Genesis chapter 17, and we're
going to read from verse one. Genesis chapter 17, and we'll
read from verse one. And when Abram was 90 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. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.' And Abram
fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. 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. I will make thee exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 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. 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. And God said unto Abraham, thou
shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and thy seed after thee
in their generations. 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, and ye shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you. 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 a stranger
which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house
and he that is bought with money must needs be circumcised, and
my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 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. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. It seems to be that 13 years
have passed since the Lord last spoke with Abraham at the time
of the birth of Ishmael. That's a long time to have passed. And whether there is any sense
that Abraham was being shown God's displeasure because of
the circumstances of Hagar and Sarah at that time, we're not
told, but it has been a suggestion. Nevertheless, here's the thing
that is worth noting. It is always a blessed thing
to receive a visit from the Lord. And sometimes we receive those
visits from the Lord when we are listening to preaching. Sometimes we might receive a
visit from the Lord in prayer or in worship. or when we are
going about our business, as it were that our minds are taken
to the things of God and our hearts are turned towards the
Lord in thanksgiving and in praise. And it seems as if for just a
little while the Lord speaks to us with a closeness, with
a nearness, with a proximity, which warms our heart and encourages
our spirit. These are blessed times. visits
from the Lord. And here Abraham receives a visit
from the Lord. But there's a lesson in these
13 years, because if the Lord were to withhold his presence
from us, as he did with Abraham for this length of time, Let
us be as Abraham and wait upon the Lord nevertheless, because
our Lord is good and he knows what we need when we need it.
The Lord introduces himself in a very striking way here to Abraham. He says, I am the Almighty God,
and it's a very suitable name that God takes here, because
Almighty means that he is all-powerful and that even the mighty things
of the earth must recognize that God is almighty. So when Abraham
was to be told that at 99 years of age and his wife of great
age also were going to have a baby, their first reaction might be,
oh this is impossible. But God says, no, I am the Almighty
God. And God withheld the coming of
this baby, the gift of this baby, to show that while it wasn't
a miraculous birth, it was nevertheless unusual and special. And it was
the work of Almighty God. The God that we worship, the
God that we serve is almighty. The God who saves us, the God
who has redeemed us is almighty. Almighty in his works of creation
and providence, the circumstances of our life. Almighty in salvation. Almighty in glory. Almighty on earth and in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
is almighty. and Abraham is reminded of the
promises that this covenant which was established between him and
God. would take and the way that it
would be revealed. Abram's given another name, he's
called the Father of Nations because while he was to be fruitful,
now God is saying that there will be many, many people will
come from you and this child that would be born. The covenant
promises of nations pointed not only to natural children that
would populate the nations of the Middle East and those lands
around about where Israel are, but also a spiritual seed that
would come, a people of faith that is spoken of in the New
Testament. And this reminds us that these
promises of God, they take their strength not from the will of
natural men, but from God. Nations rise and fall at God's
direction. Kings rule and kings perish. Governments succeed or fail under
the almighty hand of God. He builds up and he pulls down. He puts forth and he destroys. This covenant was to have a sign
or a seal. and the sign or the seal of this
covenant was to be circumcision. And that is a cutting of the
foreskin of a little boy child to mark that child as having
been set aside in the line of the covenant promise. It's a
token of the promise. as though to say your children
and their children after them will remember the obligations
and remember the promises that this covenant brings. While that
was a mark on the outside of the body and the flesh of these
boy children, it's important to realise also that the Apostle
Paul tells us in Romans chapter 4 that this cutting was also
a picture of righteousness received by faith. It's as if to say,
Abraham believed, and it was Abraham's faith that was in view
here. God promised a righteousness
to Abraham by the Lord Jesus Christ. And even in those earliest
days, right back at the beginning on the book of Genesis, in those
earliest days, already the Lord God had set apart a people who
were looking forward in faith to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ as a saviour and by whom righteousness would come to them. And that's the great divide that
exists in the world. The divide isn't those who are
circumcised and those who are not circumcised. It's not something
that we do in the outward man, not something that we do in the
flesh. The great divide that is in the
world today is between those who are of faith and those who
are not. Those who have righteousness,
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have confessed that righteousness
is not from their own works, but from God by grace through
faith. And they're marked out, they're
marked out as different, they're marked out as special, not in
their bodies, but in their heart, in their soul, because they are
the Lord's. There were many, many years to
pass before the Messiah, Jesus, came. But that cut in the flesh,
that sign continued as a token of God's promise. And those who
had the eye of faith looked forward and saw that Jesus Christ would
come and they believed in Him. Now we no longer circumcise for
religious reasons because the Lord Jesus Christ has come. There
is no longer any need for the sign or the symbol because the
reality has appeared. That which the sign pointed to
has been fulfilled and the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again
for the salvation of his people. All who believe in God's promises
are possessors of the same righteousness that was imputed to Abraham by
the grace of God. And that mark is in the inward
man, in our heart and in our soul, as we trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us.