1487 - "The Abrahamic Covenant" Part 3, Genesis Chapter 17

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1487. Today we're in chapter 17 of Genesis and we're looking at the third part of the Abrahamic covenant. Today we're looking at the sign or the symbol of the covenant, which is circumcision. The covenant that God made with Abram, now Abraham, he introduced to Abram in chapter twelve, and we saw the command that God gave to Abram, get out. And then he said, This is what I want you to get out from, and he named four different things that he wanted Abraham to eventually separate from, and it was three things for the fourth, which was a reason for it all, that he was going to take him to a new place, to a new level, to a new land, and it was going to be good. And then he said, I'm going to promise you I'm going to do seven things for you, and he named those seven things. He named them one, two, three, four, five, six, seven in chapter twelve in the early verses. In chapter fifteen, and in the last podcast, we looked at the blood ditch ritual when God spoke to Abram while he was at Hebron, and he said, Abram, I'm with you. I'm going to bless you. And Abram said, Well, you know, I understand what you're saying, but I don't have an heir. Eliezer from Damascus, a man that's not even part of my people. He's the chief steward. He's the only one that's going to be able to really be around to take this stuff. And so God said, No, that's not the case. Abram, come out with me. I want you to look up in the heavens. What do you see? I see stars everywhere. Well, can you count those? No way. Well, you're not going to be able to count your descendants. Sands of the sea out there, you see those? No, I you can't count those. Abram said, Well, I understand all about that, but how's this going to happen? And so God took him out side of Hebron and caused Abram to with him cut a covenant. Abram was asked to get certain animals and to cut them up to drain the blood from either side into a blood ditch. This was an ancient blood ditch ritual where two people making a covenant would both walk through it and make an oath and swear that the promises that they're making to each other that they would keep even if it cost them their life, even if it cost them the thing that's most precious to them. And that's exactly what God did, but Abram didn't even walk through the ditch. He couldn't even fulfill that end of it. And so God walked through the ditch and said, Not only will I keep my end of the bargain, but I'll see that you keep yours. Why could and how could God do that? Because he's able to. God is able. There is nothing impossible with God. And so Sarah will learn that when we go through the coming chapters. And God will remind all of us of that. And so God promised a blessing to Abraham in chapter twelve, and he introduced that one day he was going to do this. Chapter 15, he sealed it with a blood ritual, a blood ditch covenant. And in chapter 17, he was given the seal or the sign, the token, if you will, the symbol of this covenant. The Bible says in chapter 17, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am El Shaddai, I am Almighty God. Now this is interesting. The word El Shaddai is translated in our Bibles Almighty. And Almighty is a good translation. But a better translation is all sufficient one. You say, now why would you say that? El is the name for God. That's the root of Elohim. In the beginning, God created, that's the word Elohim. Breshit Bara Elohim etashimayo. In the beginning, God created. And so God brought matter, God brought everything into existence, Bara, that is out of nothing. Ex Nihilo. And so now God has revealed Himself as Hashem. Now he has by his personal name, Hashem, Y H V H. Y H W H some would say. But now he's appearing to Abram as God Almighty. And the word El Shaddai, Shaddai doesn't necessarily mean Almighty. It comes from the word Shad, which is a woman's breast. Well, what is El Shaddai? That is the all sufficient one. Why would a woman's breast be all sufficient? Because it is that woman's breast that is the channel of blessing. It is where the colostrum comes in, that yellow, milky looking substance that has within it in the early days everything that a child needs. It is the complete meal. It is everything. It is all sufficient. No food is needed. That colostrum gives the baby the ingredients to make that immune system that fights off disease, that keeps death from coming immediately through the contraction of viruses and all kinds of disease. That colostrum is everything that is sufficient for that child to get a start. And then the milk comes. Then the meat comes later. Then the food comes later. But it's colostrum, that all sufficient. All of that comes from the breast, and then the milk, which sustains the child until the child can eat whole food. God said to Abram, I am El Shaddai. And the reason the dai, the double D is there is because El Shaddai, S-H-A-D-D-A-I, is because there is a dot in the middle of that dollar, in the middle of that D. And when you do that, that reinforces it, it energizes, it, it strengthens it. And sometimes we have to use a double letter to show that there was a dot there. What that means is not only is God the sufficient one, the breast, but he is the all-sufficient one. He is the one that can do anything. Now, this is how the chapter opens. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, I am the all-sufficient one. In other words, Abraham, I am everything you need. Now you say, well, all of that's great, you know, and I I appreciate that. But what does that have to do with us today? Well, let me just say to you, within major evangelical denominations in America today, and of course it's been fought around the world before now, the question is not inerrancy anymore. For those of you who do not know what I'm talking about, we have pretty well settled in the evangelical world that the Bible is inerrant, that is, that it's without error in its original manuscripts. In other words, what Isaiah wrote down were the very words of God, what Paul wrote down were the very words of God, that God so superintended all the authors of Scripture that what they wrote down were the very words of God. Peter talked about this in relation to the Old Testament and the new. It's better than an eyewitness account, he said in 2 Peter chapter 1. You can read about that. It's interesting, it's fascinating. But what I am saying to you is it's not a question of whether the Word of God is the Word of God so much anymore, is whether the Word of God is sufficient. Or do we need culture to help us? Do we need to conform to culture so because as we advance it's almost the same argument about whether the Constitution is a living document or whether it means exactly what it says for all time. Well the word of God is that to the one thousandth power. It is without error whatsoever. Our Constitution does have errors, but the Word of God doesn't, and it never changes. What was true then is true now, and it doesn't morph with culture. It doesn't morph with society, it doesn't morph with the morays of a particular age. The Bible is the word of God. Right is still right, wrong is still wrong. There are some absolutes, and the absolute truth is the word of God. It's all sufficient. Well, again, I digress, but that's what he says. I am the Almighty God, I am the all sufficient God. Walk before me and be blameless. That is, listen to me and live right. And I will make a covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You shall be a father of many nations. No longer, listen this, no longer shall your name be Avram, which means exalted, high father, and he certainly was that, greatly blessed. But your name shall be Avraham. And that changes the meaning from a high father, Ab, Av, Father, Ram, high, or exalted, exalted father to Avraham, the father of a multitude, or the father of nations. I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant. Notice everlasting covenant. And so the scripture says, To be God to you and your descendants after you. I will give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, I will be their God. Now, as we go through the Bible, you're going to learn that there are different kinds of covenants. The covenant that God made with Abram to change his name to Abraham is an unconditional covenant. It is a covenant that's not based upon Abraham, it's based upon God. God said, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this. Seven things God said, I will do. He never said if at the end of it. That I would add a condition. He said, This is what I will do. I will give you the land. Now people say, yeah, but they didn't always stay in the land. Well, God said, If you disobey, you won't get to enjoy the land, you won't get to live here. But it's your land. If indeed you go away and you begin to call out to me, I will bring you back in the land, because this is not somebody else's land. This is my land, and I'm giving it to you. Now God said it's an eternal possession. That means it is land of the Hebrews. Later we call them Jews because of the tribe of Judah, and they're called Jews today. The land of Israel, not just the land portion that is there, but the land portion that God laid out goes all the way to the Euphrates in the north. That includes all of Syria, all of Jordan, what is Edom today, what is Lebanon today. God has already deeded that to the Jews. You say, well, they haven't possessed it. No, but they will. You see, God is not on our timetable. This is so, so, so important. You're gonna hear this all the way through the Bible. What God says, he means, and he means what he says. This is why it just absolutely, it's not gonna happen anywhere when I am in the room or anyone that I teach. The way we teach Sunday school and small groups and so many churches is sickening before God. And if it's sickening before him, it should be us. John, you read this. Sarah, would you read this and tell us what that verse means to you? Now listen to me. Folks, it doesn't matter what it means to Sarah or John. It doesn't matter what it means to you. It doesn't matter what it means to Tony. What matters is what does God say, not what do you think he says, but what does God say? Whatever the text says then is what it means now. It doesn't matter what it means to you. That's way, way above our pay grade. And so quit doing that. Find out what God says. You say, Well, I don't know. Well then study. Or get under someone who has studied that'll teach you how to study and help you. Thank you for listening to this podcast, because I'm telling you, this is what God says, and he means what he says every time, every book. And so God said this is an everlasting possession. That means the Jews are now in the land of Israel, and it belongs to them. It doesn't belong to the Jordanians, it doesn't belong to the UN, it doesn't belong to, quote, the Palestinians. There's no such thing. There's never been a Palestinian nation, never has there been a Palestinian nation. And I'll stand on national TV before anybody and historically, biblically, show you that there has never been a nation of Palestine made up of Palestinian citizens, unless the closest thing to it before 1948 and before World War I and after World War II, if you talked about a Palestinian, you were talking about a Jewish person. And I can prove that historically. What I'm telling you is there's never been a nation of Palestine. There wasn't a Palestine during the days of Jesus. I don't care what your maps in the back of your Bible says. You can look and it says Palestine, time of Jesus. Palestine was not called by that name. Israel was not called by that name until the time of Hadrian, the Roman Emperor in the 130s. That is a hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension. All I'm saying to you is, folks, God gave the land to Israel, and it's inexorably linked to his promises to the people of Israel, the lineage of Abraham. And so God said, Abraham, you and your descendants are going to have a mark that you're going to carry the rest of your days. And God said to Abraham, this verse 9, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. What covenant? The one he made in chapter 15, where God fulfilled the duties of both. He said, This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised. That is, you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins. That's a man's private part. We do that to almost every baby boy that's born in America today. Certainly in modern days in the 40s, 50s, 60s, it wasn't so much unless you were Jewish, but every Jewish boy is circumcised at age eight, and that's when he gets his name. The Jews do not name a child until eight days after the birth. A boy's not named until the day of his birth, no. Not before his birth, no. It is on the day of his circumcision. Why? Because that is the day when the child has the blood components for coagulation, for clotting. It is the time when God said, This is when you name the child. That's what happened to Jesus on the eighth day. He was circumcised. You read the Gospel of Luke, and he was called Yeshua. He was called Yeshua. He was called, we put a J instead of a Y, Jesus. Now it wasn't the covenant itself, it was the sign of the covenant. Remember the rainbow? The rainbow wasn't the covenant with Noah. It was the sign, the symbol, the token. It was a reminder that God was in control and he would never destroy the earth. Well, every time a man who is Jewish looks at himself, he is reminded, I belong to God. I am under covenant with God. God made a covenant with my fathers and his father and his father and his father, all the way back to Father Abraham, and I belong to God. Yes, it is a symbol, it's a sign, it's a token that any Jewish man is a part of God's covenant people. And so we'll talk more about that in the days ahead, but just think about it. Chapter 12, Chapter 15, Chapter 17, the covenant introduced in Chapter 12. The covenant is actually cut and made.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.