S160P3 – A man by any other name: Abram
Gen 17:1-6
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.”
I did not grow up in the Church, so there are many things I did not learn as a child that most children in the Church learn. It was not until I volunteered in children’s ministry that I would encounter many of these things. For example, I never knew of the song Father Abraham. Before my first overseas missions trip, I had not heard of it. After learning the lyric, I saw the clear value in it. In my fundamentalist upbringing, no one ever made it a point to drill in the historical and spiritual significance of Abram’s story and our part in it. This surprises me since God made such a big deal of this covenant. In fact, He renamed the man and his wife as a way of making sure it would be remembered.
The name Abram means “high father” or “exalted father.” The name Abraham is merely a variation with its own distinct pronunciation, but it does not have a different definition. God changed Abram’s name as a way of marking that moment of covenant, that promise to make him a father of many nations. However, the name Abraham does not actually mean “father of many nations.” Abram’s name changed for the same reason Sarai’s named changed, and that appears to be in order to mark her designation as the mother of nations. [vv. 15-16] The name Sarah does not carry that meaning, but we know why that name came to be hers. Their new names were not that different, but God certainly made them different people than they had been.
What the Lord did for Abram and Sarai was nothing short of a miracle. Being so advanced in age, these two never could have hoped for a child let alone a multitude of children. In fact, Abram responded to God’s promise to have Sarai bear him a son by laughing. [v. 17] It was that unbelievable to him, and that only shows how miraculous the resulting series of events would be. When we speak of Abraham and Sarah, we should remember why they were given those names. After all, the children from many nations mentioned in the word of God are among us today. Father, thank You for the everlasting covenant You made with Abram and for the Christ who came as a result.