The Most Important Promise...Ever!

I. Introduction

Be turning in your Bibles to Genesis Chapter 17. Chapter 17…Last week we were in Genesis 16 and we looked at the scheme that Sarah came up with to have a baby with Abram through her handmaiden Hagar....It was sinful....it was unbiblical....but Abram didn’t stand strong....he gave in to his sinful desires. We learned last week that we ought to pause a minute and think and discern before we make decisions.

Today we are going to look at the story of the major covenants that God established with Abram and how that has affected people even to this day.

a. Scripture: Genesis 17:1-27 (the entire chapter)

I’m going to ask you to stand with me, if you are able, as we read from God’s Holy, Perfect, Sufficient and inerrant Word.

<Pray>

Thank you, and you may be seated.

This covenant that develops here was promised in Chapter 14 and 15....and established by God at that point. Now, it’s time to pay up. It’s time for Abram to “sign” it. And he, and his people will sign…dearly....I’m talking about the physical pain and symbolic nature of the practice of circumcision. But also, we are going to look at the miracle that is, even today, the Abrahamic Covenant.

II. Major Points

The Covenant

The Symbols

The Miracle of Israel

III. Point #1: The Covenant

Explanation Now we have already talked in detail about the different facets of the covenant that God made with Abram. Those parts of the covenant were that:

1. He would have a son - remember this was a reward for his faithfulness. It’s what he and his wife Sarah desired more than anything in the whole world....he wanted an heir. And after he turned down the wicked King of Sodom’s proposal to basically swap his people for fortune, God promised to reward Abram with a son of his own....now of course you know the story now....Abram and Sarah got ahead of God and had a child by one of Sarah’s handmaiden’s named Hagar....that boy’s name was Ishmael…and despite Abram and Sarah’s wicked scheme to conceive him, here God promises to take care of Ishmael as well. We will discuss that one in a minute.

2. His Son would be the ancestor of many, many people....so Isaac would become the ancestor of many people. Many will go their own way away from the Nation of Israel and start new nations.

3. Isaac would be the lineage through which all of the Jews, God’s chosen people, would be born. It is important because they were the chosen bloodline through which Jesus Christ would be born and offer salvation to believers from their sins. God still has great plans for Israel and His hand of protection over them.

4. Along with that part of the covenant comes this fourth part, which is that the Israelites are guaranteed a particular plot of land. They only actually have ever occupied PART of that land…something I’ll get to in a little bit. But that land has been promised to THEM. Many nations, including the Romans, have taken it from them at different times…in 63 BC, the Romans took over that area. In AD 70 they destroyed the Jewish temple....and within a few hundred years the Roman Empire disappeared from the map. Now, since the 1940s, Israel once again exists....but even today, they still do not control all that God promised to them. Look at this map here for a minute <show on screen>

5. Abram loved Ishmael. Though he was conceived outside of Christian marriage, I want you to understand that he was STILL Abram’s son and Abram loved him. When his new promised “legitimate” son was to be born, Abram didn’t just want to toss Ishmael aside. And God heard this worry in Abram’s heart. Eventually, Sarah’s shame and selfishness will cause Ishmael and Hagar to be run out of the house in Chapter 21, but for right now God promises Abram that Ishmael, too, will father many nations. He will be the ancestor of the Arabs while Isaac will be the ancestor of the Jews. So though Ishmael gets the short end of the stick here (and remember, he was just a kid…he was only 13 years old at the time, if you look ahead at verse 25....he couldn’t control the circumstances of his birth, could he?)…despite that, the Lord is going to take care of both him and Hagar.

6. This is an everlasting covenant....when the animal parts were split up and the partners in the covenant were supposed to walk through together, it meant that they were each basically saying “if either of us breaks this covenant…may our bodies become like the destroyed bodies of these animals.” That is quite an oath, isn’t it? So there is no end to this covenant:

Genesis 17:7 (NASB95)

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

That means that this covenant is for all time between both the people living THEN, and the people that come after them.

Look at verse 8:

Genesis 17:8 (NASB95)

“I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Everlasting means forever....as long as there is an earth, that land is to belong to the Jews. Period.

Now THIS is what we call the Abrahamic Covenant....and as you can see, there is a lot to it. It is the single most important promise God ever makes because it is through this promise that Jesus Christ will eventually be born.

Illustration

We hear a lot about promises....promises that are broken from politicians and even good friends and family.

I heard a story one time about a little girl who wanted to set an extra place at the table for Thanksgiving for her teddy bear. Thanksgiving being a very crowded time, her mother told her “no.” The little girl became upset and said “but mommy, mommy…I promise he won’t eat much! He’s already stuffed!”

Application

Church: This promise from God is, perhaps, the most important promise in history....This is one of the most important documents ever written in the history of humanity: far more important than the Declaration of Independence; far, far more important than the Mayflower Compact; far, far more important than the Constitution of the United States of America.

If you understand what God is saying here, you will be able to understand the history of the world, for what God is saying here marks and colors all of the subsequent history that follows it.

What God is saying here is an iron fist upon history, to say that certain things are going to be done.

What God is saying here is His plan to bless you and to bless me and to bless the nations of the world.

What God is saying here is going to help us to understand what is happening this day, this age, right now, as we read our newspapers, in the Middle East.

This covenant is, indeed is a blessing, a promise that has changed the world, and will give us understanding if we today will take the Word of God and let it speak to us as we study together. It is the miraculous promise of Almighty God to his children, which includes you and I.

IV. Point #2: The Symbols

Explanation

So we know that God is the one who established this covenant. He is the one that set the parameters…He is the one that seals the deal. However, He did ask for some token symbols in order for Abram to “sign” the deal.

There are really two:

Circumcision - Now, I won’t get into the anatomy and graphic nature of circumcision, but for the Jews at this time, God was now requiring an ultimate blood sacrifice from them, if you will, do differentiate themselves from all other people on the earth. It hit them at the very core of who they were. So to put this very simplistically for the sake of understanding and without being too specific so that I won’t be accused of being vulgar in the pulpit this morning, I’ll put it like this:

Because of the circumcision process, there was no way that a Jewish man could procreate with a non-Jewish woman without at least being REMINDED of the covenant. Likewise, a Jewish woman familiar with the practice would not be able to procreate with a non-Jewish man without being reminded of the covenant. This was to separate the people of God from the pagan people out there who were NOT believers.

So remember this: God did not want His people procreating with pagans…you will see that very clearly in future chapters…Some people in our culture today use this and say “look! The God of Christianity is a bigot! He’s a racist!” How foolish…church: it had nothing to do with their race, it had to do with their hearts. God knew that the pagans would corrupt His people, especially back then....so He wanted to keep them separate. He doesn’t wnat them intermarrying with people who might have an adverse affect upon their faith and devotion to Him. So it wasn’t because of their race, it was because of their unbelief. So this circumcision is a MAJOR symbol of the Covenant.

2. The Names:

Illustration:

You know, alot of people get names that are just…unfortunate.

For instance, there was once a man named “Albert E. Gator....Al E. Gator.”

I hear there was a woman named “Amanda Lynn”....Mandolin…like the instrument.

Another poor lady was named Helen Hywater. What about Mrs. Kay Oss.

Boy....those poor kids.

Abram and Sarai have their names changed…but only slightly. They are still “themselves,” but they are a new and better version now because they are right with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

God set this new foundation with Abram and Sarai and he wanted it to be inwardly significant in their behavior in the most intimate of ways, and He did that through circumsion.... but also wants it to be apparent in more ways than just not mixing company with unbelievers. He wanted them to have it apparent in their every day lives…so....God changed their names…He was outwardly showing what was supposed to have happened on the inside. They were supposed to be brand new creatures....but not a different creature, just renewed. We aren’t changing the model of car here right? We’re getting a brand new one of the same kind.

Look at verse 5 again:

Genesis 17:5 NASB95

“No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.

So the question is: what is the significance of this “small change” in their name? Abram isn’t THAT much different from AbraHAM right?

What God does here, is He adds a Hebrew letter to the name of Abram now, the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which is an aspirate. This letter is a key part of the word for “spirit.”…it is where we get the word “aspiration” today, which has to do with your breathing.

An aperatus that helps you breath better is called an “asperator,” right?

And the word for “spirit” in the Old Testament is the same word for “breath” or “wind.” What God is saying to Abram now—“I’m putting my Spirit upon you. You are Abraham.”

There’s the hhhhhhh—the Spirit, the breath, of God. God, in a very special way, is moving upon this man. And, incidentally, the fifth letter reminds us also that five is the number of grace, which also adds to this significance.

Now I’ve been referring to Sarah all this time as “Sarah”....because, frankly, the S-a-r-a-i name sounds a little awkward....in Hebrew, it was pronounced “SAY-RAY.” That’s a little weird to say to me....but God does change her name also in verse 15 from SAY-RAY, to Sarah, which means “Princess”…so she will be the MOTHER of many nations just like Abraham is to be the Father of many nations.

Conclusion:

Listen Church:

God made a promise with Abraham that not only blessed him and his people immediately, but it blessed the whole world through the evntual birth of Jesus Christ. He also changed the world in so many ways....the Jews of Isaac and the Arabic peoples of Ishmael have been fighting for years over that same tract of land.

V. Point #3: The Miracle of Israel

And let’s look at the miracle of Israel for just one minute:

It’s the Revelation center of the earth…it’s where we got most of the Bible from. It’s the spiritual center…it’s where Jesus Christ was born, walked, taught, died and was resurrected…and it’s also the land He is coming back to soon as well...

Did you know that it was a Jew that financed Christopher Columbus’s voyage to find this New World? Did you know that on board that ship when Columbus set sail was a Jew and he was the first man to set foot upon these new shores? Did you know that? Did you know that a Jew, Hiram Solomon, financed George Washington and the Revolutionary War as we fought for our independence from the British? Did you know that? You don’t realize what an influence these people have had on your life. Have you ever taken aspirin when you have a headache? Bayer, a Jew, was the one who gave us aspirin. Have you ever had a vaccine for polio? Salk and Sabin were Jews. Have you had the need to take digitalis because you had a heart difficulty? Traube was a Jew. Have you gone to the dentist and let him put novocaine in your gums so as to deaden the pain? You can be very thankful then for Einhorn, a Jew. When you went to get married, you had to take a certain kind of a test, a blood test, the Wassermann Test: Wassermann, a Jew. You had an infection, and the doctor prescribed for you streptomycin. Waksman, a Jew, gave us that. Perhaps you have had difficulty and have gone to the psychiatrist and had psychoanalysis. Freud, a Jew, was the father of psychoanalysis. Perhaps you have given money to the Salvation Army to help people, or perhaps you’ve received help from the Salvation Army. The mother of William Booth, the Founder of the Salvation Army, was a Jewess. Perhaps you’ve gone to school and studied philosophy. Spinoza was a Jew. As a matter of fact, all of history revolves around the names of six Jews: Moses, Jesus, Paul, Marx, Freud, and Albert Einstein.

Israel becoming a nation again was an absolute miracle of God…please hear me when I say that. It was a military miracle. Now, did you know that when this nation was born there were approximately 650,000 Jews living in the nation Israel; in 1948, when the powers that be—the UN and so forth—declared the statehood of Israel? Six hundred and fifty thousand! How many people in the city of Memphis? About 650,000 here in the city limits. That’s about the size of the nation. A very easy comparison. Do you know what they were surrounded with? They were surrounded by forty million Arabs—650,000—forty million Arabs, forty million hostile people who vowed and declared that they would not establish a nation there and that they would be driven into the sea. And when you consider also at this particular time that twenty-four hours before this time a Jew could be arrested for even carrying a gun, and now he must defend himself against six Arab states. They went to work. They secreted guns around. They bought ammunition wherever they could. They took boilerplate and welded it to the side of school buses to make tanks. I’ve seen some of those old tanks that they made, handmade tanks built in garages. They took hose handles, broomsticks, anything that looked like a rifle barrel, and pretended it was a gun, so as to frighten the enemy if they could not shoot him. They used firecrackers instead of bullets to make it sound like the battle was even stronger and more fierce than it was. And the Arab legion attacked, and they came with all their fierceness. And they came from Iraq, from Lebanon, from Syria, from Egypt. They attacked. I don’t have time to tell you the miracles of some of those battles, because it’s interesting history, and I have studied it. But I want to tell you some of the most amazing things took place.

In one battle 20,000 Arabs were captured by four hundred Israelis. Can you imagine that? David and Goliath all over again. And by the time the UN, the United Nations, got around to calling for an armistice, these little people, who are supposed to be exterminated, were 150 miles into Egyptian territory and taking more ground every moment. How do you explain that? The only way I know is that that fight was fixed. How do you explain the Six-Day War in 1967? Lightning fast—just like that. And Jerusalem, the capital city that we’re going to talk about in just a moment, came into the hands of the Israelis. I can’t explain it any way except as a fulfillment of prophecy.

The Nobel Prize is one of the highest prizes that men of learning confer upon one another. In the last twenty-five years, one-third to one-fourth of the Nobel prizes have been given to these people who only represent four-tenths of one percent of the population. Why is this? I believe that God in a very special way has His hand upon these people. They are the people of destiny. They are his people. We are to protect them and support them.

Not only a military miracle; it was a sociological miracle. They came back to Israel from sixty-one different countries, and they spoke different languages. They had different backgrounds. One noted sociologist said, “It will take three generations for these people to become a nation.” He meant about one hundred years. Later on, this same noted sociologist came back and said, “I have to eat my words.” Do you know what language that they’re studying over there now? Do you know what language they are speaking? Hebrew. A hundred years ago, no one spoke Hebrew except an academic person. It was not the spoken language of any people; it was a dead language. No one knows anywhere where a dead language has ever been revived. But it is there. And do you know what’s happening? The little children are going to school and they are learning Hebrew in school. And then the children are coming back and teaching the mother and the father to speak in the native tongue. And did you know the Old Testament prophet Amos could come back to Tel Aviv and walk down the streets of Tel Aviv today and speak his Old Testament Hebrew and carry on a conversation with people today? A linguistic miracle. And I believe it’s what God is saying here, that God says, “I am going to give you this land as an everlasting possession.”

Israel is an agricultural miracle...Sixty percent of the rest of it is desert, and it’s a very small parcel of land, and it rains only in the winter. It’s very arid and very dry; and yet, with massive water projects, with horticulture, agriculture, and with irrigation, they are causing the desert to blossom as a rose.

The first cellphone…developed in Israel....a disposable camera the size of an asperin called the “pill cam” allows a person to swallow the camera like a pill and for doctors to see inside their bodies and diagnose diseases noninvasively....developed in Israel. The stent that has saved countless lives....Israel…software called a “firewall” that protects your computer from hackers....Israel. The USB flashdisk…Israel. The GPS that helps you navigate on the road with just your cellphone nowadays: Israel. Communications hardware that allows us to talk to the International Spacestation and our rockets in space…Israel....

On and on and on...

VI. Conclusion

a. Church listen to me....I don’t know where your faith is this morning....but if I ever need reassurance that there is a God and He’s got a plan…I read about Israel…a remakrable little nation the size of New Jersey....and even now, as terrorists have been relentlessly firing rockets into her airspace, she is still standing strong....A nation that Satan thought he destroyed....God brought back in 1948 from nothing.

God is good isn’t He?

b. Let’s Pray