Introduction:
A. One day, a woman pregnant with twins got into a car accident and fell into a deep coma for 6 months.
1. When she awoke from the coma and saw that she was no longer pregnant and she frantically asked the doctor about her babies.
2. The doctor replied, “Ma’am your twins are fine, you have a boy and a girl. Since you were unconscious, your brother named the children for you.”
3. “Oh no!” the woman thought to herself, “My brother is so irresponsible and unpredictable!”
4. The woman asked the doctor, “So, what did he name my daughter?”
a. The doctor answered, “Denise.”
5. The woman said, “He did okay, I like the name Denise. What did he name my son?”
a. The doctor answered, “Denephew.”
B. Names are an interesting thing – each of us has our own tastes in names.
1. Some of us like certain names, while others like different names.
2. Names represent people and companies – some we like and have confidence in and others not so much.
3. When it comes to grocery stores for many in Central New York the Wegman’s name is it, while others prefer Tops, or Aldi, or Walmart.
4. When it comes to computers, some have more confidence in the ones named Apple, while others prefer Toshiba or HP.
5. When it comes to cars, some won’t buy a car unless it has the name Chevy or Ford, while for others it has to say Toyota or Honda or Jaguar.
6. Sometimes companies make mistakes with the names they choose.
a. General Motors had a very hard time marketing in Central and South America a certain car that had sold very well in the U.S.
b. The car was called the Chevy Nova - In Spanish “Nova” means “It Doesn’t Go.” No Go!
C. In today’s segment from the story of Abraham, we are going to see some names being changed and another name being introduced for the first time, and we are going to learn why it is important to go with a name you can trust.
1. In our sermon last week, we watched Abraham and Sarah get impatient and try to take matters into their own hands to bring about the descendants that God had promised.
2. Abraham followed Sarah’s suggestion and took Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant as a second wife.
3. Hagar immediately became pregnant which created a lot of strife and conflict between everyone involved.
4. When Sarah made life unbearable, Hagar ran away, but the angel of the Lord found her in the wilderness and sent her back to Abraham and Sarah armed with strength and hope.
5. Months later Hagar’s son, Ishmael was born - Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael arrived.
6. That’s how Genesis chapter 16 closes, so now let’s see how chapter 17 opens.
I. The Story
A. The Bible says: 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Gen. 17:1-2)
1. Did you notice how much time passed between the last verse of chapter 16 and the first verse of chapter 17?
a. Thirteen years – Abraham was 86 at the end of 16 and he was 99 at the beginning of 17.
b. As far as we know, those 13 years have passed in silence –no visions, no voices, no visits from the Lord – only silence.
2. It’s not too hard for us to imagine silence from God, because that is our experience with the Lord for the most part, right?
a. As far as I know, God hasn’t made any personal appearances to any of us.
3. That was not the case for Abraham – God has made numerous appearances to him.
a. God had previously appeared to Abraham in chapters 12, 13, and 15.
b. In chapter 12, when God told Abraham to leave his country, people and father’s household, Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran to follow the Lord (Gen. 12:1-4).
c. In chapter 13, when God appeared to him after the separation from Lot, and God promised Abraham all the land he could see and that his offspring would not be able to be counted, so Abraham built an altar to the Lord (Gen. 13:14-18).
d. In chapter 15, God appeared to Abraham to promise him an heir and Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:1-6)
e. Now, years later, when Abraham was 99 years old, God appeared to him again to renew the promise and to do a few other important things.
B. So, God broke the long silence with a fresh introduction of his identity.
1. God introduced himself as El Shaddai – El is the all-purpose Semitic name for God – it was used throughout the ancient Near East in reference to deities of many religions.
2. Shaddai means “almighty” and appears in the Bible for the first time, right here.
3. God wants Abraham and everyone else to know that he is El Shaddai – God almighty, God all-powerful, all-sufficient. (The name will appear 48 times in the OT).
4. The Lord is the one who can do everything that He desires to do and He can do it whenever the Lord wants to do it.
C. Along with this new revelation of who God is comes a renewed demand from God: “Walk before me and be blameless.”
1. The Lord could have chosen any number of verbs of motion to require – He could have said: “Crawl before me…or skip…or run before me…hurry along and make up for lost time.”
a. God didn’t choose any of those verbs, rather God chose “walk before me” – walking is an action that takes a person from one place to another by placing one foot in front of the other, repetitively and consistently.
b. Walking is a sustainable action for the long haul, unlike sprinting which a person can only do for a short distance and then is exhausted.
c. The average person can walk for miles a day and actually gain strength – that’s why walking is such a good exercise.
2. It’s interesting that God doesn’t say “walk with me, or beside me,” rather God says, “walk before me.”
a. The Hebrew preposition “before” conveys the idea of “for, or in regard to.”
b. God is describing how their relationship is supposed to be – Abraham is supposed to live before God in a way that is living for God and living in regard to God.
c. In other words, because of who God is and the promises God has made, Abraham is supposed to live rightly and consistently, day after day, over the long run of life.
d. In military terms, we might say it is marching in cadence – the drill instructor barks out the orders and the rhythm and everyone keeps in step.
e. So God was saying to Abraham, “Walk before Me as I call the cadence.”
3. This first command led to the second: “And be blameless.”
a. “Blameless” means “complete, whole-hearted, and having integrity.”
b. “Blameless” doesn’t mean perfect or sinless – that would be impossible for Abraham, or for elders, as this is one of their qualifications, or for any of us.
c. I don’t think this was a new demand from God, just an encouragement to continue his faithful walk.
D. The Lord announced, “I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Gen. 17:2)
1. This is not a new covenant, rather it is just a confirmation and renewal of the covenant that God had previously “cut” or “signed” with Abraham back in Genesis 15.
2. Keep in mind this happened 24 years after God first offered this covenant to Abraham.
3. Abraham responded appropriately, the Bible says in verse 3: “Abram fell facedown…”
a. He humbled himself and buried his nose in the dust before the Lord, and didn’t say a word.
E. Let’s see what else God had to say to Abraham that day.
1. The Bible says: God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 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. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 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.” (Gen. 17:4-16)
2. To memorialize this moment, God gave Abraham and Sarah new names.
a. In Scripture, when a man or woman undergoes a profound spiritual transformation, God often highlights that change by giving that person a new name.
b. Simon became Peter, Saul became Paul, and Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah.
c. Abram means “exalted father,” whereas Abraham means “father of nations.”
d. Sarah’s name change is not as clear. It appears that Sarai meant “my princess,” and Sarah could mean just “Princess,” but some commentators suggest that Sarah means “mother of nations” as we see God declares that she will be the mother of nations.
e. I don’t know Hebrew, but I am told that when you look at the construction of the names in Hebrew you notice the addition of the “H” or “Heh.”
1. The personal name for God is YHWH – which has two “H”s.
2. It is as if God was adding His very essence or spirit into them to transform them into who they needed to be.
F. In addition to the name changes, God revealed more details concerning His plan to redeem the world through the nation of Israel.
1. God’s plan took the form of several unconditional promises – five times the Lord declared, “I will…”
a. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful.”
b. “I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.”
c. “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring.”
d. “I will give to you and your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan.”
e. “I will be their God.”
2. In this way, God was saying, “These are the things you can count on – I will do them. They are my responsibility. And remember, Abraham, I am El Shaddai – God Almighty – I have a name you can trust.”
G. Notice that there is a transition in verse 9, which is signaled by the phrase, “As for you.”
1. God turned from what He would do to what Abraham needed to do.
2. Abraham was to keep the covenant and to teach his descendants to do the same.
3. A key action and sign of keeping the covenant with God was circumcision.
a. God wanted each male starting with Abraham to bear a personal reminder of the covenant.
b. God didn’t give instructions to “shave your head” or “get a tattoo” or “cut off your little finger.”
c. He didn’t give the sign as a public declaration, rather it was to serve as a personal symbol of a man’s participation in a covenant he neither deserved nor created.
d. It wasn’t a sign of his salvation, rather it was a reminder that God gives grace to the undeserving and that like Abraham, it must be received by faith.
4. In some respects, baptism in the new covenant corresponds to circumcision in the old covenant.
a. Although it is not a perfect parallel for many reasons, baptism does act as something that separates those who are receiving grace through faith, from those who are not.
H. How did Abraham respond to what God had said?
1. The Bible says: 17 Abraham fell facedown; 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 ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” (Gen. 17:17-18)
2. The idea of Sarah becoming pregnant at the age of 90 took Abraham by surprise – He may have initially thought God was joking…90 year old women don’t have babies.
3. Obviously, God has a sense of humor, because look at the name that God wants Abraham and Sarah to give to the baby boy...the Bible says: 19 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.” (Gen. 17:19)
a. Guess what the name Isaac means? Isaac means “he laughs.”
b. When Isaac would show up a year later and they named the boy “he laughs” everyone will get a good chuckle at the unbelievable miracle of God and the unrestrained joy and laughter that must have come to Abraham’s tent when the long-awaited son finally came.
4. In response to Abraham’s question about Ishmael and wondering why God couldn’t just use Ishmael as the promised son, God said: “20 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. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. (Gen. 17:20-22)
a. Ishmael would not become the bearer of God’s covenant blessing to the world, but Ishmael would not be forgotten.
b. And just as suddenly and unexpectedly as the Lord had come to Abraham, He exited.
c. That would be an amazingly special relationship with God to have God coming and going like that!
I. Let’s look at the conclusion of today’s episode in Abraham’s journey of faith: 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. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day. 27 And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him. (Gen. 17:23-27)
1. I love Abraham’s immediate and complete obedience.
2. Wouldn’t it have been easy to put off the whole circumcision thing for a while?
3. He could have rationalized saying, “It is not a good idea to have every male undergo a minor surgical procedure on the same day.”
a. Who will watch the sheep during recovery?
b. Who will protect us from raiding marauders?
4. But Abraham didn’t worry about any of that because he knew he was traveling his journey of faith with a name he could trust.
a. El Shaddai – God Almighty – would certainly protect them.
II. Application
A. So what lessons can we learn for our lives from today’s episode from Abraham’s journey of faith?
1. Let’s briefly consider two lessons having to do with the importance of names.
B. First of all, we learn the importance of trusting in the name of the Lord.
1. Proverbs 18:10 contains such a simple but powerful truth: The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
2. What kind of comfort and strength and safety does the name of the Lord – God Almighty – bring you this morning?
3. While God might not always take us out of the difficult situation we are in, or give us everything we ask for when we want it, we can trust in the name of the Lord and know that We are in the good and loving hands of our Father, God Almighty.
4. The Lord is our strong tower. He is our all-powerful, all-sufficient God.
5. There is only one name we can trust above all others and it is the name of the Lord God Almighty.
C. Second, we learn the importance of striving to live up to the name we have been given.
1. Abraham and Sarah were given those names to replace their old names.
2. When we became members of the church, God’s household, we also been given new names or titles.
3. We are now children of God, saints (sanctified ones), disciples (students of Christ), and Christians (followers of Christ).
4. Are we striving to live up to those names? Are those names a good fit for the lives we are living?
5. Several centuries before Christ, Alexander the Great conquered the Mediterranean world.
a. On one of his campaigns, he received a message that one of his soldiers had not been conducting himself appropriately and was having a bad influence on the rest of the troops.
b. And what made it worse was that the soldier’s name was also Alexander.
c. When Alexander the Great learned this, he called for a meeting with the errant soldier.
d. When the young man came before the commander, Alexander the Great asked him, “Soldier, what is your name?”
e. The soldier replied, “Alexander, Sir!”
f. The commander looked at him straight in the eye and said, forcefully, “Soldier, either change your behavior or change your name!”
6. Let’s strive to live up to the names God has given us or stop going by the names.
7. Let’s wear God’s name with pride and sense the need to walk before the Lord and be blameless – to live up to the name we have been given.
8. Let’s live a life worthy of our calling and name.
Resources:
Abraham – One Nomad’s Amazing Journey of Faith, by Charles Swindoll, Tyndale, 2014.
Friend of God – The Legacy of Abraham, Man of Faith, by Ray Stedman, Discovery House, 2010
