Thirteen years after Ishmael's
birth, God appeared to Abraham again and reconfirmed His covenant
with Abraham. In the process of reconfirming the covenant, God
changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning the 'father of many'. He
also changed Sarai's name to Sarah, meaning 'princess'. He changed
it to 'princess', because she will be the mother of many nations,
and kings will be among her descendants! What a blessing.
And in this process of reconfirming
the covenant with Abraham, God also gave Abraham something to do.
God told Abraham the following:
"Your part of the agreement,"
God told Abraham, "Is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and
all your descendants have this continual responsibility. This is
the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male
among you must be circumcised; the flesh of his foreskin must be
cut off. This will be a sign that you and they have accepted this
covenant." Genesis 17:9-11
God gave Abraham also a part to
play. God will do the amazingly, 'impossible' thing of making
Abraham into a father of many nations and giving his descendants
the land, and Abraham had to obey and be circumcised and also
circumcise all the males in his household. How wonderful is
our God. He never gives us the difficult things to do, He wants us
to be obedient with what we can do, and then He will go forth and
do the 'impossible' for us.
God stepped forth and promised
Abraham descendants through his wife, Sarah. And when He did,
Abraham laughed to himself in disbelief. He couldn't believe it,
despite God Himself promising it to him. He was one hundred years
old and Sarah, ninety. It was truly difficult for him to fathom.
But God continued and promised him once again that Sarah will be
the one through whom His covenant will come to pass.
So basically here Abraham had a
choice. He could both continue in his unbelief and not trust God to
fulfil His promises, or he could accept the covenant and circumcise
all the males in his household. Abraham chose the latter and that
is why we still admire him to this day. Despite his unbelief,
despite the overwhelming odds against him, he decided to believe
God. Verse 23 says that Abraham circumcised all the males in his
household on that very same day. He didn't wait a moment longer,
but immediately acted on God's command. He chose against his
unbelief and he chose God.
Sometimes it is just as difficult
for us to trust God. Our unbelief hovers in our minds and it takes
control of our actions. It is difficult for us to trust God when
things seemingly go wrong, when things just don't go our way, when
promises of years gone by hasn't come to fulfilment. It is very
difficult and much easier to walk away from God and rather handle
situations on our own. But Abraham teaches us a valuable lesson.
Despite unbelief in our minds, we should still step forward and do
the right thing. Sometimes we will know what the right thing to do
is, God will lead us to it, but even if we don't know, we can
continue living according to His Word and live according to His
principles. The rewards for living according to His Word are
priceless. Do not allow your ego to get in the way of receiving all
that God has planned for you. Say 'no' to your 'carnal' mind and
'yes' to the Spirit inside. You will find that you will be enjoying
your life much more. You simply need to take the first step.
Thank you Father that You are
always faithful and true. Thank you that we can trust in You.
Please help us to take the first step in showing that we believe in
You, even if our flesh is screaming against it. Please give us the
strength, we want to follow You. In Jesus Name. Amen