This week’s reading: Genesis 17:1-27
Hi Friends,
Oh, what a powerful and important chapter we will be diving into this week. We will hear God expanding His promise to Abram once again. We will look into the symbolism of the ritual God commands Abraham to keep. We will talk about how, and why, God changes the names of these two Saints. And lastly, we will see how God blesses all humans, yet it is only those who surrender their lives to Jesus, The Promised Child, that will be changed and saved forevermore. We are reading all of chapter 17, that’s verses 1 through 27. And by the way, you don’t have to read, or listen, to the entire article in one sitting; this one especially is a long one and I know it’s a lot to take in. Take your time with the insights I share, read a little over a couple of days throughout the week, but then take it to God in prayer. Pray for God to give you insight as you engage with Him in His Word, and pray for Him to help you implement His Word too. Listen here to what God will do for this Father of Faith:
“Abram fell facedown, 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 are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.’” Gen 17:3-8 NIV
God Will. Once again, God appears to Abram. The Bible does not say how He appears, but this is not the point. The mere fact that God chooses to come to Abram and speak to him, with the intimacy of a friend, should amaze us. I often think of King David’s Psalm 8 where he, in astonishment, cries out, “what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Ps 8:4) My Friends, we are but dust. I do not say this so we will beat ourselves up, but rather, for us to get some perspective here. Too often, I tend to get a bit casual about my relationship with this most High God, and can take His Love and Grace for granted. We, sadly, might question if God appeared to Abram, and then focus on how He did so, but again the mere fact that God would, should leave us breathless. Our Creator is such a humble and gracious God! And God’s Love knows no bounds, so here we listen to God’s words reminding Abram of His promise, emphasizing what God will do for him. Note this is God’s Will. He desires to bless Abram, as well as his descendants. God is not putting any conditions on whether He will bless, although we will see later that there are conditions on whether each human will receive THE blessing. But those are two very different things, my Friends. So please note the God tells Abram 5 times “I Will” because if God says He will, then it will happen regardless of humans. When God says He will do something, He is not asking for our permission, our opinion, or for our power to get it done. God’s Will will be done. And again, 5 times here we hear God say to Abram, “I Will.” And the beauty is, God is not only talking to Abram, but also to us, his spiritual descendants. St Paul says, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3:29; also see Ro 4:16) So what God is telling Abram here, can also apply to you and me. Yet like Abram, we must receive the promise. Think of it like this: let’s say it is your birthday, so I send you a gift through the mail. It is something I know you really, really want, yet if you do not go to the mailbox, if you do not take hold of the package, if you do not open it, then will the gift be yours? So please take hold of these promises from God and work with Him to make them yours. Here is what God is telling Abram, and us: 1- God wills it for us to be VERY fruitful, 2- God wills to make a nation of us, 3- God wills to establish His covenant to be our God, as an everlasting covenant, between Him and us, 4- God wills to give us, as an everlasting possession, a world like this one, because on earth we are only aliens, and 5- God wills to be the God of our descendants too. Let me try to break these down to see what they can mean to us.
1- Be very fruitful. As I have taught before, this fruitfulness is talking about becoming more and more like God Himself. We can find some of God’s Immaculate Character traits in Galatians 5:22-23, as St Paul talks about the Fruit of the Spirit, and this is who we are supposed to be transformed into. When we become born again the Holy Spirit brings His Fruit into us as a seed, then He works with us to develop the seed and display it through us. Think The Vine and its Branches here. (see Jn 15:1-8) These verses talk about being attached to Jesus and then allowing His Nature to grow within us, which will then be revealed in the choices we make in life. Others get to see Jesus as we choose to be more like Who He is, and do what He would do. This is a blessing God desires to grant us, and what an amazing privilege it should be to us, Church, to show the lost world who God is. We are to share God’s Love and Justice too, which means not condoning sin, but understanding we are all just dust. Apart from Christ, we truly can do nothing. (Jn 15:5) We need Him and should show this world a glimpse of God’s Grace. So let’s lean on God, so we can be very fruitful.
2- Make us into a nation. For us, I believe this is talking about how each of us can bring other souls into the Kingdom of God. And we do this by living as the ambassadors of Christ that we are meant to be. (see 2Co 5:20) As we grow in Christ, revealing His Character more and more, others will hopefully want to know Jesus for themselves. Can you see why Sanctification is so powerful and vital? This is what God wants to do, not only for His sake, because God desires every person to be saved (see 1Ti 2:4), but for our sake too. This is who He originally created us to be, so this is the only life that will truly satisfy and fulfill us. This is the Abundant Life Jesus is talking about in John 10:10. This is why He came, so we may have life…that is what we receive at Salvation…and have life to the full…this is Sanctification. Then as we simply lean on the Holy Spirit and live love…ok, let me pause here. Just because this is simple, and it is, does not mean it is easy. Believe me, I get that! God’s Plan is simple because it is only a matter of us connecting with God and then gratefully, faithfully and sacrificially being obedient to Him and His leading. Yeah, it’s that last part that makes it difficult for us rebellious, immature and stubborn children. We want what we want, more than we want what God wants, and so, conflicts happen within and without. Within we moan and complain about not getting our way…see a child throwing a tantrum here. As we deny God’s Will and demand our own way, on the outside, through our words and deeds, we act like that old, sinful person, instead of Jesus, and the world stays clueless about God’s Love and Grace. See? Oh if God would only take this Prideful person out of me! But this is exactly what He is doing. God is transforming us from who we used to be into this beautiful image of who He desires us to be. And as we cooperate, we can bring others to God and, in this way, we will become a nation.
3- Establish His covenant. Covenant is a fancy word for agreement. It is God’s desire to set up a permanent agreement between Him and each of us, then all of us as a whole, through which a relationship of mutual commitment will be our reality. The key words being relationship and commitment. We never have to fear that God will not be fully faithful and dedicated to our good. Faithful and Good. This is Who He is, so it is what He does. Again, we must focus on our part, confident that God will do His. So what can we do to make this a permanent relationship? Nothing. That is, God has already done it all. Now all that’s left is for us to humbly receive His work. This is called Salvation. By God’s Grace, He has paid the penalty for all our sin. Through the Faith He gives us, we believe this truth and humbly lift our sinful and empty hands in surrender to God, and He wipes away all our sin and establishes this relationship with us for all Time. This is God’s Will for every human…sadly, it is not every human’s will to be in a covenant with God.
4- A Home of your own. Right now, if you are a believer in Christ, you are an alien, a stranger here on this planet, just walking through until you get to your permanent Home. Do we know this? Because sometimes I hold on to the things of this world so tight that I wonder if I get this truth. How about you? You see, God wants us to live in The Promised Land, and this world is not it. Symbolically here, God points Abram to the land of the Canaanites as the home He will give Abram’s earthly descendants, but spiritually, we know there exists another land that will be more amazing than we children of God can fully grasp. Jesus calls it Paradise. (see Lk 23:43) This is important for us to continually understand because it will help us live with open hands. With this mentality, whatever blessing God brings to us, we will be able to receive, but then pass it along as well because our hands are open. We will be blessed and we will be a blessing. This is part of that original blessing God promised Abram, isn’t it? (see Gen 12:2) And as we live this way, we are living love and life will become more and more abundant for us, and hopefully, for those around us too. Then perhaps they too will join us as we begin to live for our future Home.
5- The God of our children. What greater legacy can anyone leave than to bring our children to God, so they too may know Him, love Him and serve Him? Again, we can do this with spiritual children, as we bring others to Christ, but my goodness, if we have biological children, we must be passing this gift along to them too. Especially in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to God and His truth, our children must be protected. Even if you do not have physical children, there are many who need a mentor, so reach out and find a child to bless. There are many young hearts and minds who need all of us to speak up for their sake, now more than ever. For example, do what you can to become active in your local school boards. Also when it comes to your purchases, vote with your dollars. In other words, if you know a particular company supports agendas that are damaging to children, and humanity as a whole, do not buy products from them. If there has ever been a Time for the Church to stand up, it is now. God desires our children to be His, we should too.
Learning process. These are the Will of God for our lives. Question is: is it our will too? Besides our Prideful propensity that pulls us towards doing whatever we think, feel and want, these things God desires for us, also take us out of our comfort zone. They lead us to live life outside of that MMI mentality, where we are supposed to think of God first, then others, and lastly ourselves. The issue is not that God never wants us to have anything for ourselves, but rather that He does not want us to think only about ourselves. As we can see, we are on the list of priorities, but just not first on the list. The acronym is J.O.Y.— Jesus, Others and You— and when we learn to live in this order, we are the ones who will experience joy. Abram is continuing to learn this lesson. This is most likely one of the many reasons God does not fulfill His promise to Abram right away. Abram must learn to keep trusting God, by putting God’s Will first. And this is how God grows you and me too. The more Abram experiences God’s faithfulness through all the up’s and down’s of his life, the more Abram desires to follow God, being obedient to whatever, and wherever, He leads. Again, this is our journey too, my Friends. And I want to emphasize that it is a journey. Not one of us are going to travel this Faith walk perfectly. Praise God, He works with flawed humans. Lately, I have been struggling, and God is gently reminding me that this is why we need Grace. Once we become born again, we go from being under God’s Wrath, to living in God’s Grace. Yet none of us will walk a straight path, which again, is the reason we need His Grace. We fall. We fail. We float back and forth. Grace keeps the path to God open for us, so we may return at any moment. Grace is what makes the difference between who we used to be and who we are now in Christ. Grace is how God continues the transformation within us. He works with what He is given, yet praise God, it is not all on our tiny shoulders. It is Max Lucado who said, “If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he’ll take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours!” The issue is not that God is waiting on us to bring the promise, the issue, as I said before, is when, or whether, we will receive the promise He has already given. We see this here with Abram also. God had already made and confirmed the promise, several times…now Abram needed to make a commitment to receive the promise too.
God will, but will we? God makes the promise, but then we must respond. Here we listen as God tells Abram his part in the covenant. Abram and all his male descendants must perform the ritual of circumcision. (see Gen 17:9-14) The cutting away of this flesh was a sign to remind them all that they belonged to God. It was God’s way of showing them that they had to be willing to remove a part of them, in order to seal this covenant. Note: this is not a way the promise would come, but it would be a sign that they had received the promise. This is important least we try to pat ourselves on our own backs. Again I say, any promise of God, especially Salvation, comes from the Grace of God Who has already made The Way. It is through Faith that we are able to receive the promise. So circumcision was not a way to become God’s, it was a sign that they were God’s. We might not quite understand what the cutting away of this rather private male flesh has to do with this covenant, but the symbolism is amazing. The Bible calls our old sinful person, the Flesh. This consists of a self-centered spirit, a self-absorbed soul and the selfish actions that stem from those two. Apart from God, Who is the Giver of Life, our Flesh is dead, useless and disconnected. We live for MMI, with the priorities all backwards from what I said above. Not sure? Have you ever heard, or said, “I have to look out for number one, or else who will!” We believe that we are number one and place ourselves above all others! Yes, we may consider others too, especially if they are in our circle of family and friends, but do we think about God, at all? When we are living by the Flesh, the order of priorities in our lives is You, and perhaps Others and….and that’s it. We too often leave God completely out. Since we were created by God, for God, this Fleshly life will never bring the satisfaction we crave. There is only momentary peace and joy, and this only because we have a Merciful God! This is why the Flesh must be cut away. Are you seeing the symbolism now? God has Abram and all the males in his household cut away the flesh, to point to the fact that all believers must cut our old person, the Flesh, away too. But you and I cannot do this alone…thus Jesus. It is because of His life, death and Resurrection that our Flesh can be cut away. This cutting away is a permanent sign that we belong to God. Yet unlike the physical circumcision, the circumcision of the heart takes the rest of our lives to be revealed. The inner work is done at Salvation, but it is also done in a private area of who we are. The change is done in our innermost part, in our heart, where only God can see if we have allowed Him to cut away that Flesh, or not. This is where Free Will comes into play. Remember this is a relationship. God has already done His part, now He is prompting us to do our part. God initiates the relationship, but we must freely and willingly choose to respond. Abram, who is now and for always called Abraham, quickly responds as we read in Gen 17:23, “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.” (Gen 17:23) May we, too, not hesitate a moment when God tells us we must cut away any Fleshy thing that still remains in our lives. God once again confirms His promise to Abram, gives Abram a sign of this covenant, and He gives Abram and Sarai new names too.
Circumcision changes us. In Gen 17:5, we read how God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Then in Gen 17:15, God also gives Sarai the new name Sarah. Every time we read about a name change in the Bible, there is an important point to it. Not only did names define people back in Biblical times, showing others some kind of attribute or mission of that person, but symbolically this is true of all believers. We are called Christians because we are supposed to be a people who follow Christ, but sadly, this is not the case with everyone who claims to be a Christian. So there is another, deeper identity marker though that is changed at the moment of Salvation that speaks more about this inner change that has happened to us. Before Jesus saves us, we are called sinners, for that is who we are apart from Him. And since it is who we are, it is also what we do…all…the…time. Once we become born again, by Grace through Faith, one of our names is now and forevermore “saint.” Now a saint is not someone who is perfect, but someone who has the Perfect One living within. In Christ, we have the potential to sin less, even though we may remain far from sinless. The difference is that a saint is forgiven, reconciled, redeemed and given Everlasting Life. It should be because of this great promise that we begin to live like we’ve been changed. We are different, a New Creation the Bible says, when Christ comes to live in us through the Holy Spirit. And since this is who we are, this is how we should live. A sinner sins because that is who they are. A saint should be different than who we used to be, because that is who we are. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Sinners become saints. All these lives have been changed forever, because all of these lives now belong to God. And now that they are God’s, they are ready for the next step. Recall that God had first told Abram he would be the father of a nation. Then He further told Abram that this child would come from his own body. Now God reveals another piece of the puzzle. Here God tells Abraham that the promised child will indeed come from him, and Sarah. God sees that these two saints are ready to bring forth the promised child. Abraham is 99 years old at this point, and he laughs at the incredible miracle God will perform for these two faithful servants. Unlike Sarah who laughs out of disbelief because she could not wrap her mind around the impossibility of the situation, Abraham takes God at His word and laughs with joy at this wondrous blessing. More on that next week. Yet one of the reasons Abraham is such a great saint to be imitated is that he is always thinking of others too. Even as God blesses Abraham this way, he does not forget his first son, Ishmael, and prays for God to bless him too.
God blesses everyone. God does promise Abraham to care for Ishmael too. As a matter of fact, God grants him a very similar promise to that which He will give Isaac. Yet it is only the promised child that God would establish His covenant with. Again, see the symbolism here: God does bless everyone, even if we do not always see the blessings. But it is only those who receive Salvation through The Promised Child, Jesus, that will be under God’s Grace. Again, we must be rid of that Flesh, or else we remain enemies of God. (see Ro 5:10 & Ro 8:7-8) There is a wonderful discourse from St Paul about the difference between the child of Hagar, who came out of the works of the Flesh, versus the child from Sarah, who came from the promise of God. (check out Gal 4:21-31) When we attempt to do things on our own, we are living by the Flesh, like that old person we used to be. But when we surrender to God and receive The Promised Child, now we are under His Grace. Ishmael represents our old Flesh, the person we used to be. Isaac represents our New Creation person we now are in Christ. I will leave us with this wonderful verse: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12) Every time I live life the way God desires me to live, as this child who has been given a new name, His promises become more real in my life… and my life? You got it! It becomes more abundant. Do you want that too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
