So far, this "embraced call of God" doesn't seem to embraced. First, God calls Abraham to follow him, Abraham does, but then doubts. Then God shows Abraham that he can be trusted, so Abraham trusts again. Then right after that, Abraham doubts and sleeps with his wife's maidservant, taking matters into his own hands. And now we come to chapter 17, where God, AGAIN, has to reinforce to this guy that he is the God who can be trusted. So let's see what happens:
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 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 your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 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. 13Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 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; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
This passage has four main movements:
Vs. 1-8--God promises Abram to be a father of many nations
Vs. 9-14--covenant of circumcision
Vs. 15-22--God promises a child to Abraham and Sarah
Vs. 23-Abraham responds in faith by the act of circumcision
The first is that God promises Abram to be a father of many nations. The passage starts out with Abram being 99 years old and Sarai 90. Abram has been promised to be the father of may nations twice now (Genesis 12 and 15) and twice he has doubted. Because of doubt, Abram now has a son born of another woman. Following this mistake of doubt, God again promises Abram that he will be the father of many nations. He even changes his name to Abraham, which literally means the "father of many". He then moves to the second section of this passage, to give a sign to Abraham to confirm his promise, the sign of circumcision.
Now, for many of us men, to be adults and asked to get circumcised is no small task. Yet God is asking Abraham to step out in faith and embrace this call to follow him. Look at some of the things that God has asked Abraham to do before Abraham has seen any sign from God that God's promises would come true:
- to leave his home
- to go to an undesignated land
- to trust for NUMEROUS years that he would have a child, even when he was NINETY!!!!!
- And now, to get circumcised.
This is a lot more than any of us would do in faith for God. Most of us would stop trusting God at the very beginning, way back in chapter 12, when God asked him to leave his home.
How many of us aren't even willing to go on a short term mission trip, let alone move to another country for the kingdom of God. Yet when we step out in faith, God does big things with you. The sign of circumcision was a sign that showed both God and Abraham that God was setting aside Abraham for a special mission and that Abraham was trusting God to carry out his mission.
After God introduces this sign to Abraham, he again promises Abraham and Sarah that they will have children. And how does Abraham respond? He laughs!!! Laughs at God because he can't believe that they are going to have another kid in their old age. He actually asks God to just allow Ishmael to live in his blessing. But no, God is asking Abraham to trust him even when it seems impossible.
And that is how Abraham responds, finally, in this passage.
He believes.
The thing with belief, is that it isn't true belief unless it is accompanied by works. James 2.14-26 says:
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
God has always asked his people to express their faith through works. Whether that be circumcision in Abraham's case, Baptism in salvation, and good deeds every single day of our lives. These works don't earn our salvation, but we are saved for these works.
And that is what God is asking of us. To live lives that are examples of faith in work. If we will just step out and believe, God will do the impossible with us. It all depends on if we trust him. So do you?
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