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Sign of the Covenant
Part One
written by Rusty Owens
“But an
uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh
of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his
people, he has broken My covenant.” Gen. 17:14
When looking at the life of Abraham you see an
interesting concept that we will call “progressive
revelation”.
Progressive revelation in the life of Abraham looks like
this. The farther you go the more you get to know. God
deals with most of us in this very familiar pattern. In
seeking the will of God for your life the Lord may tell
you that he wants you to preach His gospel. He may not
be specific as to when, where, and who you are to preach
to, that information will come later as you surrender to
His first directive, that is to preach. Sometimes he
tells us to go and you have only a general sense of
where it is you are going, but as you step out He
becomes more clear and more specific as to where He
wants you to be. This is a form of progressive
revelation.
In Abraham’s case he stepped out on a journey
because of a word from the LORD, and I believe he
thought he would recognize the place he was going when
he saw it. It is kind of like saying “I don’t know
where I am going but I will recognize it when I get
there.”
This is the word God spoke to him. “Now the
LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and
from your relatives, and from your father’s house’ to
the land which I will show you; and I will make you a
great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name
great; and so shall you be a blessing; and I will
bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I
will curse. And in you all the families of the earth
will be blessed.” Gen. 12:1-3.
Now Abram (as his name was) is 75 years old
and already living in the land of Haran at this time
(Gen. 11:31), and as wonderful as the word was that God
spoke, it did not tell him were he was going, nor did it
say anything about a son, or Isaac, or Sarah. God
simply said “Go and I will bless you.” According to
chapter twelve Abram headed west with his wife, Sarai,
and Lot, his nephew.
When he left Ur of the Chaldeans he first
traveled in a northwesterly direction about 600 miles to
Haran. There his father Terah died. Then upon hearing
the word of the Lord he traveled nearly 400 miles south
by southwest till he came into northern Canaan by
Galilee. Now Abram travels about half the length of
Canaan, to Shechem; (He travels about half the distance
of the land that will be promised before God tells him
he is there.) And then the LORD appears to Abram a
second time and says, “To your descendents I will give
this land”. Gen. 12:7. He now knows where.
By the end of chapter 12, Abram has traveled
to Egypt because of famine in the land. At the
beginning of Chapter 13 he returns to Canaan and by now
he is rich and prospered. He is so blessed the land
cannot sustain him so he and his nephew Lot, part ways.
Lot chooses the plain of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abram
takes the mountains of Hebron. After they are separated
the Lord speaks to Abram again. “Now lift up your eyes
and look from the place where you are, northward and
southward eastward and westward; for all the land which
you see I will give it to you, and to your descendants
forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of
the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the
earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.
Arise, walk about the land through it’s length and it’s
breadth, for I will give it to you.”
Gen13:14-18.
A Man of Covenant
A number of years have passed and God is now
speaking in great clarity of Abraham’s descendants. But
Abraham has yet to have one single child.
In chapter 15 the LORD appears to Abram in a
vision (this is the fourth recorded word the LORD gives
Abram). And the LORD says, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a
shield to you; your reward shall be very great.”
Gen.15:1
Abram complains to the LORD that he is without
child and the only heir in his house is a servants child
born in his house. (This was Eliezar not Ishmael). And
the LORD says, “This man will not be your heir; but one
who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your
heir.” And the Lord takes him outside and said, “Now
look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are
able to count them.” And He said, “So shall your
descendants be.” Gen. 15:1-5. (Note; Vs. 2 is the 1st
time the word Adonay appears in the Hebrew text,
the 1st time man refers to the Lord as
Adonay. Barnes Notes on the OT).
Then Abram has an epiphany. The bible says
that he believed in the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it
as righteousness. Gen. 15:6. This takes place about
ten years from the first time God told him to leave his
home in Haran. You may think Abram was slow getting to
this point, but we are much slower. We are slow to
figure out faith is what pleases the Father. Faith
releases us from religious struggle. Now we can enter
into rest.
The LORD specifically promises that the heir
will not be a servant’s child, but it will come from
Abram’s body. Notice that up to this point God has not
mentioned Sarai, only that Abram would have an
offspring.
In verse 7 The LORD again declares He is going
to give the land to Abram, but Abram inquires how he
will know that God will surely do this. So the LORD
tells him to offer 5 animals. He was to divide them
and not burn them. This was a berit (covenant)
not a sacrifice. As time passed he had to drive away
birds of prey from the offerings. Then a deep sleep
falls on Abram. Terror and darkness come upon him, but
the LORD speaks to him about his descendants going into
bondage and after four generations the LORD will bring
them out and judge the nation that holds them captive.
And Abram has a vision of a smoking oven and a flaming
torch passing between the carcasses he has offered. On
that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram. This is
the first time the word covenant appears in all of God’s
dealings with Abram. It was part of an ancient Chaldean
ritual to divide animals asunder and have the agreeing
parties walk between the slain animals. (Keil &
Delitzsch commentary on the Pentateuch). Again Abram is
experiencing progressive revelation. The father of
faith is now a man of covenant.
Now after they have been
ten years in the land, Sarai, who is now 75 years old,
decides she is unable to have children. So she comes up
with the idea to give her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to
Abram to have a child by her. This turned out to be a
bad idea from the time Hagar conceived, even before
Ishmael was born. Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael
was born.
Ishmael is the product of unbelief, man’s
effort to fulfill the promise of God. The nation of
Isreal suffers from this decision to this day. Much the
same way the kingdom of God suffers from decisions made
out of religious attitudes and unbelief for many
generations. When we create Ishmaels’ in our life they
tend not to go away just through repentance, but they
linger and haunt us for years to come. Such is part of
the creative power of the believer. You can bind and
loose. For a believer to make decisions out of
unbelief can have lingering consequences.
The Sign the Covenant
At the beginning of chapter 17 Abram is now 99
years old. He has been in the land 24 years. And God
visits Abram and speaks to him in the most specific
terms yet. He tells the breadth of the covenant He has
made with him. That it will extend to all his
generations after him. He tells him nations and kings
will come out of him. He tells him his offspring will
possess the land of Canaan forever. God tells him his
name shall no longer be Abram, (which means exalted
father), but his name shall be called Abraham (which
means Father of a multitude). God also tells him the
sign of the covenant will be in his body for the sign of
the covenant will be circumcision. And that he is to be
circumcised and every member of his house is to be
circumcised. And every male born in his house is to be
circumcised on the eighth day. Then God said Sarai was
going to concieve and have a son and that she is no
longer going to be called Sarai (which means dominated),
but Sarah (which means Queen or Princess). Now this
made Abraham laugh, but God said she shall indeed have a
son and he will be called Isaac (which means laughter).
And God said He would establish his covenant with Isaac
and make him a great nation.
Oh that Ishmael might
live!
At this point Abraham cries out “Oh that
Ishmael might live before thee!” It was like he was
saying “I’m old and tired, let what I’ve already done
and already got be enough.” But Ishmael is not what God
was looking for nor was it what he promised. Ishmael
was the result of man’s effort to bring about the
promise of God. For most of us that is enough, but for
God it is not. The religious Church has long since
tried to substitute Ishmael for Isaac, religious effort
for promise, polished edifices for a glorious bride.
So what does Abraham do? He jumps up and
immediately is circumcised and every one in his house is
circumcised and what happens? Bam! Sarah gets
pregnant. Possibly the first woman to conceive from a
circumcised man. The fruit that God had promised
twenty-five years before could not take place until the
sign of the covenant was in place. But when the cutting
away of the foreskin took place Abraham entered into a
whole new fruitfulness. The fruitfulness of promise!
I believe that God has dealt personally with
every minister of the gospel and with every true born
again Christian. Some of you He has spoken to you,
revealed to you, or even shown you what he wants you to
do. Some of you, God has even given you a vision of
some great work to come of some great ministry that is
to flow out of you. Some of you have had visions of
standing before thousands of people declaring the gospel
or seeing great healings or miracles take place. For
some of you years have passed since God first showed you
these things. And you wonder if these things will ever
come to pass or you doubt that you ever even heard God
at all. Some He has told you that you would travel to a
far away place for His testimony. Years have passed and
you wonder if it will ever take place. For some the
total some of what you have to offer for all your
Christian experience is Ishmael. And you find yourself
crying out to God “Oh that Ishmael might live before
you!” It’s like saying to God accept what I am offering
not what your wanting.” But if you want to come into
that realm of power and God fruit, you must be
circumcised! You must come into terms of agreement
that God is making with you.
God wants to cut away the foreskins of your
heart. (Rom. 2:29). The sign of the covenant is not
what you do for God. Circumcision has to do with the
hidden man. It’s what you allow God to take from you.
It’s usually that one thing you cling to in the midst of
all your years of service. Don’t you realize that God
can bring about more purpose for His kingdom in one
moment of circumcision than you can for all your years
of service. Let him cut away that hidden part. I would
be willing to say that God has so personally dealt with
you that every one of you Knows what that hidden piece
of flesh is. You have a short time before the coming of
our Lord.
Let’s get it right! God can do more through you in this
short time, than all your past labors, if you will give
up that hidden part and live up to the terms of the
covenant He is dictating to you. God help you, and God
be with you.
Your servant in Christ
Bro. Rusty
   
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