Gods Sabbath

164

E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

The Lord was calling Abraham to accept the covenant by which Isaac could be born. He was asking Abraham to give up trusting in self, and to place his whole trust in His Maker. God was saying in effect, “Up till this time you have been try ing to achieve the promise by your own works, but I tell you, this is impossible. You will never achieve it this way. I must inform you that My promise can never be fulfilled through Ishmael, no matter how spiritually blind you are to the possibility of its be ing done My way. “Furthermore, the true child of promise can never be given life until you are thoroughly convicted of the error resident in your ways, repent of the evil, and solemnly covenant with Me that you will trust and follow the specifications which I, in My infinite wisdom, have devised. It is important that you also un derstand that these plans are not formed because of any deter mination on My part to retain the headship to Myself. I have not arbitrarily decreed that it shall be this way. These are the only procedures that can successfully save humanity from sin and death. Immutable and perfect law dictates that there can be no other way.” Until this covenant was formed between Abraham and God, nothing more could be done towards the fulfillment of the prom ise. The patriarch had come to the most critical decision point of his life. Both his and the kingdom’s future hung in the balance. Abraham finally accepted and submitted to the Lord’s direc tions. Once this great change took place in him, the way was prepared for the birth of Isaac. It was at this point that God in troduced the rite of circumcision. Like all the other ceremonies of the Old Testament, it was not to possess any virtue in itself, other than as a lesson and a positive act of confirmation that the human participant had already given up his own ways. “And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the right eousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircum cised. . . .” Romans 4:11. Those who received this rite in the spir it intended, were thereby setting their seal to the presence with Abraham’s Submission