“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God {El Shaddai}; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1 KJV)
What a great contrast we have between the events of Chapters 16 and 17. Chapter 16 was all about the plans and schemes of Sarah and Abraham. Now, in Chapter 17, God tells Abraham what HE is going to do. Is this not the pattern that God so often lets unfold in our own lives? God tells us what He wants to do, we nod our heads in agreement — all the while thinking of what actions we ourselves shall perform in order that these things might come to pass. We “believe” God, yet we set about busying ourselves that we might validate His promise through our own actions. The Lord then patiently allows us to try things our own way and when we have come to the end of ourselves, after we have exhausted all of our own efforts and attempted all of our own methods, He graciously returns to meet us; fallen on our own faces (v. 3) and listening to His Words with an attentiveness and submission that only comes from the soul which knows its own limitations.
That the Lord is not given to the false sense of urgency which grips the impatient heart of man is punctuated by the span of time which stands silently between Genesis 16:16 and 17:1. Sarah and Abraham had felt that a decade was sufficient time to wait for God to make good His promise before taking up the cause themselves (16:3). Yet another 13 years transpire between these two chapters without so much as a single syllable of reassurance emitting from the mouth of God. There are times when we feel that the wait has been long enough and the season of our own comfort must surely be at hand, but the perfect timing of our Lord has yet to be realized; indeed, our wait has only just begun. When we become aware that it makes no difference what the duration is, that we have a God Who is never late nor early, then we learn what Abraham learned: God is “All-sufficient” for us in times of delay and times of deliverance.
God reveals Himself to Abraham in Genesis 17:1 as “God Almighty.” He declares that He is El Shaddai, the God in Whom is all-sufficiency. This revelation of God’s omnipotent attributes serves as a gentle rebuke against Abraham’s impetuosity. God graciously allows man to play a part in His Divine plan, but He does not need the assistance of man. If we are willing to obey Him and wait on His timing, doing things in His way, then we reap the satisfaction that can only be derived from serving the purpose to which He has called us. God was “All-sufficient”, able to bring a living soul from the deadness and barrenness of Sarah’s womb. He was not limited in what He was able to perform by the “deadness” of Abraham and Sarah’s body. God did not need Hagar to bear the son of promise, nor would He permit her to do so. We have but to look at the repeated occurrences of the phrase “I will” coming from the mouth of God throughout this chapter to see that His covenant with Abraham was all about what He would do on Abraham’s behalf. He required faith from Abraham, He did not require him to bring about the promises through his own strength. His covenant with us, the New Covenant through Jesus Christ, requires the same.
To Jesus Christ goes all glory. In service to Him,
Loren
[This post was originally published January 7, 2010]
[If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not certain where you are headed when this life ends, I invite you to read the article “Am I Going To Heaven?“]
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