A New Name for a New Man

When people discover that we have 5 sons, their reaction is often “God bless you.” It has happened to us while standing in line for the Statue of Liberty ferry, while in the grocery store, and most recently, in the maternity ward at the hospital. “You have five boys? God bless you!”

To which our standard response is “Thank you. He already has!”

We come today to the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, where we find time running out on Abram for God to bless him. He’s 99 years old. He’s been in the promised land for 23 years. It has been almost a quarter of a century since God had promised that he would make Abram into a great nation. What has Abram got to show for all this time waiting on God to deliver on that promise? Nothing.

Well, he does have one son, Ishmael who is now 13 years old. But the only reason that he has Ishmael is that he and Sarai decided to help God deliver His promise their way. Sarai gave her servant Hagar to Abram - a common custom in those days with couples who were childless. Hagar conceived and bore Ishmael. And that brought sorrow and heartache into Abram’s family, the consequences of which are still being felt today in terms of the struggle between the Arabs and the Jews. Abram found out the hard way that it never pays to run ahead of God’s timetable. It is better to wait on God “unblessed” than to try to seize the blessing yourself.

So thirteen years had passed since Ishmael’s birth. Thirteen years of silence. And while God waited, Abram and Sarai grew old. Sarai’s womb had become a tomb. There was no earthly chance that this couple would bear children now. But that’s exactly what God wanted. You see, God was waiting until Abram and Sarai were well past the point of having children. That way, when he did finally bless them with a son, there would be no doubt about where that son came from. God was planning to bring life out of death.

We discovered last week that the silence of God is often a prelude to the blessing of God. It happened between the OT and the NT. 400 years of silence. But God was preparing the greatest blessing of all - the birth of the Messiah. It is happening today. Where is Jesus today? He isn’t here on earth. He’s gone to prepare a place for us, and in His good time, He’ll come back to take us there. Silence, but silence that is preparatory to blessing.

In one respect, Genesis 17 is an old chapter. You have an old man with an old wife. The two of them are waiting on the fulfilment of an old promise that seemingly had grown stale and worthless from neglect. The cobwebs are hanging off chapter 17.

But then God comes along and changes all that. And when God steps into chapter 17 of Genesis, everything becomes new. God gives Abram four new things in this chapter. He gives old Abram a new name. He gives him a new fruitfulness. He gives him a new home. And he gives him a new mark.

Did you know that everyone in chapter 17 gets a new name, except Ishmael? Even God introduces himself to Abram with a new name. It is the name El-Shaddai. It means God Almighty, or literally, God the Mountain One - signifying strength and majesty. Abram was in the Slough of Despond. He was, quite literally in the valley of the shadow of death. Romans 4:19 tells us that

Romans 4:19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

Hebrews 11:12 tells us that Abram was as good as dead. This was no mid-life crisis… this was an end of life crisis. And God met him there and said “You’re in the valley Abram, but I am your mountain. I am your strength.”

God is always what we need Him to be for us when we need Him to be it. For the lonely, he is a friend. For the widow, he is a husband. For the orphan, he is a father. For the sufferer, He is a comfort. And He allows us to reach the end of our endurance to teach us that He is sufficient for us. Someone has said that “You don’t know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you’ve got.”

The concept of a name in those days meant much more than it does today. In ancient times, a person’s name signified all that he was and all that he stood for. (That is why, incidentally, the Bible tells us that we should pray in Jesus’ name. We are invoking all that Jesus is and all that He stands for when we pray in His name.)

Now here is Abram, whose name means “High Father”. I suppose for a man who had only one son, that was an embarrassing enough name. But along comes God and gives Abram a new name - Abraham. This means “father of many nations.” Do you suppose that people, when they heard Abraham’s new name would nudge each other and snicker? Do you think he might have been the object of ridicule, the butt of jokes? Here’s this old man of 99, with only one son, and he’s calling himself the father of many nations? And his wife gets a new name too - Sarah. It means “princess”. Can you imagine a woman of 89 calling herself “princess”?

But God, in renaming Abraham and Sarah, reiterated his promise to him that he and Sarah would bear a son. Next year. When he was 100 and Sarai was 90. Their names became a witness that the hand of God was upon their lives.

This week, after we had our fifth son, and we were standing together gazing into the nursery at him, I said to my wife “Honey, we’re too old to be doing this.” Can you imagine Abraham? An old man of 100 walks up to the nursery window and starts passing out cigars. His wife is with him, and you notice that she’s no spring chicken either. So you say “Oh you must be here to see your grandchild.” And the little old man points with pride to a little baby named Isaac over there in that basinette, and he says “That’s our son. He’s our first.” Then you look at the T-shirt he’s got on and it says “World’s Oldest Dad.” And you notice that his wife has a hospital gown on and she’s a patient in the maternity ward.

God has a sense of humor. So did Abraham. He fell on his face and laughed. The first time Abraham fell on his face in this passage, he worshiped. This time, he laughed. Kinda hard on the face. Have you ever laughed in the presence of God? God doesn’t mind our laughter. God didn’t strike Abraham down for laughing in his presence. In fact, God thought it was worth remembering that Abraham laughed. This is how Isaac got his name. God said “Let’s call him Isaac because that means ‘He laughs’.” Every time Abraham looked upon his son, he would be reminded of the good laugh he had in the presence of God.

God said to Abraham

I have made you the father of many nations.

Notice the tense of the verb? I have made… not I will make. When God makes us a promise, it is as good as done. He was saying to Abraham, “I’m going to make you fruitful beyond your wildest imagination.” From a man and his wife who were barren, would come multitudes of children.

And God said that not only would he give Abraham a new fruitfulness, but he would give him a new home.

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And God also gave Abraham a new mark. It was the mark of circumcision. It was a physical reminder of a spiritual reality that God had entered into a covenant relationship with Abraham. It was a reminder to Abraham and everyone in his family that they were different. They were God’s people.

What does Genesis 17 have to say to us today? Well, hopefully God isn’t going to give us children when we’re 100. But God has, in spiritual terms, dealt with us the same way that he dealt with Abraham. He has given us

- a new name

- a new fruitfulness

- a new home

- a new mark.

He has given us a new name. It is the name of His son Jesus Christ. When we come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, we become a part of his family. We become Christians. We bear the name of God.

In Isaiah 62:2 and Revelation 2:17 and 3:12…

Isaiah 62:2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

Revelation 2:17 To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Revelation 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

Christians are people who bear the name of God.

When we become a part of the family of God, we are given a new fruitfulness. Our lives are no longer lived for ourselves, or for the fulfilment of our selfish wants and desires. We are here on this earth to bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

Fruit in terms of a changed character

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Fruit in terms of the impact that we will have on other people, leading them to become part of God’s family too. In Colossians 1, Paul talks about the Gospel bearing fruit, as people come to know Jesus Christ as Savior.

And fruitfulness is not something that we have to do on our own, anymore than Abraham had to produce that child on his own. He was incapable of it. We are incapable of bearing fruit for God on our own. God says that our fruitfulness is His responsibility. We must simply abide or remain in Him.

John 15:4-5 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

When we become part of God’s family, He gives us a new home.

2 Corinthians 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

We begin to see ourselves as pilgrims, like Abraham.

Hebrews 11:9-10 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

And when we become part of God’s family, we receive a new mark - it is the mark of baptism. It is a physical reminder of a spiritual reality.

Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

A new name, a new fruitfulness, a new home, and a new mark. This is what it means to be a Christian. You have been given all these things because you are a new person in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

God is in the business of making all things new. Has he made your life new today?