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So, God had made a call and set a challenge upon Abrahams life and Abraham responded. Abraham was 99 years old, does that not tell you something?  The call to faith in part will always ask men and women to step outside their comfort zone otherwise wouldn’t mean leaving something behind. If you do this then for you Go will be your God and your people will be His people. Going into the land of the stranger, is exactly what we do psychologically when you try something new. A new beginning, a new enterprise, or collectively a new way of being a church family. A meaningful Christian life means mastering a new territory, and a new cultural landscape. The degree in which we are able to be blessed is directly proportional to the degree to which we are prepared to sacrifice and will determine how much God will allow us to master the new territory. 

Maybe God knows that as human beings we need to experience some sort of sacrifice in order to take something new seriously. Everybody and their dog make new year resolutions, right. Resolutions every year about how we're going to be better people, but we don't do it. The reason for that, at, least in part is because we often don't know how to make the cost sufficiently sacrificial. Without that seriousness we just won’t step out in faith and make the sacrifice today for the better future tomorrow. Abraham marked that call upon his life with something that would mark out the change, something that would create a before and after moment in his lifetime – Remember.

“Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, and his son Ishmael was thirteen. Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him”.

(Gen 17: 24-27)

The importance of sacrifice is imbedded by God deep within us, only humans can understand the importance of sacrifice. Even in the most intelligent animals have never been seen to demonstrate the ability to surrender something now for the hope of something greater later on. The expansion of currency across many human civilizations show the development (codification) of the idea of putting aside something now for a better future.

Monkeys and Apes are the closest of all animals to humans in their level of intelligence. Yet it was noticed by anthropologist that that they still fall foul of not grasping this principle. In many parts of the world the simplest of monkey are still caught by the simplest of traps which utilize the principle that they are unable to give something up now for a better future. Large heavy jars are filled with treats and secured with chains metal posts. The jars are heavy and fixed in such a way so that the monkeys cannot carry them away. The hunters would then place treats inside the jar that attract to monkeys. The monkey comes along and then put his hand in a jar and grabs the treats that are in there. Once the monkey puts his hand in there and grasps the goodies and he can't get his handout of the jar because the neck is too narrow. The hunters could then just come along and pick up the monkey, jar and all. If they just recognised that if they could just, let go of what they are holding they could escape but that is not the monkey will do because he can't sacrifice the today for tomorrow. 

I believe at a deep level the meaning of the story of circumcision story about that it's about the need to sacrificing something for a better future. It also demonstrates that individual personal sacrifice can benefit the wider family group. There is nothing more important than sacrifice in enabling us to move forward in our Christian faith. So, don’t get stuck where you are and especially don’t get stuck in doing something that is bringing you down or compromising your moral integrity. God may be calling you to strike out and enter a new land. You might be nervous when you go start a new stage of life but step forward, find a new way forward and let the old one go. God in this passage is calling us to stop and reflect in order that you can move forward. God spoke and gave Abraham the sign of the covenant that day, which was circumcision. Meaning every male whether bought or born and acted on what God said was willingly circumcised that day. All the males, all at once. Do you realize what that meant? That meant Abrahams household was left unprotected if somebody attacked them? There was nobody to defend them, they were totally vulnerable. Men are temporarily incapacitated when they get circumcised, so this was a real act of faith. This tells me it might be intimidating to be left vulnerable in the light of any sacrifice you make but scripture says it is still really worthwhile because without it you cannot achieve what God wants you to spiritually strive for. 

So, what is the point of the passage for us? How about the fact that when we face difficult or even impossible situations, we should just believe God and trust him. When the all-powerful God promised Abraham he would do what seemed impossible, he asked Abraham to acknowledge his commitment to that promise by marking it with a sacrifice. Abraham immediately and completely obeyed. Abraham had to look to the Lord to see and do the impossible. He had to trust and obey, but then also wait for the fulfillment of the promise that God had given him. When facing a seemingly impossible situations our job is to trust God and obey what he tells us to do and wait for him to work it out.  We just need to walk with God because he has promised to meet all our needs. We also need to understand that walking before God will mean leaving something behind. Abraham did it, but that obedience took faith. He trusted the Lord; obeyed the Lord and we will see what happens to him as we continue the study of the book of Genesis. The almighty God has power to do what he promises to do. 

God has the power to perform any promise he has ever given and that's the lesson he gave Abraham on this occasion. Trust him, in spite of any sacrifice there might be in the short term to receive what he wants to give you in the future. Trust him for he is trustworthy.