A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

the natural carnal instincts of humanity. The believer grows in faith not when he has the sinful
flesh nature removed but when he understands and applies the victory over that ever present
nature which he has in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
TWELVE
ABRAHAM:
Faith Confirmed
(Genesis 17:1-27)
The Apostle Paul uses the expression “weak faith” only a few times in his writings and
only in the Epistle to the Romans. On one occasion he described Abram as “not being weak in
faith ... but was strengthened in faith” (Rom. 4:19-20). This strong faith was evident in the events
surrounding the announcement of the birth of Isaac. This strong faith is characterized by Paul
when he wrote, “Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many
nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be’” (v. 18). The Apostle Paul
defined faith in the following terms: “And being fully convinced that what He had promised He
was also able to perform” (v. 21).
The strong faith of Abram was a faith that believed in hope even in an apparently
hopeless situation. It was a faith grounded on the revealed Word of God. It was a faith that could
rest on the promises of God because he was “fully persuaded,” intellectually, emotionally, and
volitionally, that God was indeed able to accomplish that which He promised to do. It is that kind
of faith toward which every Christian should strive.
When Ishmael was born, Sarai was barren, physically unable to have children, but
Abram’s reproductive organs were functioning. Now thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael,
both Abram and Sarai were “dead” physically; i.e., in their reproductive capacities (v. 19). This
makes the birth of Isaac not only spectacular as a son of Abram’s old age, but indeed miraculous,
as one born from the dead (cf. Heb. 11:19).
THE REVELATION FROM GOD (Gen. 17:1-16)
The events of this chapter occur thirteen years after those of the previous chapter. For
thirteen years, heaven had been shut up to Abram. During that time, there was apparently no
communication from God to the man of faith. Ishmael was the fruit of Abram’s flesh, and the
eighty-six-year-old Abram was busy playing with the fruit of the flesh. Abram had no doubt
come to think of Ishmael as his heir and the promised son of the covenant. Thirteen is the
number of rebellion and Abram had probably passively forgotten God. Now after all those years,
God again appears to Abram with a renewed revelation, a new responsibility and a promise of
the imminent fulfillment of the covenant.
Concerning El Shaddai (w. 1-3)
Some commentators see the covenant God made with Abram as typical of the suzerainty
treaties common to that day. When a king made a covenant with a lesser king or vassal, the
covenant always began with the title of the king. When the Lord appeared to Abram to confirm