The Covenant Of Circumcision - Clover Sites



The Covenant Of CircumcisionText: Genesis 17:1–27Will Stachofsky story.Today’s text is about God’s covenant of circumcision with Abram. The main point is this: God remained faithful to his promises even though Abraham lapsed into the disobedience of unbelief. Context: In chapter fifteen God promised to make Abram’s descendants as numerous as the stars of the Sky. Abram believed and God credited his faith to him as righteousness. God then “cut” a covenant with Abram. Ten years passed. Abraham is now 86. Sarah became discouraged, and she manipulated Abram to go in to her maid, Hagar, to produce a son for her. Hagar conceived Ishmael. He was a byproduct of unbelief. Pastor Dave preached that story to us last week. Now another thirteen years have passed. Abram has invested himself in Ishmael. He loves him. He is convinced that Ishmael is the son that will inherit God’s promise. Abraham is 99. Sarah is 90 and post menopausal. Conceiving and bearing children is physically impossible. Now, when because they are utterly impotent, God comes to Abram, renews the promise, expands the promise, and asks Abraham to mark himself with a covenant sign testifying to his confidence in God’s faithfulness. The main point of chapter 17 is this: God remained faithful to his promises even when Abraham lapsed into the disobedience of unbelief. God’s Faithfulness God comes to Abram and renews his promises. While he is at it he also embellishes and expands the promises. Many commentators see this chapter as the Mount Everest of God’s promises to Abraham. The promises receive no expansion or further repetition after this. God’s Faithfulness to Abram4-8 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.” 19-22 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” 22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. This passage is a restatement of old promises and an expansion of those promises. God promises Abraham that he will become “the Father of a multitude of nations.” In Gen 12 God called Abram and told him “I will make of you a great nation” (singular). Now God expands the promise to “father of a multitude of nations “(plural). To reflect this reality, God changed his name to Abraham. (“Father of a multitude”). This is why the Jews called him “father Abraham.” In addition, God promises that “Kings shall come from you.” This is new. It was implied in the promise to make Abram into a great nation, but now God clearly states it. It is not a king. It is kings plural. God also promises to “bless” Ishmael. (This should surprise us. Ishmael was a son of Ham, and he was also the result of Abraham’s unbelief. God shows himself to be gracious and compassionate).The punch line comes in vs. 19, and it is significant: “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant.”God’s Faithfulness to Sarai 15-16 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” In the ancient world women had little status. They were chattel. But in this passage God demonstrates his love and esteem for the female sex. He makes promises to Abraham’s wife, Sarai. Sarah is age 90 and post menopausal, yet God promises that she will conceive within the year. Like Abraham she will be the mother of nations. Kings will come from her. To signify her new status, God changes her name to Sarah, which means “Princess.” Here again God’s grace should astound us. Why? In the affair with Hagar Sarah encouraged Abraham to doubt God’s promises. She motivated the doubt that produced Ishmael. Yet, God remains faithful even when Abraham and Sarah are unfaithful. God’s Covenant: CircumcisionRemember back to Genesis 15. There Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. God “cut a covenant” with Abraham, but only God passed through the animals. However, God now adds a condition to the covenant. 10-11 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” Why was circumcision the sign of the covenant? At least two reasons—1st Circumcision was costly. Grace is free. It cannot be earned. But it is never cheap. Grace always demands sacrifice. But the sacrifice is always one we can afford. (Hope Diamond Anecdote). 2nd Circumcision made a statement. Statement One: The promises were all of grace to be received by faith. God commanded Abraham to circumcise (mildly mutilate) the organ through which the miracle, the seed of life, would come. However, in Abraham’s case this organ was incapable of producing life. Circumcision was a mark on the male organ reminding everyone that Isaac was a miracle baby—a gift of faith. Abraham was to circumcise himself before Sarah conceived. Therefore, circumcision was to be a continual reminder to Israel that they lived by grace, not by works, by God’s faithfulness, not by human effort. (Jacob’s dislocated hip made the same statement). Statement Two: Circumcision was like a spiritual tattoo pointing to an inward spiritual heart-circumcision. Again, circumcision marked the physical organ through which physical life passes. As such, it made a second statement. Just as physical life proceeds from the physical organ circumcised, so spiritual life flows out of a circumcised heart. Pr 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Therefore, the law and prophets constantly spoke of the need for a circumcised heart. It was the reality that physical circumcision pointed to. Ultimately, it is what wants from his people. (Deuteronomy 10:16) "16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn."(Jeremiah 4:4) "4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”"However, there was a problem. The Jews could not circumcise their hearts. Human effort or determination cannot change hearts. Only God can change hearts. That is why Paul describes New Birth in terms of heart circumcision. (Romans 2:28–29) "28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God."Abraham’s FicklenessLike us Abraham was a mixture of belief and unbelief. He was spiritually fickle! However, despite his failings God was faithful. Abraham responded to God’s revelation three ways—two were bad, and one was good. Abraham responds with Laughter17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Abraham is astounded. God has promised him a miracle-baby through Sarah. Up to now he has thought the promises would be realized through Ishmael. God’s promise is so ridiculous that he bursts into laughter. So God gives the promised son the name Isaac, which means “laughter.” Abraham asks God to choose Ishmael The “father of faith” panics. He has given thirteen years to his only son, Ishmael. As we have seen, he loves him. He has invested himself in the boy. Ishmael is his pride and joy. Since Sarah is 90 and childless Abraham has assumed that Sarah was right to give him Hagar. He has assumed that Ishmael is the answer to God’s promises. Now the terrible thought comes to him. “Sarah was wrong. You have sinned. You acted in sinful unbelief. Ishmael is not the chosen one. God is going to give you a son through Sarah. This means he is going to discard Ishmael.”18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” In other words, I don’t care about Isaac. God, what about Ishmael? Now begins the pain of withdrawal. Abraham will reap what he has sown. David was right last week. The pain of Abraham’s sin will be excruciating. The cost will be great. Ultimately, he will need to reject Ishmael and transfer his hopes to Isaac. So it is with each of us when unbelief motivates us to take matters into our own hands. Notice: God does not withdraw his love from Abraham. Despite Abraham’s unbelief, God was faithful to his servant. But now Abraham must reap what he has sown, and it will be costly. The Obedience of Faith 23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Even though Abraham had lapsed into the disobedience of unbelief in the affair with Hagar, God’s word revived his faith. Faith motivated him to circumcise himself and his entire household.Abraham’s act of obedience evidenced the presence of justifying faith. It said: “Abraham has a circumcised heart.” Three Applications God will be faithful to his promises even though you and I lapse into the disobedience of unbelief. All of God’s Promises to Abraham Find Fulfillment in the Gospel God promised that Kings (plural) would descend from Abraham. He promised that nations (Plural) would descend from Abraham. Israel was one nation with one king. The fulfillment of these promises was a mystery concealed from the Jews. God concealed it’s fulfillment in the gospel. How did this work?Ultimately, Jesus was the Son to whom Abraham’s promises applied. Gal 3:16 “Now the promises were to Abraham and to his offspring…who is Christ.” For example, the promise that Abraham would father many nations, not just 1 nation, Israel, was fulfilled through his ultimate Son, Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said— (Matthew 28:19–20) "19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”"Through Jesus God’s promise that Israel would inherit the land became a promise that “Spiritual Israel would inherit the world.” Canaan was much too small. Here is the context. On the sixth day of creation God commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth (not Canaan) with God’s image (glory) (Gen 1:26-28). To accomplish this God’s promises to Abram culminated in his ultimate son, Jesus Christ. On the basis of his cross Jesus has inherited the earth. (Psalm 2:7–9) "7 The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”"(Romans 4:13) "13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith."The proclamation of the Gospel brings to fulfillment God’s promises to Abraham that he would father “nations.” Nations meant the entire earth. s and that his descendants would be uncountable. You and I become sons of Abraham through the gospel. How can this be? Answer: Our faith unites us with Christ. He is a Son of Abraham. Therefore, in God’s sight, we become Sons of Abraham. Jesus told the Jews that being a descendant of Abraham was not racial but spiritual. Everyone with Abraham’s faith is a son of Abraham. Membership in Israel is not racial. It is spiritual. (Galatians 3:7–9) “7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. There are 2 billion sons of Abraham alive today. In summary: through the gospel Abraham becomes the father of many nations, he inherits the earth not just Canaan, and his descendants become too many to count. God has been faithful to fulfill his promise to Abraham despite our many lapses and failures. The Cross is the Measure of God’s Faithfulness. The main point of today’s sermon is that God is faithful even when we are not. God the Father sent his Son to die so that he could fulfill his promises to Abraham. The cross is the measure of God’s passion to be faithful to Abraham. God was able to fulfill his promises to Abraham because he crucified Abraham’s unfaithfulness at the cross. (Romans 3:25–26) "25 [The Cross] was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."God could not fulfill his promises to Abraham except his sins be atoned for. In other words, God would rather “crush” his Son at the cross than let one of his promises to Abraham fall to the ground. In the same way, God would rather “crush” his Son than let one of his promises to you and I fall to the ground. How should we respond? Security. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Imitation. Do we take our commitments as seriously as does God? Is your word your bond? The gospel says, “God’s word is his bond. If we are his servants, our word should also be our bond.” Marriage Covenant? Appointments? Commitments to children? Legal Contracts, Church membership agreements, etc. Circumcision Find’s fulfillment in Baptism. God makes great promises to us. He promises that he we will be his people. He promises to forgive us. He promises to credit our faith to us as righteousness. He promises to admit us into his presence eternally at the expense of his Son. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He promises to resurrect us a New Heaven and Earth where we will live forever. As he did with Abraham, God will be faithful to us even when our faith wavers. All he asks is that we believe the gospel, repent of all known sin, and submit to the covenant sign, baptism. Like circumcision, baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality—a circumcised heart. It is a spiritual tattoo that says, “This person has a circumcised hear.” i.e. New Birth! Like circumcision, baptism can be very costly. Baptism does not save, but an unwillingness to be publicly baptized begs the question—has that the heart been circumcised? Has this one been truly saved. Why? A circumcised heart is soft toward God. It wants to obey him, and the first thing God commands is to do is be baptized. If you have not been baptized, talk to me or one of the Elders afterwards. The whole point of today’s story is that God was faithful despite Abraham’s vacillation, but Abraham obeyed the covenant of circumcision. ................
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