Ere closing my observations on this section of our narrative, I would add that it is _faith_ alone which can enable one to listen, as Abraham here does, to the promises of Almighty God, and when faith listens, God will surely continue to speak. Abram here gets his name changed to Abraham, and the Lord unfolds to him the future greatness and number of his seed, while Abraham hearkens in the unquestioning silence of faith. But when the "Almighty God" goes on to say with reference to Sarai, "As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 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." (vers. 15, 16.) He is at once overwhelmed by the pledges of such marvelous power and grace to be exercised towards him. They exceeded anything he had as yet known, and "Abraham fell on his face." This is very instructive. Abraham with his face in the dust, overcome by the plenitude of almighty power and grace! Surely, we may say, while dwelling upon such a scripture as this, it is only _faith_ that can rightly entertain the "_Almighty God_," it _alone_ can give Him His due and proper place and honor Him as He should be honored. When the Almighty displays Himself, _self_ must be excluded, hence we find that _Abram_ is set aside in all this--_Sarai_ is lost sight of--"_the bondwoman and her son_" are, for the moment, put far out of view, and nothing is seen but "the Almighty God" in the sovereignty and fulness of His grace and power, and the faith that could lie prostrate in the dust, in silent adoration of such a display of the divine glories. How different is this from the preceding chapter! There we find Abram hearkening to the suggestion of Sarai his wife, with regard to the bondwoman--here we find him hearkening to the voice of Jehovah, as Almighty, who is about to quicken the dead womb of Sarah, and to call those things that be not as though they were, that no flesh might glory in His presence. There it is Abram and Sarai _without God_--here it is God _without Abram and Sarai_. In a word, there it is _flesh_--here it is spirit--there it is _sight_--here it is _faith_. Wondrous contrast! Exactly similar to that afterwards displayed by the Apostle to the churches of Galatia, when he sought to restore them from the sad influence of "the beggarly elements" of the flesh and the world, to the full liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. CHAPTERS XVIII., XIX. I class these two chapters together because, like those we have just been considering, they furnish us with a contrast--a contrast most marked and striking between the position occupied by Abraham in chapter xviii., and that occupied by Lot in chapter xix.