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Sermon preached on Genesis 17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/10/2023 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
It can be a little difficult to appreciate this narrative because most of us already know how the story goes. But if you didn’t, then you might be a bit surprised with today’s turn of events. You see, God had promised a great nation to come from Abraham. But we saw last chapter, when Abraham had become very old and still didn’t have a child, his wife Sarah proposed he have a baby with her maidservant Hagar. But when Hagar got pregnant and then thought herself better than her mistress Sarah, Sarah then treated her harshly. That resulted in Hagar running away, along with Abraham’s son that was within her womb. Their plan to raise up an offspring for Abraham seemed like it had worked, until Hagar ran away. But then God intervened, ministering to Hagar and getting her to return back to Abraham. The chapter ended with the happy announcement of Ishmael’s birth. So, if we didn’t know any better, you would end last chapter thinking that Ishmael was going to be the promised heir, the one God would make his covenant with. And you might have even thought God had saved the day by bringing Hagar and Ishmael in utero back to Abraham. But today’s chapter tells us otherwise. God’s covenant promises will yet be fulfilled, but they will not be accomplished through Ishmael.
Let us begin then by seeing how God reaffirmed his covenant here. Throughout our study of Abraham, we’ve seen God repeatedly make promises to Abraham of a people and a place. In chapter 15, we saw God heighten those promises by formally ratifying a covenant wherein God solemnly promised these promises to his own hurt. So then, these same promises are again restated by God to Abraham here. For example, we see God reiterate the promise of a people coming from Abraham’s lineage in verses 2, 4, and 6. And we see God’s promise of a place, that God would give him the land of Canaan, in verse 8.
Yet, as God reaffirms these covenant promises, he also gives us some additional detail. The first new detail comes in verse 1 when God refers to himself as God Almighty, El Shaddai, in the Hebrew. This is the first time that title for God is revealed, and it certainly tells Abraham why he can trust that God will give him what has been promised, because God is Almighty, El Shaddai. Another item of additional detail comes in verse 4 and 6 in that God says Abraham will be the father not just of a great nation, but of great nations, plural, with kings coming from those various nations. And then God also changes Abraham’s name, from Abram, meaning exalted father, to Abraham, meaning father of a multitude. Such a name change further showed God’s strengthening his promises here to Abraham.
And so, if you are Abraham, maybe as you hear these promises reiterated, maybe you are all the more thinking they will finally come to pass because you now have an heir in Ishmael. And now that you hear that the promises are put in even more grand terms, maybe you again think that maybe it is because he actually has an heir now. Because now he can actually begin to see the promises start to come to pass. But then, all this expectation suddenly changes when we get to the section starting in verse 15. That is when God explains to Abraham more details about how the promises will come to pass. God explains to Abraham that they will come to pass through Sarah specifically and literally.
So then, like how God gave Abraham a new name here, God then gives Sarah a new name too. Linguistics believe Sarai and Sarah both mean “princess” so the purpose of the name change may be especially to mirror how Abraham had also just had his name changed. In other words, as pertaining these promises God had given, they are in this together. This is further seen in verse 16 where God goes on to say that the promise of a people, even of these many nations and their many kings, would be fulfilled through Sarah. In other words, God takes the promises he’s repeatedly made to Abraham and clarified that they were also intended to be realized through his wife Sarah.
Abraham immediately understands what God is saying. Look at verse 18. Abraham realizes God is saying that these promises are not going to be fulfilled through Ishmael. He pleads with God that Ishamel might be the one in whom God fulfills his promise. But God says no.
We see why Abraham would raise that concern in verse 17. Abraham is now 100 years old. Sarah is 90 years old, not to mention she has been barren all her life. Thirteen years before they already thought this to be such an impossibility that they went the route of Abraham have a child with Hagar the maidservant, so that Ishmael was born. Now Abraham and barren Sarah are even older, and so notice in verse 17 it says that Abraham laughs at the idea.
And yet, that is why God is going to do it that way. God is going to do what is impossible from a human standpoint. Hebrews 11 says that God supernaturally gave them a child when Sarah was past the natural age and that Abraham was as good as dead. Go back to verse 1 and do you see now why God opened here with the declaration that he was God Almighty? God is all powerful, and so what is impossible with man is possible with God. God’s covenant promises were going to be about God’s grace. Sure, God could have fulfilled his promises through their human efforts to produce Ishmael. But then it could have been mistaken to think that they had to contribute something to their salvation. But God says he will do the impossible to show clearly that the blessings in the Abrahamic Covenant come about by God’s doing. God even foretells that Abraham and Sarah will have a son in a year, and says they are to name him Isaac. Isaac means “he laughs” connecting his birth to the seeming impossibility expressed in Abraham’s laughter. Indeed, Isaac would only be born by the great supernatural power of God. This is how Paul writes of this in Galatians 4:23, saying that Hagar’s son was born according to the flesh, but in contrast, Sarah’s son was born through promise. This truth continues today for all who are saved in Christ. Our salvation is not about the achievements of human flesh but about God’s grace by the Spirit. This was exemplified even in Jesus’ death. Just as it would be impossible for man to raise Jesus from the dead, but God did the impossible, to show that all who put their trust in Jesus are saved by grace not works.
Let us turn now in our second point to consider the covenant sign God gave here to Abraham. This is in verses 9-14. Basically, God instructs Abraham to circumcise every male in their household, to cut off the foreskin from each of them. Verse 11 says this is to be a sign of the covenant that they are in. Verse 9 even describes it as their way of keeping the covenant. And verse 14 says that for a male to not have that sign upon them is for them to break the covenant, and that they themselves are to be cut off from the people.
Let us first understand what is a covenant sign. Signs are things that in some way serve to remind us about the covenant. Recall, that in the case of the Noahic Covenant, the rainbow was a sign of that covenant. Every time a rainbow is seen, it reminds us and God that God has promised to not destroy this world again by a flood. Or in the new covenant, we have the water of baptism that signifies the washing of our hearts that we have in Christ. When God establishes a formal sign of his covenant, it becomes a seal and pledge of what he promises in that covenant. So then, while God had already covenanted with Abraham and given him the various promises, God now adds a sign to the covenant. From here on out, it would be used to initiate new people into the covenant, functioning somewhat similarly to how baptism initiates new people into the new covenant.
When considering a covenant sign, we should ask what the sign actually signifies. Like how in the Lord’s Supper the bread represents Christ’s body, we can ask what does circumcision represent? Well, the physical act of cutting off an uncleanness represents the need to cut off uncleanness from the heart. God’s people in the Abraham Covenant were signifying this when they were circumcised. This is to show that they were to be a holy and clean people. That is explained in verse 14 by saying that men who didn’t have the sign were themselves to be cut off. Note the intentional cutting language there to correspond to circumcision. Someone who was not set apart as holy like the rest of the community was themselves an uncleanness in the community that had to be cut off.
To clarify, covenant signs are intended to point to inward realities. Taking on the sign itself is effectively meaningless if there is not the inward reality to go with it. Deuteronomy 30:6 speaks of this for circumcision, prophesying how God would need to give his people circumcised hearts for them to be able to truly live for the Lord.
Yet, some people have sought to get circumcised without really seeking a circumcised heart, thinking that such an outward work could save you. Paul wrote against that in Galatians 3. They flipped a covenant sign upside down and thought it was about what we do to earn God’s blessings instead of seeing how it signifies and seals God’s promised blessings upon us as gifts. Sometimes people still fall into the same trap today with baptism, thinking it an essential work in order to be right with God.
Rather, we should see that when we do things like keep these covenant rituals that God commands us to, that it is an expression of our faith. We believe that God will graciously keep his covenant promises so we express our faith in obedience to things like observing the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Paul in Romans 4 explains that we can recognize this perspective right here with Abraham. Paul says that God had already unconditionally promised and covenanted with Abraham before he instituted circumcision here in Genesis 17. Paul says that God in Genesis 15 already noted how Abraham was justified by faith and not by works. Paul says that this shows that circumcision was never the basis of the covenant but rather a seal of what God had promised in the covenant. In other words, Paul says that Abraham’s faith preceded his circumcision, so his justification before God is by grace through faith and not by human merit.
An application I’d like us to take from this second point today is a reminder of the proper place for both faith and works in the Christian life. In our first point, we emphasized that Abraham couldn’t secure God’s promises by his own effort, but needed to have faith. Yet, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a place for works, in the sense of seeking to obey God’s commands. There are things God calls us to do, like be baptized, or for them, to be circumcised. But these things are to be an expression of faith and not a way to try to earn favor with God. God’s institution of the covenant of circumcision at this point in Genesis shows God’s wisdom because it helps to keep these two things of faith and works in their proper places.
Let’s now turn in our third point to consider the covenant community God formally establishes here. When God established this covenant sign of circumcision, we see that he said it was to be for everyone in Abraham’s household, now and into the future. This is not limited to just Abraham and any of his physical sons. It also is to include all his servants in the house, verse 12. If they are born into the house, they are to be circumcised on the eighth day. If they come in later, they are to be circumcised then. God is adamant here that this practice is to continue going forward. So, as Abraham’s descendants are fruitful and multiply and expand into many households, each family and tribe of peoples from Abraham are to bear the sign of the covenant.
So then, what this is describing is what we can call the covenant community. It begins here with Abraham’s household and over time will grow into something more expansive. But it is the community of people who have been brought into the covenant, who bear the covenant sign, and are looking to live out life under the covenant. Notice what also is included in verse 8. In speaking of the covenant promises and their ramifications, God says there, “And I will be their God.” This is an abbreviation of a longer version recorded in several other places in the Bible, where God says of his covenant community people, “And I will be their God and they will be my people.”
Now, you may have just thought that this description of the covenant community sounds very similar to how I have also described the visible church at other times. And I think you would be right to make such a connection. In this context, we are basically talking about the visible church. But we can also describe it with such similar language as covenant community as it helps us to think about our connection within the covenant.
Let us then notice that Ishmael is here circumcised. Even though God has already told Abraham that his covenant will not ultimately be established through Ishmael. Ishmael is someone we can say is right here for now externally a part of the covenant community, even though he is not ultimately inwardly truly one of God’s people. But notice that even though God’s covenant to Abraham will not be fulfilled through Ishmael, there are still great blessings that come to Ishmael for being a part of the covenant community, even outwardly. Surely, this explains God’s blessing on Hagar and Ishmael last chapter when Hagar ran way, to find them and bring them back to Abraham’s household, lest they die in the wilderness. That was before they even received the covenant sign of circumcision, but of course even before the sign they were still a part of the covenant community that was Abraham’s household. Likewise, here God tells us how he will yet further bless Ishmael, to also make a great nation out of him, and have twelve princes come from him. While, the promises given here for Ishmael are not as great as those ahead for Isaac, it is clearly his connection with Abraham and the covenant community that has resulted in the blessings that he does have.
So then, we learn here that the covenant community has both external and internal aspects. Someone like Ishmael can outwardly be in the covenant without truly being in the covenant. There are benefits that come with such. Though we should want to truly inwardly be a part of the covenant. Maybe another way of saying this, is that you could be outwardly circumcised but not inwardly circumcised. That is what appears to be the case here with Ishmael. And it is still true today that under the new covenant, people could joint the church in their profession of faith and baptism. But if they have not truly been born again, then while they are outwardly a member of the covenant community, they are not truly one inwardly, from the heart. Sometimes such a person will make that evident by ultimately forsaking the covenant in leaving the church. Other times, someone’s actions might show that that they don’t truly trust in Jesus, and the church may need to take action in church discipline to excommunicate them, to cut them off from the church. We see the foundation for that idea here too in verse 14’s reference to someone being cut off then from the covenant community.
We see then here the foundations for the visible vs invisible church distinction, and we can especially appreciate it today from the perspective of covenant. Abraham was a part of a covenant community under the Abrahamic covenant. That covenant has ultimately come to finds it continued expression under the new covenant. It may be a new covenant with a new covenant sign of baptism. But it is
a continued expression of God’s saving grace where he has taken a people unto himself. That means like back then, we can have people who are outwardly a part of this covenant community, who are not truly a part of it. May that give us application today to be examining ourselves to see that we truly are in a right relationship with the Lord. Let us see that he truly is our God and that we are each truly a part of his people.
In conclusion, saints of God, you are the baptized people of the LORD and part of the new covenant community of saints. The Almighty God has found a way to save us sinners. Let us rejoice to be a part of such a community, where God says to us, “I am your God, and you are my people.” And know that his good promises to us which have already begun to be fulfilled in Jesus, will surely be completed on the day of his return.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
