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Daily Devotions

Genesis

Genesis 
Day 
Day 89

"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24

Text: Genesis 17:1-27

A STERN WORD OF WARNING

Great grace was shown to all who desired to be included in the Abrahamic covenant! They may be included if they were practise the rite of circumcision.

As always, there would be those who would try and get around the commandments of the Lord. This was anticipated and thus a stern word of warning was issued.

“And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised
in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people;
he has broken My covenant.”

GENESIS 17:14

1. No excuses

God made no provision for exceptions! All male children must be circumcised or they would be excluded from the Abrahamic covenant.

2. A plain statement

God couldn’t have made it clearer when He declared, “He has broken My covenant.” Those who rejected the rite of circumcision would be deemed as having broken God’s covenant! The consequence? They would be “cut off from his people”. All the blessings that God promised Abraham would not apply to them at all! This was the penalty spelt out most clearly!


FROM SARAI TO SARAH

As God gave a new name to Abram, so He now planned a new name for Sarai.

“Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife,
you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples
shall be from her.”

GENESIS 17:15-16

1. Specific Inclusion

Sarah was not just a wife of Abraham. She was not blessed just because of Abraham. The Lord loved her personally! Giving her a new name was God’s way of expressing a deep and personal relationship with Him!

2. Specific blessings

a) She would bear a son.

b) She would be “a mother of nations”.

c) Her descendants would have “kings”.

How wonderful God was to Sarah, especially after the Hagar debacle! How gracious and merciful God always has been!