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20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year." 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. ~ Genesis 17:20-22
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 17 where God has repeatedly reiterated His promise of a great nation to Abraham. In addition to that, God gave Abraham and Sarah new names and a new joy in the promise of the son who would be called Isaac. All of this was a part of the unconditional covenant that God gave to Abraham.
Throughout history, when anyone has been called into a covenant relationship with God, they are always expected to obey Him. This was what Abraham did in the remainder of this chapter. At this point, the doubts that Abraham had expressed earlier seem to have vanished. And, his swift obedience was cemented in the unconditional promise given to him by God.
Although the Abrahamic covenant was unconditional, the promise of God regarding the land was not, it was conditional. In Deuteronomy 28-30, God reminded Israel, "If you obey Me and you keep My laws, I will bless you in this land. You'll get a lot of rain and crops in this land. You'll subdue all your enemies. If you disobey Me, your enemies will subdue you. In fact, you won't have good crops, you won't have good rain, your enemies will come and take you from this land and you'll be in captivity."
Now, ultimately, the land at the end of time will be forever Abraham's and his physical descendant's unconditionally. But, during their tenure in the land, their occupation of the land, was conditional. Essentially, God consistently said to Israel, "I put you in the land, but if you disobey me, I will take you out of the land." God promised Israel a spiritual spanking which was designed to get them to cry out in dependence upon Him. It was then that God would bring them back into the promised land.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation."
In the previous verses, Abraham had asked that Ishmael would live before the Lord, that meant was that he would be blessed of the Lord as the heir of the promise that God had consistently made to Abraham. Of course, Ishmael was never to be the promised son to Abraham and Sarah but God promised blessing upon him.
It was from Ishmael, interestingly, that the Arabs descended. They are the only people, besides the Jews, who have continued as a distinct people from the beginning. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are descended from Abraham. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are circumcised, and both profess to have derived this ceremony from Abraham. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, had originally twelve patriarchs. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, marry among themselves, and in their own tribes. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments to all ages of the exactness of the Divine predictions, and of the veracity of the Bible.
In v.21 of today's passage we read, "But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year."
Despite the promised blessing to Ishmael, which has surely been fulfilled in an amazing degree, the covenant established in Abraham would likewise be established in Isaac through Sarah. The covenant that God wanted was to be realized through the son of promise, not the son of the flesh. God would bless the world through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who would come through the lineage of Isaac.
As was the case here with Abraham, God may require the death of our vision to accomplish His will in our lives. Maybe our prayer should be, "Oh, that Ishmael might die within me!" God never blesses the products of the flesh. Abraham's agenda of the flesh had to die so that he could be positioned to enjoy God's will for his life.
There are many who have walked away from God because He didn’t do the impossible on their terms. They expected God to. do things that God chose not to do. In my case, God chose not to heal my dad of cancer which took his life just 5 months after its diagnosis. We must beware of the god who does the impossible simply because it’s impossible. He isn’t the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is all about keeping promises. The imaginary god who placates to our every whim is nowhere to be found in the Bible.
God’s promise to Abraham involved Him doing the impossible and Abraham laughed. It was at that point that God gently, but firmly, corrected Abraham. This verse merely accentuates that God's covenant is always based upon His will which includes the spiritual, even if it includes the earthly. This promised blessing from God to Abraham delivered to hopeless man the Messiah. It is through Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we were brought into a personal relationship with God.
The Apostle John wrote, "we are children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."
John would say that our rebirth was just as much of a miracle as Isaac’s birth and that we are just as much children born only by the promise. Isaac had quite a unique understanding of this concept, after all, he was born to an old man and an old woman well beyond her child-bearing years. He was a child whose birth was promised a quarter of a century before. It was based upon this promise that his family had pulled up stakes and moved to an entirely new country. Isaac was fully aware of the fact that being a child of promise forms an identity. Likewise, our rebirth should give us this unique understanding and a great appreciation for the God of the Bible. After all, it was and is no easy matter to come to the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Like Isaac's birth, our rebirth could not have happened without God’s power.
God chose Isaac to show the necessity of His intervention. He also chose Isaac as an act of correction. Thirteen years before, Sarah and Abraham had decided that God could not keep His promises, so they acted out their disbelief in the promise because the promise seemed impossible. So, at this point, God gave Abraham another chance to trust this same promise even though it seemed impossible. God's grace has an incredibly long arc to it, and neither sin nor doubt have a statute of limitations with God.
In v.22 of today's passage we read, "Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham."
God "went up" from Abraham. Perhaps this detail is included to emphasize that God's appearance to Abraham really happened. It wasn't something Abraham imagined. God came. God spoke. God left. The words here suggest the idea of Abraham being left with a choice: will he believe, trust, and obey? Again on his own, Abraham must believe and act on what God had said. This is biblical faith.
This verse clearly reveals that our greatest moments with God are not lasting. This side of heaven, we cannot enjoy uninterrupted communion with Him. This was the case for Adam and Eve before the Fall which is an observation which intrigues our curiosity. Here, God had finished his discussion with Abraham. The Lord God Almighty had appeared to Abraham and it was quite memorable for in that meeting God revealed that the son of the promise had yet to arrive.
