God is patient when our hearts cling to something less than his plan and purpose.
Genesis 17:15-19 Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah. 16 And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”
17 Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?”
18 So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” 19 But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.
The journey of faith that Abram and Sarai have been on ever since they left home in Ur has been a gradual revelation of who God is and what he expects of them. Earlier we saw that God revealed himself as his shield and great reward that is far better than any protection or provider that this world has to offer.
In today's scripture God reveals a new name for himself to encourage Abram and Sarai to keep on believing in the promises that still don't seem to be coming true. God wants Abram to know him as "God Almighty" that has the power to come through with his promises despite the circumstances and the delays.
God shows his power and sovereignty by giving Abram and Sarai new names. We should remember that the one that gives out the names is exerting power over the one that is being named. We see this principle when Adam names all of the animals and we also see it happen when the Babylonians gave the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to three of the Hebrews that they captured.
Almighty, sovereign God is still in control and the promises are still on the way despite the fact that Abram already has a son and he is very fond of him, Abram is okay with Ismael being the fulfillment of the promise, but God has bigger and better plans and he won't accept a substitute.
Ishmael represented man’s effort to fulfill the promise of a son, Abram didn't know that the son that God planned to miraculously give him would be the beginning of the lineage that would lead to the promised son that we call Jesus.
We are so willing to help God out and come up with something that isn't what God intended, something inferior, something that we can figure out instead of waiting for the miracle.
This point is so well stated in the Expositor's Bible Commentary for Genesis chapter 17:
Full of life and interest in everything, daily getting deeper into the affections of Abram, who allowed and could not but allow his own life to revolve very much around the dashing, attractive lad. So that the reminder that he was not the promised heir was not entirely welcome.We have a perspective that Abram didn't have, he didn't have the panorama view that we have from Genesis to Revelation, God's plan and purpose make no sense to Abram but God is patient with him.
We are familiar with this state of mind. We wish God would leave us alone. We have found a very attractive substitute for what He promises, and we resent being reminded that our substitute is not, after all, the veritable, eternal, best possession. It satisfies our taste, our intellect, our ambition; it sets us on a level with other men and gives us a place in the world; but now and again we feel a void it does not fill.
We have attained comfortable circumstances, success in our profession, our life has in it that which attracts applause and sheds a brilliance over it; and we do not like being told that this is not all. Our feeling is Oh, that this might do! that this might be accepted as perfect attainment! it satisfies me (all but a little bit); might it not satisfy God?
Why summon me again away from domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, agreeable occupations, to what really seems so unattainable as perfect fellowship with God in the fulfillment of His promise? Why spend all my life in waiting and seeking for high spiritual things when I have so much with which I can be moderately satisfied?
For our complaint often is not that God gives so little but that He offers too much, more than we care to have; that He never will let us be content with anything short of what perfectly fulfills His perfect love and purpose.
We love to be in control and we love to help God out when things look difficult but God reminds us that he is El-Shaddai, the God Almighty, he is more than enough to come through with the best even when we are satisfied with far less.
Thank you God for being so patient with us when our affections and desires are not your own.
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