A Promise Seemingly Unfulfilled...

During this summer at the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled Promise. During this series, we are looking at a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. In this series, have seen God engage a man named Abram. And as God engages Abram, we have seen that it is in God’s promises, and how we respond to God and His promises, that powerfully impact our lives as well.

This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we enter into this section of the book of Genesis, we are going to see the Lord engage Abram in another conversation. To fully understand this conversation, however, we first need to be reminded of the context in which this conversation takes place. Some 13 years before this story, in Genesis 15, we see God remind Abraham, who was 86 years old, of His promise to make Him a great nation that would leave a great legacy.

Abraham responds to God’s reminder with a question “How is my reward going to great? I am 86 and have no children. I am getting old. You are going to have to give the reward to servant.” God then makes an amazing and seemingly impossible promise to Abraham. Your servant will not be your heir. No, Abraham, you will have a child. And you will not have a small legacy. Your legacy, your descendants will be too great to count.

Abraham responded to God’s promise by believing God’s promise. Now the word believed here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is the same word for faith. It conveys the idea of entrusting oneself to someone in complete confidence. Abraham placed his compete confidence in God.

Now fast forward 13 years. Abraham is now 99 years old. It has been 24 years since God first engaged him in a conversation in Genesis 12. And Abraham still has had no children. For 24 years Abraham remembered God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations. For 24 years Abraham remembered God’s promise of being the forerunner and example that a multitude of nations would follow. And for 24 years that promise had remained unfulfilled. And it is in this context that we enter into this story in Genesis 17:1:

Now 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. "I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly."

Now imagine yourself as Abraham in this story. How would you respond? You have waited for 24 years as a promise remained unfulfilled. And after all that time, God visibly appears to you and makes the following statement: "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless”. Now it is important to understand that this statement is not a suggestion; this statement is a command. When God commands Abram to walk before Me and be blameless, this little phrase walk before me refers to how one conducts their day to day life. The word blameless literally means to have a sense of wholeness and completeness.

You see, God is not commanding Abram to be sinless, because Abram is not and cannot be sinless. Instead God is commanding Abram to live a life of faithfulness and integrity that was based on his relationship with God. Now place yourself in Abram’s shoes. How would you respond? What would you say? What questions would you have? We see Abram’s response in verse 3:

Abram fell on his face,

Abram fell on his face in an act of faithful and obedient worship. And as Abram bowed in worship before the Lord, the Lord continued to speak with Abram, which we see in the second half of verse 3:

and God talked with him, saying, "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. "I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Here we see the Lord remind Abram of His promise to him 24 years earlier: "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you”. Now the word covenant refers to an agreement entered into by two parties. In other words, the Lord is reminding Abram of the agreement and the promises that He had made to him.

And so that Abram would never forget God’s promise and God’s agreement with him, the Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which literally means father of a multitude. As Abraham lived a life of faithfulness and integrity in relationship with God, the result would be a family tree that would reached across continents and centuries. And from the family tree of Abraham there would arise nations and rulers of nations. You see, Abraham was given his name in order to identify himself as being the father of all the faithful, regardless of ethnicity or nationality.

And if that was not enough, God reminded Abraham of His promise that the land that he had first traveled to as an alien and had lived as a foreigner would become his and his descendants very own possession. Abraham and his descendants would become God’s chosen people and God’s very own possession.

Tomorrow, after reminding Abraham of His promise and His end of the agreement, we will see the Lord explain to Abraham how he was to respond to His promises….