Believing God's Promise

Genesis 17:1-14;22-27

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

Many people feel very anxious when encounter challenges in life. And when anxiety becomes so intense, one will see himself as a failure; he may have doubts as to whether God is still caring for him. Worse still, some might lose their faith in God altogether.

As a result, they choose to go on their own ways, taking things into their own hands so as to escape from failure or disaster. This is actually due to lack of trust in God. The reality is our God is faithful and He shall keep His covenant with us and He shall fulfill His promises to take care of us.

We shall learn some faith lessons from Abraham, because he had sufficient faith to overcome his crisis and challenges in life and trust God to fulfill His promises to him.

Abram was now already ninety-nine years old, but the child who was promised to him was yet to be born. One day, God appeared to Abram and told him, “I am El-Shaddai—God Almighty, serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.”

This name for God emphasizes his power. Abram, being a blessing to the nations required obedience from him; he needed to walk with the Lord, his conduct would be guided by Almighty God.

God has the same message for us today. We are to trust and obey the Lord in every respect because He is God—that is reason enough. If you don’t think the benefits of obedience are worth it, consider who God is—the only one with the power and ability to meet your every need.

This time, God also reaffirmed His covenant with Abram. Twice before, he had mentioned the covenant with Abram (Genesis 12 and 15). Here, however, God was bringing His covenantal promises into focus and preparing to carry it out.

God revealed to Abram several specific parts of his covenant: (1) God would give Abram many descendants; (2) many nations would descend form him; (3) God would maintain his covenant with Abram’s descendants; (4) God would give Abram’s descendants the land of Canaan.

In the Bible, people’s names were very important—a name described a person’s character or experience. Therefore, God guaranteed his promise by changing Abram’s name (which meant “exalted father”) to Abraham (which meant “father of many”). Whenever the new name was used, he and his household would remember that a multitude of nations would issue from him.

Abraham lived in doubts and anxieties as the promised son was yet to be born. However, God reaffirmed the assurance of His covenant with him. Abraham just needed to trust and obey God and to walk with Him.

In this respect, God further instituted the rite of circumcision as a mark and terms of His covenant with Abraham. God demanded that all the males in the house of Abraham, inclusive of himself, had to go through circumcision.

Circumcision serves as a sign that confirms and reminds all households are descendant of Abraham and to be loyal to the covenant with God.

However, circumcision, like all the rest of the covenantal signs, could be abated as low as an empty rite. In order to be significant and meaningful, circumcision has to go hand in hand with faith. That is to say, one shall identify with Abraham not just physically but spiritually.

For Deuteronomy 30:6 says:

“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”

The Law of Moses informs us that God will also circumcise the hearts of men, so that men can be faithful to Him. It is a sign for people to be set apart from the world, a sign of purity and faithfulness. It is a sign of pledging our allegiance to God of the covenant.

What was Abraham’s response to God?

Very importantly, he complied with God’s instruction. He immediately circumcised all the males in his household including himself, as a way of responding to God who made the covenant with him, even when he was in the midst of doubt, anxiety and failure.

Abraham completely trusted in God. Faith in God in the times of Old Testament was to believe that God would fulfill whatever He had promised. Circumcision is an outward action that expresses one’s inner faith, a way to trust God to fulfill His promise.

The lesson behind circumcision, both for the people of God in the Old and New Testament, is a “circumcision of heart’, that one has to live to trust God and His promises, be loyal to his covenant.

Today in the New Testament church, we observe two sacraments which also require us to trust and obey God.

Firstly, Holy Communion is a sign of the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 11:25 says that, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

When we observe communion as a church, it serves as a sign that New Testament’s believers are united in the community of faith in Christ. We do that to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ did sacrifice His life for us, and He waited for the day when He shall drink it anew with us.

Therefore, the outward action of observing communion is a sign showing that we are God’s people redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are to remain faithful in Christ’s saving grace and submit to his Lordship. 

Secondly, baptism is an outward proclamation of our inner faith that we declare we believe in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ (His death, His burial and His resurrection), that we have died to ourselves and risen to be new creatures in Christ.

Baptism itself can’t save those who are baptized, it is the decision of one’s heart that saves him or her when he or she declares that, “I believe in Jesus Christ to be my Savior and the Lord of my life.”

The outward action of baptism is to declare to the world that I have received Jesus Christ into my heart, and I have acknowledged Christ’s saving grace – His death, burial and resurrection.

The two actions we take by observing the communion and by going through the baptism must be done in faith. For without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Conclusion

We witness the strong presence of God, His preservation and power in the life story of Abraham. God appeared to Abraham five times from the time he left Ur in Chaldea until chapter 17. God had preserved him and his family throughout the entire process.

Yet, Abraham also experienced moments when his faith was tried and weakened, e.g. when he was threatened by the famine and he went down to Egypt. He denied Sarah to be his wife before the Egyptians in order to preserve his own life.  He also couldn’t wait patiently for the descendant promised by God, so he submitted to Sarah’s plan to take Hagar as his concubine, so that he could have a son through Hagar.

God accomplished the impossible with His providence when Abraham was plagued with anxiety, fear and sense of failure. It was God’s power and providence that did the impossible which enabled Abraham and Sarah finally to have their son, Isaac, born to them in their old age.

Like Abraham, we also succumb to anxieties, fears and self-reliance, or we harbor lust or comfort of the flesh with no contentment in God. Like Abraham, we often live as though we are the defeated ones (regardless of whether it is a reality in life or it is merely our own feeling).

Instead of strengthening ourselves with the promises of God’s words, we allow fears to paralyze us and anxieties to occupy our lives. We trust in ourselves, and we do not trust God to wrestle with our anxieties in life.

However, we see Abraham’s faith in God in chapter 17 of Genesis. He trusted God to keep His promise that the promised son would be born the coming year. Immediately, Abraham went through circumcision without any hesitation, as an outward sign of his inner faith in God. He believed that God’s words shall be fulfilled.

Have we ever waged war over anxieties and fear in our life? Are we surrounded by the many fears and anxieties in life that we are on tenterhooks all the days of our life, fearing for the worst and basically helpless to handle it? How can a believer trust in God’s promises when he or she faces such a situation? Will God care when we are plagued with anxiety and when we feel defeated?

God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, who came in flesh to die on the cross in order to save us. Hence, God will save us to the very end. He will not forsake us or abandon us, and He will not leave us alone to face our life crisis and challenges.

God will care for us because He is a faithful God. Even when we are in deepest anxiety and pains, and when we are going through our life crisis, God will keep His covenant with us and fulfil His promises as how He had fulfilled His promises to Abraham. He is trustworthy.

The Holy Spirit dwells in us and He becomes our “circumcision in the heart”, and He enables us to be identified as the redeemed children of God.

Romans 2:29 says, “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.”

We shall be empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve God and to overcome all the challenges that are set before us if you trust in the Lord.

Paul was in prison, yet he wrote this word to encourage the Philippians church:

 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice! Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:4-7)