Faith And The Unseen

Song: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee

Scripture: Genesis 17:1-27

Twenty-four years Abram had sojourned in Canaan before God appeared to him and ordained the covenant of circumcision. Thirteen years had passed since God last spake to the patriarch. In that span, Abram had begotten a son by Hagar. Over thirteen years earlier, God had said that one from Abram’s own body would be his heir. Abram had set his heart on Ishmael. God had already promised that Abram would father a great nation. Now He promised that Abram would father “a multitude of nations,”and so renamed him Abraham, “father of a multitude.” He also added that kings would come from Abraham.

Then God made the covenant of circumcision. The Hebrew idiom for making a covenant is to “cut a covenant.” This covenant was cut, not in stone, but in the flesh of Abraham’s seed, and in that part of the flesh witnessing the fulfillment of God’s oath. But the most startling news, was the promise that God’s covenant would be satisfied, not through Ishmael, but in a son born to Sarah! Abraham laughed, but then went to his house and that same day circumcised himself, Ishmael, his 318 fighting men, and every servant born or bought in his house.

Men cut covenants with men, but God cut a covenant with sinners. And the sinner Abraham was justified by his obedience to a covenant that testified to his faith in a promise which, after twenty-five years, must have seemed an impossibility.

Jason Moore