20″As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21″But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.”
Ishmael was thirteen years old, and had been conceived through the scheming of Abram and his wife Sarai, by using a housemaid named Hagar as a surrogate. Isaac had not yet been born, but was promised to Abram and Sarai, despite their advanced ages. One son born of human effort, one promised through divine blessing. Abram loved his son Ishmael and enquired of the Lord regarding Ishmael’s future. The Lord told Abram that Ishmael would indeed receive a blessing from the Lord—the boy would grow up to become a mighty tribal leader, the father of kings, with all its presumed wealth and abundance. Isaac, however, would receive the same blessings and more, but not simply through the Lord’s intent to bless him, but through the Lord’s promise of a covenant. A covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties that a condition or action would be enacted and kept by one or both of the parties. A blessing, on the other hand, was an act of generous provision bestowed from one person to another. Christians live under a covenant made between God and all peoples who ever turn to Jesus Christ in faith, trusting Him for the forgiveness of their sins, and for eternal life: they receive unconditional, unfailing forgiveness for their sins, along with the very presence of God in their lives through His Holy Spirit. Are Christians also blessed along the way? Of course. But the covenant itself is our blessing—just as it was for Isaac and his descendants. Although the covenant is offered, it must be welcomed—and the physical descendants of Isaac, the nation of Israel, have to this day rejected this offer of a covenant through the death of Jesus for their sins. They remain a covenant people, but refuse to enter into the covenant.
How strange it is that having received membership in such a magnificent covenant as we have, we often devote our lives to obtaining the earthly, transitory blessings, such as were given to Ishmael, and we show so little concern and appreciation for the covenant we’ve received in Christ—the forgiveness of our sins, and opportunity for a whole new life. Our blessing is not kings and nations, and material wealth. It is membership in a whole new community; the family of those who have been born again from above, forgiven of sin and filled with the very Spirit of God.
Father, takes our eyes off of the here and now, today, and let them look back to the covenant sealed in the blood of Your Son on our behalf, and forward to the Day when we are finally, physically, in His presence. Looking to such a past and such a future, make us people today who find our joy and meaning in the blessing of the covenant itself, and not in material blessings that we desire. Amen.
downtownpastor