Sign of the Covenant (Genesis 17)

Twenty-four years have passed since the Lord called Abram to set off to the promised land, which is a reminder that God can take a long time to answer his promises. Between twelve and thirteen years have passed since Hagar returned to the camp of Abram after meeting with the God who had been looking after her during her flight and then intervened in her life in a dramatic way. Although the biblical record is silent regarding any further revelations given to Abram during those years, there may have been such, and if there were any, we are not told about them. It is an invalid deduction to assume that God was silent throughout that period if we cannot give any proof for saying so. The best response to those years is not to focus on them. Instead, it is better to regard the recorded incidents as the ones which God wants us to reflect on. So the author wants us to consider the next incident which he describes, the occasion when the Lord gave to his servant Abram a covenant sign by which he and his company were distinguished from all other groups.

Promise Amplified

On previous occasions, God had given promises to Abram. Some of these had been fulfilled such as the promise on his conversion that he would be led to a special country by God. Others had not yet been fulfilled such as the promise that he would have a son and the promise that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. Now Abram was to receive more information about God’s plans for him.

Before he enlarges on his commitment, the Lord does two things: first, he reveals a detail about himself and, second, he specifies a requirement from Abram. The revelation stresses a suitable feature about God and the requirement describes a necessary response by Abram. How does God describe himself to his aging servant? The Lord says that he is God Almighty (El Shaddai) and is so permanently. We can see the emphasis on permanence when God says ‘I am’. In other words, he always is who he says he is. The name ‘God’ (El) itself means ‘power’, so Shaddai probably points to his infinite resources which are conveyed through his power. And we can note that we often need divine strength in order to experience what God can give (Eph. 3:16ff.).

By getting Abram to focus on particular attributes, that of omnipotence and infinite resources, the Lord is instructing Abram about performing a very basis but important response towards God, which is that Abram should consider the divine attribute(s) that is/are most suitable for his needs to be met and God’s promises fulfilled. The Lord, as it were, invites Abram to consider what his God is capable of doing. In saying that he is almighty, he is reminding Abram that divine power fulfils divine promises. He has promised Abram a son and there is no possible way for Abram to work out how God will keep this promise. The only fact he knows is that a miracle is required, an action beyond the power of a creature to bring about. But the God who made all things out of nothing can give them a son.

In the light of the revelation of himself, the Lord now makes a requirement of his servant: ‘Walk before me, and be blameless.’ This requirement is of a twofold nature: the Lord desires company with Abram and consecration from Abram. Walking with another person is picture of fellowship, of companionship. We expect friends to be loyal to one another and not to engage in actions detrimental to one another. The Lord demands of his friend Abram that he live in a certain manner suitable to his privileged position – in other words, the only way by which a sinner can be a friend of the Lord is through ongoing consecration. If Abram fails to be loyal, God will regard the covenant as broken. So the patriarch has to walk with God, as the Lord says, so ‘that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly’ (v. 2).

It may be helpful for us to note what others have said about God’s requirement here that Abram should be blameless. C. H. Spurgeon, in a sermon on this chapter, explained the meaning of blameless as sincerity: ‘However, the word “perfect,” as I have said, bears commonly the meaning of “upright,” or “sincere” – “walk before me, and be thou sincere.” No double dealing must the Christian man have, no playing fast and loose with God or man; no hypocritical professions, or false principles. He must be as transparent as glass; he must be a man in whom there is no guile, a man who has cast aside deceit in every shape, who hates it, and loathes it, and walks before God, who sees all things with absolute sincerity, earnestly desiring in all things, both great and small, to commend himself to the conscience of others as in the sight of the Most High. Brethren, here is the model of the consecrated life.’

Robert Candlish, in his Studies in Genesis, explains ‘blameless’ in this way: ‘To walk before God, is to walk or live as in his sight, and under his special inspection: to realise, at all times, his presence and his providence; to feel his open and unslumbering eye ever upon us. To walk thus before God is impossible, if there be not redeeming love on his part, apprehended by faith on our part; and to be perfect, guileless, and upright, in thus walking before God, is the great duty of the believer. He alone can discharge that duty. Others do not like to retain God in their knowledge; they have comfort only when all serious thought of God is got rid of, and put aside; and so they hide themselves from God amid secular vanities or sacred formalities. Their walk is not, and cannot be, in good faith, a walk before God, or with God, under his eye and subject to his control. But as to his own people – why should they not walk before God? Why should they not, with entire openness and uprightness, so walk? Why should they shrink from so close a fellowship with God as such a walk implies? Having peace with him, and making it their single aim to be like him—why should they not be perfect in such a walk?’

Abram’s response to this divine pronouncement is an act of worship – he fell on his face (v. 3). As his servant lies prostrate on the ground, the Lord proceeds to outline his plans, in which Abram is a major player. The covenant has two parts. First, it contains the promise that Abram will be the father of many mighty nations, not just the Jews and the Arabs as is commonly said (vv. 4-6). Second, there is specific mention made of Abram’s descendants who will live in the land of Canaan, that the Lord will be their God. As a sign of his commitment to his purpose, the Lord gives Abram a new name – Abraham, which means ‘father of many nations’.

There is an important lesson for us here regarding discovering or understanding the will of the Lord. The lesson is this – God reveals his mind to those who engage in worship of him. Would God have continued speaking if Abram had remained upright and self-important? Obviously, a physical position need not indicate the state of one’s heart and it is possible for hypocrites to engage in external worship. But the principle is the same – usually God speaks to those who are devoted to him. McCheyne said on one occasion that a person is what he is before God. The secret place of devotion is the location where we discover who we are as well as finding out who God is and what his plans are. Many a person understands the Bible’s promises on his knees far better than he may have done in a classroom.

What is the significance of a new name? Usually in the Bible a name pointed to a purpose or a desire on the part of those who gave it. Parents would call their children by particular names because they wanted their children to imitate those persons. God often gave new names to people. For example, he renamed Jacob with the name Israel, which means ‘prince with God’ after Jacob had spent the night wrestling with the Lord and prevailed. Abram seems to have been the patriarch’s name call before he met the Lord in Ur. His new name, Abraham, would be a permanent reminder to him that the Lord was on his case.

Our minds will probably go to the incident when Jesus renamed Simon with the name Peter, which means ‘rock’. At that time, Simon was the opposite of a rock – he was unreliable and unpredictable. But Jesus was indicating to him that he would be changed by divine power, and this did take place. Eventually unstable Simon developed into trustworthy Peter because of the life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

Another person who changed his name was Saul of Tarsus. While it is possible that he had more than one name from childhood (the Hebrew name Saul and the Greek name Paul), it is interesting that Luke, in the Book of Acts, begins to call Saul by the name Paul after the probable conversion of the Roman governor of Cyprus, Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:9). It is possible that Paul chose his new name because the Lord had kept his promise and had enabled his servant to witness effectively to rulers (Acts 9:15).

Those who believe in Jesus are given many new names, and each of them has great significance. For example, slaves of sin become sons of God, unclean sinners become saints, undisciplined sinners become disciples, enemies of God become his friends. We should think often on the new names that God has given his people because each of these names contain great blessings.

In his letters to the seven churches, Jesus uses the imagery of a new name to stress that his followers will yet inherit the promised blessings of glory. In Revelation 2:17, in the letter to the church in Pergamum, Jesus promises: ‘To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ At the very least, this illustration points to the fact that one aspect of the heavenly experience will involve secrets shared by each believer with Jesus. And in his letter to the church in Philadelphia (Rev. 3:12), Jesus says: ‘The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.’ The possession of these names points to divine ownership (the name of a master was often stamped on a slave in one way or another) and service.

Returning to Abraham, after he had received his new name, he was never to call himself by his old name, no matter how silly it may have sounded to others. His neighbours and others in the vicinity would all know what his new name meant, and no doubt some of them would dismiss his explanation of it as fantasy. We too can be tempted to live more in line with our old ways than with what God requires of us, especially if we know that others will mock us for what we say about faith in Christ. But if Jesus has given us a new identity, we should confess it to others and not be ashamed of it.

In passing, what does God mean when he promised Abraham that his descendants would have the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession? It cannot have a literal meaning because we know that earthly territory ceases at the Day of Judgement. Even if the Jews were converted tomorrow and lived in their country for a thousand years, it would still not be an eternal possession. Since the promise is not literal, it must be symbolic. The Lord was promising Abraham that his descendants would have an eternal inheritance under the imagery of a particular country.

Similarly, who are the descendants of Abraham who would inherit the promised land? If we take it literally, we have a problem because we know that many Israelites, including devout ones such as Ezekiel and Daniel, did not live in Canaan. Further we also know that many of his physical descendants were wicked people. Yet God says to Abraham that in the future all his seed would live in the same place where they would be blessed by God. Moses, when he recorded this incident as he composed the Book of Genesis, already knew that many of Abraham’s literal descendants were not believers in God. Yet he recorded this covenant promise because he knew that the fulfilment of it would occur in Abraham’s spiritual seed (God’s true people), as Paul explains in Galatians 3:29.

Sign of Assurance (vv. 9-14)

The Lord then informs Abraham that he has to engage in a specific duty, which was to circumcise all males within his community, beginning with those currently alive and performing it on all future males when they were eight days old. What was the purpose of this ritual? One answer is that it identified who were connected to the promise of God and who were not connected. Of course, someone will object and say that other nations of the time practised this ritual. Yet their ritual pointed to purposes different from that of Abraham. The crucial point is not that they were circumcised, but that they had been circumcised by Abraham or one of his descendants. We may not be impressed by that argument since the outward effect was the same no matter how the individual had been circumcised. Yet it is important that the ritual be accompanied by an explanation of its meaning. This is why we do not perform any of our two covenant signs (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) without a suitable sermon based on the Word of God.

This sign identified the recipients as belonging to the community within which the promises of God would be fulfilled ordinarily. It was always possible for God to bring the revelation of himself to persons outside the covenant community, which he did with individuals such as Job and his friends. Yet this was probably the moment when the Lord set up an organised community composed of those who worship him. In a sense, it is the origin of the church from an earthly point of view.

Partners Together (vv. 15-17)

The Lord informs Abraham that his wife will also get a new name, although both her old and new name mean the same – ‘princess’. It looks as if the Lord was stressing two details by this new name. First, since he had given the name, Sarah would have a God-given reminder of his promise; second, he was confirming to Abraham that the future royalty of their extensive seed would come through her (a princess gives birth to royalty). The Lord wanted them as a couple to embrace his future for them, which is powerful message for Christian couples today. They should anticipate together the glory that is yet to come and bring up their family in the light of it.

Abraham’s response was to laugh. Since the Lord does not rebuke him for this response, we must assume that it was a laughter generated by faith and expressing delight in God’s covenant promises. It is significant that Abraham laughs when he is told that Sarah will share the blessing, which speaks volumes about his love for her. This too is a challenge to us, whether as couples or as believers – do we express our delight with the blessings that the Lord gives to others whom we love.

Naturally Abraham wanted Ishmael to share in the blessing. So he prayed earnestly that Ishmael would have a prominent place in God’s purposes (v. 18). Some interpret this request as indicating that Abraham wanted Ishmael to be the heir rather than Isaac, although I suspect that is fanciful. Instead I think it is the prayer of a devoted father who wants his child to do something great for God. Perhaps it is similar to the request of Salome that her sons have a prominent place alongside Jesus on his throne (Matt. 20:21). But God says no. This does not mean that Abraham could not pray for the salvation of Ishmael, which I am sure he did every day. Rather Abraham is forbidden by God to pray that Ishmael will be outstanding in God’s purposes. That place belongs to Isaac and his descendants. Nevertheless, Ishmael will be blessed in his place in society as an answer to Abraham’s prayers. And Isaiah 60:7 contains a promise that the descendants of Ishmael (Nebaioth was his son) would yet join the people of God.

Obedience (vv. 22-27)

These verses spell out in detail one important detail – instant obedience. Abraham, Ishmael and the other males were all circumcised that day. No doubt, some of them wondered what was going on, but obviously the explanation of Abraham persuaded them to comply. We live in a society in which most things can be classified as instant, especially since the development of the Internet. But the most important ‘instant’ of all is the necessity of obeying God’s commandments immediately. This should be our response to all his requirements. If we do so, we will be like Abraham as he determined to walk before God in a blameless way.