God Speaks to Abraham, Part 2

If you got your Bible, turn with me to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. Many things that we're going to discuss today. A chapter that is packed with theological ramifications as well as political ramifications. So we'll talk a little bit about them today. Let me read to you these 27 verses.

Genesis chapter 17. Now when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations, and I will make you exceedingly fruitful.

And I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. For an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And God said further to Abram, Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations.

This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. A servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants, a servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.

Thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarai shall be her name. And I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be mother of nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old?

And will Sarah who is ninety years old bear a child? And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. But God said, No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless him, and I will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. And when he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all of the servants who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day as God had said to him. Now Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

And Ishmael his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son, and all the men of his household who were born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. Genesis chapter 17, God speaks to Abraham. And when God speaks to Abraham, He tells Abraham there will be a sign, there will be a covenant between me and you. This morning we will look at that speaking of God to Abraham and that sign that He gives to Abraham.

And the ramifications are incredible. Let's look first of all at God speaking to Abraham. We looked last week at number one, the Revelation, when God says, I am El Shaddai, I am the all-powerful One.

You'll notice that 16 different times God says, I will. God is speaking. In every verse but two God speaks. God is revealing Himself to Abraham. And from there last week we looked at not only the Revelation but the requirement. And the requirement for Abraham was to walk before God and be blameless. The third thing I want you to notice about God speaking to Abraham is His response.

Very significant because the text says in verse number three, and Abraham fell on his face. He fell on his face. He prostrated himself before El Shaddai. Remember it had been 13 years since God had last heard, or Abraham had last heard from God. And God would come and speak to him. And this was a marvelous thing for Abraham to realize that God Himself revealed Himself as the Almighty One, the all-powerful One. And it would set the tone for what God would do through Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. That Abraham would have to believe in the revelation of God.

And when Abraham realized that the Almighty God was speaking to him, he would bow down before him. And you will notice that as you go through the Bible, when men encountered God and understood who God was, the immediate response would be to bow before Him.

I want you to notice three things about Abraham's response. Number one, it was the proper response, which leads us to point number two of the response.

It was a prompt response. There was no hesitation. There was no delay. And the third thing I want you to notice about the response is that it was a productive response, because it says, Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him.

Listen, when God reveals Himself to you and you are unwilling to bow before Him in submission, He will no longer reveal any more of Himself to you. He only reveals Himself to a submissive heart, to a broken and to a contrite heart, to a heart that's willing to receive what God has to say. This is very important. What Abraham does here sets a tone for this man and this man's faith. We brush over it, that we brush over the fact that Abraham fell on his face and God spoke to him. But the important thing for us to realize is that Abraham's response was the key to his obedience to God.

Let me ask you a question. You have trouble hearing from God? You ever have trouble wondering why God's not speaking to you? He is. But why you might not hear the directions He's giving? It's because of an unwillingness to submit to Him and bow before Him. Because whenever you humbly come before God, God reveals more of Himself to you. Have you recognized God? Do you understand the names of God, the character of God, the attributes of God, that you might learn to worship Him as He wants to be worshiped?

We move from the response to the reassurance. It says, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you. And it reiterates once again the covenant that He makes with Abraham. Abraham needed the reassurance, just like you and I need reassurance. As you recall, Abraham couldn't go to his Bible and open it up and receive a word from God. He had to wait for God to show up and speak to him. That's how he received a revelation from God. Can you imagine waiting 13 years for God to speak? And that's where he was.

You move from the reassurance to the renaming of Abraham. No longer is his name Abram, exalted father, but it is Abraham, meaning father of many nations. God would rename him. Why? Because whoever named his name, whoever called him, would either have to believe in the power of God or deny the power of God. I mean, the man is 99 years old, which leads us to the next point, and that is the reward. God speaks. There's a revelation. From that revelation comes a requirement. From that requirement, a response.

From a response to a reassurance, God speaks to him even more and renames the man. And now what you have is the reward that God is going to give to Abraham. Listen very carefully, because this has theological and political ramifications that are insurmountable just in one verse. Listen to what it says. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. First of all, you're going to be fruitful, Abraham.

You are going to be fruitful. Many things are going to come from you, Abraham, and I am going to make you fruitful. Listen very carefully, my friends. For Abraham to be fruitful, it would be 25 years. For Abraham to be fruitful, there would be a lot of pain involved in his life. He'd have to be separated from his homeland. He'd have to be separated from his family. And the things that God asks him to do are extremely painful, physically as well as emotionally. But God says, I'll make you fruitful.

What's it say in John 15, verse number 2? Every branch that bears forth fruit, Jesus Christ himself prunes that it might bear more fruit. In order for you to produce fruit for God, there's always, listen, pain involved. No pain, no fruit. The pruning process is a painful process. And also, it's a process that comes through divine enablement. It's God who's going to do this. I am going to make you fruitful, Abraham. It's all about me. It's nothing about you. It's all about my glory. Now, listen very carefully.

Not only will he be fruitful, but the reward that he receives is going to be forever. Listen very carefully to verse number 7. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an, what's it say, everlasting covenant. Down at the end of verse number 8, an everlasting possession. So, the descendants, listen very carefully, of Abraham have an everlasting possession to the land of Canaan. Now, when Yasser Arafat says, Jerusalem is ours, he hasn't read Genesis chapter 17, because it's not theirs.

It's not the Arabs, even though they have the Dome of the Rock there in the city, the old city of Jerusalem. Even though they believe that, that Jerusalem is their city, it's not their city. It's Israel's city. It's the Hebrews people's city. That's why there can't be a peace treaty between the nation of Israel and the Arab people, because they can't come to an agreement on whose land it is. And God says in Genesis chapter 17, it's Israel's land, it's the Hebrew people's land, and it's an everlasting covenant.

That means it lasts forever. And no matter what the media tells you, no matter what they're talking about in their peace treaties, understand the land of Israel is not for the Arab nations. It's for the Hebrew people. That's what it's for. And that's why we got to think theologically, in order to think properly politically, to understand what God has established from the very beginning of time. These are my people. This is their land. And it's for an everlasting covenant. Which leads us to God's sign.

God speaks. And now God has a sign. He says, as for me, in verse number four, this is what I'm going to do Abraham. I'm going to make you a father of a multitude of nations. Kings will come from your loins. I've given you a land. That land is an everlasting land. Even so much so that when Israel was in exile, when they were in bondage, it was still their land. It was still their land. Why? Because God gave it to them. It's their land. They might not possess it today. They might not have the whole right to it today.

But let me tell you something. One day it will be all theirs because God said, it is your land. It's yours. And I'm giving it to you. But God says, as for me, this is what I'm going to do.

But as for you, Abraham, this is what you are going to do. Now the ramifications of this have great theological ramifications as well. He said, verse number nine, as for you, you shall keep my covenant. You're going to keep my covenant, Abraham. And how are you going to do that? It says, every male among you shall be circumcised. This is your mark of identification, Abraham. Every male shall be circumcised. Every child upon the eighth day of their birth shall be circumcised. This is what you will do for me.

Circumcision would be that distinguishing mark that the Jewish people would have that would set them apart from the world. This is very significant for you because you are the marked ones. Now, why that part of the body? Simply this. Psalm 51 says that when we are conceived, we are conceived in what? In sin. We are conceived in sin. The special mark reminded them that they were accepted by God because of his gracious covenant. Deuteronomy chapter seven, God says, I chose you not because of who you are, not because you are popular, not because you are large, because you are small.

I chose you because I love you. God chose them because he wanted to choose them. God is concerned about the circumcision of the heart. That is what is most important. Turn with me to Colossians chapter two for a moment.

And we got a motor on because time is fleeting quickly. Colossians chapter two, verse number 11. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, the cutting away of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us.

And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When Jesus Christ saved your soul, what he did was perform not a physical circumcision, but a spiritual circumcision by taking the foreskin from your heart, the sinful flesh, taking it and nailing it to the cross, remembering your sins no more and declaring you righteous before God because he has forgiven you all of your sins. You see Philippians 3.3, we are the circumcision, Paul says. We are the marked ones. Circumcision is just another word for being marked out.

Philippians 3.3, we are the marked ones. We are the circumcised. Who? Who worship God in spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Those are the marks of a believer. So the sign given to Abraham would rest in a serious command from God. And number two, you need to understand this as well.

It reveals a strong confidence in God. Why is that? Well, Sarah's name would be changed from my princess, Sarai, to princess. She would become the princess because she would bear many kings. No longer would she be Abraham's princess, she would be the people's princess. And God said to Abraham that his wife would bear the child. And he would say, of course, let Ishmael live before thee. Let Ishmael be the one. And he's trying to help God out a little bit. And God says, no, it's not going to be Ishmael.

I got a plan for Ishmael, but it's going to be through your own wife, Sarah. And Abraham laughed. And the Jewish rabbis teach that he laughed out of joy. And maybe that's the case. Maybe it was a laughter of joy as to the almighty power of God and how he worked. Or maybe it was a laugh of doubt. That's why he asked, may Ishmael live before thee. Maybe Ishmael's the one. Maybe Ishmael's the way. But you need to understand that not only this sign, not only does it rest in the command or serious command of God, it reveals a strong confidence in God.

And God said, I'm going to name your son Isaac. That's going to be his name. Laughter. Laughter. Why? Because I want everybody who names the name of Isaac and names the name of Abraham to believe in the almighty power of God. For he says, I will bless him. I will make him. I will multiply him. I will make him a great nation. I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. I am the one who's going to do all of this, Abraham. And so the sign would reveal a strong confidence in God and his plan and his work.

And that's why they would circumcise their children. They believed in what God would do. They believed in the plan of God. And can you imagine here is Isaac and he's out playing in the backyard and they say, hey, Isaac, can your dad come over and can he coach our ball team? He said, no, I can't. My dad can't coach a ball team. He's 112 years old, man. I can't even get him out from the table. He's so old he can't even walk, man. My dad's an old man. They would laugh and ridicule his dad. But it would reveal Isaac's commitment.

It would reveal Abraham's confidence in a God who was all powerful, who can do above and beyond. And next week as we study Genesis chapter 18, we will see that God is the God of the impossible, that he will do what no other man can do. He is El Shaddai. So the sign of circumcision would be a sign that would rest in a serious command of God. It would be a sign that would reveal a strong confidence in God. And thirdly, it would require a specific commitment to God.

And this is where it gets very, very practical. Listen, when he finished talking with Abraham, God went up from Abraham. What did Abraham do? He sit and pondered the situation. This circumcision thing, I'm not so sure. I'm 99 years old, Lord. You actually want me to go and be circumcised? I'm 99 years old, Lord. Can you imagine the healing process for a man my age? It's going to take forever. You will note that it's at the same time next year that Sarah will have a child. Why 12 months and not 9 months?

If you're 99 years old and you've been circumcised, it's going to take a few months to get you back on your feet again and get you going again. That's why. And so now you realize that this is a specific commitment on the part of Abraham, because it says in verse number 23, in the very same day as God had said to him. You see, because he fell down and he worshipped God earlier, before the conversation, he already showed he's willing to submit to God no matter what God asked. He had no idea what God was going to require of him.

None whatsoever. He knew he had to walk before him. He knew he had to be blameless, but to go out and to circumcise himself. Are you kidding me? But it tells us a couple of things that we need to understand. And that's this. Our response to God should always be the same, no matter what He asks us to do. No matter how painful it might seem on the surface, we need to obey Almighty God. Let me ask you a question.

Is there anything that God's asking you to do that you won't do? Is there anything that God's asking you to do to demonstrate your commitment to Him that you won't do? What is God asking you to do? Maybe God's asking you to forgive a sinning brother, and you won't even do that for fear of what might happen if you forgive that person, that they might do it again. This sign of circumcision required a specific commitment from Abraham that the very day that he received it, he didn't have to pray about it.

He didn't have to console a physician on it. All he had to do was obey what God said, and this was a big commitment, big commitment. It tells me that following God is a very painful process. Obedience to God always pains, ready for this, the flesh, doesn't it? It pains the flesh. Abraham was obedient to God, and it would cost him greatly if he was a man who believed that God was El Shaddai, the all-powerful God. What is God asking you to do today that will demonstrate that commitment to Him? I suggest you be like Abraham.

On the day he received his instructions, he did exactly what God told him to do. Let's pray together.