Sign of the Covenant
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Relationships are hard
Relationships are hard
Relationships are much harder then we realize they are.
My dad always told me to do something right the first time, so you wouldn’t have to do it a second time.
Which is true when talking about building something, or working on a project.
But a relationship isn’t like a hot rod you are working on in the garage, or a shed you build in the backyard.
Relationships require frequent maintenance.
You may have done it right the first time, but you have to continue doing it right.
Our husbands and wives know what I’m talking about.
We have to repeat things in marriage.
Husbands, you need to frequently tell your wife you love her.
If you wife comes to you and says, “You never say you love me.”
You don’t get to say, “What more do you want? Didn’t I say that on our wedding day? Gosh, you’re so needy.”
Husbands, wives, confess your love to one another, and confess it frequently.
Parents, a kind encouraging word to your child can go a long way.
Don’t wait till you’re on your death bed to tell your kids you’re proud of them.
Frequently talk to your kids and tell them what they do that you like.
Part of training your children, discipling your children and raising them up to know the Lord, is not just disciplining them when they do something wrong, but applauding them when they do something right.
Christians, we need to frequently encourage one another.
Next time you read through the New Testament, note how many times we are called to love one another, and to encourage one another.
Why do we need to hear these things so often?
Because we forget.
We forget big truths.
We forget things that we should know.
Husbands you may think that your love for your wife is a big truth, but if we don’t talk about our love for our wives, I guarantee you she’ll forget that you do.
Parents, you may think your kids know you are proud of them since you haven’t had to spank them for a week, but I guarantee you they forget your pleasure in them if you don’t talk about it.
And Christians, you may think that your fellow church members know you like them, because you seek them out during the welcome and greeting time, but you’d be surprised, how many people feel neglected.
We need to frequently be reminded of big truths.
Which brings us to today’s text, God reminds Abraham of some important things.
Because even in our relationship with God, we forget great truths.
That’s why so much stuff that we talk about isn’t new, it shouldn’t be new.
But it’s stuff that we forget.
God frequently reminded people of His authority, of His expectations and what He will do, because we forget.
And we too need to be reminded of these things.
Over the years, I’ve had people come to me and say why do I continue to preach repentance and talk of sin.
Because we forget.
Sin creeps into our life, and we succumb to it.
We forget how awful it is.
We need to continue to repent.
If the talk of sin and calling people to repent offends you, think of Abraham.
As we look at our text he’s 99 years old.
A man who has been blessed by God.
A special man.
Yet, he’s not immune to forgetting things and needing to be reminded by God.
If Abraham, who’s a special guy, needs to be reminded of God’s authority, and the call to be blameless ...
If this man who is certainly, more blessed than you, needs these reminders, then let’s humbly approach God’s word and be reminded as well.
So let’s open our Bibles to .
Let’s look at verses 1-8, we will finish the passage next week.
Read
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
(ESV) — 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God reminds Abraham of the parties in the Covenant
God reminds Abraham of the parties in the Covenant
We learn in verse 1 of our text that Abraham is 99 years old.
Our little boy is growing up.
When we first met him he was 75.
The last time we saw him he was 86, and he had just become the father of Ishmael.
It’s been 13 years, since we’ve heard anything.
Abraham is a special guy though.
He has had many encounters with God.
These are things that should not be easily forgotten.
And yet when it comes to Abraham, he seems to forget.
He has had many encounters with God.
These are not small things.
Isaiah, found himself before God and he trembled.
And yet, Abraham forgets these life altering occasions.
He needs to be reminded of what God has promised him.
Verse 1, God appears to Abraham, and the first thing He reminds Abraham of is the parties of the covenant, who is who in this deal.
The first person in this party is God.
Look how He describes Himself in verse 1, “I am God Almighty.”
In the Bible names mean something.
In just a little while, Abram will receive a new name, the one we know him by, Abraham, and that name means something.
Just as the names of people mean something, the names of God mean something.
Here, He is called God Almighty, or El Shaddai.
El - means God.
Shaddai - focuses on the power of God.
There is none like Him.
He is Almighty.
Why is this important?
Because as God makes this covenant between Himself and Abraham, it’s not two equal parties coming together to make a deal.
There is God Almighty, El Shaddai, the one who is all powerful.
And He sets the terms.
He is the deal maker.
This is how it’s going to be.
Then the other party is Abraham.
God says He is God Almighty, then He says to Abraham “walk before me, and be blameless”.
Yes, that is a command, but it’s also a description.
It’s a description of man.
God says, walk before me.
To walk is to live ones life.
It’s a description of our life as a whole.
It’s how we go through life.
Snakes crawl through life.
Fish swim through life.
We walk through.
Walking is our life.
Abraham is to walk, to live his life, before God.
Before God, means in the face of God, in the presence of God.
Abraham is going to live his life, walk through his life in the full view of God.
There is no where he can escape from the presence of God.
God is saying, I see you everywhere you go.
That’s a statement of authority.
If I said, motion with fingers “I’m watching you”, or “I’m gonna keep my eye on you” that means I have some kind of authority over your life, and you can’t escape me.
You may not see me, but I see you.
We can either embrace that truth, or we can resist it, but it’s true either way.
says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
God is saying this to remind Abraham of who is who.
God is God, the Almighty.
And Abraham is someone that God is over, that He watches.
Then God tells Abraham to be blameless.
Again it’s a command.
But it’s also a statement of purpose.
That word blameless is a word that describes quality or worth.
It’s used to describe the animals that were given in sacrifices.
They were to be flawless, and without any birth defects, they were to be blameless.
It was used to describe an animal that was going to be sold.
The animal that is on display is inspected to see if there are any flaws, and disfigurements, something that would lower it’s value.
And the more flawless it is, the more blameless it is, the more valuable it is.
This is the same word that is described for Abraham.
And Abraham is a sinner.
He is not blameless.
We’ve seen his sins in our brief time in Genesis.
But God’s purpose is for him to be blameless.
Which may I tell you is also God’s purpose for us as well.
He desires for us to be blameless.
And, like Abraham, we are sinners.
If you were inspected like a cattle on the auction block, and if your obedience to God was the litmus test, you’d fail miserably.
And yet, through Christ’s death, the believer’s sins are removed.
describes God’s purpose, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
This is God’s purpose for His people.
This is a statement of intent, because God is going to take this flawed man, and make something of him, He’s going to improve his quality.
And God is doing the same for us.
God doesn’t save us to remain exactly how we were.
says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
He is shaping us.
He is making us into something.
We have been saved, we are being created in Christ Jesus for good works.
God has saved us for a purpose.
That we would walk before Him.
And that we would be blameless.
Valuable.
Of use to Him.
This opening point reminds us that there are primarily two parties in this covenant.
God and Abraham.
God is the Almighty.
Abraham is the lesser, who God watches, and is shaping and expecting to be blameless.
Then we move into the next few verses where God reminds Abraham of the Covenant itself.
Then we move into the next few verses where God reminds Abraham of the Covenant itself.
We know the parties, but what is the covenant?
This is seen in verses 2-7.
This is a unique covenant.
Remember, God is setting the terms.
God is saying you are my project.
And here he lays out what He will do.
Which, before we even look at it, we need to remember, that the Gospel, our hope isn’t in what we will do, but in what God does.
We don’t talk about what God does enough.
We need to hear it more often, because we are prone to forget these things.
God says that He will multiply Abram greatly.
This is in itself is not new.
Back in , God said, “I will make of you a great nation ...”
But now, then in verse 4, God gives even more details.
He says that Abraham will become the father of a multitude of nations.
Then to drive this point home, God changes the name of Abram to what we know him as, Abraham.
Abraham means Father of a Multitude.
The renaming of Abraham drives home the point that God has authority over Abraham.
In this culture when a man names his son, he claims authority over him.
But in this instance, God is naming Abraham.
So in essence, while Abraham is the father of a multitude of nations, God is the Father of all things.
In a couple months we will into the Christmas season.
There’s that song, Mary, Did you Know?
It’s kind of a sweet song, though it was overplayed … like all Christmas songs … in its heigh day.
The song is really a series of questions that someone would like to ask Mary.
They are questions that ponder the life of Jesus, but from the view point of a mother.
“Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?”
“Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all Creation?”
By the way the answer to these questions is yes, she knew.
If you read the Magnificat, , you’ll see that she knew a lot about Jesus.
When it comes to this promise to Abraham, I think we should write our own version of the song, and title it Abraham did you know?
When God said that he would become the father of many nations, and that kings would come from him, I wonder if Abraham knew just how spectacular that promise was.
When we say that Abraham would become the father of many nations, our initial thought is thinking of Ishmael and Isaac.
Ishmael was promised at the end of chapter 16 to become the father of a great nation.
And then of course, the promised son, Isaac, becomes the grandfather of the 12 men who in turn become the 12 tribes of Israel.
But Abraham becomes much more than the father of the semitic peoples of the earth.
This Kingdom was originally promised only to Israel, but now it is including even the outsiders.
Because of the affects of the Gospel, God is even now, grafting in, adopting, bringing, the Gentiles into His Kingdom.
And guess what, if you are a believer … you are a part of Abraham’s offspring, you are one of his.
says, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
You see I have a special affinity to what we are reading here in , because its about me, and it’s about you.
The other part of the promise given to Abraham is that kings shall come from him.
His future descendants will include the kings of Israel.
Some of the most famous kings include Saul, David, and Solomon, they are descendants of Abraham.
Yet, tucked away in the kings is a promise that was given to David about a future king.
says, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
That son of David was not Solomon.
It was and is Jesus Christ.
When God promised Abraham that kings would come from him, I wonder if Abraham knew that God meant the 2nd member of the Trinity would put on flesh and live among men and be their king?
God then tells Abraham the terms of the covenant.
God then tells Abraham the terms of the covenant.
When humans make covenants, they are limited.
A cell phone contract is 2 years?
A financed car is 5 years.
A home loan is 30 years.
Marriage is till death do us part.
But when God makes this promise how long is it?
You see the answer at the end of verse 7, and then at the end of verse 8.
God says it is an everlasting covenant.
Notice who is doing the work here … God.
“I will make you exceedingly fruitful ...”
“I will make you into nations...”
“I will establish my covenant...”
I sometimes say that I want to write a book called A But God Theology because those words But God are so important throughout the Bible.
After I finish that book, the follow up hit will be called I Will and it will describe God’s actions to us.
Because my hope stands in those words of God, I will.
And this promise still stands.
God promises Abraham’s descendants an everlasting covenant.
Right now Christianity may primarily be a Gentile religion, but the day is coming when Abraham’s physical descendants, the Jews, Israel, will experience a revival, and turn to Christ.
God hasn’t abandoned the descendants of Abraham.
There are elect Jews who will be grafted back into the kingdom of God.
says, “For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.”
There are elect Jews who will be grafted back into the kingdom of God.
God even says that the land will be an everlasting possession for his people.
Though at this time, Abraham is a sojourner, a traveler, his descendants will occupy the land in the future.
We see a taste of it during Joshua, and into the time of the kings, when they moved into the Promised Land, but they never fully occupied the land.
But the day is coming when Christ will return, and He will conquer the land, and His people will possess all of it.
The application here is that God is building a people.
The application here is that God is building a people.
And yes this is an application.
God is building a nation through Abraham.
But God never intends to merely watch these people the way we watch fish in a fish tank.
The end of verse 8 says, “and I will be their God.”
God intends to have a relationship with these people, He intends to be involved in the lives of these people.
God is making a people who will identify in Him.
They will say, “We are God’s people” and live in fear of Him.
Do you identify in Him?
When God first spoke to Abraham in our passage, Abraham fell on his face.
He laid prostrate before the Lord in worship.
Declaring his humility and lowliness before God.
Do you say you are a part of His kingdom?
How do you respond to the authority of God over your life?
Have you ever identified in His Kingdom?
Abraham, laid on the ground in worship.
I’d say we need to have that same heart.
says “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If you identify with being a part of the Kingdom of God, then you remove any claim to goodness on your own and instead throw yourself at the mercy of God.
If you’ve never done this, it’s so critical to do this.
If you’ve never been baptized, then this is an important part of this as well.
says that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,”.
Baptism is a part of identifying with this kingdom.
But it’s not just a part of saying do you believe in Jesus.
Our text is very possessive.
God says, and I will be their God.
That’s a possessive statement.
It’s knowing that I belong to Him as a slave belongs to a master.
There is ownership here.
And so we go back to what started this whole thing, we look back at verse 1, where God identified the parties, what is man called to do?
We acknowledge God as the Almighty.
We refuse to restrict His power.
, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
So as you read through the Bible ...
Which hopefully you are doing daily
You surrender to the words found within and acknowledge them to be true and to be trusted.
Walk before God and be blameless.
says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
How do we do this?
We throw off the idea that your life belongs only to you.
And you see that you live your life under Him.
Then we pursue blamelessness.
This is done in a two fold way.
By repenting of sin and pursuing holiness.
Pursuing holiness.
So think about what your sin is.
Men what is your sin?
Women what is your sin?
Go to battle against it.
But also remember, that God is shaping you into something better, for His service.
Blameless was a term of quality and worth.
You are worth something to God.
Paul was a chosen instrument to preach the Gospel.
You also are a chosen instrument for God’s purpose.
What is He shaping you into?
How has He gifted you?
And how can you put it into action?
Pray