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7. A Covenant In The Flesh



Genesis 17:1-14  , Galatians 3:6-9 & Colossians 2:9-12
Key Verse
"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Genesis 17:7

        Abram is now 99 years old.  It has been 24 years since God first called Abram away from his home and family.  Abram has waited a long time for God to Fulfill His promise.  It is interesting how God's promises often make us wait longer than we think we should.   Now, God approaches Abram again to renew His promise and make yet another covenant with him.

        This is now the fourth covenant between God and man.  It is the first covenant, however, in which God will require something of man in return.  Circumcision addresses the issue of extreme vulnerability on the part of man to God.  It's as if God is saying to Abram, "do you trust me?"

        God is not asking Abram to demonstrate his intellect or his strength.  God is not asking Abram to surrender his wealth.  God is asking Abram to submit his manhood, the most sensitive part of his physical being, as a sign of Abram's trust in God.  Abram will now be physically changed and he will pass that change on to the next generations.  It's not just a question of, "are you willing to walk with me?"  Now, it is a question of, "are you willing to physically be marked for me as well?"

        As a further sign of the change in the relationship between Abram and God, God will even change his name.  No longer will the patriarch be known as Abram, which means a generic "noble father," but God has molded him into Abraham, which means, "father of nations."  Sarai is no longer, "my princess," but God now crowns her Sarah, "princess," a royal title.  Only a princess can give birth to a king.

        What of us, Abraham's children through faith?  Does our faith mark us as physically different from the world around us?  God asks the same question of us, "Do you really trust me?"  Does our faith make us vulnerable and submissive to God as circumcision made Abram marked and vulnerable? "In him, [that is, Jesus Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ." Do you accept a name change from what it was when we were lost in our sin to, "Christian," which means, "follower of Christ?”

        In this fourth covenant, God knew that it wouldn't just be man who would have to fulfill this covenant.  God knew that He Himself would one day submit to man's side of the covenant through His son, Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Even here, God participates in both sides of the covenant, both by being circumcised as a baby and by walking a life of faith.  Can there be anything more vulnerable than hanging on a cross, allowing yourself to be mocked by your human creation, to show how much You love them? Yet, it is through this act that God changes even His own name from Creator, to Savior.

        Another stone in the foundation of our redemption has been laid.  How long must we still wait?

Hymn:  "I Will Change Your Name"  

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