Galatians 3:9 calls Abraham the man of faith. If Abraham was the man of faith, we have to ask, What is the nature of the faith of Abraham? What did his faith look like? What is the nature of authentic faith?
The Abrahamic narratives, particularly Genesis 12-22, show the development of Abraham’s faith in the course of God rolling out his covenant with Abraham.
Why did it takes years to roll out the covenant with Abraham? Can a covenant not be established in a day? Theologically, the reason we have nearly 40 years from the promise (12:1-3) to the other bookend of the covenant, the divine oath (22:15-19), is the development of Abraham’s faith. The time between the promise and the fulfillment life is to be lived by faith. God will not forego the development and maturing of faith in Abram or you or me. We live in the time between the first advent of Christ and his second advent, the in-breaking of the KoG and the consummation of the KoG. In that in-between time, God is tirelessly working to build our faith, mature us in the faith, and make us into to people who have come to trust God in the ups and downs of life and treasure Him more than what He can do for us.
Abraham had a long way to go. We must keep in mind that on the day God called Abraham from Ur, He called a moon worshipping pagan. God did not call a man who was mature in the faith, upright, and godly in character. He called a sinner who knew next to nothing about the God who called him. He simply believed the promise of God. We know he believed the promise because he acted on it. God said, leave Ur and go where I will show you (12:1). And Abraham went (12:4). We know from this that authentic faith obeys, albeit imperfectly.
Immediately, God set out to grow Abram in his faith. God put Abram in situation after situation that tested his faith and grew his faith (famine, strife, war, a barren wife). God’s purpose is make Abram into the man of faith. In Romans, Paul looked at this storyline of Abraham and argues on the basis of Abraham’s life that salvation is by faith alone (Rom 4:1-25). It is impossible to look at Abraham’s life and argue that salvation is on the basis of works. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Rom 4:3). In Genesis 12-22, Abraham is learning who God is, the vastness of his promises, and is responding to that revelation of the Person and purpose of God by faith, but his faith is a work in progress.
Our tendency is to read the Abrahamic narratives with the end of the story in mind. We know how story ends, so we hurry on through it. We need read this text through the eyes of Abram and Sarai to feel the tension, conflict, and stress of their lives. The life of faith is lived in motion. We don’t live at the end of our story and reflect on our current situation based on how everything has ultimately worked out. We have to trust God real-time and act in faith, a faith that He is developing in the very circumstances we are facing. Let’s see in Genesis 16-17 lessons we can learn about the development of the life of faith. In the in-between time, the time between promise and fulfillment, faith is developed. How is faith developed?
A. Acting in faith gives greater capacity for faith.
There are so many lessons in this little section of text that it’s hard to know which to focus on. We know the story. Apparently, Sarai acquired Hagar in Egypt. The writer tells us twice that Hagar is an Egyptian (2, 3). The writer is tying the two stories together to show that a former failure to trust God has led to a present event of not trusting God. One act of faith gives a greater capacity to act in faith. One act not grounded in faith gives a greater capacity for other faithless acts.
We are reminded that to this point Sarai had borne Abram no children. The most outstanding thing about Sarai in these narratives is that she is unable to have children. When we first met her in Genesis 11 (11:29-30), we were not told who her father or mother was but that she was barren, she had no child (11:30). The first words we hear from Sarai were a plot to have a child (2).
In a sort of reasoning that at first appears to be borne in faith, Sarai concluded that God has prevented her from having children, God has promised Abram offspring, she has a servant girl, and the culture of the day allows for servants to be surrogates for the primary wife. Perhaps, Sarai is reworking the whole Egypt affair in her theology, thinking God has used that low moment to provide a way to fulfill His promise. To be fair to this point God has promised offspring to Abram no fewer than 4 times (12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 15:1-5), and not once has He explicitly said the offspring would come through Sarai.
Culture is no sure guide for faith and practice. Culture is no guide for the conscience. Even in our gender confused, sexually promiscuous age, every reader of this story thinks Sarai and Abram are making a big mistake. Why is this not acceptable to us? If culture is the guide, why is this activity not applauded among us? It is the height of cultural arrogance to think that just because a practice gains cultural acceptance it is right and will continue on as the good and right practice for generations. Just as we read this story and think, This is foolish, later generations will read the story of our generation and think, Can you believe they thought that?
If you think you are going to feel good about sexual sin and gender choice because this culture approves of it, you are setting yourself up for the greatest disappointment and deepest hurt. The cultural is casting a narrative that is has no basis in reality. In the movies, the adulterous couple finds happiness in the arms of others and go on to be best friends with their ex’s and their children are well-adjusted and happy their parents split-up. The gay couple is happy, monogamous, raising children, and living better than the heterosexual couples around them.
We can put up a façade in all areas of life that is just not helpful. We want to be perceived as people who are spiritual, have it all together, never staggered by the difficulties of being single, married, raising kids, making a living, etc. It seems that the thought is, If we act as if we have it all together, and if people think we have it all together, we really do have it all together.
We come up with a spiritual narrative to back up our façade and judge others who don’t buy into what we are selling. So we are super moms and super dads, raising super kids. We are organic, all-natural, caffeine-free, sugar-free, and free-range, and we are all happy. We are like the actors on Fantasy Island when we arrive at church, Smiles, everyone, smiles, smiles. The problem is when you get caught at Sonic, you have to rent your clothes and repent in sackcloth and ashes. The façade puts us in danger because we can’t confess our sin to our brothers and sisters.
The end of this kind of life does not lead to faith but no faith, not freedom but condemnation.
One of the difficulties in preaching narrative texts is determining if the activity of the characters is good or bad, sinful or holy. Was this arrangement between Sarai, Abram, and Hagar sinful? What about the other patriarchs and the kings who had multiple wives? God will bless the offspring of this plot, and God blessed Jacob in his sordid marital arrangements. Just because God purposes good in the same actions of men that are evil does not mean that evil actions are less sinful.
God will spell out to Abram and Sarai in the next chapter that the promised son will come through Sarai, but this is something Abram and Sarai should have known. The writer communicates this to us in the careful language he uses. He draws on the language of the fall to show is the sinfulness of Abram and Sarai actions.
First, reflection on creation shows God made Adam and Eve, not a threesome. Second, in verse 3, Sarai took and gave Hagar to Abram as a wife. In verse 2, Abram obeyed the voice of his wife. The result was mayhem. Hagar is lifted up in pride and violated common law in relating to Sarai. Sarai blamed Abram and dealt harshly with Hagar. Abram perfected the male role of passivity.
By an autonomous act of self-will, Abram and Sarai sought to bring about the promise of God. Faith must learn to wait on God. God has been clear. To this point, the only thing He has told Abram to do is to sojourn in the Land. God Himself has promised to make him a great nation (12:2), to make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth (13:16), and the stars of the heavens (15:5). Does Abram think now he is in the place of God? Does he think the God who makes such vast promises needs help in fulfilling them? Faith must learn to wait on God.
No other section of text is like this one in the Bible. The angel of the Lord, who turns out to be the LORD Himself, finds Hagar, questions her, tells her to return to Sarai and submit to her, and promises a future for her son. This is the only incident in Scripture where a human assigns a name to God (13).
A. God blesses all people, even those outside His covenant people.
This is a hard text, especially in our time. How could the angel of the LORD instruct Hagar to return to and submit to Sarai? Our culture would say to Hagar, “Flee, keep going,” and we would abort her child so she could be free and not be burdened. After all, she didn’t ask to be a servant and to be a surrogate in Abram’s tent. The truth is Hagar had no life, and her son had no future apart from Abram. The angel asked sobering questions (8). If fact, God will multiply Ishmael solely because of his relationship to Abraham (21:13). So what is the purpose of this strange text? This strange event teaches Abram and Sarai about the character of God and care of God.
The promise to multiply Ishmael is an Abrahamic like promise, but Ishmael and Hagar were not part of the chosen line. In fact, Ishmael would be an antagonist to the chosen line. Although, Abraham will circumcise him, Ishmael will not be a part of the people of God. Hagar and Ishmael, as unfortunate as their circumstance in this passage is, had the privilege of the revelation given to Abraham, and Hagar here is confronted by God Himself. Yet, ultimately they chose to antagonize, live over against, the covenant line rather than embrace the covenant community.What are we to learn from God’s indiscriminate blessing on the world? If He blesses and cares for the world’s peoples, He will care for you.
The sin with Hagar is the sin that kept on giving. Sin begets sin. This sin came out of a failure to trust God. Yet, by the grace of God, the very point of failure became the impetus for faith. Hagar is instructed by the angel of the LORD to name her son Ishmael because God listened to her affliction. Hagar then named the LORD, the God of Seeing (El Roi) because she saw the God who sees her. Hagar went back to Abram and Sarai with this revelation. Does this not add injury to insult? Not only did Hagar conceive, God revealed Himself to her and heard her affliction under the hand of Sarah (6, 11). Incidentally, the roles will be reversed and God will hear the affliction of the Israelites who will be treated harshly by the Egyptians, and they will flee to the wilderness.
God will set people in opposition to us to develop our faith. Sarai complained, Hagar saw she had conceived and she looked on me with contempt (5). Now Sarai learns that God saw Hagar. Every time they called Ishmael’s name, they were reminded that God hears. If God saw Hagar and heard her affliction, did He not also see Sarai and hear her cry? God in grace and mercy tempered the consequences of Abram and Sarai’s sin to develop their faith. This event has its impact in Abraham’s family. For one, Isaac never took a concubine, and, two, when Rebekah could not conceive, Isaac prayed for her (25:21) and God heard his prayer. He is the God who sees and hears.
Your failures are not going to do you in. If nothing more, the consequences of past sin are God’s grace to keep you from future sin. Yet, God will temper the consequences of sin in grace to develop your faith. He is not interested in making you suffer. You can’t suffer enough to atone for your sin. A self-condemning posture can never atone for sin and negates the atonement that has been made. God is interested in the development of your faith. He sees you and hears you. God is the God who takes the broken scattered pieces of life and puts them together into a life of ordered beauty.
The gospel is the beginning, middle, and end of faith. The gospel calls us to faith, keeps us in faith, matures us in faith, and brings us to the end of our faith. Again and again God reaffirmed the covenant with Abram. Why? Because Abram kept forgetting the covenant, settling for something less than what God promised, substituting the works of his own hands for the promise of God. God was bringing Abram to the place where nothing would satisfy Abram’s heart but God.
Chapter 16 ends with Abram at 86 years old (16:16), and chapter 17 begins with Abram at 99 years old. 13 years have passed since the birth of Ishmael. There they are, the happy family: Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael. Sarah has completed menopause. Abram is as good as dead. They have become resigned to the fact that Ishmael is the heir, the promised son. They have heard nothing from God for nearly 15 years. Hagar encountered God 13 years before and the promises made to her concerning Ishmael seem to add up to the promise made to Abram. They have settled for less than the promise, the works of their own hands, the plot of their own minds, and God will not have it.
Into that context of dead bodies and hearts contented with lesser things, God appears on the scene, and says, I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly (1, 2). This is the first use of this Name for God, El Shaddai. It was the name by which God revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 6:3). The context of it use is the absolute power and sovereignty of God.
God is saying to Abram, There is nothing I cannot do. Walk before me blamelessly. That is, stop settling for less. Stop relying on your own power and wisdom. Live your life before me. Everything you do, think, say, desire must be in light of my Presence and character. You are no substitute for me. What you can do is no substitute for what I will do. When you know God, you can’t settle for less.
Here is what I am going to do (4), Abram, I’m changing your name to Abraham as a marker of my covenant with you. I have made you a father of a multitude of nations … (5-6). God is going to do what Abraham cannot do. Abraham can’t father 1 child less off a multitude of nations. How can one man be the father of many nations? Paul tells us, Abraham believed God, who raises the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist (Rom 4:17-18). Abraham’s offspring are those who have faith like Abraham (Gal. 3:7). The nations are included in the promise to Abraham.
God did not stop there. This is not enough for El Shaddai. Abraham’s heir at this point is the work of his own hands. God’s promise gets more grandiose. His covenant included Sarai. Abraham was to call her Sarah and a marker that Abraham would have a son by her and nations as kings would come from her.Again Abraham fell on his face, but this time he laughs thinking to himself both he and Sarah are too old to have children (15-17). This dumbfounds Abraham. He cannot comprehend how this could be a reality. So he pleads for Ishmael to stand before God (18). God said, No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son and I will establish my covenant with him and his offspring (19). This time there is a time frame put on the promise (21). Now we come upon the reason God made Abram wait 25 years. He had to bring Abraham to the end of his options to show Abraham His power and glory. Abraham would have to come to love God more than God’s promises.
Faith believes and acts. Here is what Abraham was to do (9). He was to circumcise himself and every male in his house, those born there, those bought with money and the foreigner (12-13). This shows the beginnings of how Abraham was to be the father of a multitude of nations and points to global spread of the church. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant. It was the outward sign of an inward reality.
Notice how the covenant and sign of the covenant are so closely related that the one is used for the other (10, 11). To be circumcised was a confession of a life lived in faith in the promise of God (Deut. 10:16). It identified the covenant community, the community of people who had faith in the promises of God. There was no confusion with the sign and the reality it represented. We understand the function of sign. The “STOP” sign has no inherent power but represents a reality that exists outside of itself. The state line sign marks a reality beyond itself.
If circumcision was to be an everlasting covenant (13), why does the NT argue that it is not necessary? In Acts 15, the church ruled that circumcision is not required for salvation. Paul argued chronologically that Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised (Rom 4:9-12). Ultimately, Christ fulfilled circumcision. That bloody sign anticipated the work of Christ in giving sinners new hearts by faith. Paul said, In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, but putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Col. 2:11-12). Abraham’s faith is seen in His obedience to the Word of God. That very day Abraham circumcised every male in his house (22-27). The repetition of that very day marks the significance of the event (entering the ark, Gen. 7:13; the Exodus, Ex. 12:51).