The Lineage of Sarah

Gen 17:15 – 27

Connection/Tension

It can be hard to be someone who preaches God’s Word in the age of the internet. There are countless examples of people who can do it better than you who are available at people’s fingertips all the time.

In the past, I’ve been tempted to think, “What’s the point of me serving God this way; wouldn’t it be better for people just to listen to someone else?” I was beginning to sideline myself through a drift into cynicism. Cynicism believes that God is only as big as our abilities or circumstances, and since those are often small or hard, we fade into the background rather than stepping into the glorious purposes God has for us.

Cynicism leads us to retreat into ourselves rather than open ourselves up to God and to others. It refuses to be tricked or fooled or to hold out hope for something that could disappoint. Yet, in the end, it cuts us off from God and other people.

I want to ask this morning, “how can we battle the destructive influence of cynicism that seeks to sideline us and keep us from fulfilling our purpose in the kingdom of God?”

Context

Last week, we heard the story from pastor Sam about how the Lord shows up to visit Abraham again. It’s been thirteen years since his failure with Hagar. And God appears to Abraham to reaffirm the covenant he made with him, give him a new name, reaffirm his promises, and give Abraham the sign of circumcision. There was a lot there!

In making a covenant with Abraham, God is bringing Abraham into an official partnership[1] with him to bless the nations just like he promised he would (Gen 12:3). He’s making Abraham his royal representative through whom the life of Eden will flow to reach the fallen families of the world. God always remains committed to bringing heaven to earth, and he remains committed to using this wandering, former Babylonian who trusts him to be his instrument.

And now in our passage, we will see that God is not only committed to bring worldwide blessing through Abraham, but also through Sarai and through the royal offspring that will come from her. Despite all expectations and objections to the contrary, despite even Abraham and Sarai’s schemes, God will not alter his plan and will continue to use the least likely and least deserving people to accomplish his purposes. That’s where we pick up the story in verse 15,  

Revelation

15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

In our sermon last week, we heard how God gave Abraham a new name in connection with his identity and purpose. Now, he’s going to do the same thing for his wife Sarai. Her name will no longer be “Sarai,” but “Sarah” which means, “princess.”

As you pair the meaning of Sarah’s new name with Abraham’ new name (which means “father of a multitude”), we find ourselves going back to the garden and God’s original purposes for human beings. Of the first things God says to mankind is, “be fruitful and multiply,” and “have dominion,” purposes that these new names capture.[2]

What are these things telling us? That God is completely committed to humanity despite our sin, failure, and destruction. Though Abraham and Sarai sinned deeply, Abraham is like a new Adam: a new head of a new humanity God is creating that lives in right relationship with him and with one another.  

God created Adam as the head over creation and gave him Eve as a co-ruler to sit with him on the throne of creation.[3] And we see here Sarah as a new Eve also having a royal identity and dignity, something she likely would have felt she lacked in the ancient world after almost a century of barrenness. (Her friends and peers would have been grandmas and great-grandmas by this time- and she would have lacked that honor in a culture that prioritized child birth.)

In these new names, God is showing us a powerful picture of restoration. Our sin dehumanizes and vandalizes our souls, more and more as we get deeper into our sin. And God alone is the one who provides a way out- a new identity, new purpose, and new path, in which he restores the humanity and decency we forfeited. Then God says,

16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

In last week’s sermon, we saw another example of God’s unfailing faithfulness to Abraham. Now, we see that same unwavering commitment and faithfulness to Sarah.

God says that he will bless Sarah a second time and that “nations” and “kings of peoples will come from her.” Sarah, the princess, will have a royal lineage. Royalty begets royalty. Sarah will pass on the dignity and purpose that she received to her offspring. This is a further picture of the new humanity God is bringing into the world through Abraham and Sarah that will inherit the same authority and rule God gave to humanity in the beginning.

God’s commitment to Sarah is significant at this moment because Abraham (and Sarah) had tried to discard Sarah in favor of Hagar. Essentially, they grew weary of trusting God to do something that seemed increasingly impossible. They insisted on taking another way out- letting Hagar replace Sarah as the mother of Abraham’s promised offspring.

Yet, God won’t budge. He won’t accomplish his purposes through the ways of the world. He won’t kick Sarah to the curb in favor of a more convenient solution (even though Sarah herself was ready to do so!). God insists, “I will bless Sarah. I will give you a son by her.” What will carry the day are not Abraham and Sarah’s fertility or their whims- but the purposes of God.  

We see here that God remains utterly committed to his purposes and people. He has plans to use flawed and failed people like us and he won’t take no for an answer. He has a purpose for you (just like he did for Sarah), and he’s not concerned if there is someone more suited or gifted than you are. He doesn’t give up on his people, he doesn’t jettison them for a better option, he remains relentlessly patient with us and fulfills his purposes through us even when our own unbelief and resistance to God is the greatest barrier. So, don’t allow discouragement to keep you from being faithful; God’s purpose for your life doesn’t come down to your greatness but to his.

Now, after all these decades of waiting, this is just too much for Abraham. Let’s see how he responds,

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”

Abraham starts with the right response- he’s falling on his face before the sovereign God who is promising to do him more good than he could have imagined. Yet, his heart seems divided and an expression of unbelief erupts from it- he laughs. We get a picture of what’s going on inside his heart that causes him to laugh, he says that one hundred year old and ninety year old parents don’t have children!

Then, his unbelief expresses itself with words and he says, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” This seems crazy that Abraham would voice this to God almighty, “God, don’t fulfill your good plan, settle for what I came up with instead!”

What’s going on in Abraham’s heart that makes him respond like this? I think the word, “cynicism” captures it. The longer people live in this world often them more cynical they become. So, it’s no surprise that Abraham struggles with cynicism as he reaches a hundred years old and decades of infertility. Cynicism grows when the brokenness of the world becomes large in our eyes and the goodness of God becomes small. We know we are cynical toward God when our expectations limit what we think he can do. It’s a form of pride- because we think we know enough to discern what will happen in the future. When we are cynical, we find ourselves giving up on what God will do in and through us and other people. We settle in to simply endure this world with low expectations and become more and more fruitless.

How do you think God is going to respond to this? Is he going to yield to Abraham’s wish to just let Ishmael be the offspring of promise?

19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

I love the first word that comes out of God’s mouth to Abraham- “no.” God won’t let Abraham limit him with his cynical expectations. God doesn’t bargain, negotiate, or take advice from mortals. And I’m thankful he doesn’t because he plans to do more good than we imagine, so it would be our loss if he did.

God clearly states again that the offspring will come through Sarah. Then, he gets a little spicey with Abraham. He says he will have a son and Abraham will call his name Isaac, which means, “laughter…”

Do you see what just happened there? God’s going to mark this moment of overcoming Abraham’s unbelief in an ironic way. Abraham was laughing at God, but when Isaac is born, the funny thing will be how little they trusted God.[4] God wants to use Isaac’s name to remind Abraham that when he stumbles into having a low view of God and what he can accomplish, he brought Isaac into the world through Sarah.

Moreover, God will uphold his covenant with this child that comes through Sarah. That means, he will bring his kingdom to earth through this lineage.[5] God will use the lineage of Sarah to bring heaven to earth and crush the serpent and death. He won’t bow to Abraham’s pessimism- he will remain faithful to his plan.

20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

Now, we see another picture of God’s large and expansive heart. Even though he’s clear he’s going to uphold his covenant through the line of Isaac (v. 21), he still cares about Ishmael and will do great things for him.

God will give him blessing, fruitful multiplication, twelve royal offspring and a great nation. Essentially, God is saying, “there’s more than enough Eden blessing to go around; I’m more limitless than you think.” In God’s choice of Sarah and Isaac over Hagar and Ishmael, his intention is not to put Hagar and Ishmael down, it’s to bring blessing into the world in his way and his time. His plan includes brining his kingdom to earth through Sarah’s lineage, and yet he also remains committed to blessing Ishmael.

Now, let’s see how this interaction between God and Abraham concludes,

22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

I love how abruptly this conversation concludes. As soon as God’s done saying to Abraham what he wants to, he leaves. God ends the conversation on his terms just as everything has been on his terms. It’s just the way relationship with him works when he’s the creator and we’re the creatures.

Then Abraham, now humble and no longer as cynical, begins responding to God rightly. He takes Ishmael and the men of his house and circumcises them “that very day, as God had said to him.” We can see that he’s hoping again rather than giving into cynicism because hope overflows into an active and lively obedience whereas cynicism shrinks into neglect and outright disobedience. And this would have been a big deal- performing a surgery on yourself at 99 years old, then on your 13 year old son, and then requiring the hundreds of men in your household to do the same.

Abraham is taking a step forward to become the obedient covenant partner God was looking of him to be, walking before God and being blameless (17:1). Or to put it another way, to be with God and like God the two greatest things a human can enjoy.  

His first step forward of obedience in this chapter, circumcision, is so strange- as Sam mentioned last week. Yet, the more I think about it, the more fitting and helpful it is.

Abraham is literally mortifying his flesh- circumcision is a picture on the outside of what repentance is on the inside.[6] His old allegiances, old desires, old plans had to die and give way to God’s. Circumcision is a wound without that illustrates the wound within that we need to live. Repentance is a painful and humbling process that feels like death yet brings life. Repentance is a death and resurrection that brings sinners to God and the knife of circumcision vividly illustrates this. It also pictures him cutting off his misplaced hope in having an offspring through Hagar.

His heart is taking steps forward in replacing pessimism and cynicism with faith-filled hope and confidence. God has asked Abraham to trade in his small, limited view of God for a big one that he can do all the things he’s promised in all the ways he’s planned. Abraham doesn’t need to try to bail God out, he can trust that God is going to bring miraculous life into the world through Sarah.

Now, there is one other detail of the story we need to consider,

26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

Why does God want Abraham to circumcise all the men of his household? Why is it not just enough for Abraham to receive circumcision or Abraham and his sons?

We get a picture here of God reaching outward to include the nations in his new nation. Abraham’s biological children are not the only ones who belong to his household and share his blessing. Rather, all who follow the same God as Abraham along with him are invited into the family and blessing of God.

Everyone’s greatest need is not to have Abraham as a biological parent, but for God to adopt them into his household and to have him as Father. By this mark of circumcision extending outwards to hundreds of other men and families, God is drawing all kinds of people into his family.

The one requirement is that repentance is the only way in. They had to apply the outward mark of circumcision to their bodies as a sign that represents inward heart change and devotion to God. The one way into the family and nation of God is repentance and trust. If you want to come into this family, then turn to God in repentance and trust.   

 

Application

If these things are so, how then do we need to respond to this story? Do we all need to be circumcised, is that the answer?

No- no one here needs to be circumcised- at least not in this way. As the story of the Bible progresses, Moses writes about something called “circumcision of the heart.” It’s what God is truly after in applying this external symbol- the inward transformation it points to and calls for (Deut 10:16). By the time we get to the New Testament, it’s wrong to demand anyone receive circumcision because the reality of Jesus and the circumcised hearts he produces has arrived (Gal 5:2).

My friends, we don’t need the sign of circumcision, but we need the spiritual reality of heart circumcision. We need to cut off our dependence on things that are not God or compete with him. We need the same utter devotion to God that God requires Abraham to have.

This principle could apply to so many different areas, so let’s start with Abraham’s cynicism and see whether we find ourselves there. Abraham’s cynicism led him to ask God to just let Ishmael live, and it almost certainly brought both Sarah and Abraham to the point where he would try to start a family through Hagar who wasn’t his wife. In short, we find ourselves in the throws of cynicism when we stop believing God plans to use us or we reject God’s ways of doing things and looks for victories we can achieve through the flesh. These are both areas of unbelief towards God because they view him as small and our circumstances and limitations as large. The spirit of cynicism characterizes our age- it protects us from disappointment, but paralyzes us from doing anything.[7]

1.      We are in cynical unbelief when we believe we are too old or spent, too injured or weak, or have had too traumatic or sinful of a past to be of any more use to God. So, we stop expecting great things from God or attempting great things for God. We think, “there’s someone better or different you should use.”

 

2.      We are in cynical unbelief when we stop believing that being with the Father, loving his family, and making disciples are God’s means of providing his people with fulfillment and bringing worldwide blessing to the nations. Instead, we retreat into streaming and apps; food and drink; slothfulness or ungodly relationships to look for what God alone can give us.

 

3.      We are in cynical unbelief as a community when we stop praying for and yearning for revival and settle into church-life as usual and settle for comfortable and good times without great fruit.

 

God’s word to us, including me, who is tempted in these ways is, We must circumcise our cynical unbelief! Cut it off and turn from it. Let’s abandon our own efforts to produce fulfillment in this life through the world’s ways and fleshly means. Let’s seek after God’s victories in God’s ways instead.

1.      Victory would look like a settled confidence God want to us even us to accomplish great spiritual deeds for the life of others in God.

 

2.      Victory would look like us giving ourselves to God, our brothers and sisters, and the lost.

 

 

3.      Victory would look like our church remaining desperate for God to do more in our time than he’s done so far.

We would not accept the status-quo of the world (which has been brought about by the serpent!). Instead, we would insist that God means to do something different with us and with our city.

These are victories because the serpent and the world want us to retreat into ourselves in pessimism rather than spending our lives to bring blessing to the nations. As Christians, we live with an optimistic defiance of the cynicism of our age and instead obey God in all of life. We do so with optimism and hope of what he will do through us and through our community most of all because of Jesus.

As Christians, we should be the least cynical people on the planet- after all, Jesus got out of the grave. We have greater reasons for optimism and hope than Abraham did. We know how where the story goes. The ultimate seed of Abraham, Jesus has lived, died, and risen again for his people. If there was any moment that should make people cynical, wouldn’t it be when Jesus, the author of life, was hanging on a tree. And yet, he showed that even then, cynicism was of no value since in three short days he emerged alive!

 

Let’s pray together.

We are not going to transition to a time of reflection and response for the next couple of songs. During this time, please respond to the Lord in any of the following ways:

1.      Pray (by yourself or with a group)

2.      Reflect on the sermon and ask God how he wants you to grow/change.

3.      Go forward and receive the bread and juice for the Lord’s Supper (if you are a follower of Jesus and belong to a church).

4.      Give your offering if you prefer to do that in person.

Then, after the next couple songs, Dave will come up and lead us in the Lord’s Supper devotional.

 

[1] Tim Mackey in his Bible Project podcast uses this term.

[2] Gen 1:26, 28.

[3] Stephen G. Dempster and D. A. Carson, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Leicester, England : Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2003), 82.

[4] Stephen G. Dempster and D. A. Carson, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Leicester, England : Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2003), 82.

[5] Cf.  Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, Second Edition. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 281

[6] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on Genesis, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009), 454.

[7] Yoanni Sanchez in Paul E. Miller and David Powlison, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, Revised edition (NavPress, 2017), 79.