Genesis Chapter 17 - God Speaks

Suppose you are asleep one night and all of a sudden you hear this thunderous voice saying to you, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless..." Do you think you would listen? I believe God had Abram’s attention when He spoke so authoritatively. God did not say to Abram, "Yoo-hoo, Abram, guess who’s coming to dinner?" Nor did He say, "Hey, Abram, you want to play a game of ‘Knock, Knock’?"

When God spoke, Abram did not have to guess who it was. He knew God’s voice. The power of That Voice caused Abram to fall on his face before God. When God spoke, Abram listened. Would you be able to recognize God’s voice today if He spoke to you?

God came to Abram once again to renew His covenant with him. This is the third time God has given The Promise to Abram (see Chapter 12 and 15). A covenant consists of two parties each fulfilling his part of the agreement. In His covenant with Abram God promised to make Abram a father of many nations and kings, and He would give him the land of Canaan. Abram’s descendants would possess this land down through all of history. In exchange, Abram’s part of the covenant was to be obedient to God, "...walk before me and be blameless." (verse 1).

This third time God renewed His covenant with Abram, He also changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning "the father of many". He changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, for she would become the mother of many nations and kings.

The covenant was sealed with a "sign", that of circumcision of all the males for every generation present and to come. Circumcision is what marked the difference between God’s chosen people and the rest of mankind. If a male chose not to be circumcised, his disobedience would break the covenant with God and he would not be part of God’s family.

Today when we choose not to obey God, we too break the covenant and are no longer part of God’s family. He made the promise…we make the choice to live within His covenant, or go our own way without Him.

God told Abraham his descendants would come through his union with Sarah, not Hagar. Because of their age (Abraham - 100, Sarah - 90) they laughed at the impossibility of this, but God once again was able to do what seemed impossible to man. He promised the birth of Isaac would occur within the year. Abraham displayed his belief in God by his immediate obedience. That very day he had all the males of his household circumcised.

You can believe that God honors radical obedience. What has God promised you? What has He asked of you? If you hear His voice speaking to you, don’t play games with Him. Give Him your full attention, your immediate obedience.

God is able---I am weak, but He is strong.
God is able---when I don’t see how, He says, "Watch me."