Genesis 17
- Read Genesis 16:15 - 17:1
Abram was 86 years old when he and Sarai decided they would help God. He was 86 years old when he last heard from God.
We read in chapter 17 and verse 1 that Abram was 99 years old when God next spoke to him again. 13 years without hearing from God. 13 years of marital strife as Sari gave Abram grief about a child he had with Hagar.
Can you imagine? 13 years of unhappiness, nastiness in the home, grief with a nagging wife. 13 years of hormones and of being torn between a son you have dreams for and a wife who hates him. 13 years of grief, and unrest, all because Abram tried to help God instead of waiting for Him to work.
Thirteen years elapsed between the account of Chapter 16 and that of Chapter 17, and we can well suspect these were years of unhappiness and unrest in the household of Abram. The presence of Ishmael in the home created endless contempt, bitterness, envy, jealousy, weariness of spirit, and rebellion. These thirteen years were designed by God to teach Abram the folly of acting on his own.
I imagine Abram was like a good many husbands, or wives for that matter, that I have seen over the years, who worked as much overtime, and took as many additional jobs as they could because they hated going home at the end of the day.
I imagine Abram knew every sheep, every goat, and every cow in his herds, by name because he hated going home at the end of the day.
Perhaps you have had some similar experience, when God has allowed you to have your own way, and the results have been most distressing. You were permitted to go your own headstrong way in order that you might learn the folly of acting apart from God. One of the most frightening things about life with God is this fact: That, if you insist upon having your own way, he will often let you have it, till you are sorry you asked for it.
Do you remember when the people of Israel cried out that they wanted a king because they wanted to be like all the other nations around them? Got gave them what they wanted, but it cost them dearly.
If you insist on having your way, God will sometimes let you have it, but it comes at a cost.
We remember the sad report of Psalm 106 verse 15 where we are told;
> Psalm 106:15 He gave them what they asked for,?but sent a wasting disease among them.
How much better to wait for the Lord and to wait for His timing.
> Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.
After 13 years of letting him have and enjoy the fruits of his hurried disobedience, God comes and speaks to Abraham again.
Aren’t you glad the Lord doesn’t stay angry with us forever? Aren’t you glad that we serve a God of second chances? Aren’t you glad the Lord doesn’t come around saying “I told you so?”
> Psalm 103:8-9 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,?slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.
In case you were wondering, this is a good place for an Amen.
After 13 years the Lord comes again and speaks to Abram, and He does so in a way He has never done before.
I. GOD APPEARED IN A NEW WAY WITH A NEW NAME
- Read Genesis 17:1
The past 13 years were not wasted on Abram. They may have been painful, but they were not wasted. God used that time to teach Abram the folly of doing things his own way, instead of following and trusting the Lord.
Now after 13 years, the Lord comes to Abram in way way He has never done before. Verse 1 says, “The Lord appeared to Abram.” The Lord appeared to Abram. 24 years earlier, the word of the Lord came to Abram telling him to leave Ur. IN chapter 15 we read that the Lord came to Abram in a vision, but now the Lord appears to Abram; and when He appears, He does so with a new name.
Abram, I am God Almighty! I am El Shaddai. Abram, you doubted Me before, you thought you and Sarai were too old to have children, so you thought you would help Me out. But, I want you to know that I am El Shaddai. I am God Almighty. There is nothing too difficult for Me. There is nothing I can’t handle. No trial or difficulty that can come into your life that I haven’t seen and that I cannot handle.
While these other people and these other nations worship little ol’ whimpy gods, stupid statues they carve out of wood and stone and that they cover with gold. I am El Shaddai. I am God almighty, there is nothing too difficult for Me!
Centuries later, the Lord appears to Jeremiah the prophet and tells the prophet,
> Jeremiah 32:27 “Look, I am the Lord, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for me?
How much better and easier life would be if we actually trusted and believed that God is El Shaddai, that the Lord is God Almighty!
Ya’ll know the song. What a friend we have in Jesus.
What a friend we have in Jesus,?All our sins and griefs to bear!?What a privilege to carry?Everything to God in prayer!?Oh, what peace we often forfeit,?Oh, what needless pain we bear,?All because we do not carry?Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations??Is there trouble anywhere??We should never be discouraged—?Take it to the Lord in prayer.?Can we find a friend so faithful,?Who will all our sorrows share??Jesus knows our every weakness;?Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,?Cumbered with a load of care??Precious Savior, still our refuge—?Take it to the Lord in prayer.?Do thy friends despise, forsake thee??Take it to the Lord in prayer!?In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,?Thou wilt find a solace there.
The Lord appears to Abram and says, “I am El Shaddai, I am God Almighty. I can handle this.
Let me ask you my friend, is there something in your life that you have tried to help the Lord with, that you have tried to figure out on your on? Will you this morning say, “Lord, I don’t know what to do in this situation. I can’t figure out how to get around or through this, but I know You and there is nothing too difficult for You. You are El Shaddai, you are God Almighty. You can handle this.
** I’d like to stop here for just a moment, and ask you to pray for yourself, that the Lord will show Himself almighty in your life this coming week. Pray for your neighbor on your right, left, in front, in back . . . Pray that the Lord will show Himself God Almighty in their lives this week.
God appeared in a new way with a new name. And He came with a new expectation.
II. GOD CAME WITH A NEW EXPECTATION
- Read Genesis 17:1
Live in My presence and be blameless.
Do you remember what we have been studying in MasterLife on Thursday nights? The center of the cross. Abiding in the Vine. Christ is to be the center of everything.
Jesus says in John 15:5
> John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
That’s what the Lord is talking about here. He is saying, “Abram, you can’t serve 2 masters. You can’t follow Me and follow the world at the same time. I’m calling you out. I’m drawing a line in the sand. I called you to follow and to trust Me 24 years ago. It’s time for you to do that wholeheartedly.”
For the past 13 years I have allowed you to see how things work out if you try to do things your way, and make your own decisions without consulting Me. You see how that has worked out for you. It’s time for you to make a decision. Will you follow and trust Me whole-heartedly, or won’t you?
I went through a period of time in my life, probably around the same 13 years Abram did, when I too wanted to try and live in the world and live with the Lord. I had enough of the Lord in me that I was miserable in the world, and enough of the world in me that I was uncomfortable at church.
That’s kind of a miserable way to live isn’t it, trying to follow the Lord while trying to make the decisions yourself, without consulting the Lord. It’s kind of miserable making decisions and then asking the Lord to bless what you’ve already decided to do, instead of checking with Him in the first place.
Is that where you are this morning? Can you say that you are walking with the Lord and striving to be blameless, or are there compromises in your life?
Let me tell you my friend, you will never be happy living a life of compromise. Oh, how sad it will be, when one day you look back and think about what could have been.
God comes and says to Abram, “Live in My presence and be blameless.”
God came in a new way, with a new name and a new expectation. With the new expectation came a new identity for Abram.
III. A NEW IDENTITY
- Read Genesis 17:3-5, 15-16
God placed a new expectation on Abram. He raised the bar. In response, Abram fell down and worshipped the Lord.
How great it would be, if every time the Lord spoke to us, or revealed a new expectation or a new command to us, that we would immediately bow before the Lord and say, “Yes Sir.” How much easier life would be if we responded like that. The Lord speaks to Abram and Abram falls down and worships.
The the Lord gives Abram a new name.
‘Whenever you see God in a new way, it always makes a corresponding change in you. Here God says to Abraham, "Look, Abram, your name now means 'exalted father.' Your trouble all along has been that you were looking for your own exaltation. This must now be changed. You must lose your desire to exalt yourself; you will stop trying to advance and please yourself. Your name will now be 'the father of a multitude,' for great fruitfulness shall be evident in your life. Because you have now learned that I am El Shaddai, your name can no longer be 'exalted' but it must now be 'fruitful,' for you will be the father of a multitude."
The same is true of Sarai. Sarai means "contentious." This speaks volumes of the home life of Abram and Sarai. In Proverbs 21:9 (RSV), Solomon writes, "It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman." Having had a thousand wives, here is a man who knows of what he speaks! Sarai is, therefore, a problem wife. Yet in the New Testament, Peter says that this woman is a model for all women to follow -- not by her name, Sarai, "contentiousness," but by her new name, Sarah, "Princess." She is never referred to as Sarai in the New Testament. God does not set her up as a pattern for women until she becomes Sarah and loses her contentious spirit. As Sarah she learned to develop "a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious," (1 Peter 3:4b RSV). Sarai was not naturally thus. She was an argumentative woman, a nagging wife. But she, too, had been taught by grace, and through the years she lost the need to defend herself on every occasion and became Sarah, a princess, a queen, an honored woman, having a meek and quiet spirit, very precious in the sight of God.’ (Ray Stedman, The Circumcized Life)
When Abraham saw God in a new way, and walked with God in a new way, things changed for him.
The same is true of you and I. The Bible says,
> 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Isn’t it great to know that when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, that the past is done away with? Isn’t it great to know that when you have a relationship with Jesus that the way the Lord views you is different?
IV. A NEW OPPORTUNITY
- Read Genesis 17:9-14
What a strange thing the Lord told Abraham to do. He said, Abraham, all of the males in your group, whether blood kin or not, are to be circumcized.
What an unusual sign the Lord gave Abraham. But, there are several things about this sign that are very similar to Christianity.
1. This sign was painful.
I’ve known 2 men who were not circumcized as children, who decided to be circumcized as adults. In both cases, it involved over night hospital stays, because that procedure is painful.
Well let me tell you my friend, being a Christian isn’t always sunshine and rainbows either. There is pain involved in being a follower of Jesus.
It hurts when you are considered an outsider at work, because you will not stand around and listen to some of the gossip or jokes that other folks share in. There’s pain involved when you won’t allow your children to go and do the same things their friends do because you live with different standards. It hurts when you miss a sale at work because you will not cut corners or fabricate product features like your competitors do.
It can hurt when you don’t go running to your cabin, or to the woods, or to the beach every Sunday, because you are committed to serving in your church and making an impact with your life.
Being a Christian is painful.
2. This sign was permanent. It is not something that was going to be undone. You can take something off of the human body, but it’s very difficult to put something back. It was a permanent sign.
My friend, the same is true of your Christianity. When you become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are adopted into the family. You are able to approach God as Abba, Father.
When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you are placed in the hand of God, and as Jesus tells us in John chapter 10, no one can pluck you out of God’s hand.
I hear people say, “Well, I used to be a Christian.” There is no such thing as “used to be a Christian.” Either you were and still are, or you weren’t and are not now.
You may have been a more obedient Christian than you are now, and because of the way you are living now it causes you to doubt your salvation. Or, you may have acted more churchy at one point in your life than you do now, so at one time you incorrectly thought you were a Christian, but there is no such thing as a temporary Christian.
The Bible says when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, that the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, into your life, as a surety, as a down payment, of what is to come in the future. The Holy Spirit doesn’t come in and then leave, and then come in and the leave. What kind of proof, what kind of guarantee is that?
Salvation is permanent.
3. This sign was private
If the Lord had told Abraham that all males were to get a tattoo on their shoulders, or that all males were to cut off part of their pinky fingers on their right hand, those signs would be public. Anyone looking at them could tell they were part of Abraham’s clan.
But, no. God gave them a sign that was private. It was not something everyone in the world was going to be able to see. The only way anyone would be able to tell if this man was a child of Abraham, was if the person acted like a Jew. If he worshipped the true God. If he ate certain things and avoided other things. The sign was private.
The same is true of your salvation and mine. It isn’t wearing a cross ear ring, or wearing a cross tattoo that makes you a Christian. It isn’t something marking you that sets you apart.
Christianity is a private thing, and by that I mean that it is the way you act, and the way you talk, and the values you have that will mark you and set apart as a Christian.
4. This sign was personal
Yes, it was parents that had this procedure done to their children, but if the young man chose not to follow God, or chose to worship another god, this sign meant nothing. It was a personal decision each man had to make as to whether he was going to follow and obey the God of Abraham or not.
The same is true with you and I. Our parents can take us to church. They can take us to Mission Possible Camp, to Sunday School, or whatever; but our parents cannot make us become followers of Jesus Christ. That is a decision each of us must make.
My friend, it is not what your parents have done nor what your grandparents have accomplished, that will determine whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or not. That is personal decision that you must make.
God gave Abraham a new opportunity, just as you and I have been given the opportunity to be obedient followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look my friend at Abraham responded to God’s command.
- Read Genesis 17:23
V. ABRAHAM’S RESPONSE
1. Abraham responded instantly -
“On that very day”. When God told Abraham what to do, he did it on that very day. He responded instantly.
My friend, anything short of instant obedience is disobedience.
Abraham responded instantly.
2. Abraham responded completely.
He didn’t say, “Well, I’ll just cut myself and leave a scar. That scar will remind me of my covenant with the Lord.” He responded completely. He instantly and completely did what the Lord had told him.
Let me ask you my friend. Is there anything the Lord has told you to do that you haven’t done yet? Is there anything the Lord has told you to do that you have only partially obeyed?
Oh my friend, we are not promised another hour. We are not promised another day. Who knows what price we’ll pay for an hour’s delay?
