Genesis 17:15-22

A Child Promised to Sarah

v. 15. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai, thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. This change of names is significant, for the wife of Abraham, heretofore known as Sarai, "the princely," "heroine," was hereafter to be called Sarah, "princess," as the ancestress of princes and kings. Thus the promise of God narrowed down, first from a member of Abraham's household to a son of his own body, and now to his own son by Sarah, his wife, not by some slave woman.

v. 16. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. The emphasis is expressly laid upon the fact that the happy event of the birth of a son to Sarah is a result of the blessing of God. For whereas this is true in the case of every wife, it was particularly true in the case of Sarah, upon whom the Lord had laid the cross of barrenness.

v. 17. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? The marvel of such a promise in the circumstances as Abraham knew them, himself a man of a hundred years and Sarah ninety years old, and yet they should become parents, this filled him with such awe that he sank to the ground, and with such joy that he was constrained to laugh. He was filled with adoration and praise of the power and mercy of God.

v. 18. And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before Thee! This was not spoken in the fear that the Lord would now cause Ishmael to die, but as a prayer that Ishmael might have part in the blessings of the covenant.

v. 19. And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. The Lord emphasizes that the son of Sarah should be the bearer of the covenant, he whom Abraham should name Isaac (he that laughs); he was to transmit the Messianic promise to his children after him, a promise which would not concern their temporal welfare so much as their spiritual blessings, and would therefore be of interest also to the spiritual descendants of Isaac.

v. 20. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. Ishmael had been begotten after the flesh, and could therefore not be the bearer of the promise, Galatians 4:30. He was to be blessed most richly with blessings of this life: twelve princes were to be his descendants, and the number of his offspring would be exceedingly great.

v. 21. But My covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. God had, even now, appointed the time when Isaac should be born. And this child of promise should be the bearer of the Messianic promise. For since it stands to reason and clearly follows from the Scriptural account that Abraham taught all his children the fear of the true God, we must conclude that the special progeny of Abraham and Isaac to which the Lord here refers must be the sum total of that spiritual offspring, all men who by the faith of Abraham become the children of Abraham, Romans 4:11-Esther :.

v. 22. And he left off talking with him. And God went up from Abraham. After God had given all the necessary commands to Abraham, the vision came to a close.