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If we look at verses 15 and 16, we see a reiteration of God's promises of blessings to Abraham. God is persistent in His quest for our assurance. And that is the very first point I want you to see as we study this great passage tonight. One thing that stands out loud and clear is that God is persistent in pursuing His people that they might have assurance of His covenant promises.
![the laughter of my father full story the laughter of my father full story](https://aikikenkyukaibogor.com/img/the-laughter-of-my-father-characters-3.jpg)
Then in Genesis 17 we saw last week that He even gave him a covenant sign, cut into his own flesh to remind him of the certainty of His promises. He had reprised His promises, He had even changed his name to Abraham in order to convince Abraham of the certainty of the fulfillment of His promises. He had reminded him of his character here in Genesis 17. He had appeared to him on numerous occasions in Genesis 12 and 15 and again here in Genesis 17, and in other places He had appeared to him, revealing Himself to Abram. And He literally cut a covenant with him in order to assure the promises that He had made with him in Genesis 15. He gave him victory in battle over his enemies in Genesis 14. The Lord protected Abram and brought him out. And He's given him protection even when he's sinned in his sojourn in Egypt in Genesis 12. He had made specific promises to Abram as He called him out of the Ur of the Chaldeans. God has so far given Abram extraordinary promises beginning in Genesis 12. And we pray, O Lord, as well that we would respond to You in faith and in obedience. That we might have a greater view of those blessings as we study Your word tonight. We pray, O Lord, that our faith would be increased even as we study Your word and that You might assure us of Your glorious, covenantal purposes for us. It's intended, O Lord, that we might glorify You by our trust. Hear God's holy and inspired word.įather, this is Your word. So let's look at Genesis 17:15, and we’ll read to the end of the chapter. He wants to continue to reiterate and become even more specific in the promises that Abraham has been given in the passage before us this week. That He was indeed going to bring about the promises He had made to him. And God then, as we studied last week in verses 9-14, we saw that God gave him a sign to assure him of His purposes. And we talked about how Abram must have felt when this announcement was made to God. And then the Lord comes to him in Genesis 17 and says "Abram I'm going to change your name to Abraham, father of multitudes. And we talked about how no doubt over the years there had been many jokes made about that name, some perhaps to his face, many more perhaps behind his back. So here we have Abraham, this man who is now almost a hundred, whose name means exalted father, high father, mighty father. And over that 13-year period, the idea had grown in Abram's mind that the promise that God had made to him to make him a father of many nations was actually going to be fulfilled through this son, Ishmael, who was now, by the time we get to Genesis 17, 13 years old. Abram, this man whose name meant exalted father, had spent 86 years of life not being a father at all, and then finally had had a child through his wife's maid servant, a concubine, named Hagar. Two weeks ago we began our studies in the chapter of Genesis 17.