Genesis Chapter 17 Verse 1

• This first verse is SO BIG…this statement made by God and this command of Abram! First, God says, “I am Almighty God!” Can I/you just remember that please? In the midst of all this life has in store each day…I am one to over-think, over-prepare, over-complicate and overwhelm…(maybe you’re like me) but literally this self-identification of God, who loves me/you perfectly and who is with me/you constantly, literally this name could be translated, “I have My hands on everything…” One moment in that truth and I can just breathe!

• Do you ever get flash backs to when you were super young? Like 5 or 6 years old? I do. Quite often actually. They are triggered by a wind or a rock or a smell…and I’m taken to a time when I would walk in the fields in Kentucky or ride my bike along the dirt on the side of the street or hike through the creek behind my house when snow was on the ground and the creek was half frozen…and I just stop…especially now as my life is filled with SO many responsibilities…I just stop and watch that moment for as long as it will stay…

• And I used to think, that feeling, that place, that comfort, that lovely memory, when the day consisted of exploration and warm sun and wind along the tops of the grass fields…the peace of that place…I have to get back there…I don’t think that anymore…because the peace of those memories didn’t consist in the place…the peace was my heart. I was just a kid. No bills, no deadlines, no problems, no loose-ends…my how I love those moments but that life is gone…my life now…vastly different, I turn to the Lord, You’re the only One who brings me peace…

• And so when the silence of anxiety overwhelms me, which is frequently, I remind myself that God, My Savior, the One who loves me and needs nothing from me, needs no work product, (the One sided relationship of knowing God),…I remind myself – Or better said, the Bible reminds me - that His hand is on everything…He is the Almighty and my divided heart converges on Him and I am whole.
• And that is the beauty of the command given to Abram! God says, “Walk before Me and be blameless!” This word blameless is also the word, “whole.” I love that. God’s desire for Abram? Be whole. Upright and complete. And the requirement of that condition for him, for you, for me…even in the midst of all this life has in store each day…walk with God. Trust Him. He’ll make you whole…His ways promise uprightness and He cannot be wrong.

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 2 – 7

• This is 13 years after Ishmael was born and God now reaffirms His covenant with Abram. It’s been 25 years since God made this covenant with Abram…25 long years…Abram is about to turn 100, we don’t have this in our text but it could be that Abram was wondering, “So uh, when are we going to move out on this promise, God?” You ever pray that? In those times when you’re trusting God’s Word over your senses and circumstance and it’s been years…well please be encouraged, it’s just a little while longer…

• And when God moves to fulfill His Word, which He will ALWAYS do, He does so in a way that Abram never expected…He changes Abram’s name from “Father to Many” – Abram, to “Father to Many Nations” – Abraham! I love this! Abram you’ve waited 25 years…13 of those 25 you’ve just been walking with Me…nothing spectacular, no new news, no new conversations…just living for the Lord…and when Abram perhaps is completely settled in to what we may define as a normal life of a believer, God moves exceedingly…(He uses that word twice here)…and it begins with a name change…
• Have you allowed God to change your name yet? Remember Simon…God changed his name to Peter. Remember Jacob…God changed his name to Israel. Remember Saul…God changed his name to Paul? Simon, Jacob, Saul…all a mess…incapable and stuck in their flesh…but Peter, Israel, Paul…world changers! Have you allowed God to change your name? You know, only a Father has the authority to change the name of His son, or His daughter…have you submitted to Him? Have you given your heart to Him? Have you professed that you are His?

• Or are you still incapable and stuck in your flesh? A new name, man…a picture of a new birth…I became a believer in God well before I became an addict…but when I gave my life to God, confessed to Him that I am sin and asked Him to be my Savior, to infiltrate my chaotic heart and cleanse me of my darkness, when I surrendered my life over to Him, that produced in me a new man…might as well change my name…Now I am His. My life is His. Perfect, HA! Far from it, but I’m heading that way now…has your name changed yet? Your world won’t change until your name does…

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 8 – 11

• I wish the Bible was illustrated (HA! MAYBE NOT!!!)…I mean, imagine Abraham’s face!? Finally, something for him to do! He may have been excited at first but then he hears what it is he is to do! HA!
• And this is interesting to me because to me, verses 10 and verses 11 almost read like two separate statements…and that thought doctrinally reasonable…Why? Well first, check this out…the covenant was solidified, finalized, it was given in Chapter 15. It was already in place…THEN the sign was instituted. That’s significant because circumcision was a sign of participation, it was not the covenant itself! Chapter 15:6 is all that comes before the covenant…Abram believed God!
• So important because it’s not confirmation or baptism or circumcision or any act, rite, ritual or work that saves…that enters a person into the covenant of God…it is by faith alone! Paul will spend a lot of calories on this subject especially in light of the finished work of Jesus…and that is why I see significance in verses 10 and 11 almost sounding separate…because this is the cutting away of the flesh…a shadow of the circumcision to come…the one done by the work of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart (Romans 4; Romans 2:25-29).

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 12 – 13

• I’m so surprised and perplexed why folks think “everlasting” is over? God doesn’t change, no shadow of turning at all…and yet there are some that spread this idea that God is done with the Jew…and that really complicates and confuses so much in terms of prophecy…everlasting is just that…everlasting!

Genesis Chapter 17 Verse 14

• A sign of rejection and disbelief…walking in disobedience to the commands of God. It doesn’t save you, no work saves you, but to refuse the will, word, direction and command of God…do you really believe?

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 15 – 16

• Just a small difference here in these two names. Sarai means “my princess/lady,” which ascribes her to one family, but Sarah means simply “princess/lady,” which removes restriction to one family.

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 17 – 18

• We know from Romans 4 that Abraham does not mock God here but rather giggles out of joy or belief or surprise or something but it wasn’t disbelief…

Genesis Chapter 17 Verse 19

• Boom! There is no confusion about God’s everlasting covenant now! Isaac would father Jacob and Jacob would become Israel! God’s everlasting covenant is not with spiritual Israel…the New Covenant was given to spiritual Israel. God’s everlasting covenant is with Isaac and his decedents after him!

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 20 – 22

• Entirely intriguing…as today the Muslims count 12 Imams as their princes with the 12^th being missing, to be revealed when total chaos is upon the earth…which many Christian theologians identify as the Anti-Christ…

Genesis Chapter 17 Verses 23 – 27

• This shows what kind of man Abraham was…not only did he have patriarchal authority in his house but he had authority over all of the men in his household. If God said it, if God commanded it, that was the way it was going to be or they gotta go…

• And notice this, Abraham didn’t waste any time. God gave him the direction, the word of God was clear…Abraham moved out immediately! What an awesome display of love and reverence!! What a clear display of belief and commitment! How are those things proved…? Obedience, man! And notice this, all the men of his house…complete obedience! Even to this own risk! To do this would take out his army for days, maybe weeks! I mean a man gets a cold and is down for the count! Imagine this!
• But Abraham didn’t need to pray about this. He didn’t need to grow up in to being able to do this…God said it, he did it and THAT is faith!