It’s a new year, so it’s time for people to start making new year’s resolutions! A resolution is just a promise you make to yourself in order to improve yourself. Many people make resolutions like promising to exercise, or eat better, or study harder in school, that sort of thing. Many people refer to it as a “New Beginning”. I’ve resolved to improve my time management skills, so I can have more time to spend with my family. What are some new year’s resolutions you guys have made?
God made some fantastic resolutions and new beginnings in the Bible. Now, we don’t know what time of year these came so we can’t really call them “new year’s resolutions”, but the principle is the same. However, if our resolutions are designed to improve ourselves, what is the point of God making a resolution? God can’t be improved, so a resolution in that sense would be meaningless to Him. Thankfully, God realizes this and changed it up a bit. Instead of making a resolution to improve Him, He makes resolutions to improve us. In this case, Abraham. At this point, Abraham was still called “Abram”, was already married to Sarai, and they had no children. Since Abram was the firstborn, this essentially meant that his family had no future. Lot, Abram’s nephew, was the only son recorded in the Bible for the entire family born by this point. Lot had two sisters and no brothers -- a family of three boys grew up and only had one boy and two girls between them. Things were not looking good for Abram and his family -- in that time, your heirs and the size of your family had a lot to do with your standing in the community. We’re going to be travelling quickly through Abram’s life as described in Genesis, so get your Bibles ready! To start, let’s turn to Genesis chapter 12, verses 1-7:
“1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
So Abram gets this amazing promise from God -- “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, you will be a blessing”. Then God says it again, as if to remove any doubt, “I will give this land to your children.” This is incredible! Abram, the man with no children of his own, would be turned into a great nation and be blessed. Wow! I’m sure Abram was excited as he travelled to Canaan with his wife and nephew and began to set up camp. But shortly after he got to Canaan, things started to go downhill. Let’s pick it back up at verse 10:
“10Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.’”
At first glance, this seems to make sense. Abram knew the Egyptian culture, and he wanted to protect himself and his family from suffering. But look a bit deeper: he was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him.
How could the Egyptians kill him if he has no children? God specifically told Abram that through his offspring he would become a great nation. Abram can’t have any offspring if he’s already dead! If the Egyptians kill Abram before he can have children, then that means that God’s promise was a lie, right? That can’t happen! God doesn’t lie, but Abram and Sarai did. Let’s see what happens when they do; verses 17-20:
“17But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram. ‘What have you done to me?’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19Why did you say, “She is my sister,” so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!’ 20Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.”
So because Abram doubted God’s promise, the Pharaoh of Egypt -- arguably one of the most powerful men in the world at the time -- got angry and kicked Abram and his family out of the country. But God’s provision was still with Abram, because he was very wealthy at this point and had much livestock to take with him. Remember, in many ways, livestock such as cattle were almost more valuable than money at the time. Abram was not hurting for food or wealth anymore. What’s important to remember here, though, is that this would be the equivalent of the President deporting the Kardashians just because they lied on their TV show. It was incredibly embarrassing for everyone involved.
After this incident, Abram moves to the Negev Desert, which is in modern-day South Israel. Let’s pick his story back up in Genesis chapter 15: “1After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’ 2But Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?’ 3And Abram said, ‘You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’ 4Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ 5He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ 6Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
So Abram believes God...for now. Some time passes and they live comfortably in the Negev until Sarai gets impatient. Genesis 16:1-2, “1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2so 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.”
He agreed with it! Really? After God repeatedly tells him that through his offspring he would make a nation, he agrees to violate his marriage with his wife’s slave girl! Danger, danger! Not a smart move, my friend. Not a smart move.
Guys, if your girlfriend tells you that it’s OK for you to date other girls, don’t do it! It’s a trap!
When Abram slept with Hagar, he got her pregnant. Hagar begins to be mistreated by Sarai because Sarai is jealous. Think about it from Sarai’s perspective -- Abram and Sarai have been trying to have children for a long time; Abram tries once with Sarai’s slave girl and she gets pregnant? No wonder Sarai was upset! When Hagar finally has enough, she runs away. An angel catches up with her in verses 7-12:
7The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
Ishmael received a blessing from God because he was Abram’s flesh and blood. God kept his promise. Now, this was not the promise that God intended; nor would God be happy just stopping here. God had a specific promise for Abram, and He wasn’t willing to let Abram’s doubts change that future. As for Ishmael, he went on to have several sons, who then had several sons, and so on until a man named Mohammad was born. Ishmael was the father of Islam, and the angel’s prophecy to his mother Hagar that “his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him” seems even more real now.
Quick side note -- if Abram and Sarai had not doubted God, Islamic Terrorism probably wouldn’t exist. Just saying…
Anyway, in Genesis chapter 17 God speaks to Abram and changes his name to Abraham. To us this is a minor change -- the two names even sound similar! But the meanings are significant. Abram means “Exalted Father”. This would have been a source of pain for Abram -- how can he be an exalted father if he has no children! Every time someone called his name it was like rubbing salt in the wound. In our world, it would be like calling a really fat guy “Tiny”. But now, God changed his name to Abraham, or “Father of Many”. Yet again, God is promising Abraham that He will provide a great nation through Abraham’s children, but this time He’s taking it much farther. God literally changed the identity of Abraham to the result of His promise! Sarai, which means “My Princess,” had her name changed to Sarah, which simply means “Princess”. While this change seems even smaller than that of Abram/Abraham’s, the meaning is still clear. Sarah is no longer a princess to one man (her husband), she is now a princess to an entire nation. Again, God is changing her very identity to match that of his fulfilled promise.
Abraham, for his credit, hasn’t forgotten about his first son Ishmael. Genesis 17:18-21: “18And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’ 19Then 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. 20And 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. 21But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.’”
Abraham was the recipient of an amazing blessing by God. He is, rightly, considered to be the first true patriarch of the Jewish people -- more important than Adam, more important even than Noah. Because of Abraham, the nation of Israel was able to form. Even though Abraham doubted, another nation came through Ishmael. God’s promise of a new beginning was stronger than Abraham’s doubt; and it’s a good thing too! Because Abraham believed, Forty-two generations later Jesus Christ was born. Because of this first of the Fantastic Four Beginnings, we are all able to be saved. God even told Abraham this -- because of this resolution, this new beginning, all people on earth would be blessed. It took a long time for this to be realized, but once Christ died on the cross so long ago God’s promise was finally fulfilled.
God’s promise to Abraham didn’t make a whole lot of sense, though, when you think about it. God called upon this man who was 75 and childless to become the father of a new nation. His wife was 65 at the time. That doesn’t make sense! Then, fully 25 years pass before Abraham and Sarah have Isaac. Abraham was 100 years old; Sarah was 90. A 90 year old woman having a baby?! It doesn’t make sense! But God knew this, and He wanted to make a point. Sometimes things are only possible through God. We can try to do it on our own, but if it works at all it will never be as good as what God can do on his own. Abraham learned that with Hagar, and look how that turned out! The only possible way for a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman to give birth to a child is through the work of God.
This was the first of the Fantastic Four Beginnings we will discuss in this series -- The Beginning of the Covenant. Next week we will discuss Isaac, and the Beginning of the Cross.
