Abraham - New Beginnings

Gracious Father in heaven, we give thanks for Your Word. It nourishes us, it encourages and enlightens us, and we're grateful that today we have the freedom to open the Word of God and study. And now we pray, teach us by Your Spirit. May we learn far more through the Holy Spirit's ministry than what any preacher might say to us. And help us to apply it and practice it. Meet our needs today and help us to accomplish Your will. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Dr. Alexander Whyte, that great Presbyterian preacher in Edinburgh, Scotland, used to say that the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. I like that. It parallels Proverbs 4:18: "The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." My, we'd like to get mature in the Lord instantly, but it doesn't work that way.

The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees; that was a new beginning. He brought him into Canaan land, then he went down to Egypt and came back to Bethel and made a new beginning again. Had a bit of a family problem with Lot, but Abraham made another new beginning. There was a war that he had to fight, and he won the war, and once again, a new start in a new path of victory. The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. God's mercies are new every morning. We live a day at a time. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." "Give us this day our daily bread." The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. 

Don't ever be afraid to make a new beginning. This is what Abraham does in Genesis 17. Genesis 16 is clouded with unbelief and disobedience. "He that believeth shall not make haste," says the scripture, Isaiah 28:16, but they did make haste. And at the suggestion of Sarah, Abraham married Hagar, and Hagar bore him a son, Ishmael, and this created problems in the home.

Now in Genesis 17, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." This is now the fifth time that God has appeared to Abram and spoken to him. There are thirteen years between Genesis 16:16 and Genesis 17:1. For thirteen years now, they've been watching Ishmael grow up. No doubt they loved him, in spite of the fact that he was a mistake and an evidence of their unbelief and their impatience. He was indeed Abraham's firstborn. 

Of course, God's pattern in the Old Testament is that He rejects the firstborn and accepts the second born. You've noticed that, I'm sure. In this case, He rejected Ishmael and He chose Isaac. Isaac was actually Abraham's second born, Sarah's firstborn, but Abraham's second born. God rejects my first birth; He only accepts the second birth. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," it always will be flesh and it never will change. But "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," and that's why Jesus said, "You must be born again." 

Now God appears to Abram and gives him a brand-new name for the Lord. You see, as we grow in our Christian life, we grow in our understanding of God. God wants to reveal Himself to us. The purpose of Bible study is not to understand the Bible, but to understand God. This is God's Word. And beyond the sacred page, we must seek the Lord. There are far too many people who study the Bible and make outlines and analysis and all these charts and things, but they never get to know God. Would it not be remarkable if I received a letter from a loved one and I sat there reading it and underlining it and diagramming all the sentences and marking all the verbs and all the adverbs and the pronouns and the participles, but I never got the message of the letter and never was drawn closer to the loved one? The purpose of Bible study is to know God. The purpose of the Word of God is that we might know the God of the Word. 

So God is revealing Himself to Abram now, thirteen years after Ishmael was born. Does that mean that for thirteen years God had not been in fellowship with Abram? No, it doesn't mean that at all. There's nothing recorded here, but I don't think God was disciplining Abraham for thirteen years. Certainly, Abraham and Sarah confessed their sin, they asked God to forgive them, they learned to live with their mistake. Sarah wanted to send Ishmael away, but Abraham said, "No, God wants him back here," and they learned how to live with their mistake. You and I must learn the same lesson. 

There are four new names in Genesis 17. And in these new names, we are told how we can make a new beginning. The first new name is a new name for God: God Almighty, verse 1. And then Abram gets that new name in verse 5: "You're going to be called not Abram, which means exalted father, but Abraham, father of a multitude."

Now in verse 15, we have the third new name. Genesis 17:15: "Then God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.'" Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" Here we have a remarkable thing. God says to Abraham, "I want to talk to you about your wife. Your wife is going to be the channel through whom the son is going to be born." You see, up until now, we had not been told who the mother would be. Abraham would be the father, but now we know that the mother is going to be Sarah. We're not sure what Sarai means; some scholars say it means contentious. And in Genesis 16, you do find Sarai being a bit contentious—she had a little fuss with Abraham and then with Hagar and then with Ishmael. But now her name is being changed to Princess. She's going to be the mother of kings and mother of nations. 

So we have the name God Almighty, the Almighty God; Abraham; Sarah; and then Isaac, verse 19. Here's a brand-new name, Isaac—it means "he laughs." And there's one name in this chapter that will not change, and that's Ishmael. In verse 20: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you." Abraham was greatly concerned about Ishmael; he wanted God to take care of him, and God did. God blessed Ishmael materially and nationally, but not spiritually. Ishmael was not a part of the covenant. You're going to find throughout Genesis 17 this repeated phrase: "My covenant, My covenant, My covenant." God is making a covenant with Abraham. He is ratifying His covenant, and Ishmael was not a part of that covenant. 

Let's take this first new name, the new name for God: "I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless." This is a remarkable name for God: God Almighty. It's the Hebrew El Shaddai. El Shaddai. El means the strong one, the mighty one. The word Shaddai probably comes from the Hebrew word for the breast, meaning the all-sufficient one. He is the one who supplies His might and His sufficiency.

Now, this is what Abraham needed to be reminded of because Abraham had leaned on his own sufficiency. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." We have a tendency to lean on our own ability, to lean on our own understanding. Nothing wrong with ability and nothing wrong with understanding if you devote it to the Lord and then lean on Him. 

God Almighty, El Shaddai, the God who is sufficient. This name is used thirty-one times in the book of Job. You say, "Well, why would it be used so many times in the book of Job?" Well, the book of Job is a book that magnifies the might, the power, the sufficiency, the majesty of God. When God begins to talk about all of His works in nature, He is El Shaddai, the God who is sufficient. You find it thirty-one times in Job, and you find it nine times in the book of Revelation. Isn't that interesting? The book of Revelation again magnifies the mightiness and the sufficiency of God. He's the Almighty God, and the nations had better tremble. The only other place in the New Testament where you're going to find this name, God Almighty, is 2 Corinthians 6:18. It's a chapter that talks about separation. He's the Lord God Almighty, and if we will separate ourselves unto Him, He will supply all that we need. 

Now here's Abraham, ninety-nine years old. Here's his wife, eighty-nine years old. For twenty-four years now, they've been walking with God, learning how to live by faith, and God's waiting until they are totally and completely without any ability whatsoever to have a family. The emphasis in Genesis 17 is on what God does. He says, "I shall, I will, I shall, I will. I will make, I have made, I will do." As you read this chapter, notice how God says repeatedly, "Abraham, you aren't going to do it. Sarah, you aren't going to do it. Oh, you're going to be the instruments, but I'm going to be the power, and I've been waiting long enough for you to die to yourselves."

Romans 4:16: "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations' Genesis 17:5) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, 'So shall your descendants be.' And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was able to perform." 

That's a great passage, Romans 4:16-21. Do you believe today that what God has promised He's able to perform? "I am Almighty God. I am the all-sufficient God." Now, the reason God is not releasing His power and His provision is often because we are not dead. You'll recall in Genesis 15 that when God made His covenant with Abraham, Abraham was sound asleep. And Abraham did not walk through the covenant line between the divided sacrifices; Abraham was just sound asleep and God made the covenant. It was purely of God's grace. Now, Abraham is not asleep; he's as good as dead. As far as the physical is concerned, he and Sarah were as good as dead. Oh, if only you and I would learn to crucify this old nature, identify ourselves with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, how much more God Almighty could do for us. 

"I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." That means be sincere, be open and honest. Be perfect in the sense of a perfect, unhindered, unshadowed relationship with God. Notice once again we have "I am." Now verse 2: "And I will." There it is again. We met this back in Genesis 15. When Abraham was fearful, God said, "I am." When Abraham was concerned about the future, God said, "I will." When Abraham was a little bit doubtful, God said, "I have." These are God's great statements: "I am," therefore "I will," therefore "I have." 

Here we have the statement now of the covenant: "And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." Now the covenant did not depend on Abraham's walk. He said, "I am," and because "I am Almighty God," you "walk before Me and be blameless." The covenant had nothing to do with Abraham's walk. The covenant came from the gracious heart of God. Then Abram fell on his face—you're going to find him doing that again over in verse 17—Abraham fell on his face in reverent worship. And God talked with him, saying: "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram," which means exalted father. It's interesting that all these years Abraham and Sarah had had no children. And people would say, "What is your name?" He'd say, "Abram." "Oh, exalted father. How many children do you have?" "None." Now he had one, he had Ishmael. "But your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude." I imagine when Abraham shared this with Eliezer and some of his other close friends in the camp, they may have smiled. He said, "God has told me I'm going to be the father of a multitude, for I have made you a father of many nations." 

Throughout this chapter, you're going to find God saying, "I have made you, I will make, I have made." It's God who makes us. "We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." "It is He who has made us and not we ourselves." Somebody says, "Well, he's a self-made man." There are no such things. Of course, some people claim to be self-made, and it's nice of them to take the blame. God says, "I want you to be a God-made person, a God-made man, a God-made woman. I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make"—notice that repetition now—"I have made, I will make, I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you." Is God allowed to be God in your life? Do we really let God be God in our lives? 

Now Abraham, ninety-nine years old, with a dead body, twenty-four years of waiting, believes God, and God's power goes to work in his life. Not only did God make this covenant with Abraham and his descendants, but He also involves the land for his descendants. Verse 8: "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Notice now the important thing is not the blessing, but the blesser. Not the gift, but the giver. He gave them a land; later on, He gave them a law; and then He gave them a Lord. He sent His Son to be their Redeemer. And what did they do? Well, they defiled His land with all kinds of immorality and idolatry, and they disobeyed His law and broke it, and they denied His Lord, and as a consequence, they were disciplined and they got themselves into serious trouble. 

God makes a covenant now with Abraham. God gives him a new name. He's saying, "I'm going to make a new person out of you and give you the power that you need to get the job done." So we have the statement of the covenant in verses 1 through 8. And we have two new names: God Almighty, the name of power, and Abraham, the name of faith. Abraham did not waver in unbelief. He said, "If You say it, I believe it, and that settles it." God was able to perform what He promised. Nothing is impossible with God. 

This is an interesting subject for us to meditate on because all of us have to make new beginnings. And God comes to you today and says, "All right, I have a new job for you to do. I know you'd like to stay comfortably doing what you're doing now, but you have to grow. I've got something new for you, and I'm going to make you perfectly adequate for all that you need." God's sufficiency enables us to do what He wants us to do.

Paul asks the question in 2 Corinthians 2:16, "And who is sufficient for these things?" Then he answers it, chapter 3 verse 5 of 2 Corinthians: "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant." He's sufficient for whatever He calls us to do. 2 Corinthians 9:8: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." He is sufficient. In chapter 12, He said to Paul in verse 9, "My grace is sufficient for you." 

Let's claim the new name. Let's do that today. Let's make a new beginning and claim a new name. God Almighty is sufficient for all of our demands, and He has said to us, "I will make you." Now, let's believe Him, let's obey Him, and He will do what He's promised to do.