September 30, 2002
LifeWay Family Bible Series for Oct. 13
Have patience enough for God to show the way
___Genesis 17:18; 1522
___By Rick Willis
___First Baptist Church, Roscoe
___The Bible contains pinnacles; from these peaks we can see the whole landscape of the Scriptures' truth. We can see our place in the geography of God's will.
___One of those pinnacles is the story of God's covenant with Abraham. We first meet this model of faith as Abram, "the father of us all" (Romans 4:16).
___Renewing the vows
___God had revealed himself to Abram as his "shield" and "reward," who would grant him many descendents and a land of their own (Genesis 15:17). When Abram asked for assurance, God dramatically communicated security to Abram. The creator of heaven and earth cut a covenant with the old nomad Abram. God used the familiar relationship of a legal contract to show his love-bound faithfulness to the promise (15:821).
___A long time passed, and Abram had to wonder if God's promise was real. God appeared to Abram again (Genesis 17:1–2). This time he revealed himself as El Shaddai--God Almighty. The God of the impossible renewed and deepened his covenant with Abram.
___Along with the reassurance of God came an imperative from God: "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless." Because of God's might, Abram must live in conscious awareness God's presence. The great example from Abram's life would be his walk of faith (Romans 4:12).
___Father of many nations
___Genesis 15 emphasized the land that would belong to Abram's posterity. This time the emphasis fell on assurance that the promise of God would bring many descendants and the covenant would last.
___God renamed Abram to commemorate the covenant. Instead of "exalted father," his new name, Abraham, meant "father of many." The new name was a constant reminder of God's pledge to make Abraham fruitful. A broad family tree would rise from Abraham. They would possess the land of Canaan, and they would be specially partnered with God (17:38).
___As always, God's particular claim upon Abraham's life was a means to spread divine blessing and influence much farther than Abraham and his direct family line.
___Whenever we individually respond to God in faith, we find ourselves caught up in a much wider program God already has rolling. And a place of service greets us there, waiting for us (John 15:16).
___Hints of God's wider program appear in his covenant with Abraham. Already, God says of Abraham, "I have made you a father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5). The verse uses the Hebrew word for nations that later commonly referred to the Gentiles.
___The mother of nations
___God further commemorated his covenant--beginning on that day, Abraham and all males in his household including servants, who were not of Abraham's bloodline, were to be circumcised. It was a sign of willingness to obey God.
___God renamed Abraham's wife, also. Though both Abraham and Sarah felt hopeless to bear children together, the God of the impossible promised there would be a son. He would be named Isaac, the one on whom God "smiles" with the covenant blessing. Therefore, Sarah would be "the mother of nations" with Abraham (17:1519).
___By designating Sarah as the mother of Abraham's covenant lineage, God left one question in the patriarch's mind: What about the 13-year-old son Abraham had with Sarah's servant Hagar?
___In their impatience, Abraham and Sarah had years earlier given up on bearing children together. They took a shortcut acceptable at the time: Abraham fathered a child with Sarah's servant girl, a tactic that created predictable household turmoil (Genesis 16:16).
___A sign of universal blessing
___Abraham apparently would have preferred God's choice of the son who was already present rather than a son who was still only promised. When Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing," God said, "Yes" (17:1820). Ishmael, too, would become a great nation. Nevertheless, Isaac would become the heir of the covenant.
___Ishmael's name meant "God hears." The Lord would smile on Isaac, then Jacob and Joseph in turn. God would choose David as his archetype king and would promise his line would rule forever. Ultimately, God's covenant would reach its zenith in Jesus Christ, "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1).
___Yet God watchfully executes the covenant always with an ear to the nations. God hears. God answers in Christ, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:1820).
___Abraham laughed at the thought of fathering a child with Sarah. He couldn't imagine where God's covenant was headed. I wonder if he chuckles now.
___Questions for discussion
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