Genesis 17:1-8

PART THIRTY
THE STORY OF ABRAHAM: THE OLD COVENANT

(Genesis 17:1-27)

1. Synopsis of Chapter Seventeen

Again thirteen years rolled away, and still the Promise was not fulfilled. But when hope might almost have ceased to hope, God appeared once more to Abram, recapitulated the main outline of the Covenant-Promise, changed his name from Abram (a high father), to Abraham (the father of a multitude), and assured him that at length the long-expected time was well-nigh come. But in prospect of the peculiar blessing about to be bestowed upon him, he himself, and all his seed after him, must carry about with them a perpetual pledge of their covenant relation to Jehovah. The rite of Circumcision must now be adopted by him, and instead of being the badge of any favored class amongst the nation destined to spring from his loins, was, on pain of excommunication, to be open to the lowliest member of the Hebrew commonwealth, even to the bond-servant and the stranger. At the same time it was intimated to the patriarch that his wife Sarai, whose name also was now changed to SARAH (princess), and no other, was to be the mother of the promised child, that he would be born during the next year, and be called Isaac (Laughter); while Ishmael also, for whom Abraham had prayed, would not be forgotten, but be a partaker in the Divine blessing, and become the father of twelve princes, the ancestors of a great nation. Thereupon Abraham complied with the Divine command, and was circumcised, together with Ishmael, now thirteen years of age, and all the male members of his household (COTH, 38-39).

2. The Covenant-Promise (Genesis 17:1-8)

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Leupold (EG, 511): The basic fact to be observed for a proper approach to this chapter is that the covenant referred to is not a new one. For Genesis 15:18 reports the establishment of the covenant, whose essential provisions are the same as those here outlined. Consequently this chapter marks an advance in this direction, that the things previously guaranteed are now foretold as finally coming to pass: the one covenant promises certain blessings, the other the realization of these blessings when their appointed time has come. Criticism confuses issues by claiming that our chapter gives P's account of the covenant which was covered by J's account in the somewhat different fashion in chapter 15. Consequently it need not be wondered at, that the critical approach continually magnifies incidental differences and tries to set these two Chapter s at variance with one another. Furthermore, the distinct importance of our chapter is readily discerned. A man who has long been obligated to wait in unwavering faith certainly requires clear promises of God upon which to build such faith. For faith must have a foundation. Here these promises, covering the essentials of numerous posterity and possession of the land, and involving by implication the Messianic features found in Genesis 17:12, now specify Sarai as the mother who is to bear the son, and also establish a covenant sign. Immediately before the birth of the son of promise these distinct features are, of course, most in place. Aside from this, to have all these promises featured as parts of the covenant seals everything for the faith of Abram which is now under necessity of hoping and believing against all hope.

God's making a covenant here, and in many other places, denotes the enlargement, renewal, establishment, or confirmation of it. It cannot be imagined that, in various instances in which this phrase is used, He had not respect to His former declarations of the same kind as still in force. (SIBG, 239). (Psalms 105:8-10, Genesis 15:18, Exodus 34:10-27, 1 Kings 8:9, Jeremiah 31:33, Hosea 2:18, Genesis 6:18, Exodus 6:4, Leviticus 27:9, Deuteronomy 8:11-20, Ezekiel 16:60; Ezekiel 16:62, etc.) It should be noted that this is God's covenant with Abraham in the wider sense, that is, it included Abraham's posterity (thee and thy seed after thee, Genesis 17:7). Genesis 17:4the father of a multitude of nations. This was fulfilled to the letter. Abraham was the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, the Israelites, the Midianites, the Edomites, and their kings (Genesis 17:20; Num., ch. 31, Gen., ch. 36, Matt., ch. 1) but chiefly Christ and His spiritual subjects (Galatians 3:23-29; Psalms 45:16; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 15:3; 1 Peter 2:9, etc.). Isaac and his Israelite descendants were properly the natural seed with whom this covenant was established, Genesis 17:21. By it, God in Christ, became to the Israelites in general, the head of their nation and assumed them for His peculiar people (Exodus 19:5-6, Deuteronomy 14:2, Ephesians 1:11), bestowed on them the land of Canaan as His land, in the enjoyment of which they tasted His goodness, and had access to contemplate the glories of the new covenant state, and of the heavenly blessedness of spiritual Israel in Christ. (Note the parallelism between Exodus 19:5-6and 1 Peter 2:9-19). (Cf. Genesis 12:3; Genesis 3:6-9, Romans 9:6-9,John 8:56, Hebrews 11:8-16).

Genesis 17:1Abram was ninety-nine years old when all the details of the covenant were made known to him. The long interval between this age and that given in Genesis 16:16 should be noted carefully. It marks a long delay in the fulfillment of the Promise, a tarrying on God's part; this, however, corresponds to the undue impatience and haste of Abram (cf. 2 Peter 3:9).

Genesis 17:1El Shaddai, meaning God Almighty, from the root shadad (be violent, irresistibly strong). Some accept another interpretation, -God of the mountain,-' which is not to be taken as worship of nature (animism) but that God appeared to Abram on the mountain. El Shaddai appears to Abram when he is ninety-nine years of age, and when the birth of an heir seems literally impossible. The mighty God steps in and does the impossible (HSB, 28). It should be noted that it is Yahweh, according to the text, who says, I am El Shaddai. (This Name is found six times in Genesis and thirty-one times in Job). Elohim, according to Delitzsch, is the God who causes nature to be and to endure; El Shaddai is the God who constrains nature and subdues it, so that it bows and yields itself to the service of grace. Walk before me, and be thou perfect, said Yahweh to Abraham: the one command demands a God-conscious life of the best type; the other, faithful observance of all duties. The one is sound mysticism; the other, conscientious conduct. The one is the soul of true religion; the other, the practice of it (EG, 514). That this was another theophany is clear from Genesis 17:22; hence, Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, etc. Abram fell on his face in token of his fear and reverence, as being afraid and ashamed to look upon God (cf. Genesis 17:17; Exodus 3:6, Leviticus 9:24, Numbers 22:31, Joshua 5:14, Judges 13:20; Ezekiel 1:28; Ezekiel 3:23; Ezekiel 9:8; Ezekiel 43:3; Daniel 8:17; Matthew 17:6, Revelation 1:17; cf. also Psalms 89:7, Deuteronomy 4:24, Exodus 24:17; Hebrews 10:31; Hebrews 12:29; Genesis 28:16-17; Psalms 96:4; Psalms 96:9; Psalms 91:9; Revelation 15:4).

Genesis 17:5; Genesis 17:15. New names. God's giving names to persons imports His making them to correspond with them in their condition or usefulness (Genesis 32:28; 2 Samuel 12:25; Isaiah 62:2; Isaiah 4:5; Revelation 2:17; Jeremiah 20:3; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16; Matthew 1:21). Lange (CDHCG, 422): The Hebrews connected the giving of names with circumcision (ch. Genesis 21:3 ff.; Luke 1:59; Luke 2:21). The connection of the giving of names, and circumcision, effects a mutual explanation. The name announces a definite human character, the new name a new character (the new name, Revelation 2:17, the perfect stamp of individual character), circumcision, a new or renewed, and more noble nature. Jamieson (CECG, 151): In eastern countries the name given in infancy is sometimes in the course of life altered: a change of name is an advertisement of some new circumstance in the history, rank, or religion of the individual who bears it. The change is made variouslyby the old name being entirely dropped for the new, or by conjoining the new with the old, or sometimes only a few letters are inserted, so that the altered form may express the difference in the owner's state or prospects. It is surprising how soon a new name is known, and its import spread through the country. In dealing with Abraham and Sarai, God was pleased to adapt his procedure to the ideas and customs of the country and age. There was no way, according to prevailing notions, in which the Divine promise would be so well remembered, and the splendid prospects of the patriarch became more widely known than by giving him and his wife new names, significant of their high destiny. Instead of AbramAb or Abba, father, and ram, high, -a high father,-' he was to be calledAb-ra-hamon, father of a great multitude; and this has been verified, whether he has been considered as the ancestor of the Jews, Arabs, etc., or as the Father of the Faithful. (Cf. Nehemiah 9:7-8). For the ancients a name did not merely indicate, rather it made a thing what it was, and a change of name meant a change of destiny, cf. Genesis 17:15 and Genesis 35:10. Abram and Abraham, it seems, are in fact just two dialetical forms of the same name whose meaning is -he is great by reason of his father, he is of noble descent.-' In this place, however, Abraham is interpreted on the strength of its similarity with ab hamon, -father of a multitude-' (JB, 33). Note also in this connection, Sarai's change of name to Sarah (Genesis 17:15). This new name bears no different meaning from her former name but marks an added dignity nevertheless because of the circumstances involved (EG, 526). As in the case of Abraham, such a change is viewed as the external sign of an important turn in the life or function of the bearer.. The underlying concept was probably much the same as in a king's assumption of a special throne name. The event marked a new era (ABG, 127). Sarah and Sarai are two forms of the same name, which means -princess-'; Sarah is to be the mother of kings, Genesis 17:16 (JB, 33). The meaning that some attach to the name in saying that it means the contender, is hardly appropriate. -Sarah-' means -princess-' or -the princely one.-' Without a special divine blessing it would, of course, have been a physical impossibility for Sarah to bring forth this son [Isaac]. Consequently this potent blessing of God is twice referred to: once in connection with this son, then in relation to -the kings of peoples-' that shall in the course of time spring from this son. But she who thus becomes the mother of kings certainly merits the name -Princess-' (EG, 526).

Note carefully: thy seed after thee, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:7), all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession (Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 17:12-13; Genesis 17:19). Everlastinghow long? (1) Note how modern analytical (destructive) criticism deals with this phase of the Promise: With this cf. Psalms 105:44-45, where the possession of the land is regarded as necessary if Israel is to keep God's statutes and observe his laws. The chosen people was no abstract idea. Israel was a concrete reality, a people, however unique, among the peoples of the earth. To be itself and to achieve its destiny it needed its own land, in which would be the center of its religionthe templeand within which it could freely order its life in accordance with the divine law.. This insistence on the part of P was in part an expression of the natural love of a people for its home. It was in part a consequence of the fact that Israel had as yet no adequate belief in life after death, so that God's promise had to be realized, if at all, here and now on this earth. Nevertheless, in insisting upon the importance of the natural community he was on sure ground for, without this insistence, belief in the supernatural becomes little more than a world-escaping piety (IBG, 611-612). Note well that under this view the spiritual (antitypical) aspect of this phase of the Promise, which indeed permeates the Bible throughout, in the Old Testament as anticipation, in the New as fulfillment, is utterly ignored. The critics seem to be completely blind with respect to the unity of the Bible as a whole. (2) This covenant, as it respected the Hebrew nation, together with the possession of Canaan, and the various ceremonial ordinances by which they were marked the peculiar people of God, and in the observance of which they were to enjoy their rest and prosperity in Canaan, is represented as everlasting or for ever; but in these passages no more than a long time is meant (Genesis 48:4; Exodus 12:14; Exodus 12:17; Exodus 21:6; Exodus 31:17; Exodus 32:13; Exodus 40:15; Leviticus 16:34; Leviticus 25:23; Leviticus 25:40; Leviticus 25:46; Numbers 10:8; Numbers 15:15; Numbers 18:9; Numbers 25:13; Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 15:17; Deuteronomy 18:5; Joshua 4:7; Joshua 14:9, etc.). But as this covenant respected Christ, and believers in him, it, and all the spiritual blessings contained in it, are everlasting in the strictest sense (Hebrews 13:20; Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 1:4, 2 Peter 1:11). And it is perhaps chiefly because the covenant of peculiarity with Israel, and the ordinances and blessings thereof, prefigured these eternal relations and privileges that they are represented as everlasting (SIBG, 240). (3) Jamieson (CECG, 152): It is perfectly clear that this promise was meant to refer to the natural descendants of Abram, who, by the election of grace, were to be separated from the rest of the nations, and to the temporal blessings which it guaranteed to them (Romans 11:16; Romans 15:8). They were in their collective capacity to form the visible external Church; and in the sense of their being -a chosen generation, a peculiar people,-' though many of them were unbelievers, they were to be called the people of God, as is manifest from the words -in their generations.-' In this sense partly the covenant is called -an everlasting covenant-'; for it is continued in force down to the promulgation of the Gospel, when the national distinction ceased, by the admission of all mankind to the spiritual blessings contained in the Abrahamic covenant (Ephesians 2:14). But further, in a spiritual point of view, it is called -an everlasting covenant.-' The promise is a promise made to the Church of all ages; for He who is not the God of the dead, but of the living, made it to -Abraham and his seed-' (Cf. Galatians 3:17). The sign of circumcision was annexed to it under the Jewish dispensation (cf. Acts 2:38-39; Galatians 3:6-7; Galatians 3:9; Galatians 3:14; Galatians 3:22; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 3:29; Hebrews 8:10), and that of baptism under the Christian. (This writer goes on to justify the connection of fleshly circumcision with baptism as spiritual circumcision, a notion which we shall give attention later. Suffice it to say that in the foregoing exegesis, although much of it is Scriptural, there are three obvious errors: (1) To say that the phrases under consideration here were meant to refer chiefly to the natural descendants of Abraham is contradicted in the latter part of the quotation by the application of these phrases to the spiritual seed of Abraham: the Scriptures teach that the spiritual seed of Abraham were included, by Divine ordination, in the original promises to Abraham and his seed, i.e., the term seed included from the beginning both the fleshly and the spiritual, the typical and the antitypical, the latter being of far greater import than the former (John 8:56, Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:29). (2) To speak of the Old Covenant people as a Church is utterly erroneous. The Church is the Divine institution which was established on Pentecost (Acts 2) and is used always in Scripture to designate God's people under the New Covenant. (3) There is no Scriptural justification whatever for identifying baptism with spiritual circumcision. The indwelling Holy Spirit, not baptism, is the sign and seal of the New Covenant (Acts 2:38, Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30). (Spiritual circumcision is Scripturally explained infra.)

The simple fact of the matter is that these terms, for ever and everlasting, as used with respect to the land (Canaan) and the covenant, means as long as the Old Covenant continued to be in force: hence the import of the phrase, throughout their generations. The Abrahamic Covenant, of course, was enlarged into a national covenant at Sinai, under the mediatorship of Moses (Exodus 19:5-6; Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 5:2; Deuteronomy 9:9; cf. 1 Peter 2:9, John 7:19; Galatians 3:15-22, etc.). That this Old Covenant would be abrogated and. superseded by the New is expressly announced in the Old Testament itself (Jeremiah 31:31-34, cf. Hebrews 8:6-13; Hosea 2:11; Amos 5:21; Amos 8:10, etc.). The New Covenant, it should be understood, is not a continuation or enlargement of the Old: it is the New Covenant, mediated by, Messiah Himself, and established upon better promises (John 1:17; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24), in which Jews and Gentiles come together by induction into Christ (Galatians 3:27-29, Ephesians 2:11-18) to form the one new man. By His death on the Cross, our Lord at one and the same time abrogated the Old Covenant and ratified the New (Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 9:11-22).

The Covenant-Promises: these were first stated in Genesis 12:1-3, then variously amplified as repeated in Genesis 13:14-17; Genesis 15:1-2; Genesis 17:1-27; Genesis 22:15-19, etc. From careful analysis of these various passages we find that we have given here what may be regarded as four distinct elementary promises. These are (1) that Abraham should have a numerous offspring (Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:3-5; Genesis 17:2-4; Genesis 22:17); (2) that God would be a God to him and to his seed after him (Genesis 17:1-8); (3) that He would give to Abraham and to his seed, an everlasting possession (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 15:18-21; Genesis 17:8); that He would bless all the peoples of the earth through him and his seed (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18). But nevertheless they may all in harmony with Scripture usage be regarded as but elementary parts of one and the same promise, made to Abraham and his seed (Acts 2:39; Acts 13:23; Acts 13:32; Acts 26:6; Romans 4:14; Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:18; Galatians 3:22; Galatians 3:29, etc.); each part having a double reference: that is, looking to both the typical and the antitypical side of the Divine economy. The first element, for instance, was a pledge to Abraham that he would have a numerous family, first, according to the flesh, and secondly, according to the Spirit; the second, that God would be a God to both of these families, though in a far higher sense to the latter than to the former; the third, that each of these families would become heirs to an inheritance; and the fourth, that through each of them the world would be blessed (Milligan, SR, 75-76). Through the fleshly seed of Abraham, the worship of the living and true God (monotheism) and the basic principles of the moral law (the Decalogue) were preserved and handed down to posterity; through the spiritual seed of Abraham, eternal good news of redemption through Christ Jesus is proclaimed to all nations for the obedience of faith (Exodus 3:14, Deuteronomy 5:26, Acts 14:15, 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:31; Revelation 7:2; John 1:17, Exodus 20:1-17; Matthew 5:17-18; Matthew 22:34-40; Revelation 14:6-8; Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 3:8-12, 1 Timothy 3:15; Romans 1:16; Romans 10:6-17; 1 Corinthians 1:21-25, etc.)

REVIEW QUESTIONS

See Genesis 17:22-27.