This  transcript was auto-generated. 

I suggested last time, maybe rather surprisingly tosome, that happiness should not be your main goal in life. If you set happiness as you goal in life then, as soon as something bad happens like the death of a loved one, you can be completely thrown off kilter. Maybe someone you love is diagnosed with cancer.  Or maybe it’s someone like your father or your married partner gets dementia. Well now, how is that happiness thing working out for you now? It’s a rare person that doesn't have some sort of personal tragedy visit them once in a while. If the goal of your life is happiness, then you are only one random catastrophe away for your whole philosophy of life being undermined. Those who suggest the purpose of the Christian life is to be rich, or healthy, or wealthy, or even happy are setting the bar too low -way too low. In fact, I would suggest they have failed to understand the real power of the gospel. 

God here makes a promise with Abram, but it wasn’t a promise of happiness or prosperity. 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.”

(Gen 17: 1-1)

Abrahams part in the covenant was a call to is aim high and to walk before him. Walking before the Lord doesn’t just mean following a path because the use of the “before” has a clear suggestion of being accountable to God. To establish a relationship with God that would see him through all of life’s catastrophes. That's the mature way of looking at life as far as the Bible is concerned. The fundamental reality of life is that it contains struggles and suffering along the way. However, that inescapable truth shouldn’t make life unbearable. Because by walking before the Lord, you are ready and able to contend with whatever life throws at you. By walking before the Lord and by doing that properly then you should get some happiness along the way. In fact, you will probably get much more happiness than you would have by living any other way. At the end of your day, you can stand before the Lord saying I trusted in you and walking before you was the ruling principal in my life. You can have deep sense of satisfaction in knowing that in everything you did you tried to walk before the Lord. Let’s jump ahead in the passage for a second and look at verses 22 & 23.

“When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him”.

(Gen 17: 22)

 “On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him”.

(Gen 17: 23)

You see, chapter 17 falls into two parts in the first part is God speaking to Abraham and runs up to the end of verse 22. In the first 22 verses God speaks to Abram, and in the second half of the chapter we see Abraham responding to what God has said. Now with that in mind let's return to the start of this narrative and unpack it.In the previous chapter we’re told.

“Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael”.

(Gen 16: 16)

Now in Chapter 17, we are told Abraham was 99 years old. 

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless”. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” 

(Gen 17: 1-2)

So, there’s a 13-year gap between the end of chapter 16 and the beginning chapter 17. The story continues.

“Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations”.

(Gen. 17: 3-5)

Several things are going on here. First, God says He will make a covenant between them. Wait a minute hadn’t He already done that? Didn’t God make a covenant with Abram already back in chapter 15. The Hebrew word that used here is not talking about making something from scratch. He's already done that, God is saying here, I'm now going to put the previously given covenant into force and the application of that covenant is now signified by the change of his name. He says in 17:5 your name no longer shall you be called Abram, but your name should be called Abraham, adding, and you should be a father of many nations. The question is, becomes what's the difference between Abram and Abraham? Well, we shall find out in the next episode.