Abraham - New Names

God wants to give us a new name today. He says to us, make a new beginning, receive my word, believe my word, experience my power. I am El Shaddai, I am sufficient.

And now we pray together. Gracious Father, as always, we must come to You for everything that we need; without You we can do nothing. And we’re glad, Lord, that we recognize this fact. We’re glad we know our weakness and our ignorance. We’re glad, Father, that we have learned, not only from Your word but from experience, that we cannot accomplish Your will without Your power. Help us now as we study the word of God, and where it convicts, may we be honest; where it encourages, may we be grateful; and where it admonishes, help us to be obedient. I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We are noting that there are four new names in Genesis 17. A new name for God, verse 1: I am God Almighty, El Shaddai, the one who is sufficient for every need. And then the new name for Abram in verse 5: Abraham, father of a multitude. Then there’s going to be a new name for Sarai in verse 15: Sarah will be her name. And then a brand new name comes on the scene, verse 19: Isaac, which means laughter—he laughs. The only name in this chapter that does not change is Ishmael, and that flesh does not change.

Now you have the statement of the covenant in verses 1 through 8. And God said, I am God Almighty, El Shaddai, I can perform what I’ve promised. Abraham, I’m going to make you a father of many nations. Your descendants will be claiming this land and I’m giving them this land. So in 1 through 8 we have the statement of the covenant. Then in 9 through 14, we have the sign of the covenant, which was circumcision. This was the mark that they belonged to God, that they were the people of the covenant. Now we today have a spiritual mark that we belong to God. The seal of God’s covenant to us is the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 1, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, Ephesians 1:12-13.

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 till 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 chapter 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. We must not minimize the faith of Sarah and maximize the faith of Abraham, because Sarah’s faith was also important to the fulfillment of the covenant.

Hebrews 11:11: By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. What a blessed thing it is for a man to have a wife who is a woman of faith. You don’t find too many women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. There are some; there are many in the Bible. Mary the mother of our Lord was certainly a woman of faith. So was Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and Hannah back in 1 Samuel, the mother of Samuel. The mother of Moses was certainly a woman of faith. Yes, throughout the word of God you find great women of faith and Sarah’s among them. Sarah believed that God could do what He promised. Abraham believed that God could do what He promised. And when you have a believing husband and a believing wife, God is going to do something.

That’s why Hebrews 11:12 says: Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. God starts with one old man and one old woman and by faith He brings a multitude. That’s the way faith works. Faith lays hold of the promise of God. Faith does not look at self. If Abraham and Sarah had looked at themselves, they would have laughed at themselves, but instead they rejoiced in God that He was going to do what He had promised.

The Apostle Peter has something to say about Sarah in 1 Peter 3. He’s giving counsel to husbands and wives. He’s talking to wives who do not have saved husbands in 1 Peter 3. Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word—that means they aren't saved—they, without a word—that means without preaching and nagging—may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. That word fear means reverence and respect. Do not let your beauty be that outward adorning—arranging the hair, of wearing gold, or of putting on fine apparel. Back in that day, the women used to compete with one another who had the highest hairdo, who had the most expensive jewelry and garments. He’s not saying that looking nice is wrong; he’s simply saying it’s far more important to have beauty that comes from within. Verse 4: but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Now, submission is not subjugation, not slavery; rather, it’s just respecting God’s order of things.

Now he uses Sarah as his example, verse 6: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. What he’s simply saying is that you Christian women who have unsaved husbands, don’t nag, don’t preach, don’t create problems; have an inner beauty from the Lord that just radiates calmness and submission and wisdom and grace, and just do good, and before long God will use your conduct and your attitude to win your husband.

Now in verse 7 of 1 Peter 3, he has a word to say to the husbands. Likewise, you husbands, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife—she’s the princess; Sarah means princess—giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel. Now he doesn’t say she is the weaker vessel; sometimes the wife is stronger in some areas than the husband is. He says treat her like a princess. Treat her like a fragile, beautiful porcelain cup, and treat her the way she ought to be treated to the glory of God, as being heirs together of the grace of life.

Now Sarah and Abraham were heirs together of the grace of life. God gave them a baby boy, and He did this because they trusted Him. That your prayers may not be hindered. If a husband and wife are not treating each other properly, their prayers might be hindered. What a wonderful thing it is when a believing husband has a believing wife, when a believing wife has a believing husband, and they pray together. I’m sure that Abraham shared this with Sarah and said, Sarah, we’re going to have a baby boy and we’re going to call his name Isaac.

Well, Abraham fell on his face and laughed. I don’t think this was the laughter of unbelief; I think it was the laughter of joyful faith, the laughter of delight. But alas, in verse 18, Abraham says to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before You! Now I can understand this. Ishmael had lived with them now for some thirteen years, hadn't he? And they loved him. He was his firstborn son. Abraham loved Ishmael, and he didn't want Ishmael just thrown out somewhere. Oh, that Ishmael might live before You! However, there’s a spiritual lesson here. Here we have the flesh versus the spirit. Ishmael was born of the flesh, not born of the spirit. Here we have the past creating problems for the future. Here we have unbelief versus faith, and works versus grace. We’ll have more to say about this in a later chapter, but oh, that Ishmael might live before You!

Now I don’t think Abraham was asking for Ishmael to be the heir of the covenant. He knew better than that. Rather, he’s saying, I don’t want Ishmael neglected. And God said, No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, which means he laughs. I will establish my covenant with him, not with Ishmael, for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. God blessed Ishmael because of Abraham. God blessed Lot because of Abraham. God has blessed us because of Abraham. How grateful we ought to be for this great man of God.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, will make him fruitful, will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. You read about this in chapter 25. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. God did bless Ishmael with material and national blessings, but not covenantal blessings.

There are so many people who are blessed of God materially, and they are not blessed of God spiritually because they aren't people of faith. People think that because they have houses and lands and riches and status and position and so forth, that they are being greatly blessed of God. The greatest blessing God can give to you is to make you a part of His covenant.

Here we have the fourth new name: Isaac. Isaac means laughter, he laughs. Abraham laughed with delight and joy when he heard the news. In chapter 18, Sarah is going to laugh, verse 12, but it’s not going to be the laughter of delight; it’s the laughter of distrust, of unbelief. And then Isaac is going to be born, they’re going to call him laughter, and Sarah’s going to say, I’m laughing because God has done so much for me. You see, God’s solution to the problem was not to change Ishmael; God’s solution to the problem was to give them Isaac.

This is always the way God works. God’s solution to the world’s problems is not to make Ishmael changed. I was chatting with a man recently who said, why can’t we just educate people into being good? Well, you can’t educate a pig or a dog into being a sheep. Ishmael was born Ishmael, he always will be Ishmael. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; it always will be flesh. God’s solution was not to change Ishmael. God did not say, now I want to give a new name to Ishmael. No, that name stayed the same. The flesh is always the flesh. He said, I’m going to bring a new baby in, there’s going to be a second birth. That’s the way God changes things. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit. You must be born again. If you want to see things changed in your life, Isaac has to come in. There must be the birth of that new baby. You must be born into the family of God through the Holy Spirit of God. Ishmael’s name was not changed.

Well, God gave Ishmael blessings abundant in national blessings and material blessings. But my covenant, He said, I will establish with Isaac. Well, we have four new names here and we better lay hold of them. They teach us some important lessons. Genesis 17:1: Almighty God, El Shaddai, the God who is sufficient for everything. Here are Abraham and Sarah as good as dead physically, but El Shaddai with His power can bring about the birth of a baby. Abraham, father of a multitude, and he believed that and God performed His promise in Abraham’s life. Sarah, princess on the throne, reigning in life through the grace of God, and she gives birth to a son, Isaac—laughter. When God has something born into your family, into your life, it brings joy. Ishmael was born into their family and brought trial and sorrow and heartache because he was born of the flesh. He was not a child of promise. Will we ever learn that this old nature is not going to be changed? God has to implant a new nature and God must give to us that resurrection power. God wants to give us a new name today. He says to us, make a new beginning, receive my word, believe my word, experience my power. I am El Shaddai, I am sufficient.

We have looked together at the statement of the covenant in verses 1 through 8, and the sign of the covenant in verses 9 through 14, the sign of circumcision. The son of the covenant, verses 15 through 22, God is going to give them a son, Isaac. Then we have the sharing of the covenant, verses 23 through 27. Abraham obeyed God. God had told him to perform surgery on all the males in his camp, and he did that. He obeyed God. This was the mark of the covenant. Now this mark was used of God throughout all the centuries with the Jewish people. The tragedy is that they ceased to see it as a sign and they turned it into something far more than that. You see, it was a mark of ownership. Every time that this operation was performed upon a newborn boy, eight days later after his birth, it was a mark of ownership. This boy was born under the covenant. When you and I were saved, when we trusted Christ as our own personal Savior, God gave to us a sign of His new covenant, namely, the Holy Spirit of God. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption.

Now God never meant for this surgery to be an end in itself; that is, if you have experienced this operation, you are going to be saved—not in the least. Rather, it was a reminder to them that they belonged to God and that they needed to have their hearts operated on. In fact, Moses said that in Deuteronomy 30:6: And the Lord your God will circumsize your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. In other words, the outward surgery was to be a sign of an inward experience. I think that baptism today has a similar approach, a similar meaning. The fact that a person has been baptized in or with water is no evidence that the person is born again. However, that outward experience should be an evidence of an inward experience, an inward change.

In fact, Paul said the same thing, Romans 2:28: For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Even the Apostle Paul tells us that the real surgery God wants is on the heart. He wants an inward experience, not just an outward event. Philippians 3:3, Paul reaffirms this: For we are the circumcision—that is, we Christians are the true circumcision—who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The tragedy was the Jewish people did have confidence in the flesh. We are children of the covenant, we have had this surgery, therefore God must save us—and that is not true. When you read the prophet Jeremiah, you find Jeremiah crying out and saying don’t depend on this thing, don’t depend on this ritual that we’ve had for centuries. You must have your heart changed.

I think the application for today is very plain. Abraham immediately obeyed God. Abraham was not saved by being circumcised. He was saved by faith; he believed God and God accounted it to him for righteousness, Genesis 15:6. Rather, the obedience of his life was the evidence of the faith of his heart. The same thing is true today. When we really believe God, then we want to obey Him. After all, you and I as God’s people, Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have experienced a spiritual surgery. Colossians 2:11: In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. Not just minor surgery, major surgery. In other words, the Ishmael in us has to be put away—that which is born of the flesh. And so Abraham obeyed God, he lived up to his new name, God’s power went to work in his life, and Abraham became the father of a multitude of people.