I want to begin this week by, again, reminding you that the Bible presents only one covenant between God and humanity. God does not distinguish between people groups, or what we might call races, cultures or ethnicities. This concept is important for us to understand because there are some in our world today who believe that God has made one covenant with the children of Israel and a different or second or other covenant with everyone else, those of us who are called Gentiles. The fact of the matter is, as we read our Bible, and remember, always go back and read the actual Word of God, in Genesis, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned God made His one covenant, that is that He would send a Savior for all people. Notice, there was only Adam and Eve, there were no Jews or Gentiles, at least not yet. After the tower of Babel, after the people split according to the language they spoke, after the people groups, cultures separated and dispersed to the different parts of the world, after many years God chose Abram and reiterated His covenant to him that He would save the world. This was not a new covenant. This was not a different covenant. This was not a second covenant. This was a reiteration and expanding or actually a narrowing of the line of the fulfillment of the covenant God first made in the Garden of Eden. God chose Abram and told him that the Savior of the world, not the savior of the Jews only or of the Gentiles only, but the Savior of the world would be born through his descendants. One covenant!
Getting to our text for this morning, God had already chosen Abram and called him to be the father of the One who would save the world. God continued to be in communion with Abram in order to make sure he knew he was the one who would be the father of the Savior. We begin at verse one, “1When 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, 2that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.’ 3Then Abram fell on his face” (v. 1-3). Again, this is a reiteration of the covenant God first made with Abram twenty-four years earlier.
Notice that it is not Abram who is initiating this covenant with God. Abram did not come to God. Abram did not chose God. It is God who initiates. It is God who is calling Abram. Abram has nothing to bring to this covenant and nothing is asked of Abram. God is the one who is initiating. God is the one who is choosing. God is the one who is promising everything and He is the One who will fulfill every promise He makes. As all covenants are, this is a one-sided offering. This is not a contract in which both parties bring something to the table. This is a covenant in which only one party, God is bringing something to the table. God is initiating. God is choosing. God is promising. In this appearing to Abram God reveals Himself as El Shaddai, or God Almighty.
And God changes Abram’s name as a sign of the coming fulfillment. Remember, it has been some twenty-four years since God promised Abram and Sarai that they would have a baby. Certainly this waiting for such a long time would make anyone anxious, especially since Abram and Sarai were both continuing to grow older and everyone knows that the older you get the less likely it is that you will have a child, at least a healthy child. Certainly Abram and Sarai were anxious and beginning to wonder. So, God steps in and reassures Abram and He does this, He reassures Him by changing His name.
Continuing on in our text at verse four, “And God said to him, 4‘Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you’” (v. 4-7).
Unfortunately what we do not see or read in our English version is the fact that what God says to Abraham is that He has already made him into the father of a multitude of nations. The word for “made” is in the Perfect Tense, which means this is a completed action. God does not simply speak empty words to Abraham, but God’s Word, being a Word with power, accomplishes what He says and so He says it as a matter of fact, as a matter of having already been accomplished. Abraham has already been made the father of a great nation and earthly speaking this is the Children of Israel. Even though Abraham will not see this great nation, it will happen because God says it will happen and as God lives in the eternal present He speaks that it has already happened.
But even more than being the father of a great earthly nation is the fact that Abraham has already been made the father of a great heavenly nation, as well, that is the true Israel, all believers in Jesus are children of Abraham, by faith. For us this means that we too are children of Abraham, not by birth, not by genetics, not by DNA, but by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
God changed Abram’s name and in order to encourage Sarai He changed her name as well. We pick up at verse fifteen, “15And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her’” (v. 15-16). Again, Abraham and Sarah have been “patiently” waiting now for over twenty-four years and they are not getting any younger. We know that Sarah had doubts to start with because when she heard the promise she laughed, remember that is where we get the name Isaac, from laugh, so certainly she needs some reassuring. So, God changed Abraham’s name and now He changes Sarai’s name to Sarah to indicate that she would be a mother even in her old age.
And as God speaks of what is happening with Abraham that he is that he is already the father of a great nation, so it is with Sarah that is that God speaks that she is already the mother of great nations.
What does this mean? Forgive me for saying this again, but because of those in our world who are not discerning and who fail to go back to Scripture and read what God says, I have to say it again, first and foremost our text reminds us that the promise, the covenant that God is reiterating with Abraham is not a new covenant, nor second covenant, but is an expanding or narrowing of the fulfillment of the covenant and promise that was first given in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, to Adam and Eve and to all their descendants, to all people, of all places, of all times.
Our text reminds us that it was God who chose Abraham. Abraham did not choose God. God chose Abraham, and He chose him not because of any innate goodness in him, but simply because he is the one God chose. We might be reminded that this choosing is true about us as well. God chose us. We did not and we do not choose God. Because of our original sin, because we are conceived and born in sin, because every inclination of our heart is evil all the time, our will has been tainted so that we cannot choose God. “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit,” and so it is not we who go looking for God or choose God, but it is God who comes looking for us, it is God who chooses us and He has indeed chosen us, even before He began creating the world and most specifically He has chosen us when He has given us faith, either through His Word or for most of us through the waters of Holy Baptism.
God promised Abraham, a land and possessions but most importantly, to be the forefather of the Savior. The earthly fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham was the land of Israel, especially as seen in the glory days of King David and King Solomon. As the children of Israel continued to reject God, they indeed lost that gift of the land or better said, they rejected that gift of the land. Theologically speaking then, not necessarily politically speaking, they really have no right to that land today. The same is true of the possessions and wealth that once was theirs. But most importantly is the fact that God’s promise was that through the Offspring of Abraham, in particular through the one Offspring, Jesus, all nations would be blessed. This is, of course, the promise of the Messiah, the promise that Jesus was to be born of the seed of Abraham and He would indeed save the world.
As we move into the New Testament and into New Testament times, the Gospel shows us this promise of the One through whom all nations would be blessed to be fulfilled is Jesus. We have the genealogies of the Gospels to guide us back to see Jesus as a son of Abraham and even as a son of God. He is the one who came to fulfill all God’s laws perfectly for us in our place because we cannot. He came to fulfill all God’s laws perfectly for the whole nation of Israel, because they could not. He fulfilled all God’s promises completely showing Himself to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, so that all nations might be blessed through Him.
In our Epistle lesson for this morning we read of Paul writing to the Romans reminding them of Jesus’ work of Salvation. Paul reminds us that we have no right to think that we might demand that God would save us, as a matter of fact Paul reminds us that we are sinners, that we sin in thought, word and deed, that we sin sins of commission, doing what we should not be doing and sins of omission, not doing what we should be doing, that we sin continually, and as God says every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. Because of our nature as sinners, we should not expect anything from God. As a matter of fact, Paul reminds us that even if we were good we might not get special treatment. But the fact is because of God’s great love for us His grace and gifts abound. Just as Abraham brought nothing to God’s covenant so we bring nothing to God’s covenant with us. It is all God’s gift and promises. It is while we were sinners and because we are sinners that Christ died for us.
God’s promise to Abraham is His promise to us. By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, faith He gives to us, faith He nourishes in us through His means of grace, we are children of Abraham. By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus and in His suffering and death of the cross, because of His great love for us He gave His life for ours, while we are yet sinners. This is grace indeed. This is love indeed.
As always we are pointed in the right direction when that direction is from God to us. God gives and we are given to. Again today we are reminded of God’s coming to us and covenanting with us. God comes to us through His Word and Holy Baptism to call us to and give us faith. God comes to us through confession and absolution to give us forgiveness of sins. God comes to us through His Body and Blood in His Supper to give us forgiveness and to strengthen us in our faith. God gives and we are given to.
As we continue in this Lenten Season certainly we are pointed to and reminded of our sins. Yes, it is our sins that put Jesus on the cross, but it is because of our sin and because of God’s great love for us that Jesus came to die on the cross. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. And He even moves in us to respond with words of thanks and praise. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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