OVERVIEW:
Hagar gives birth to Ishmael; Abram’s name changed; the covenant of circumcision; Sarai’s name changed; Isaac promised to Abraham and Sarah; Abraham’s prayer for Sodom.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
God had already promised Abram a son (15:4), but 10 long years had passed, and Abram and Sarai were still childless, and neither of them were a spring chicken at this point! Abram was 85 and Sarai was 76!
Rather than trust the word of God by faith, Sarai turned to the world for help and sought to fulfill God’s will in the power of the flesh. Sarai offered Abram her personal Egyptian maid, Hagar, to be assured of a seed for Abraham. (Note: The Hurrian laws from that period describe this as a custom of the day. If a son was born of that union, he would legally be regarded as the wife’s.) At the age of 86, Abram did receive a son, Ishmael, by Hagar.
Sarai’s dreadful decision (and Abram’s willful compliance!) points to one of the most difficult lessons of the Christian life: learning to wait upon the Lord! (Isaiah 28:16) Sometimes God places us in a position of testing our faith, and we may have to wait two weeks, two years, or as in Abram’s case, 25 years(!!!) for our prayer to be answered, or for God’s promise to be fulfilled.
The product of Abram and Sarai’s decision to run ahead of God, attempting to carry out God’s will through carnal means, should teach us that there are painful consequences of trusting the power of the flesh. To this day, Ishmael (the Arabs) and Isaac (the Jews) are in conflict with each other (and many times war!), and the conflict will continue until the second coming of Christ. It illustrates perfectly the principle of Galatians 5:17: “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other…” We would do well to ask ourselves: “What prayer am I trusting God to answer, or what promise am I trusting God to fulfill in which I might be tempted to get ahead of God and try to bring about in the power of the flesh?”
By the time we come to chapter 17, recognize that Abram was 99 years old and Sarah was 90. Obviously, it is humanly impossible for Sarah to give birth to a child. But God revealed something tremendously significant to Abraham in 17:1! God said, “I am the Almighty God…” In chapter 18 and verse 14 God appears to him again, and asks, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” Oh, may we remember that today with the prayer we’re trusting God to answer and/or the promise we’re trusting God to fulfill! Jesus said in Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God!”
Note that through Ishmael and Isaac, God is already teaching us “the” most important truth in all of scripture! The fact that He rejects the first birth (that which is born of the flesh), and accepts the second birth: that which is impossible with men but is possible only with God—the spiritual birth! (See John 3:3-6)
Some other interesting things to note…
In the same way that God gives Abram a seal of His covenant with him, in 17:10–14 (circumcision), God gives to those of us who are children of Abraham by faith in Christ (Romans 4:11–13; Galatians 3:7), a seal of His covenant with us—the Holy Spirit! (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30)
God changed the name of Abram and Sarai. Abram, which means “high father,” is changed to Abraham, meaning “father of many nations,” reflecting his new relationship with God and his new identity based on God’s promise of seed. Sarai, which means, “my princess,” is changed to Sarah, which simply means “princess”. The limiting personal pronoun “my” is dropped from the meaning of her name since she would become the ancestress of the promised nations and kings. Note, also, that in the same way God changed their names, as the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16), God changed our name the moment we placed our faith in Christ, reflecting our new relationship with Him, and our new identity in Him! (Acts 11:26; Revelation 3:12)
God enters into an everlasting, unconditional covenant with Abraham. (17:7–8) The promise of God to Abraham wasn’t dependent upon Abraham’s faithfulness to God, but, rather, the faithfulness of God to His own name, and His faithfulness to the promise of His word to Abraham. Once again, in that same way, as Abraham’s children (Galatians 3:6–7), God likewise entered into an everlasting, unconditional covenant with us! Hallelujah! (John 3:16; Romans 8:37–39) God’s promise of salvation to us is not dependent upon our faithfulness to God (or we’d all lose it!) but is based upon God’s faithfulness to His own name, and His faithfulness to the promise of His word to us. Praise the Lord!
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As the ANGEL OF THE LORD – Genesis 16:7
Note: The angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those, like Hagar in this passage, who had an encounter with the angel of the Lord recognized that in seeing this angel, they had seen God. (Genesis 22:11–18; 31:11–13; Exodus 3:2–5; Numbers 22:22–35; Judges 6:11–23; 13:2–5; 1st Kings 19:5–7) Interestingly, the angel of the Lord does not appear in the Bible after the birth of Christ!
As the SEED OF ISAAC – Genesis 17:19 (Luke 2:23–24; Hebrews 11:18)