Covenant Take 2

Take your Bible with me and turn to Genesis 17. Genesis 17. If your bible has headings over the chapters, very likely chapter 17 says something about “The Abrahamic Covenant.”

”And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

”And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”

”And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.”

”And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.”

The dictionary defines “covenant” as a “a contract drawn up by deed.” It is a legal contract.

When you said your “I dos” at the alter, you were entering into a covenant. A legal contract. You were making a promise and making that promise legally binding.

When you signed the papers on your house or car loan, you probably signed some form of contract. You were making a promise - I will pay such and such every month on this day and in return you will let me keep this car. It was a promise that was legally binding.

In any covenant - there are usually three elements: The parties are named, the responsibilities of each are laid out, then the covenant is signed or solemnized.

This covenant is no different.

  1. The parties named:

God names Abraham, Sarah, and Himself as the parties here.

  1. The responsibilities described:

God lays out the responsibilities.

  1. The covenant is solemnized:

God solemnizes the covenant with a ritual.

The major difference between this covenant and most covenants is that it’s almost entirely one sided.

When we first moved here, we had a white car. It was a Nissan Altima. I loved that car. But we bought it off of a friend, and he told us to take care of paying for it when we got up here, so one of the first things we had to do was to get a car loan.

We didn’t really know our credit score but we knew it wasn’t good. So we asked our bank about a car loan and they said “How’s your credit” and we said “We don’t know, not good” and they said “We can’t help you, go to such and such a place.”

We didn’t know any better, so we did. I sat down in their office and had no leverage. I thought my credit was terrible. I was at their mercy. It wasn’t a negotiation - it was a surrender. Of course they took advantage of me. It was a one-sided contract.

Later I found out my credit wasn’t as bad as I thought and the bank probably could have given me a loan. It was a very expensive mistake.

Here in our text Abraham has even less leverage. He has nothing. He isn’t in a place to negotiate - he’s in a place to surrender. It’s like the contract countries sign when they have been defeated in war. He is at the mercies of God.

But this isn’t like most contracts - because God promises to give, give, give, and asks very little in return. It’s a precursor to salvation - where God gives us salvation by His grace - it’s His work and not our own.

The first thing I want you to see about this is...

  1. God does the promising. Look at verse 4-8

”As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Notice how many times in these verses God says “I Will”:

I will make thee exceeding fruitful I will make nations of thee I will establish my convenient between me and thee I will give unto thee .. the land I will be their God. That’s just in these verses. A total of 11 times in this chapter God says “I will do something.”

Here is the unique thing about this covenant - it’s all the work of God. God promises to work miracles in making Abraham fruitful, He promises to work miracles in giving Abraham an everlasting kingdom, He promises that He will give Abraham a huge portion of land. It’s all the work of God.

And in return - what does God expect from Abraham? A simple act of circumcision. Get circumcised, circumcise your children and servants, and in the future, make sure your baby boys are circumcised when they are eight days old.

That’s it.

Now, I want to point out two things about this act of circumcision:

A. Circumcision is a trivial requirement. This would be like going into a car dealership and the dealer saying “Pick out the car you want” so you go over and you find a car you can afford and the dealer says “No, you can do better than that - if you could get anything what would you pick” And you say “Well, if I could have ANYTHING I’d probably buy a cadillac truck. You know, one of those $120,000 rigs. But that’s more money than I make in four years.

And the dealer says, I’ll tell you what - I’m not going to sell you this truck for $120,000, I’m going to sell you the whole dealership. All of the cars and trucks I have, and in return, lets see, your old beater has one of those fragrant trees hanging from the rear view - give me that.

It’s trivial. It’s like “I’ll give you millions of dollars for, lets see, that gum wrapper over there.”

It’s a trivial requirement. More of a token than anything else.

Second, see that...

B. Circumcision is a illustrating requirement. Not only was circumcision trivial when you compare what you get, it was also meant to illustrate that it’s all about God’s work and not ours. Here is what a preacher named Terry Trivette said:

“The sign itself testified of a truth regarding the relationship between Abram and God. Circumcision is a cutting back of the flesh. It reminded all who underwent it that they were not to depend upon their own flesh, but upon the work of God.”

You see, the act itself was meant to illustrate that it is God who is doing this thing - not us. It’s a work of grace - not flesh.

So the promises were laid out by God - no negotiation - just promises but they were grace promises. It reminds us of Ephesians 2:8-9:

”For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Look at the second point with me...

  1. God does the naming. Remember I said that a covenant includes promises - it also clearly includes names. One interesting thing about this chapter is that it doesn’t just include names - every party gets a new name! There are three new names in this chapter, a new name for God, a new name for Abram, and a new name for Sarai.

A. God’s new name: El Shaddai - The All Sufficient One God’s new name here speaks to His ability and His power to do what He promises. It’s all on Him. He is all sufficient.

It reminds me of Ephesians 3:20 which says:

”Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

God can do it, He is going to do it.

Then God gives Abram a new name. He calls Him...

B. Abram’s new name: Abraham - the father of many nations “Abram” means “exalted father.” At this point his name is kind of silly - I mean he had no kids for so long. His name probably hung over him like a sick joke. But his new name means “The father of many nations.”

Lastly, God renames Sarai.

C. Sarai’s new name: Sarah - Princess We don’t really know what Sarai meant - most think it meant something like “like a princess” but her new name means “princess.” Do you know what princesses do? They give birth to kings.

So, God set’s the terms here, He does the promising, and He does the naming.

Look at Abraham’s reaction in verses 17-18:

”Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?”

He laughed. Now, at first this might seem disrespectful. But I don’t think that it actually was. Romans 4:19-20 says:

”And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;”

This wasn’t the laughter of unbelief - I think it was just the laughter of joy. The laughter of faith. It was the same laughter you and I get when we are talking about something God did in our life that only God can do in our life.

But that joy snaps back when Abraham thinks of his living son - Ishmael and Abraham pleads with God “O that Ishmael might live before thee!”

Again, I don’t think this is Abraham being unfaithful here - I think he just loves his son. And so God says:

”And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.”

This brings me to my last point tonight:

  1. God does the doing. God tells Abraham two things:

First, this covenant is going to be done...

A. In his own way. This isn’t going to be a covenant for Ishmael - but for a new son, born of Sarah, named Isaac.

Do you know what Isaac means - it means laughter. God was recognizing Abraham’s laugh. But it’s going to be Isaac.

Now, God doesn’t leave Ishmael out. He promises Abraham that Ishmael will be blessed too. He will be a great nation. But this covenant isn’t about Ishmael who represents the flesh, it’s about Isaac who represents the spirit.

The second thing we see is that God is going to do it...

B. In his own time. Sarah is going to have a baby “at this set time in the next year.” God had a set time for Isaac all along and He was going to work it out in His time, not in Abrahams.

The passage ends with simple obedience - Abraham goes out and circumcises his Ishmael, his servants and then himself. He immediately starts using the new names God had given them - an act of faith - and then not long after this, Sarah feels the growth of a baby boy in her womb.