Genesis 17:20-22

For the Genesis 17:2--22 PODCAST, Click Here!

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.

Genesis 17:17-19

For the Genesis 17:17-19 PODCAST, Click Here! 

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" 19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him." ~ Genesis 17:17-19

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 17 where Abraham has just learned that what he thought for thirteen years to be true was not. For thirteen years Abraham and Sarah thought that the son of Hagar, Ishmael, was the son of the promise. But in today's passage we learn this was not to be the case. In the context of this disappointment, God gave to Abraham a new revelation and a new name. In today's passage, we will see that God is about to give Abraham and Sarah a new joy.

In v.17 of today's passage we read, "Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?'"

Abram responded here to the word of the Lord the same way that he did in v.3, except this time "he laughed." We don’t know exactly what kind of laugh this was; was it one of unbelief?, or one of confusion?  He undoubtedly had mixed emotions. And his laughter anticipated Isaac’s name. Abraham's questions reveal to us that he thought God’s promise of a child from him and Sarah was impossible given their age. God's plan made no sense to Abraham, even though he had entered into a deeper relationship with God. Despite the frustration and confusion, Abraham did not know that God was positioning him to see that  God is the God of the impossible.

In Matthew 19:26 we read, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

The disciple who believes that seemingly impossible things can happen will over time develop an incredibly strong faith. In fact, we can measure our faith by our concept of the impossible. Little faith only sees little possibilities, and, as a result, only little things ever happen. But big faith sees big possibilities, and big faith brings big results. Eventually, as we will see, Abraham believed in the God of the impossible. It is most important to note that Abraham didn't believe in himself, in his insights, in his faith or in his feelings. As Romans 4:17 reminds us Abraham believed in the God of the Bible. 

In v.18 of today's passage we read, "And Abraham said to God, 'Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!'"

Abraham wanted God to consider the son he already had. Abraham was convinced that Ishmael was the easier, more certain, in-the-flesh option. Abraham thought that the promises of God should come through Ishmael because he and Sarah could not possibly produce another son. Abraham was trying to steer God into a more humanly reasonable path, but this was not the plan of God.

I find it most instructive that God didn’t come down hard on Abraham with judgment and condemnation at this point because of his myopic way of thinking. Abraham was truly being steered by his small mindedness. God is never hard on us when we are experiencing these kinds of struggles; He knows this process is necessary for us to grow in genuine faith. What Abraham was experiencing was not what we know today as "positive thinking" or the idea that "we speak things into existence." No, the object of Abraham's faith was to be in the end God and nothing else. 

I believe in thinking positively, but thinking positively is not the same as positive thinking. Biblical faith in the God of the Bible is not the same as positive thinking. Positive thinking only works when we have control over the situation. It’s worthless if the situation is out of our control. When we find ourselves at a dead end, we need something more than a happy thought to get the job done. This is where God comes in to lift our myopic thinking to His level. In the end, we are left with His will, not ours.

In v.19 of today's passage we read, "Then God said: 'No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.'"

As was always, what God had promised came to pass despite the circumstances and the obstacles. The shadow cast by faith will always be present in our lives this side of heaven for the shadows and the questions are a necessary part of the development of our faith in the God of the Bible. It is those shadows that create our questions which fuel our pursuit of more than just the answers we desire, these questions fuel our pursuit of God Himself.

All of this underscores the civil war that rages in all believers. This battle rages continually in even the most spiritually mature believers in Christ; they raged in Peter and Thomas and the Apostle Paul. As believers in Christ, we will always struggle with the reality that we obey what we do not want to obey. This struggle is the result of sin living in us, and it is a very real reality for all believers. As we grow in our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, we will delight in God’s law but we must be real that there is yet another law at work within. This explains the battle that rages within, and it is a battle that we largely hate.

All of this is to say that, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we have two natures, the old and the new man. And, the nature that we feed the most is the one which will win on any given moment. Even though this battle against sin is constant, the believer in Christ is no longer under its control. At the cross of the Lord Jesus, the penalty and power of sin was broken. Because of the cross, the believer in Christ is truly a "new creation" in Christ, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has rescued us and will ultimately rescue us from this civil war that rages within.

As the two sons of Abraham and Sarah subtly illustrate, there are two ways to relate to God, as an heir or as a slave. The difference is that a slave earns God's acceptance through his performance and an heir has been given by God promised acceptance. The trust that is forged by the second approach is the difference. A slave can never be sure enough that he has done enough to earn the acceptance of his master. A son rests in the standing he has by virtue of his birth and the covenant his father made in his will for his children. This is a trust that is cemented in the hope of the confidence we have in Christ's perfect performance on our behalf.

Genesis 17:15-16

For the Genesis 17:15-16 PODCAST, Click Here!

15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her." ~ Genesis 17:15-16

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 17 where we see that throughout the Bible there is a thread which weaves God’s people into His great culture which will gradually heal what is broken within us. His culture steers us to the place where He replaces what sin destroyed. His goal is to replace us with Himself, to replace our sadness with His joy and to replace our chaos with His presence and peace. Today, we will see another step in the delivery of His culture to our souls, it is a thread whereby He inculcates Himself into us. 

In v.15 of today's passage we read, "Then God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.'"

God renamed Sarai slightly different than He did Abraham. Whereas God renamed Abram directly and straight on, He renamed Sarai through Abraham. Just as God works through the Lord Jesus Christ to meet with Christ’s bride, the Church, so He goes through Abraham for the name of Sarai to be changed. The Bible’s use of family hierarchies and the submission of the wife to her husband is subtly underscored here. When the family hierarchy, which has been established by God, is rejected, it inevitably leads to a disrupted family life. This has been born out through history and it is being born out just now before our very eyes in America. As Americans move away from the traditional father-led family established by God, it may appear on the surface to be freeing women from some perceived bondage, but in the end, it only leads to disorder, societal breakdown, and a loss of morality.

Note also that Sarai’s name change was done in the same way that Abraham’s name was changed, by adding a single letter from the name of God to Sarai's name. As was with Abram, God used a letter equivalent to our letter "h." In this case, the "h" was used to replace the "i." By adding the "h" to their names, God imparted to Abram and Sarai a portion of His own nature.  Sarah means "princess." God made her, with the changing of her name, to have the presence of "a princess." This was due to His pronounced presence in her life. In 1 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter identified Sarah as the epitome of the submissive wife whom God favors. God attaches a condition to His pronounced presence in our lives. All believers enjoy His presence, but His pronounced presence is something more. This condition is found in 2 Chronicles 15. King Asa had led the armies of Judah to a great victory over Ethiopia's huge army. Yet Asa testified it was God's presence that had scattered the enemy. 

In 2 Chronicles 14:11-12 we read, "11 And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, 'Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!' 12 So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled."

As Asa and his armies led the triumphant procession back to Jerusalem, a prophet named Azariah met them at the city gate with this message from God: "2 Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; 4 but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them." 

Herein is discovered the secret of getting and maintaining the pronounced presence of God in our lives. The Lord reminded Asa, point blank, with no holds barred: "Asa, don't ever forget how you got this victory. You sought me with all your heart, turning wholly to me, when you were in trouble - and I sent my presence to you. It was my presence that put your enemies to chase!"

When we came into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus  Christ, positionally before God we were transferred into the sovereign care of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who is now our God who guarantees our eternal security through His death on the cross of Calvary. The renaming of Sarai to Sarah pictured this transaction made for the believer in Christ.

In v.16 of today's passage we read, "And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her."

The Lord promised to bless Sarah and He also said He would "give a son by her." This son would be different from Abraham's other son, Ishmael, for he was to be "the son of promise." This is the 5th time in the book of Genesis that we see God working through the second son instead of the firstborn. It is the condition of the heart that determines whether we are to be favored by God. If we are not given to embracing the humility needed to access God's blessing, His favor will never rest on us. But when we embrace the needed humility, we enter a new relationship with God Himself.

Whenever we see God in a new way, it always makes a corresponding change in us. We see this with the renaming of Sarai who is never referred to as Sarai in the New Testament. God did not set her up as a pattern for women until she became Sarah and she entered into a new relationship with the Lord which enabled His culture to be developed in her. As Sarah she learned to allow God to define and, as the Apostle Peter tells us in his first epistle, God developed in Sarah "a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." Sarai was not naturally gentle and quiet. Before this name change she was an argumentative woman and a nagging wife. But she, too, was taught by grace, and through the years she lost the need to defend herself on every occasion. Sarah's insecurities waned over time and she truly became a princess, an honored woman with a meek and quiet spirit.

In the promise of a son through Sarah, God said that kings and many different groups of people would come from her. Through Sarah came King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and many other kings. And ultimately from her would come the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sarah was in the lineage of the Lord Jesus so that the Lord Jesus could live within all who believe in Him as Savior.

Genesis 17:9-14

For the Genesis 17:9-14 PODCAST, Click Here!

9 And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." ~ Genesis 17:9-14 

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 17 where the Lord is drilling down on reassuring the faith of Abraham to whom He gave a new name. Along with giving to Abraham a part of His name, God gave to him a new revelation wherein He reaffirmed His never-ending covenant with him. This was important since previously Sarai and Abram attempted to help God. They were trying to solve a problem they felt was far too hard for God. Abram and Sarai felt they had the solution to the problem, so Abram took Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, for a wife. Of that union was born Ishmael, Israel's continual thorn in the flesh even until this day.

In v.9 of today's passage we read, "And God said to Abraham: 'As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.'"

God continually reminded Abraham of His commitment to him and his descendants. The responsibility that Abraham and his descendants had to the covenant was to access the blessings that were to come to them through the promise. There were certain things that they had to do to access these blessings. Notice I did not say "earn these blessings." As is consistent throughout the Scriptures, we cannot earn God's favor. But, we are responsible to access these blessings through our applied faith in the God of the Bible. And, the more we are defined by God by obeying Him, the more we will see the wisdom of inviting His culture into our lives. This was the point behind the practice of circumcision.

In v.10-12 of today's passage we read, "10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant."

Here, God gave to Abraham a new object lesson which was to be a continual reminder of His unfailing love for him. God prescribed circumcision for Abraham and his physical descendants, the Jews, and He has not put a stop to it; it is still a practice in Judaism even to this day. Many scholars feel that circumcision was the origin of today's wedding ring. The act of circumcision was performed by a metal or stone knife which cut around the foreskin leaving a circular scar. So a man and a woman, standing before their witnesses, place a metal or a stone ring upon each other's fingers, indicating that two hearts are giving themselves to each other.

The point of this new practice of circumcision is seen in Jeremiah 4:4 where we read, "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts." Circumcision has always been more than a physical change, it was has always been an object lesson to remind those of faith in the God of the Bible of His never-ending love for us. Our understanding of such love produces an internal change in our hearts. As the Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He loved us first."

Not everyone who is circumcised can enjoy the blessings from the Abrahamic covenant. And, not everyone who has not been circumcised is excluded from the Abrahamic covenant. As is evident throughout the Scriptures, it is the object of our faith that saves us, nothing else. It is only the God of the Bible who saves us by His grace. Salvation is a free gift for anyone willing enough to humble themselves to receive the free gift. Muslims circumcise their children, but they are not inheritors of the promise. The object of their faith is Allah who is not the God of the Bible.

God prescribed circumcision to be performed on the newborn children on the 8th day of their lives. The number 8 in the Bible consistently signifies "new beginnings." There were 8 people on the Ark of Noah, all of which entered the new beginning which was a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. God brings up this covenant with Abraham 8 times and the 8th occurred when the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. 

God prescribed the circumcision to be done on the 8th day so that the baby would not hemorrhage to death. God knew that it takes the body of a new born eight days to build up enough potassium so that the blood would coagulate. If it were done earlier than the 8th day, the baby would hemorrhage to death. This is why we must give careful attention to the details God has given to us in His word.

In v.13-14 of today's passage we read, "13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

God meant for circumcision to be a sign of humility and His instrumentality in the lives of the Jews. In time, it became perverted into a mark of superiority and favoritism. Those who bore it began to look on others as "Gentile dogs" and to be self-righteous and proud over their supposed favored position before God. Thus the spirit of anti-Semitism which troubles the world so today was born of the spirit of anti-Gentilism which preceded it. This does not justify either, of course.

The repetition here in these two final verses of the circumcision was given to denote the absolute necessity of doing it and the care to be followed in the practice. There was to be no uncircumcised male in each home, including any servants that may have been there. Every male born in the house and every male who came into the house as a servant was to be circumcised. The ultimate purpose of circumcision had a greater fulfillment in the assurance of our salvation that would one day be procured by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Circumcision was a reminder to the believer in the God of the Bible to keep looking forward to the Messiah who would be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  

Genesis 17:2-8

For the Genesis 17:2-8 PODCAST, Click Here!

2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." ~ Genesis 17:2-8 

In our last study, we brought attention to the fact that God changed Abram's name to Abraham; God did this in conjunction with the continued unfolding of His covenant to Abram.  Throughout the Bible, when God changes a name, it was to establish a new identity for that person. Throughout the Bible we see that when someone was renamed, it was an expression of their authority over them. This was the case for Abram when renamed Him. In renaming Abram, God gave him a part of His name, assuring him that God’s promise would be fulfilled in and through him.

In v.2 of today's passage we read, "And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

The key word in this chapter is "covenant," used 13 times. God waited thirteen years before He shared with Abram His next revelation to him. Interestingly, the number thirteen is the number that bonds multiplicity into oneness. For example: There are twelve tribes that are bonded into their father Israel who was the thirteenth. The meaning of the number thirteen is the bonding of many into one.

Waiting is one of the most difficult things we do as believers in the God of the Bible. Yet, exercising patience in God is a large part of learning to trust in Him as He navigates not only our story with Him but other peoples story with Him, as well. Once God gave this new revelation to Abram, it had a profound impact upon Abram's view on life. 

In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Then Abram fell on his face."

Once he heard the new revelation from God, Abram prostrated himself before the Lord. Abram fell to his knees, he lowered his head to his knees, and then he touched the earth with his forehead. It was not a very comfortable posture, but it signified Abram's great humiliation, reverence, and submission before the Lord. In that moment, Abram was completely overwhelmed because all along he had figured that Ishmael was the fulfillment of the promise, but now he’s being told there is more to it all than he had realized.

In v.4 of today's passage we read, "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations."

God here restates His promise and then He refines it a bit. The word "nations" is normally used when speaking not of the chosen people, but of the pagan gentile peoples. Abram was now being told that he will be the "father of many nations" with the subsequent change of his name and it would be fulfilled in an amazing and unsuspected way, both physically and spiritually.

In v.5 of today's passage we read, "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations."

In the change of Abram's name to Abraham, his name went from the future tense to the present tense. The giving of this name was God's tangible pledge of the fulfillment of the covenant God had spoken to Abram previously. The Lord personally renamed Abram, signifying both His authority over him and the completion of His promise to him. 

YHWH, the covenant name of God, is spelled with four Hebrew letters: yod, hei, vav, and hei. When God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, He inserted the Hebrew letter hei from His divine name into Abram’s name. God gave to Abram a part of His name. In doing so, God symbolically was saying that in order for Abram to walk in His ways blamelessly, Abram needed His nature to be in him. Interestingly, Hei is the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it is the number that represents grace.

Abram's problem all along had been that he was looking for his own exaltation. This had to be changed in order for Abram to realize the dreams God had for him. Like Abram, we must lose our desire to exalt ourselves; we must stop trying to advance and please ourselves. This is when God changed Abram's name. His name would now be "the father of a multitude." This had to be if Abram were to realize the fruitfulness that was promised in his life. God essentially was saying to Abram, "Since you have now learned that I am El Shaddai, your name can no longer be 'exalted," it now must be 'fruitful,' for you will be the father of a multitude." 

The Lord always keeps His promises. And, in a similar mark of surety to each one of us, God has also given every person who has been saved by the blood of Christ a new name as well. This is recorded in Revelation 2:17 where we read, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." 

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you."

For thirteen years Abram had Ishmael thinking he would be the one through whom this mighty nation would be built but now he realized that Ishmael wasn’t the promised one. With this verse comes the promise of many more children. In addition to Ishmael and Isaac, we will see in Genesis 25 that Abraham will have many more children in the days to come. 

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you."

The covenant was established as an everlasting covenant with Abram's spiritual descendants as is revealed in the book of Galatians. It will never fade away, it will never lessen or diminish, it will never fail. This covenant was and is a covenant of grace and it is everlasting. What God promised to Abraham here was primarily Himself and this part of the covenant is applicable to all who look to Him in faith. This partly explains why the believer in Christ has the promised Holy Spirit living within.

In v.8 of today's passage we read, "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 

This part of the promise is only applicable to Abram's physical descendants, the Jews. And, down through the years God has been faithful to the Jews, His unfaithful people to fulfill this part of the promise. Miraculously, God brought the Jews back to the promised land against all odds in 1948. The Jews had been globally dispersed for 1,900 years, and yet, during that time they were able to retain their cultural and religious identity. Never before has a nation been destroyed and dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two thousand years later be re-gathered to their homeland and reestablished as a nation. All due to the fact that the God of the Bible is a covenant keeping God whom we can trust with our very lives.

Genesis 17:1

For the Genesis 17:1 PODCAST, Click Here!

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." ~ Genesis 17:1

Today, continue our study of the life of Abraham and in the verses ahead, we’ll see where God changes his name from Abram to Abraham in conjunction with the continued unfolding of God's promise to the Bible’s great man of faith. In both the Old and New Testaments, Abraham is noted best and most for his faith in the God of the Bible. Before we get to his name change, we must first consider just what God was saying to him in today's verse.

This is now the fifth time in the book of Genesis that God promised His blessing upon Abram; the first was in Genesis 12, the second was in Genesis 13, the third was in Genesis 14 where Abram received it along with the blessing of Melchizedek. The fourth was in Genesis 15 where with the promise God told Abram, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." It is our fear that keeps us back from going all in with the Lord. This is the ultimate point to the promises that God has given those who follow Him, that we might not fear and that we might be most vulnerable with Hm as He calls us to a complete life of faith.

In today's passage Abram is 99 years old and it has been 13 years since his maidservant Hagar bore him Ishmael. For all he knew, this was the son of promise that he had waited so long for and he was raising him to only fear God. And now, God appeared to Abram again and added to His command, "do not be afraid," another of His many descriptors, "El Shaddai," which means "the Almighty God." This revelation revealed to Abram that God is the eternally lasting, absolute, all powerful God. His nature is unchangeable and yet He causes change in His creation. 

The name "El Shaddai" rebuilds anew that which had been torn down by sin. When God's providence and abundance is combined with His promise, it becomes the basis upon which faith is best built and developed in us. This is why the Lord said to Abram, "walk before Me and be blameless." God spoke assurance to Abram before He commanded Him to walk in His ways. To walk before the Lord is a metaphor for being defined by God. And, we know that we are being defined by God when we obey Him.

The words "before Me" literally means "before my face." El Shaddai doesn’t literally have a face. He is omnipresent and so to walk before Him is an axiom. Every move is before Him and so an explanation is given which is "and be blameless." With these words God was getting at the heart of Abram. Of course, positionally before God, Abram was righteous since God had imputed upon him His righteousness. Here, God was telling Abram to strive for perfection in his heart with God as his single audience. God was saying to Abram, "Be complete in my holiness to the point of being defined by Me." 

The word "blameless" literally means "without wax." In those days if someone purchased a statue made of marble, they would have taken it outside before paying for it in order to test its authenticity in the rays of the sun. Many sculptors in that day used clear wax to repair flaws in their craftsmanship. Rather than making a new piece if he accidentally marred the statue, a dishonest craftsmen would have used wax to cover up the imperfection. Indoors, this wax was invisible. So, they would take the sculpture out into the sunlight to inspect it carefully for any imperfections. To be blameless was to be sincere, or without wax. 

When we fail to walk in a manner which is holy, others see it. Abram walked among the Canaanites and the Amorites and they could see his conduct and make judgments about God and His culture. We too live among those who know not God or His culture and we want to direct them into the freedom for which Christ desires to give all believers. This freedom not only includes the wisdom of God that we so desperately need in order to make good decisions, it also includes the freedom for us to risk failure in our attempts to live out the life of Christ who is in us. 

In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we read, "15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" 

The word "holy" here does not mean "sinless," it means "completeness" or "wholeness." Literally, God has told us the same thing that He told Abram, "to live out of the holiness that He earned for us." This will mean that we will not waste our time trying to earn God's favor and thus our motivation to live a godly life will be different. God, in His Word, nowhere tells us to manufacture holiness. That is settling since we all know that we can't do it. God literally is saying to us, "experience my holiness as you yield to Me." As a result, the wholeness that we operate out of in this life isn't our, it is His.

God's holiness pervades all of His attributes. His love is a holy love. His mercy is a holy mercy. Holiness is what sets Him apart. When we refuse to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold, it is then that God most profoundly expresses Himself in us, to us, and through us. And, as a result, we will live out of the holiness that the Lord Jesus Christ earned to give us on the cross. Since holiness is God's nature, it is His holiness that completes us and makes us whole.

Holiness in the Bible literally means "to be set apart." Through the applied character of God, the believer in Christ lives life, and, due to the fact that the Lord Jesus now lives in and through us, we are positioned to experience the expression of all of God's characteristics in a complete way. The role we play is to be willing to allow God to express Himself in, to, and through our yielded lives. This, for the believer in Christ, is known as the exchanged life.

Our tendency is to bring God down to our level by trying to earn His favor and power in our lives. This, we cannot do because our holy God is not determined by us in any way. In fact, our holiness before Him is a gift earned for us by the Lord Jesus. When God sent His Son to earth, the Holy Lord Jesus Christ chose to take on our human nature out of His eternal holy love. And, He did this not because sin made Him do it but because of holy character. It is only the wholeness of God that can transform sinful man's brokenness and make us the vessels of His very presence.

Genesis 16:9-16

For the Genesis 16:9-16 PODCAST, Click Here!

9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." 10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. ~ Genesis 16:5-16

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 16 where we have been learning through the back door that faith and patience always go together in the development of us learning to walk with the Lord and being led by His Spirit. When we walk in the flesh, we will be defined by impatience, scheming and blaming others as we see in this chapter. But, in order to walk in His Spirit, we must trust Him not only for His provision but also for His timing. This is where Abram and Sarai erred. 

In v.9 of today's passage we read, "The Angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.'"

The only way to realize God's grace and blessing in our lives is through the avenue of submission. Had Hagar continued to wander into the wilderness, it would have been disastrous. Both she and the child in her womb probably would have died. When God finds us wandering, this is always what He says, "Return and submit!" So Hagar returned to the authority that God had placed in her life.

In v.10 of today's passage we read, "Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.'"

With God's commands come His promises. In God's economy God's blessing often follows our obedience. The blessing that God gave to Hagar came in the form of a prophecy. The phrase, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude" is better translated, "I will give you more descendants than you can count."

In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her: 'Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.'" 

Wild donkeys in Hagar’s ancient world were free to move as they desired. So, this image that God gave to Hagar was more like the image of wild mustangs running free in the old West. He was not conveying the image that we typically draw from this metaphor: a braying, stubborn, wild, ugly donkey. God was promising Hagar that her son would never be a slave. He would be free, like the beautiful wild donkeys that roamed the desert in her world. God was promising that He would bless Ishmael and his descendants and they would become nomadic and free. 

The phrase, "He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren," means "independent of" or "apart from" his brethren. This meant Ishmael and his descendants would remain independent of the peoples around them who would like to subjugate them. This promise to Hagar was one of hope, a message of liberation and freedom for her son and his descendants. And this is how Hagar understood it because she responded in hope and went back to Sarai. 

Juxtapositioned in this story is the civil war that we all wrestle with: to feed the flesh or to feed the Spirit. The spiritual significance of this is explained in Galatians 4 where the Apostle Paul presents Hagar as a picture of the Law and Ishmael, her son, as a picture of those who try to establish favor in God's sight through their religious activity. Of the descendants of Ishmael, in general, Paul wrote in Romans 8:8, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?'"

I find it most instructive that Hagar did not contribute her ills upon Satan and she saw that God was the One who brings good out of the bad that we has come into her life. Hagar addressed God as "the God who sees." Since the Lord told Hagar what her son’s name would be and then explained all that would come to pass from his generations, she responded by saying, "I have seen what you intend." This was an exclamation of God's sovereignty and transcendence over time. Hagar understood correctly that He was the God who sees, not just now, but into the future and through all things.

In v.14-16 of today's passage we read, "14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram." 

This well was located between Kadesh and Bered. Kadesh means "holiness" and Bered means "judgment." Hagar was at the well of grace, which was between holiness and judgment. When we begin to stray from the place of God's blessing toward the certainty of judgment, God meets us on the way, at the well of grace. His desire is not to bring or allow trials or afflictions or heartaches into our lives. Of course, when He does His goal is to make us listen to Him and to His wisdom. 

It was now 11 years since Abram had entered the Promised Land and the year was 2095 BC. Abram finally had a son at the age of 86. For thirteen years following this part of the narrative, we read nothing of Abram. The next chapter will open with the 99 year old Abram. This means that for thirteen years, strife, disagreement, bitterness, jealousy, and heartache characterized that home of Abram in the land of Canaan. This was God's way of teaching Abram that apart from Him, Abram could do nothing of eternal significance. It does not depend on us, it all depends on God. We need constantly to reassert our utter dependence upon the God who knows us, who knows our circumstances, who knows our problems, and who is completely able to work through us to accomplish all that he desires.

When we seek the Lord, He promises us that we will find Him. And He doesn’t make it hard for us to do so. He is always right there waiting for the lurches of our hearts toward Him. He has even given us His word which reveals Him to us. This is what it means to have personal relationship with God. It isn’t only about knowing that our sins are forgiven and we are right before Him, it is just as much about us increasingly knowing Him. He is always available to the soul who seeks to know Him and who desires to be defined by Him. 

Genesis 16:5-8

For the Genesis 16:5-8 PODCAST, Click Here!

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me." 6 So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. 7 Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, "Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." ~ Genesis 16:5-8

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 16 where we have been witnessing the civil war that goes on in the inside of every true believer in the God of the Bible. This battle is created by the two allegiances we still have in this fallen world. One of the allegiances is to the flesh which we will never rid ourselves of until we are in heaven. The other allegiance is to God which began when the Holy Spirit made our spirit alive to God; this happened when we first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have just witnessed Abram and Sarai give in to the promptings of the flesh or sin which was yet in them. Those promptings led Sarai to offer her maidservant to her husband so that they could conceive a baby whom they thought would be the heir that God had been promising to Abram. The immediate results of acting in the flesh are always the same. We find ourselves being defined by the self and not by the Spirit. When we are being defined by the flesh all sorts of destruction comes along with it.

In v.5 of today's passage we read, "Then Sarai said to Abram, 'My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.'"

The scene from the Garden of Eden continues to repeat itself.  The guilty do not admit guilt and when this is the case, there is no forgiveness. Without forgiveness, guilt and shame take their toll on the lives of those involved. This is the nature of sin; it brings many different expressions of death into our lives.

After failing egregiously, Sarai blamed Abram for what was happening. According to the account, she was the one who initiated the action and set the entire thing up. Hagar was her property and at her disposal. But as soon as things went wrong, she turned around and blamed Abram. In an almost hysterical note, Sarai exclaimed, "The Lord judge between you and me."

When Abram placed Hagar into rivalry with his wife, Sarai, Hagar became insolent and held her mistress in utter contempt, taunting her concerning her barrenness. Hagar forced Sarai to drink the gall of bitterness. This is what the flesh does, it causes guilt and shame that which we do not know what to do with, so we throw it off upon those whom are closest to us.

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "So Abram said to Sarai, 'Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.' And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence."

Abram responded by placing Hagar back under the authority of Sarai. Notice that he didn’t even refer to Hagar by name, but only by label, "your maid."  Depersonalizing those we harm is our way of trying to escape the truth that we’ve harmed them. Turning people into objects instead of image-bearers of God is our attempt to make our sin more palatable. God desires for us to use things and to love people.

Abram’s heart toward this young girl couldn’t have been colder. His words to Sarai, "do to her as you please" are the words of a man who has been accosted by his guilt and shame. Sarai  despised Hagar and Hagar received the full force of Sarai's rage. It got so bad, Hagar’s only hope was to run away.

This scene ends in total disaster for all involved. Hagar loses her home. Sarai loses her servant and her integrity. And Abram loses his second wife, his first child, and his honor. When Abram shoved the problem back at Sarai, she took it to an unnecessary extreme and caused even more trouble. And, as a result, Hagar ran for her life. 

Previously, Abram had allowed Sarai to go into the Egyptian Pharaoh’s house in order to preserve his own life and when the ordeal was over, Pharaoh rebuked Abram and kicked him out of Egypt and so he heads home to Canaan. After arriving back at their new home, Sarai asked Abram to go into the Egyptian servant who came from Pharaoh’s house to continue on Abram’s name and she ended up rebuking him and finally the maid runs away from her, heading back towards Egypt. In both instances, Abram and Sarai abandoned the way of faith in God and chose the way of human calculation, which created a chain of events that spiraled out of control, leaving everyone hurt in the process. Abram and Sarai sought to live outside their God-given marital boundaries, leading to familial trouble for generations. 

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur."

Into the misery of Hagar came the mercy of God. The road that Hagar was on was a desert on the way to Egypt, indicating that Hagar was returning to Egypt, to her homeland. Hagar was going back to her people and maybe back to their gods. We really can’t blame her. If we’d been treated the way she was, we’d want to go back home too.

Hagar was young, pregnant, and alone in the wilderness. We like Hagar have found ourselves in the desert places of this life. We all have wondered if God sees, if God cares, if God knows, and if God hears our cries. It is always right there where God comes to us, where he finds us. He comes with questions, not accusations. He comes with concern, not condemnation. He comes to us, like He came to Hagar, with questions, not because he doesn’t know the answers, but because He wants us to see the great tragedy of a life lived apart from Him and beauty of a life lived in concert with Him.  

If Hagar’s story teaches us anything, it teaches us that the Lord loves to bring His mercy to bear on our misery.  God turns His attention to an outsider who’d been pushed out by insiders.  This text shows us that God cares for those outside the elect line of promise, that God loves and cares for unbelievers.  He doesn’t see them as kindling for the fires of hell. He sees them as people who need His care, so He goes to them. He goes toward troubled ones, and so should we. 

Finding this spring in the open like this must have seen miraculous to Hagar; it points to the spiritual side of the account, that the Lord Jesus is our Water of Life and the director of our steps. Having been brought into Abram’s camp, Hagar would have been familiar with their worship of the God of the Bible and this visitation from the Lord would comfort her and assure her that the true life which springs from God would continue to uphold her only if she maintained a receptive heart to Him.

In v.8 of today's passage we read, "And He said, 'Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?' She said, 'I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.'"

The Lord called her "Hagar, Sarai’s maid." Before He allowed her to speak, he preempted her by stating that she is the property of Sarai. He did this and then asked His questions in order to keep her from saying something untrue. By telling her who she was and who she belonged to, God revealed to her He already was aware of her whole story. 

The two questions the Lord asked Hagar are always arresting questions. Hagar answered the first, but not the second. Where could she have gone? The questions drew Hagar to the place of helplessness, a position from which we must always deal with the Lord for ourselves. And when we do this, we grow in our personal relationship with the One who has the best definitions for all things.

Genesis 16:1-4

For the Genesis 16:1-4 PODCAST, Click Here!

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. ~ Genesis 16:1-4

Today, we transition into Genesis 16 where we learn that it had been ten years since God had first given the promise of many descendants to Abram. But, there was a problem; he had not one child. As we have seen, God made this promise to Abram three separate times; in Genesis 12, 13, and 15. At this point in the narrative, Abram was 85 years old and Sarai was 75 years old and time was running out. Abram and Sarai had probably been married for at least 50 years at this point and it was pretty evident to them that Sarai was barren and would not have any children.

This record of the life of Abram was clearly not written merely to give us historical facts from the distant past. Many who claim the name of Christ today are superficial in that they are concerned more with the amount of mileage there was from Jericho to Jerusalem than with the distance between man in his lost estate and the heart of God. Though we find the physical details of Abram's life interesting, we must be much more concerned with the spiritual lessons learned from his life. 

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar."

Hagar, Sarai's Egyptian maidservant probably came into Abram’s home at the time when they traveled down to Egypt during the famine in the Promised Land. While in Egypt, Sarai had been taken into Pharaoh’s home in order to become his wife. This happened because Pharaoh didn’t know Sarai was Abram’s wife. When Pharaoh took her in, he gave Abram a great deal for her, including servants. Hagar was probably one of those servants. After coming into their home, they named her Hagar as this is a Hebrew, not an Egyptian, name. Hagar’s name means "flight" which is closely related to the term "the sojourner."

By the way, when we deliberately disobey God, we open ourselves up to all kinds of opportunities for the enemy to cause havoc in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 5:5 we read, "I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Due to sin, rebellion, and the other factors, there are times when God has to simply withdraw His protective hand from us because we have chosen to willfully disobey Him in an egregious way. And then, when things go sideways, we want to blame God for that which we caused.

Getting back to today's narrative, we, like Abram, are justified by faith in God. We received the gift of God's righteousness by simply choosing to believe. We know we possess it, not by our efforts but by our faith in Jesus Christ. Then we set out to please God because of all He has done for us. We did this by the only means we know, trying to do the best we can. In time, though, we discover that somehow our Christian experience loses its vigor, and instead of the fruit of love, joy, and peace which we were led to expect, we find instead nothing but barrenness. We have had the same problem as Sarai. This life which is expected to produce immediate fruit results only in barrenness and it is difficult for us to understand. The problem is that we take things into our own hands. When the problem of barrenness begins to haunt us, we find ourselves yielding to the misguided proposals of the flesh.

In v.2 of today's passage we read, "So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai."

At 75 years old, Sarai realized she wasn’t going to have children and she certainly wanted them as much as Abram expected them. I am sure that she thought,"What am I doing wrong since God has given us a promise but I am not getting pregnant?" So, by using the customs of the day, she did what any Canaanite would have done, she offered up maidservant Hagar to conceive a child with Abram. According to the prevailing culture in Canaan, Hagar was Sarai's possession and any children she would conceived with Abram would be the possession of Sarai. Therefore, the child would belong to her as much as to Abram.

Sarai resolved, through what struggles we can only imagine, to give up her own rights in an act of courageous renunciation. She gave up what is a wife's most precious possession, the right to have her husband's sole affection, and she offers her maid to her husband that he might have a child by her and thus fulfill the will of God. This, of course, was not only an act of real sacrifice, but also one of deep sincerity. She was not hoping that he would talk her out of this. She was quite prepared to go through with it.

In v.3-4 of today's passage we read, "Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes."

As history has born out, this choice resulted in endless sorrow and heartache to all concerned. The Arab nations who fight against the nation of Israel today originated in this act. And, no sooner had Hagar conceived, Sarai began to act harshly toward her. 

We are so like Sarai ourselves that we feel resentment at the idea that she should be blamed for this. Yet if we do not learn the lesson here, we shall find our own walk with the Lord continually plagued with this problem of barrenness, and we shall miss the secret of fruitfulness. This story provides for us a picture of how we can learn to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. In fact, in Galatians the Apostle Paul uses this very incident to illustrate this point.

Sarai's difficulty was simply that all of her actions grew out of a basic philosophy which, put very simply, says: "God has told me what He wants, now the rest of it depends on me. God has shown me what the goal is, and it is up to me to figure out how to reach it."  This is a very common and widespread philosophy, even among believers in Christ. This is the place that the barrenness in our walk with the Lord leads us.

As we read the Bible, we learn we are supposed to be conformed to the image of Christ, so we set out to start trying to be like the Lord Jesus. Then, we make up a list of rigid rules for acceptable behavior. We become frightfully busy doing things for God. We work hard, perhaps to the point of neglecting our family. We sincerely try to meet His demands. We do our best. We note how the community around approves of our strenuous efforts and we love the pats on our backs for our faithful duty. But despite all the effort and sincerity, deep in our hearts we know there is nothing but barrenness in us. The inauthenticity this creates repels others from the Lord.

This happened to Sarai. Notice the appearance of selflessness. The result is fruit all right, but it is Ishmael, not Isaac, the fruit of the flesh rather than of the Spirit as Paul points out in the book of Galatians. Both Abram and Sarai consented to something that especially harmonized with the desires of the self-life. In all of this we see their readiness to do the will of God without seeking to discover the way of God. This is always the heart of the problem. 

The immediate results of acting in the flesh will always be the same. We become petty and petulant, displaying enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, and other ugly emotions which lie ever near the surface of our yet fallen human hearts. Wherever these are evident they are the thermometer which tells us we are being ruled by the self and not by the Spirit. 

Genesis 15:17-21

For the Genesis 15:17-21 PODCAST, Click Here!

17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." ~ Genesis 15:17-21

Today, we conclude our study of Genesis 15 where God has continued to develop Abram's faith in Him. The development of our faith in the God of heaven this side of heaven will never be complete. However, as our faith develops, we will know God and recognize His ways better and better. Faith is essential in our personal relationship with God because faith is the heart's ability to see God. As we have seen, the Word of God is integral to our growing knowledge and experience with God. Our faith is born out of God's faithfulness.

In today's passage we will see the whole story of the believers life with God after we entered into a personal relationship with Him. In our passage today we have a smoking oven and a burning torch. These two object lessons illustrate the story of the nation Israel had with God throughout its history. Their's is a story of affliction followed by blessing. The oven was an illustration of God's wrath and the torch was an illustration of His direction. 

In v.17 of today's passage we read, "And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces."

Previously, Abram had offered five different sacrifices to the Lord. In those days when the people of one group joined in a covenant with another, they followed this same ritual to demonstrate their sincerity to the covenant. They first slaughtered an animal, cut it in two and then they pass between the two pieces of cut up animal to demonstrate the veracity of their covenant. In today's passage, God followed this ancient practice, and only the Lord passed between the divided animals. This meant the promise was one-sided and unconditional. Abram wasn’t bound to anything, but the Lord bound Himself to the promise that He had made to Abram. 

The sacrificed animals signified God's atonement for the penalty of Abram's inability to keep the covenant, although Abram wasn't expected to uphold anything. The smoking oven and the burning torch represented the process whereby God's protection was applied to Abram and his descendants. The smoking oven represents the wrath of God which only the Lord Jesus could endure on our behalf. The burning torch on the other hand, represents the direction God gives to the one who has entered into a personal relationship with Him. 

In v.18-21 of today's passage we read, "18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'"

Ten groups of people are listed here. The land they possessed was promised by God to Abram. The unconditional covenant was made by God to Abram, and to this day, it is yet absolutely binding. What God has promised to Abram and Israel will come to pass. The land will always belong to Israel.

The inhabitants of the land at that time were representative to us of "the self life" which is the essence of sin. Before we became "born again" we lived our lives defending and protecting these various expressions of the self life. We had no idea that for years these expressions of the self had been defining, defiling and destroying us. Such sins as anxiety, bitterness, greed, impatience, envy, self-righteousness, and lust are just a few of the expressions of the self life.

Similar to Israel, God has also entered into a covenant with us who have placed our faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When He agreed to come to this earth to be our Savior, the Lord Jesus came as the smoking oven and the burning torch. Similar to what God did here for Abram, the Lord Jesus has passed between God and us by going to the cross of Calvary to remove our sin from us. By going to the cross, God judged our sin in the body of the Lord Jesus as He hung on that tree. And, like Abram, we also have a sign, the promised Holy Spirit who is our seal, our deposit, and our guarantee of all that God has promised to us in Christ.

When we become aware of how much we were enslaved by the self life, enslaved by our own self-indulgence, self-pity, and self-righteousness, it was then that we are made ready. At the moment when we become aware of the real condition of our hearts, we are made ready. And, the minute we turn to the Lord Jesus for His help and we trust in His finished work on the cross, God is no longer the smoking oven to us. In that moment, He becomes for us the burning torch! We go from the judged to the enlightened. Once His Spirit comes into our spirit to live, we begin to see life differently and more clearly. What has always been confusing to us before is becoming more and more clear as we listen to Him and we learn to be defined by Him. 

Having entered into a personal relationship with God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are finding that He stands up to the self life and in the fullness of His grace and His truth, He is becoming to us everything that we need. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our strength, our redemption and our life. Suddenly we have discovered that we, like Israel, are learning to possess the promised land! In fact, now we are learning to enjoy His life lived in us, to us and through us. We now experience the fruit of the Spirit which is the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are a parent, you’ve had the experience of walking through a crowd with your child. Your child hesitates, and you put your hand down. By putting your hand down you’re saying, "You can trust me. I can get you through this. I know it’s fearful for you, but I can see the way through this." And all the child has to do is reach up, grab your hand, walk, and trust you.

Our life of faith with God is like grabbing hold of His hand, not just with knowledge and ascent, but with trust that our Father is good and that He knows what’s best for us. God can be trusted because He is a covenant-keeping God even though we have continually shown to be covenant-breakers. He is completely faithful because He has promised on the basis of His goodness and His love toward us.