Genesis 17:1-17

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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Morning. We're going to start with Genesis 17, verses 1 to 17 first, which has been added to the bus. A slight amendment.

Genesis 17. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord Petram said, I am El Shaddai, God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you. I will greatly increase your numbers.

Abraham fell face down. And God said to him, as for me, this is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abraham. Your name will be Abraham.

For I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations you and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, for the generations to come to be a God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you.

And I will be their God. Then God said to Abraham, as for you, you must keep my covenant and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you. The covenant you are to keep. Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You are to undergo circumcision. And it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you for the generations to come. Every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner. Those who are not your offspring, whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.

And any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in flesh will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. God also said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call Sarai. Her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.

I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations. King of peoples will come for her. Abraham fell face down. He laughed and said to himself, will a son be born to a man 100 years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90?

And Abraham said to God, if only Ishmael might live under your blessing.

We now go to John 15:1 8.

The vine under branches. I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch does bear fruit, he prunes so that it be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in a vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing. If you do not remain in me. You are like a branch that is thrown away with us. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burnt.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory that you will bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, dave.

Just a prayer before I start.

Heavenly Father, take these words you have given me and use them to your glory as you will. Amen.

Just a recap of where we are in the book of Genesis and what's happened so far. Abraham and Sarai had suffered the pain of childlessness. The previous five chapters have covered a period of 11 years in their life, during which time, on three separate occasions, the Lord has appeared to Abram and promised him the blessing of descendants. And it's now been 13 years since Sarai and Abraham blighted attempt to achieve God's promise by their own designs. With the unseemly use of Sarai's slave to bear Abraham, a son called Ishmael.

Thirteen long years have passed in which nothing of note apparently happened. Maybe Abraham has settled into a routine. Possibly the urgency of God's promises have faded slightly. Abraham might even have thought that Ishmael was the son that God had promised.

And like Abraham, there are seasons in our spiritual life. Sometimes our spiritual life can be very fulfilling.

Our relationship with God might appear at times to be hectic, frenetic, with lots and lots happening.

But there are other times when our spiritual life can feel that it's becalmed. Nothing much seems to be happening with waiting to hear from God, waiting to be guided by him, waiting. But nothing seems to happen. We don't seem to be moving forward. God appears to say very little, and our prayer feels ordinary.

We can wonder if this is as good as it gets. Is this as good as it gets?

And it even becomes much, much harder to trust in the promises of God. We can begin to doubt God's promises.

But true faith can never be refined if we don't persevere through difficult and sometimes painful seasons. Proverbs 17:3 says, this fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the Lord tests the heart.

Now, Genesis 17 reminds us that God's purposes continue to move forward even when we don't feel that anything is happening. Just because God appears remote doesn't mean that God is absent. Remaining loyal to him is a key part of God's purposes for our lives.

And then, after 13 years of silence and apparent inaction, God speaks. And what he says, we discover that God hasn't forgotten his covenant. His promises haven't changed.

So isn't that something to take comfort from if you are in a quiet spiritual time in your life?

Because what God then says to Abraham changes everything forever.

There's an invitation, name changes, a commandment to follow, and a clear indication that Ishmael, who was not conceived through faith in God, is not the son God had promised to Abram.

Now, I'm going to move slightly aside here, because in ancient Hebrew culture, someone's name held immense significance. It wasn't just merely to identify them, but it conveyed something about the person's attributes or their intentions. So we know Joseph was told to name Mary's son Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. And God changes names. And when God changes names, that signifies a profound transformation in the destiny and relationship with God that that person will have.

So God changed Saul's name to Paul. And Paul means full of the Holy Spirit to signify Paul's role as a prominent apostle.

However, I wonder if you noticed what the first name we heard was.

God announced himself as Al Shaddai, though in the Pew Bibles it appears as a footnote. But it's Al Shaddai.

Al is a generic term for God, often used to denote strength and might, hence the translation God Almighty. But Shaddai is connected to the idea of nourishment and sustenance. Our Shaddai emphasises God's ultimate power and ability to provide for us and nourish us. It describes God's authority and care over our lives.

El Shaddai assures us of God's strength and of his love for us. It assures us of his faithfulness to us, which should allow us to abide in his sufficiency. A footnote, but a very, very important footnote.

God's faithful sufficiency is a key thing for us to hold onto in our season of of waiting.

Because recognising God's faithfulness to us has the power to transform any doubts into trust.

And God invites Abraham to walk before me and be blameless.

Now, the call to walk before me is a literal translation of the Hebrew and it echoes royal court language where servants walked continually in the king's presence, aware of his grace and his authority.

You see, God is acting like a king of the day because he's granting land to Abraham's descendants.

The Hebrew word tamim is often translated blameless, but it actually carries the sense of being whole, complete or undivided. So this isn't about moral perfection or being sinless, but it's about being completely committed.

Abram is being called to align his actions with God's will, to be committed to a lifestyle of integrity, whole and undivided, for faithfulness and obedience. The emphasis being on faithful obedience, not on flawless performance.

It's not a call to perfection, but a call to transformation of the heart. Trusting God's power rather than relying on our own ability. Something Abram sadly failed to do when he shamefully used Sarai Slave as a surrogate mother.

This call to holy living isn't the cost of God's covenant. God had made the covenant with Abraham years before. Years before.

As God refines the hearts of those set apart for him, we will naturally align our actions with his will. It's something we find throughout the Bible. First God establishes relationships and then he calls his people to live in a manner worthy of that relationship. God's grace always precedes our obedience to his ways. We don't earn our salvation, we live in response to our salvation.

And then God goes on to say, I. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your number. And Abram prostrates himself on the ground as a sign of submission to his Lord.

And only then came the name change after the submission. Only then. And God changed Abraham's name to Abraham, from a name which recognised the status of Abraham's father to a name which sounds like father of many.

The man receiving this name still hadn't had a son through Sarai, his wife. But God speaking of Abraham's future as though it was already certain, indeed, he says, I've made you a father of many nations.

And then God goes on to reaffirm his covenant with Abraham. And I want you to look between verses 6 and 8 and see how many times the word I will appears. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant.

The whole Land of Canaan I will give as an everlasting possession to you and I will be your God.

Clearly, the covenant wasn't a relationship between equals. God had voluntarily committed himself to Abraham and his descendants. But Abraham had a responsibility to remain faithful to the covenant.

And God then announced that as a sign of his covenant, which focused on descendants becoming a nation that would bless the Gentiles, Abraham, his male household, and all his male descendants were to be circumcised every day on their own bodies. Their own bodies would be a reminder that they belong to God by covenant. And generations of Israelites would be reminded of the covenant promises every time they were being fulfilled through the act of procreation.

Circumcision identified Abraham and his descendants as set apart for God and called them to be consistent, faithful partners in the relationship that he had established with them.

Now, it's important to understand that the covenant wasn't created by circumcision. As I've already said, God established his covenant years before this. And circumcision doesn't guarantee salvation. The Old Testament recounts countless stories of circumcised Israelites who proved to be deeply unfaithful.

Indeed, the whole Bible makes it very, very clear that outward signs are insufficient on their own. God has always desired hearts that belong to him, hearts that have been set apart for Him. Now, to reinforce his promise, God changes Sarai's name to Sarah. From a term of endearment, my princess, to a royal title, Princess. And God continues in verse 16, I will bless her and give you a son from her.

I will bless her richly and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.

Once again, notice the I will.

The emphasis is on divine prophecy. Promise not human achievement. And God promises the woman that spent her whole life with the grief of childlessness that she is going to bear the covenant son. The promise just seems impossible. God's promise seems seems impossible.

But God continues speaking as though there were no obstacles at all.

And Abraham once again bowed down, but this time he laughed to himself. And he's thinking, can a couple our age really give birth to a child? And so we ask God if Ishmael might be the recipient of God's special blessing. And God's reply is emphatic, no, Sarah, your wife will give birth to a son. You will call him Isaac.

Incidentally, Isaac sounds like he laughs.

It is through Isaac that God's covenant will be confirmed. You see, the covenant rests entirely upon God's promise. It cannot be adulterated with the product of human endeavour.

And on that very day, all the men of Abraham's household were circumcised. And therein lies the challenge. You see, God's covenant isn't just something to be pleased with. God's promise isn't just something to be really pleased about.

God's promise. God's covenant demands a response.

Abram was called to walk before God and remain faithful. God said to him, I will make you fruitful. And in the Gospel reading, Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

This too describes a profound, intimate and enduring relationship which, just like God's covenant with Abraham, cannot be established by our own efforts. It's only made possible by Christ's gracious indwelling in our lives.

And he does that through His Holy Spirit.

And just like the covenant with Abraham, it's not a fleeting or passing encounter, but an enduring and eternal relationship. But we no longer have circumcision to remind us of Christ's presence promises. Instead, Jesus left us a meal we share together to remember his sacrifice for us. Holy Communion and the Book of Common Prayer has some wonderful words in its order of administration of the Lord's Supper. You that do truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbours and intend to lead a new life following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways.

Draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament to your comfort once again. We're not called to perfection, but a call to allow our hearts to to be refined. Our lives will be shaped by our response to God's grace. Not because we fear God will stop loving us, but because we know we are in receipt of his love. We no longer carry the sign of circumcision to show that we've been set apart for God.

The sign we carry is the way our lives become increasingly shaped by trust, obedience and holiness in response to our salvation in Christ.

God didn't abandon Abraham during the years of slavery. Silence. God didn't give up on Abraham because of his failures.

If you're going through a difficult time or a quiet season in your spiritual life, if you're carrying regrets about past actions or feel the failures in the past have limited what God can do in your life, take heart. Be encouraged by the story of Abraham. Be encouraged by the promises of El Shaddai, God Almighty. They do not change over time. His ability to protect and sustain you doesn't have a use by date.

His faithfulness never diminishes. He will not forget you.

He will not abandon you. Even in the difficult, quiet, seemingly unproductive times. He continues to refine your heart. Continue to abide in Christ, and he will walk alongside you through the highs and lows of your life as he shepherds you to the promised land. And he will achieve his purposes in you.

And now, Almighty God, we give you thanks for the hope to which you call us in your Son, Jesus Christ, that walking before him in faith we may persevere in the race that you set before us. And with all your saints receive the unfading crown of glory. Amen.