Abraham 6

What’s in a Name?

At some point in your education, you may have read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; and you discovered in act 2 that famous quotation: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”

Juliet spoke those words as she talked to herself on her balcony, ignorant of the fact that Romeo was listening below.

She was pondering the fact that she belonged to the Capulet family and he to the rival Montagues, and that this accident of birth hindered them from getting married.

What difference did two names make?

No matter what his name was, Romeo was still her love!

Shakespeare notwithstanding, if you had asked a biblical character the question, “What’s in a name?” that person would have replied: “Everything!

Our names are very important!”

Names might record something significant about one’s birth or about some life-changing experience.

Jacob was renamed Israel after a night of wrestling with God, and Simon received the name Peter (rock) when he met Jesus Christ.

The names assigned to unborn babies even carried messages.

In this chapter, you will discover four new names and a name that will always be old because it cannot be changed.

1. God Almighty

Genesis 17:1–2 AV

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

Revelation.

The Hebrew name is “El Shaddai” (shuh-DYE), and this is the first time it occurs in Scripture.

“El Shaddai” is the name of “the all-powerful and all-sufficient God who can do anything and meet any need.”

But why would God reveal this name to Abraham at this time, at the close of thirteen years of silence?

Because God was going to tell His friend that Sarah would have a son.

The Lord wanted Abraham to know that He is the God who is all-sufficient and all-powerful, and that nothing is too hard for Him.

God says “I will” twelve times in this chapter; He is about to do the miraculous.

After Abraham’s battle with the four kings, God came to him as a warrior and told him He was his “shield.”

When Abraham wondered about his refusal of Sodom’s wealth, God told him He was his “exceedingly great reward”.

Now when Abraham and Sarah were “as good as dead,” God assured them that He was more than sufficient to bring about the miracle birth.

God comes to us in the ways we need Him most.

Responsibility.

Revelation always brings responsibility.

Enoch and Noah had walked with God (5:22; 6:8–9), but Abraham was to walk before God, that is, live in the knowledge that the eyes of God were always upon him.

The word “perfect” does not mean “sinless,” for that would be an impossible goal for anyone to reach.

The word means “single-hearted, without blame, sincere, wholly devoted to the Lord.”

In Exodus 12:5, the word refers to a “perfect” sacrifice without blemish. It was a call for integrity.

The secret of a perfect walk before God is a personal worship of God.

Like Abraham, every believer must fall before the Lord and yield everything to Him.

If He is “El Shaddai—God Almighty,” then who are we to resist His will?

2. Abraham

Genesis 17:3–14 AV

3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Genesis 17:23–27 AV

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. 24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

The people.

“Abram” means “exalted father”; “Abraham” means “father of a multitude.”

When Abraham informed the people in his camp that he had a new name, some of them must have smiled and said, “Father of a multitude! Why, he and his wife are too old to have children!”

Whether he looked beneath his feet or up into the heavens, or whenever anyone called him by name, Abraham was reminded of God’s gracious promise to give him many descendants.

In being fruitful for God, we have nothing in ourselves that will accomplish the task.

Abraham and Sarah had tried their own plan, and it failed miserably.

Jesus said, “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The land.

God’s everlasting covenant also included an everlasting possession: the land of Canaan.

This land is a battleground today and always will be until the Lord returns to reign.

But as far as God’s covenant is concerned, the land belongs to Israel.

The Jews’ ownership of the land depends solely on God’s gracious covenant with Abraham: God gave them the land.

But their possession and enjoyment of the land depends on their faithfulness to obey the Lord.

This was the theme of Moses’ messages in Deuteronomy.

The sign.

Abraham’s part in the covenant was to obey God and mark each male in his house with the sign of the covenant.

Circumcision was not a new rite, for other nations practiced it in Abraham’s time; but God now gave it new importance and special meaning.

For the descendants of Abraham, circumcision was not an option; it was an obligation.

It is important to note that circumcision was not a “sacrament.”

The performing of it did not convey spiritual blessing to the recipient.

An eight-day-old baby boy (Lev. 12:3) would not even understand what was going on; and when he got older, the ritual would have to be explained to him.

It was the obedience of the parents that was important; for if they did not obey God in this matter, their son would be cut off from his people (Gen. 17:14).

The covenant people must bear the mark of the covenant.

Since God’s covenant involved Abraham’s “seed,” it was fitting that the mark of the covenant be on the male organ of generation.

Since all people are conceived in sin (Ps. 51:5), this special mark would remind them that they were accepted by God because of His gracious covenant.

It was God who chose the Jews, not the Jews who chose God; and He chose them to be a holy people.

Immorality was rampant among the Canaanite peoples, and was even a part of their religion; but the people of Israel were “marked” to be separate from the evil around them.

Unfortunately, the Jewish people eventually made this ritual a means of salvation.

They did not realize that circumcision stood for something much deeper: the person’s relationship to God.

God wants us to “circumcise our hearts” and be totally devoted to Him in love and obedience.

Romans 4:9–12 makes it clear that the physical operation had nothing to do with Abraham’s eternal salvation.

Abraham had believed God and received God’s righteousness before he ever was circumcised (Gen. 15:6).

Circumcision was not the means of his salvation but the mark of his separation as a man in covenant relationship with God.

What does all of this mean to Christian believers today?

The seal of our salvation is not an external rite but the presence of an internal witness in the person of the Holy Spirit of God.

When we trusted Christ to save us, the Spirit of God performed “spiritual surgery” that enables us to have victory over the desires of the old nature and the old life.

Circumcision removes only a part of the body, but the true “spiritual circumcision” puts off “the body of the sins of the flesh” and deals radically with the sin nature.

Abraham immediately obeyed God and gave every male in his household the mark of the covenant.

3. Sarah

Genesis 17:15–17 AV

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

The third new name was “Sarah,” which means “princess.”

Since she would become the mother of kings, it was only right that she be called a princess!

We must not minimize the place of Sarah in God’s great plan of salvation. Like her husband (and all of us), she had her faults; but also like her husband, she trusted God and accomplished His purposes.

She is not only the mother of the Jewish nation but also a good example for Christian wives to follow.

The Christian husband should treat his wife like a princess, because that is what she is in the Lord.

Motherhood should be highly esteemed, and the birth of a baby welcomed with joy.

While God does not call all women to marry, or all married women to bear children, He does have a special concern for both mothers and children.

In a selfish society, too many people see motherhood as a barrier and children as a burden.

In fact, some people consider children such a burden that they destroy them before they have an opportunity to become a blessing.

The womb of the mother is a holy of holies where God is at work.

How tragic that we turn that womb into a tomb, that holy of holies into a holocaust.

4. Isaac

Genesis 17:18–22 AV

18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

The first baby in the Bible who was named before birth was Ishmael (16:11), and the second was Isaac.

As we shall see when we study Genesis 21, these two boys represent two different births:

(1) Ishmael, our first birth after the flesh, and

(2) Isaac, our second birth through the Spirit.

From the human point of view, we can understand why Abraham interceded for Ishmael.

Ishmael was his son, and the father loved him dearly.

They had been together now for thirteen years, and Ishmael was entering adulthood.

Was God going to waste all that Abraham had invested in Ishmael?

Was there to be no future for the lad?

After all, it wasn’t Ishmael’s fault that he was born!

It was Abraham and Sarah who sinned, not the boy.

But from the spiritual point of view, Ishmael could not replace Isaac or even be equal to him in the covenant plan of God.

God had already promised to bless Ishmael and He kept His promise; but the covenant blessings were not a part of Ishmael’s heritage.

Isaac alone was to be the heir of all things (25:5–6; Rom. 9:6–13).

conclusion

There is a practical lesson here for all who seek to live by faith:

When God is preparing a bright future for you, don’t cling to the things of the past.

Ishmael represented the past, Isaac the future.

Ishmael symbolized man’s fleshly way of accomplishing something for God; but Isaac was a miracle baby, born by the power of God.

Ishmael brought dissension into the home, but Isaac brought laughter.

If you have an “Ishmael” in your life, yield it up to God.

God has a perfect plan, and what He plans is the best.

It may pain you to give up your cherished dreams, but God’s way is always the right way.

Ishmael did not get a new name, because he represents the flesh; and the flesh cannot be changed.

John 3:6 AV

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Romans 7:18 AV

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

John 6:63 AV

63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The old nature can be disciplined, subdued, and even to some extent controlled; but it cannot be changed.

Until we receive our glorified bodies in the presence of the Lord, the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit will continue (Gal. 5:16–26).

It was the beginning of a new day for Abraham and Sarah, for Sarah was going to have a baby boy!

John 8:56 AV

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.