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Studies in Genesis, God’s Will Be Done, Lesson XL, Genesis 17:1-27
Our study today should bring to your mind the absolute truth that God is all in all, meaning there is nothing, absolutely nothing without God.
This Bible we study, this book we have before us, this book we understand to be the very Word of God clearly confirms the absolute, total sovereignty of God over His creation, and in fact over everything.
It confirms God’s complete holiness, and, at the same time, the full responsibility of human beings given to know right from wrong and expected to do right under God’s sovereignty.
God’s Holy Word, God’s gift to man, clearly reveals and affirms that God works all things after the counsel of His will, not man’s will.
The Apostle Paul, the great student and author of God’s Word under the agency of the Holy Spirit wrote to the Ephesians (Ephesus, once a Greek city, presently in Turkey) in chapter 1, verses 10 and 11:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
As Sovereign He has created all things to obey Him, all things to submit to His sovereignty, for we are told every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
If you have not bowed your knee to Him it is wise and prudent to do that today for you will one time or the other!
The Old Testament is much neglected and therefore an understanding of the sovereignty of God is sometimes lacking and therefore man chooses to go his own way thus refusing to obey, fearing not what is to come. Again “afterward” comes to mind!
The proverbs say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
But to fear the Lord is to know his sovereignty, his absolute power over every atom, every molecule, every blood cell, every heart that at His Word would disappear.
For by Him all things consist, not some things consist, but all things.
Genesis, chapter 17 clearly displays the sovereignty of God for we see in this chapter a God who brings a man named Abram to Himself and declares his will in no uncertain terms and overrules the man’s will to bring about His own will. So, let us read Chapter 17 in its entirety to get the fullness of the message from our Sovereign God.Genesis 17:1-27, And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. 15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. 24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
We see in this chapter two Truths, the absolute, total sovereignty of God and the full responsibility of a man under that sovereignty the ability to discern right from wrong and to be held accountable for his or her own actions. (We are not made robots, but the devil desires to make us such)
Abram is ninety-nine years old and his son Ishmael is thirteen.
God appears to Abram saying, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
He then clearly spells out what he will do with and for Abram.
This is the sovereign God commanding a man who has been created to discern right from wrong and to obey, for God has made him thus.
But where is free will in this occurrence?
God does not ask Abram’s opinion.
He does not ask, how Abram, meaning High Father, likes his new name Abraham, meaning father of a multitude.
He simply commands, for as Sovereign, Abraham’s opinion is not relevant for he is one predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
And the commands keep coming from the sovereign for Abraham has been chosen to be the father of many nations and God will bring that about.He has been chosen to keep God’s covenant whereby this covenant is to be verified by the act and the bodily mark of circumcision otherwise that soul will be cut off from his people. God herein declares an Absolute!
Abram not only has to get used to his new name Abraham, his wife Sarai, meaning princess, now is to be called Sarah, mother of Nations, a name attached to God’s promises.
And to begin the process toward the nations He tells Abraham that He will give him a son by Sarah.
Of course, this news astounds Abraham who pleads with the sovereign, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
But Ishmael is the son of the flesh, made by the act of a man attempting to do the will of God without God. (A very popular idea!)
Therefore, the Sovereign denies Abraham’s plea and chooses to establish His covenant with a man yet unborn, a son unnamed by Abraham, a man-child God declares to be Isaac.
This chapter then is a clear exposition of God accomplishing His sovereign purpose with God giving responsibility to his people to obey in the keeping of His covenant.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived concluded this to be so when he wrote in Ecc.12:13,
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
So, God appears, coming in the name of God Almighty, to a man named Abram, who is obviously satisfied in his son Ishmael by Hagar.
Coming in the name of God Almighty means He comes as El Shaddai.
God comes to men with different names to match the “why” He has come.
He comes as El Elyon, the Most High God, He comes as Adonai which means Master, He comes as Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Will Provide, and He comes as Jesus, The God who saves.
It is obvious from the text that El Shaddai, God Almighty means the Sovereign One, the One who commands in all things, the One who has all might.
He comes telling Abram what He as God is going to do and how he expects Abram to obey.
So, He brings a name identifying Himself as the One who has all power to carry out His purposes and promises.
And Abram responds correctly to the Sovereign by falling on his face before God for this El Elyon, the most High God, is a commanding God repeatedly saying I will, you shall, I will bless, I will establish.
There is no counsel sought from Abram for all is announced, all is commanded, all is revealed by a God of purpose and plan established without one iota of input from man.
God appeared to Abram without being asked for God chose His timing.
He began and ended this meeting by His own will.
God’s sovereignty means that God, not man, determines the course of human history working it out according to His time-table and His way, without benefit from any of His creation.
God sovereignly chose Abram when he was dwelling in Ur of the Chaldees, when he was living in a household that served other gods.
He did not choose his father or his brothers, but he specifically choose Abram.
Ishmael was presented to God but was rejected as a son of man, not the son of God promised to Abram, a son to be named Isaac.
Later in God’s book we will see the astounding words, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.
We who dwell on fairness cannot fathom how God could say that, but our dwelling of fairness is self-erected while neglecting to believe in the absolute sovereignty of God.
It is God’s prerogative to save some from many.
Bringing fairness into the discussion of salvation infers that men and women deserve to be saved.
Ishmael did not deserve to be saved, Isaac did not deserve to be saved.
Both deserved God’s judgment but God chose to save Isaac and God chose Isaac as the promised seed, rejecting Ishmael whom Abram loved, a love proved by his pleading to God in verse 18.
O that Ishmael might live before thee! |