who they
were so
you have
the right
to define
who we
are and
how we
should live
and what
we should
do.
And may
we learn
not to
resist
such a
thing
but to
grasp that
there is
real freedom
in knowing
who you've
made us
to be.
May we
learn to
rest in
that knowledge
and walk
faithfully
before you
and we
ask this
in the
name of
our Lord
Jesus.
Amen.
Well the guys
are going to
return and
we're going to
say