“MY COVENANT!”

 Genesis 17:15-21                                 (ESV)

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

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."

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!"

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.

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."”

According to a dictionary, the definition of the word COVENANT is “TO PROMISE by covenant; pledge”, or a more modern translation might be “to give your word”!  The Martin’s, a Southern Gospel group, sing a song entitled “The Promise” that has been on my heart for weeks.  The second verse states “I never said that friends would never turn their backs on you, Or that the world around you wouldn't see you as a fool,

But I did say like me you'll surely be despised, And I did say my ways confound the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27)!  This morning, I arose with “The Promise” reverberating in my heart and soul.  

Numbers 23:19 says “GOD is not man, that HE should lie, or a son of man, that HE should change his mind. Has HE said, and will HE not do it? Or has HE spoken, and will HE not fulfill it?”  HE PROMISED Abraham that HE would be “the father of a multitude of nations”.  Abraham “assumed” that his son Ishmael, born by his handmaiden Hagar.  But GOD’s Plan is seldom within the minds of HIS CREATION.  Once again we SEE, GOD IS GOD, and we ARE NOT!

In Genesis 17:1 it states that Abraham was 99 years old! Fathering children was probably not in the plan for him, and Sarah was 90, beyond her child bearing years!  But GOD answered her disbelief (in her heart ) in Genesis 18:14 when HE said “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."  

The WORD OF GOD is TRUTH, if HE says it, it WILL COME TO BE!  No less than 10 times the wording “MY COVENANT” is used in Genesis 17.  When THE CREATOR establishes HIS WORD, we “should” accept it as FACT!  Genesis 21:1-3 says “The LORD visited Sarah as HE had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as HE had promised.  And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age AT THE TIME OF WHICH GOD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM.  Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, WHOM SARAH BORE HIM, ISAAC.”  “MY COVENANT” was fulfilled in that GOD DELIVERED THAT EXACTLY WHAT HE PROMISED, PRECISELY WHEN HE PROMISED IT!!!