WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOD DOING?
GOD HAS A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
GENESIS 17: 1-27
INTRODUCTION
Many years ago I conducted the wedding ceremony for a young couple. About
a year after the wedding I received a phone call from the husband. He
told me that he was sure that he had disobeyed God and made a mistake
in marrying his wife. He was crushed because he was sure that his life
could never be what God wanted it to be because he had made this mistake.
He was regularly telling his wife that he had made a mistake in marrying
her. It was obvious as we talked that he was not listening to a word I
was saying.
So the next weekend I flew to Michigan where they were living. The more
we talked it became clear that while there were lots of things wrong with
his view of marriage and relationships, his biggest problem was that he
had a deficient view of the sovereignty of God. I showed him Matthew 19:6
where Jesus says about married couples, "So they are no longer two
but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
I told him this verse clearly teaches that God put he and his wife together
and for him to say that he had made a mistake was sin and greatly dishonored
God. In addition he was not obeying God’s command to him to love his wife
as Christ loved the church. I told him what he needed to do was submit
to the sovereignty of God, thank God for his wife and get on with the
business of loving her. God in his mercy enabled him to respond in faith
and to obey God by repenting of his arrogance and by loving his wife.
Today, they have 8 children, he is teaching high school and together they
are leading a ministry to reach college students at their alma mater.
It is very common for people to feel that when they commit some big sin
or make some large error in judgment that from that point on they can
only live a second rate life. Many think there’s only one path in life
that God wants you to walk and the moment you sin or make a mistake you
can never be all that God wants. God is bigger and stronger than you are.
For the Christian there is nothing that will stop God from fulfilling
his plan for you, not even your sin and stupidity.
Last week we saw Sarai and Abraham engage in huge sin and stupidity.
Chapter 16 of Genesis ends with a big question mark hanging over it. Has
Sarai excluded herself from God’s plan? Is Ishmael, the son of Abram and
the slave girl Hagar, the promised son who will be the source of blessing
to the world? Or has Abram, by agreeing to Sarai’s plot cut himself off
from God’s plan? This week, in chapter 17, we are going to see that…
MAIN POINT
God has a plan that cannot fail.
I. His plan is based on an unchanging, unconditional promise (vv.
1-8)
Thirteen years have passed between the end of chapter 16 and the beginning
of chapter 17. Abram is living in peace and prosperity and, as we’ll see,
in the certainty that Ishmael is the son God promised to give him in chapter
15. Sarai is nowhere to be found. God appears to Abram, probably as the
angel of the Lord who appeared to Hagar in chapter 16. The first thing
God does is declare his name. He is God Almighty or God, the one who is
sufficient. This is the first time God has revealed himself with this
name. In this name God declares his omnipotence, his power to accomplish
all that he pleases. God presents himself to Abram as the God who rules
over all and whose purposes cannot be thwarted. He is stronger than Abram’s
sin and stupidity and his complacency with the way things are. God wants
you to know that He is God Almighty. I don’t know what kind of a mess
you’ve made of your life or what kind of disappointments you’ve experienced
in life but you need to know that nothing is too hard for God. He is the
sovereign king of the universe and nothing will keep him from fulfilling
his promises. Knowing that God is sovereign and depending upon him as
the sovereign king is absolutely necessary to living a life of contentment
and hope.
After declaring that he is the God who is able to accomplish all that
he purposes to do, he goes on to tell Abram what he plans to do. I want
you to see how this statement of God’s promise to Abram is infinitely
greater than any of his previous statements to Abram. What God has been
hinting at up to this time he now fully explains. I want you to notice
two of the ways God increases the greatness of his promises:
- Prior to this God has told Abram that he is going to make him into
a great nation, singular. Now he tells him that he’s going to change
his name to Abraham because he’s going to make him the father of many
nations. (The word many in the NIV is actually "multitude").
In Hebrew Abram means "the father of many" but Abraham means
"the father of a multitude". Not just one nation will come
from Abraham but a multitude of nations. Does the OT show a multitude
of nations coming from Abraham? No it doesn’t. That is why Paul, in
the book of Romans, picks up on this promise and points out that God
was telling Abraham and the whole Jewish nation that to be a "son
of Abraham" was not confined to those who were biologically related
to Abraham. Rather, God was showing that people from all nations were
going to become sons of Abraham through faith in the Son of Abraham,
Jesus Christ. God is announcing the gospel to Abraham. God forgives
the sins and declares righteous all those from every nation who have
faith in Jesus. Rev. 5:10 records this hymn of praise to Jesus in heaven,
"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because
you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every
tribe and language and people and nation."
- In vv. 7 & 8 he shows the focal point and climax of his promise.
Prior to this he has told Abraham that he will give him and his descendants
the land of Canaan forever. But now, in these two verses he stresses
the eternal nature of the promise three times. Then he adds to the promise
of land the promise of himself. What God is doing is pointing Abraham
beyond the earthly fulfillment of these promises of descendants and
land to an eternal fulfillment in heaven. All of these promises point
to the greatest promise and that is that God is willing to be the personal,
promise keeping God of sinners like us. Heaven is a wonderful place
because God is there. Why do you want to go to heaven? Is heaven attractive
to you because you’ll get to see friends and family who have died? Is
it attractive because you won’t sin anymore? Is it attractive because
you won’t be sick or depressed anymore? What God wanted Abraham to know
and what he wants you to know is that he is committed to giving you
the best thing in the world and that is himself. If you are not longing
for heaven because God is there then you probably aren’t going to heaven.
The reason God sent Christ is to cause you to love him and delight in
him above everything else. Abraham, we are told in the NT, saw in all
these promises the best promise of all, that God would be his God forever.
Is that what attracts you to Christ and his church?
Seven times in these verses the Almighty God tells Abraham, "I will".
(show them) The number seven is the number of perfection in the Bible.
It is no accident that Moses records these seven "I wills".
God’s plan will not be thwarted by anyone or anything. His promise is
unchanging and unconditional. He does not determine to save his people
because of anything in them for no one deserves God’s favor, not even
Abraham. He is determined to save all his people and not even their disobedience
will stop him. He will do everything necessary to make sure his people
persevere in faith and make it to their eternal home. But how do we know
who these promises apply to? It is clear as we have been studying in Genesis
that God is not going to save everyone. So how do we know who are God’s
people? That’s the question that is answered in the next section.
God has a plan that cannot fail.
- His plan is based on an unchanging, unconditional promise
- And…
II. His plan is entered by the obedience that comes from a heart of
faith (vv. 9-14)
God has just declared his incredible commitment to Abraham and all his
descendants. Now he tells Abraham what he must do to enter into the covenant
with God. Abraham and all his male descendants must be circumcised. I’m
going to assume that all the adults know what circumcision is. I want
the children who don’t know to ask their parents after church and in private
to explain what it is. Notice that circumcision is to be performed on
every male baby born in Abraham’s household when they are eight days old.
In addition, not only those who are biologically descended from Abraham
are to be circumcised but even the servants and slaves who belong to Abraham
and his descendants are to be circumcised. This is to be done as long
as Jewish people exist on planet earth.
In v. 11 God tells Abraham how he is to view circumcision. He tells him
that circumcision is the sign of the promise that God has made to Abraham.
It is a permanent sign. It cannot be removed. That word sign is very important.
Circumcision does not earn God’s promises. It does not obligate God to
do something for the person who is circumcised. Rather the act of circumcision
shows that this is a person to whom the promises apply. By obeying the
command to circumcise, Abraham and his descendants are showing that they
believe God’s promises. To put it another way, the only people who will
obey the command are the ones who believe the promise. You cannot have
faith without obedience and you cannot truly obey unless you believe the
promise. To view circumcision as a work that you do that obligates God
to be kind to you is completely contrary to how God describes it in this
passage. Look at v. 14. The evidence that a person doesn’t believe the
promise is that they don’t obey the command to be circumcised. The sign
that the promises don’t apply to you is that you don’t trust God and so
obey the commands of God.
God reveals to Abraham and to us how it is that a particular person can
know if the promise of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ applies
to him or her. Romans 5:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in
which we now stand." The death of Jesus and its results are for all
those who trust in him. How do you know if you are one of those who trust
in Christ? Do you obey the commands of Christ? Faith and the obedience
that comes from it do not obligate God to be kind to you. They are the
sign that his promise in Christ applies to you. If you are in the habit
of regarding the commands of Christ as not applying to you, then you can
know that the death of Jesus does not apply to you. Do you see how this
is exactly what God tells Abraham in Genesis 17?
Suppose you and I were having a conversation and I was telling you how
sick I felt. I have this intense pain in my stomach. You ask me if I’ve
gone to see the doctor. I tell you that I have been to see the best doctor
in the world. You ask me, "What makes this doctor the best doctor
in the world?" I reply, "He is so smart. He always is able to
figure out what is wrong with me and then what I need to do to get well.
He has such a good way with people. He’s friendly and doesn’t treat me
like I’m an idiot and yet he’s very clear when it comes to describing
my illness and its cure." You ask, "What did he say was wrong
with you?" "He said I have appendicitis and that I need to have
an immediate operation or I will die", I reply. In alarm you exclaim,
"Then why aren’t you in the hospital getting operated on?" "I
don’t want to get an operation. I’m not going to do what he says."
"But you just said that he’s the best doctor in the world and always
tells you what is wrong and how to get well. Why won’t you do as he says?"
"I do believe he’s the best doctor in the world and I do believe
his description of what is wrong and how to get well. But I don’t want
to do what he says." You see that no matter how much I tell you that
I believe in the doctor I prove that I don’t really believe in him because
I won’t do what he says. My disobedience to his command shows that I don’t
really believe him or his promise of health if I obey. If you trust God
and his promise of eternal life in Christ, then you will obey him. If
you don’t obey, you don’t trust.
When God tells Abraham in v. 14 that the person who refuses to be circumcised
will be "cut off" from his people he is warning him and us of
the wrath of God that will be poured out on all those who disobey the
gospel of Christ. To not be circumcised shows that a person despises the
grace of God. Persistent disobedience to the commands of God shows that
there is no love for or faith in the God of the promises. There is an
eternal hell that will be the final destiny of all those who refuse to
trust God’s promises and show their faith in obedience to the commands
of God. Do not fool yourself. You are not headed for heaven if Christ
and his salvation are not the consuming passion of your life and if obedience
to Christ is not the main ambition of your life.
God has a plan that cannot fail.
- His plan is based on an unchanging, unconditional promise
- His plan is entered by the obedience that comes from a heart of
faith
- And…
III. His plan is contrary to all human expectations (vv. 15-22)
Up to this point Abraham has been listening intently to God’s promise
and his command. He believes the promise and resolves to obey the command
but then God says something that completely catches Abraham by surprise.
Abraham, we discover, has been assuming that the son through whom all
these promises are going to be fulfilled is his son Ishmael. He has lived
with Ishmael for 13 years and God has said nothing to contradict his assumption
that Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, is the son that
God promised would come from his own body. But now God tells him that
Sarah, who is 90 years old, is going to have a son.
We see Abraham’s response in vv. 17-18. He falls down and laughs. Then
he thinks to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years
old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" Then he prays,
"If only Ishmael might live under your blessing." What kind
of a response is this? Is Abraham responding in faith or in unbelief?
Is this the laughter of disbelief or is it the laughter of joy? At first
glance this doesn’t look like faith. I want to show you that Abraham is
responding in faith. There are several things in the text that show this
is not the response of unbelief, rather it is the response of amazement
at the grace of God. It is the response of a person whose whole way of
looking at life is undergoing a radical transformation. First, he falls
on his face before the Lord. Falling on your face always indicates submission
to and trust in God. Second, while laughter can be a sign of derision
and mockery it also can be a sign of nervousness, confusion and hope.
I think it is the latter because God does not rebuke Abraham for laughing
as he does in the very next chapter when Sarah laughs at this same promise.
See 18:10-15. Third, the questions that fill Abraham’s mind are not verbalized.
He doesn’t express any doubt. His mind is filled with wonder and amazement
at the thought of he and Sarah having children. Fourth, his prayer for
Ishmael is not a rejection of God’s promise of another son but rather
the expression of a man who does not want to presume on God. It’s as if
he is saying, "God I’m not sure I heard you correctly. Ishmael is
a wonderful son and I am content with your grace towards me in giving
me such a son. I am happy for you to bless this son and would not dare
to ask you for something greater than this." Fifth, the name of the
son to be born to Sarah is Isaac, which means laughter. There is no way
that God would immortalize Abraham’s response in the name of his son if
his laughter was the laughter of unbelief. We saw in chapter 16 that God’s
naming of Ishmael preserves something positive. Ishmael means "God
listens". Sixth, in v. 23 Abraham immediately obeys God by circumcising
his entire household. This is the act of a person who is trusting God,
not a person who is doubting God. John Calvin in his commentary describes
Abraham’s actions like this, "The novelty of the promise so strikes
him, that for a short time he is confounded; yet he humbles himself before
God, and with confused mind, prostrating himself on the earth, he, by
faith, adores the power of God."
But why does Moses report Abraham’s response in this fashion? Why the
ambiguity? Why does he not simply report that Abraham trusted God and
worshipped him like we saw in 15:6? Why these details of Abraham’s internal
struggle to believe? This is why I trust the Bible. It shows people as
they really are and doesn’t try to cover up the faults and struggles of
its heroes. There is no other religious book in the whole world like this.
Moses wants us to see that when we truly hear the amazing promises of
God we are shocked and amazed. The promises of God require a complete
revolution in our way of thinking and we don’t arrive at faith without
a struggle.
Nothing is more amazing than the fact that God should love me and kill
his Son in my place and credit his Son’s righteousness to my account and
promise me eternal life in heaven with him forever. If we’re thinking
correctly, like Abraham, when we hear God make his promise to us in the
gospel we ought to have the same response. We ought to fall on our face
in humility and reverence and wonder in our minds, "Will God forgive
a sinner like me? Could it be possible that he could change me from a
person who loves to sin into a person who loves to obey him?" We
ought to respond in grateful humility, "God you have been so kind
to me in giving me life and food and happiness. I would be content to
simply enjoy these pleasures. I’m not worthy to receive such great promises,
such a great salvation."
See how full is the grace of God. In vv. 19-22 he emphatically tells
Abraham that what he finds almost impossible to believe is actually going
to happen within the year. Sarah will have a son and he is to be named
Isaac. It will be through this son that all God’s promises will be fulfilled.
He assures Abraham that Ishmael will be cared for but Abraham needs to
know that Ishmael is not going to be the son of promise. The savior of
the world will come through Isaac, not Ishmael.
God has a plan that cannot fail.
- His plan is based on an unchanging, unconditional promise
- His plan is entered by the obedience that comes from a heart of
faith
- His plan is contrary to all human expectations
- And…
IV. His plan always leads to the transformation of people (vv. 1-3a
& 23-27)
I don’t want to offend anyone in here but we need to give some thought
to how Abraham responded to these promises of God. He immediately, on
that very day, obeyed by circumcising himself, Ishmael and then every
other male in his camp. That means that he performed this delicate and
painful operation on every man and boy, regardless of age in his camp.
This would have involved close to one thousand males. This meant he had
to convince grown men to let him inflict this wound on the most sensitive
part of their body. He had to convince mothers to allow him to inflict
this wound on their babies. Abraham not only believed the promise for
himself but he also had to convince his entire household of close to 2000
people to believe the promises as well. He preached the gospel to his
household and they responded in faith and obedience to the command of
God along with Abraham. In spite of all the obstacles, Abraham obeys with
urgency and gladness the command of God. In his obedience God transforms
his entire household into a house of faith and love towards God. Wherever
the gospel of Christ is preached people and families and communities are
transformed. This transformation is the certain outworking of the promises
of God and point ahead to the day when the entire universe will be transformed
through the gracious work of God in the return of Christ.
God in his mercy allowed me to see such a transformation in my senior
year of college. I became a Christian at the end of my junior year. I
was a Resident Assistant my senior year. At the beginning of the year
two other RA’s were Christians and the Hall Director was a Christian.
By the end of that school year all but 3 of the 12 RA’s professed faith
in Christ. 30 to 40 students from our hall were regularly attending bible
studies and church. I can’t say that we had any great plan to reach our
dorm. God simply used our living as Christians and our willingness to
talk about Christ to transform this hall. I’ll never forget sitting in
the lobby of our dorm in the spring of my senior year when a girl walked
up to our front desk and asked if she could talk to some of the Christians
living in the dorm. The student working the front desk called me over.
She explained to me that she was a senior in high school and was up visiting
the campus because she was planning on coming to UWSP the following year.
She was a Christian and asked one of the students who was conducting the
tour of the campus if she knew where she might find some Christians on
campus. The student tour guide said, "The holy dorm on campus is
Burroughs hall. You’ll find lots of religious people over there."
Dozens of people came to faith in Christ and a number of those students
became missionaries and pastors. This is what happens when God overwhelms
us with his love in Christ. We are transformed and so we live for Christ
and talk about Christ and God uses us in the transformation of our families
and our communities.
God has a plan that cannot fail.
- His plan is based on an unchanging, unconditional promise
- His plan is entered by the obedience that comes from a heart of
faith
- His plan is contrary to human expectations
- His plan always leads to the transformation of people, families
and communities
© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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If you would like to post this material to the web or if your intended
use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
Church, 2843 West Court Street, Janesville, WI 53545. (608) 758-0943.
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