In Genesis 16 Abram’s efforts to “help” God continue. His lack of faith in God’s ability to keep His promise lead him down another difficult path.

It has been 10 years since Abram and Sarai entered Canaan and Sarai still has had not children. She, in keeping with the customs of the day, offers her slave-girl to Abram to in essence be a surrogate mother. Verse 2 contains a very poignant line, “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” Instead of listening to God’s voice and telling Sarai that he will wait for God to provide, Abram listens to his wife and “helps” God out.

Gone are the days when God spoke and Abram listened and obey without question. Abram is now listening to other voices.

So Abram and Hagar conceive a child together…and Sarai becomes jealous. Again, instead of dealing with his wife he allows her to do with Hagar as she wishes. She abuses Hagar and Hagar runs away. An angel of the Lord encounters Hagar in the wilderness. The angel exhorts  Hager to return to Sarai and submit to her (perhaps Sarai’s complaints were justified).

He tells her that God will multiply her offspring. God’s promise to Abram is not void in this son. She is to name him Ishmael (“El” is the Hebrew word for God. Ishmael means God hears) because God has heard her cries for help. Hagar names God El-roi, “God who sees” and she calls the place where she met God Beer-lahai-roi, “Well of the living one who sees me.” She knows that God is watching over her and her offspring.

Genesis 17 opens thirteen years later. God encounters Abram. Even though Abram has not always been faithful, God has not forgotten his promise. He introduces himself for Abram, “I am God Almighty” (El-Shaddai) and exhorts Abram to walk before him and be blameless. Now, Abram was far from blameless. He has done at least two things that were against God’s plan and showed a lack of trust, and yet, God makes him blameless in His presence.

God changes His promise to a covenant. A covenant is a legal contract between to unequal parties. Generally, the greater party promises protection or blessing as long as the lesser party holds their end of the contract. God’s part is the same as it always has been: Abram will be the ancestor of a multitude and his offspring will own the land of Canaan forever (an addition) and God will be their God (another addition). God renames Abram (exalted father), Abraham (Ab=father, h’am= the people, Father of the people [nations])

Abraham’s part of keeping the covenant is to be circumcised and to circumcise every male in his household: slave or free. God then makes a specific promise that Sarah, the new name for Sarai (from Sarai – “my princess” to Sarah – “Princess” indicating her exalted state for the nations) will have a son within the year. Abraham laughs at the prospect and so God names his son Isaac, “He laughs” or “laughter.”

Abraham pleads with God to have Ishmael share in the covenant. God keeps his original promise to Abraham and Hager after him to multiply Ishmael’s offspring, but the covenant will remain with Isaac. Abraham obeys his end of the covenant and circumcises all the males in his household, including Ishmael.

Matthew 6 is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus speaks to his followers about not practicing their faith just for show. It was common in that day for the rich and powerful to make a show of their faith: giving noisy offerings in the brass collection urns and praying loudly on the street corners and in the synagogues. They were pious for the sake of showing that they were pious. Jesus says that they have already received their reward, public attention and adulation.

Jesus encourages us to practice our faith in private, in the sense that we are not to make a show of how faithful we are. It should be a part of our everyday lives, often done in secret so that only God and we know that we have been faithful. We will not win any awards for this behavior, at least in public circles, but the blessing by God will be great.

Verses 7-13 speak of prayer. In Jesus’ day the Gentiles would use insert many names for God in their prayers. Remember, that most of the Gentiles believed in many gods so they needed to include everyone in their prayer. They also heaped on the flattery in order to get the gods’ favor. Jesus tells us to pray simply and gives us a template for prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer.

In this template, Jesus says to: acknowledge God’s relationship with us and His holiness and that He is in control ; ask God to give us what we need for the day; ask for forgiveness and for the forgiveness of others; ask that God keep us from making bad decisions. Note that this prayer does not contain all the lines from The Lord’s Prayer that we pray.

Jesus tells us we must forgive others it we are to expect God to forgive us. I don’t think this is a condition that Jesus puts on God’s forgiveness as much as it is to say, “God forgives you; so who do you think you are that you don’t forgive.”

He continues with encouragements to do things of faith for the sake of faith and not show, building up treasures in heaven. We are to glorify God with our lives, not ourselves. It is more important to trust God and not ourselves to provide for those daily needs.

There is no need for worry.