A Covenant People
In verses 1-8, we’re reminded that God’s people are a covenant people. The timestamp in verse 1 lets us know that 13 years have gone by since the events of chapter 16. Look what happens, out of the blue it seems. Verse 1, “The Lord appeared to Abram.” The God of the universe, the Creator of all things, surrenders his right to privacy and discloses himself to Abram. Abram doesn’t summon him. God graciously reveals himself to Abram.
The Lord did this is 15:1, 7 as well. It’s these revelations of God that are convincing Abram to continue in the faith. The experience of God is what keeps him in the faith. If we don’t continue to experience God, we won’t continue in the faith. If the spirit of the age and social media and your favorite news network or website or author is what’s discipling you, you aren’t going to persevere to the end, grow in holiness, form a Christian worldview, or cultivate Christian virtue. The only way these things are created and sustained in us is if we’re experiencing the revelation of the living God that comes to us through the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.
El Shaddai
When the Lord reveals himself to Abram, he tells him something about his character, “I am God Almighty.” This is El Shaddai in Hebrew, translated as “God Almighty.” This name is used five more times in Genesis with the patriarchs, usually in the context of God promising fertility to someone who’s barren. It’s used in contexts where God’s servants are hard-pressed and needing reassurance. Out of 48 uses in the Old Testament, 31 of them are in Job. It’s a name for God given to God’s people to encourage their faith when there’s a disparity between God’s promises and reality. It’s meant to remind God’s people that Yahweh is the God with all power, that he is “Almighty,” that he has all might.
Right after Abram and Sarai have tried to fulfill God’s promise through Hagar in chapter 16, chapter 17 begins with the Lord telling Abram, “I am the God with power.” He’s saying, “This covenant will be fulfilled through my power, not yours.” One of the reasons for the 13-year interval is because the Lord wants Abram to come to the end of himself and realize that his only hope is in the power of God. Not until he’s tried everything in his own strength will he know God as “El Shaddai.”
Is there anything in your life that you’re trying to fix or change, but it’s just not happening? Perhaps the Lord is bringing you to the end of yourself so that you’ll finally understand that he’s the only one with the power to change things.
“Walk Before Me and Be Blameless”
After this gracious revelation of his presence, and in the context of the promises that are going to be reaffirmed in a moment, the Lord makes demands on Abram. Verse 1 continues, “Walk before me, and be blameless.” This language of “walking before God” is used of emissaries, or diplomatic representatives, of a king. The Lord is telling Abram that he’s to be his agent in the world. He’ll be the bearer of his blessing to a world under the curse of sin. When the world looks at Abram and his descendants, they’re to see what it’s like to have a right relationship with God and how God intends people to live in his world.
This makes the “land of Canaan” (v. 8) a strategic location for Abram and his people to live. All the main routes of transportation and commerce between the ancient superpowers of Egypt and Mesopotamia flowed through the narrow strip of land called Canaan. One scholar says, “In modern terms, Abram and his family are to be settled along the central spine of the internet in the ancient world.”[1] When people flow through Canaan, they’re supposed to see a people who’re in a right relationship with God and a right relationship with other people and a right relationship with the earth. This is how Abram will be a light to the nations. This is the beginning of God’s plan to bless all the nations through Abram and his family.
The church is now a “go and tell” people rather than a “come and see” people. But the principle we see here is the same. God puts his people in the world, whether in Canaan or Carrollton or Calcutta, to reveal his character to the world. God puts people in cultures primarily to reveal God, not primarily to change the culture. In the new covenant, the primary place this revealing happens is in local churches. As churches proclaim God’s word, serve God and one another, and walk in unity and holiness and joy and peace, we reveal the kingdom of God in the midst of the kingdoms of this world.
Then the Lord tells him to “be blameless.” This doesn’t mean moral perfection or sinlessness. It can’t mean sinlessness because we know what Abram just did in chapter 16. The Lord placed his plan to bless the world on Abram’s shoulders, knowing that his character was less than perfect, and promising to not discard him for occasional failures. Aren’t you glad that the Lord doesn’t require ethical perfection in the agents he calls to fulfill his mission of blessing a cursed world?[2]
One Covenant, Not Two
These “agents of God” are in a special type of relationship with him, a covenant relationship (v. 2). “Covenant” is the key word in this chapter, used 13 times. This isn’t a different covenant than the one mentioned in 15:18. The promises were first made in chapter 12, the covenant made in chapter 15, and now the covenant is being affirmed or confirmed or upheld in chapter 17.
In verse 3, Abram responds the way people across the Bible respond when they experience God. When a human is exposed to the living God, our sensory capacities begin to short circuit and we collapse. He’s so big and overwhelming and infinite that our body’s only option is to fall down.
In verses 4-8, God restates the impossible promises of his covenant. Abram must be thinking, “God, I can’t be the father of a single child because my wife is barren, and you don’t count Ishmael.” God is saying, “Yes, exactly. I’m going to do something that’s physically impossible, something that can’t be realized in your own abilities.”
God is making it clear that he’s the primary mover behind the covenant. It’s his covenant (vv. 2, 4, 7). He establishes it, he chooses his partner, he declares its goal, he fixes its duration, and he determines the role and response of the covenant partner. This isn’t a self-help project for Abram. God not only chooses him as his covenant partner, he also changes his name (v. 5). This reveals God’s sovereign power and reminds us Genesis 1, where God creates and names things. Whoever has naming rights has ownership and control.
What God is Doing in the World
God is the one who sets the agenda for his work in the world. He’s made it plain what he’s doing in the world right now. He’s using his people to declare his word in the power of his Spirit to create a people from all the peoples of the world who will live under his rule, reveal his character, and spread his blessing. All this will culminate in a new heaven and new earth populated by the resurrected people of God who’re united to Jesus Christ through faith.
In their book The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne say that this means that we need to surrender our selfish ambitions and abandon ourselves to the cause of Christ and his gospel. It means that the kind of growth God is interested in is in people, in people hearing the word, being born-again, and connected to Jesus by his word and Spirit and connected to one another in a local church.
The reason we’re still on planet earth is to join God in taking his word to people and praying that the Spirit would make it come alive in their hearts. This is what God is doing in the world. We’re either on board with this, or we’re not. We don’t all need to be missionaries to do this. But we do all need to do this because this is what God is doing.[3]
“I Will Be God to You”
God says that “kings” will come from Abraham in verse 6, which is fulfilled through the Davidic dynasty and ultimately through King Jesus. But perhaps the greatest promise of the covenant is tucked away in verses 7-8. Yes, God promises land and seed. But he also promises to give Abraham himself, “to be God to you” (v. 7), “I will be their God” (v. 8).
This terminology hasn’t been used before, but it reveals the heart of the covenant that God makes with his people. At the heart of God’s agenda is his passion to establish a personal relationship with human beings, to restore what was shattered in Genesis 3. God wants to covenant with, to marry, people who’ve sinned against him. This is amazing! God wants to unite his life to ours.
Notice that this text tells us that this covenant will be an “everlasting covenant” (vv. 7, 8, 13). This language speaks to the covenant’s permanence. It’ll never be terminated or revoked. This covenant has timeless validity. The Lord will be Abraham’s, and your, God forever.
A Marked Off People
In verses 9-14, we see that God’s promises and presence have laid the foundation for the Lord to make a radical demand of his servant Abram. He and his people must be a marked-off people.
This radical demand is bookended with promises in verses 1-8 and 15-22. The demands of God must always be understood in the context of the promises of God.
Circumcision wasn’t a Hebrew invention. It wasn’t unique to the Hebrew people. But what was it supposed to mean? Verse 11 says that it’d be a “sign of the covenant between me and you.” It was common for a covenant to be accompanied with a sign. The rainbow signified God’s covenant with Noah and the earth. The Sabbath signified the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai. And here circumcision signifies the covenant God is making with Abram.
The sign was open to Gentiles (vv. 12b-13), so it wasn’t a racial badge of honor because other nations could have it too. It signified spiritual, not physical or ethnic realities. It bore witness to the covenant between God and his people. It was God’s “brand” on his people, indicating that one was pledged to a master. It wasn’t optional or voluntary. It was required for entrance into God’s covenant community.
How does circumcision signify belonging to the covenant community? To understand this, we need to understand the historical context. Abraham has been to Egypt and knows how things work there. Moses is writing to Israelites who just spent 400 years in Egypt. In Egypt, circumcision was an initiation rite for priests, it’s how a man was consecrated to the service of the gods in the temples. It was required to be a priest in Egypt.
Later the Lord says that Israel is a “kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6). All are consecrated to God and his service. God wants Abraham and his family to be circumcised because they’re his priests from birth. It was only for priests in Egypt, but would be for all males in Israel.
Why on the eighth day (v. 12)? God made the world in six days, rested on the seventh day, so the eighth day symbolizes the beginning of the new creation. This fits with the idea that Abraham is a new Adam who’s mediating God’s blessing to the world.
The positive meaning was that it symbolized complete devotion to the service of God as a nation of priests who were looking for a new creation.
The negative meaning of circumcision is stated in verse 14. Those not circumcised are “cut off” from God’s people. No sign, no blessing. There’s the threat of being cursed if you’re not connected to the covenant people of God. Circumcision is a two-edged sword; it can cut you into or out of the covenant.
Signs Don’t Save
This “sign” did not save Abraham. All of God’s promises to him were made to him in his uncircumcised state. His circumcision does not mark the moment when he suddenly belonged to God. Paul understood this. He says in Romans 4:11, “He (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.”
The only way to be made right before God is through faith. Genesis 15:6, “(Abraham) believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Trusting the promises of God is the only way to get the righteousness of God. No outward religious act, no good behavior, no moral excellence will bring you into a right relationship with God.
Righteousness is granted to those who know that they’re not righteous, those who understand that they’ve sinned against their Creator, those who understand that, because of their sin, they can’t go into his presence. Righteousness is granted to all who humbly acknowledge their guilt before God and turn to Jesus to save them.
Jesus, the Righteous One, always did what was right. He died in the place of those who’ve done so much wrong. Through faith in his work, he takes our sin and gives us his righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Abraham and Sarah, despite all their faults, teach us that God is pleased with humble, obedient faith in his promises. This kind of faith is rewarded with righteousness.
The Sign of the New Covenant
God’s people are saved by faith, but they’re marked-off by a sign. The sign of the old covenant was circumcision. The sign of the new covenant is baptism. Paul mentions both, linking them in Colossians 2:11-12. Paul’s assumption is that those who’ve been baptized have received new life through faith. Although baptism doesn’t save anyone, in the New Testament it’s a clear marker of those who’ve been saved.
Circumcision and baptism are similar, but not the same. Circumcision marked off the ethnic people of God. Baptism marks off the spiritual people of God, those who’re trusting his promises.
God’s people have always been marked-off by an outward sign. Our baptism is the sign that we’re believing the new covenant promises of God. Baptism publicly identifies us as those saved by Jesus’ blood.
Just as a wedding ring isn’t a marriage, the sign isn’t the covenant. But they are visible reminders of his promises and power. Brothers and sisters, remember your baptism. Through faith, you’ve been buried and raised with Christ. You’re married to him and he’ll never leave you. You’re part of his community and so you’ll never be alone.
A Chosen People
In verses 15-21, we see that God’s people are a chosen people. In verse 15, God changes Sarai’s name to “Sarah,” signaling his sovereignty over her and the beginning of a new reality for her. He says that he “will bless her” two times in verse 16, signaling that God will indeed bless Sarah, despite her scheming and sin.
Verse 17 says that Abram responds to the word of the God the same way that he did in verse 3, except this time he laughed. We don’t know what kind of laugh this is. Is it of joy, unbelief, confusion? He undoubtedly has mixed emotions. And his laughter anticipates Isaac’s name.
His questions in verse 17 show us that he thinks that God’s promise of a child from him and Sarah is impossible. This plan makes no sense to him. He’s still struggling to understand God as El Shaddai.
In verse 18, he wants God to consider the son he already has. Ishmael is the easier, more certain, in-the-flesh option. Abraham thinks that the promises of God should come through him because he can’t have another son. He’s trying to steer God into a more reasonable path.
Notice that God doesn’t come down hard on Abraham with judgment and condemnation because of his doubts. God is never hard on those with these genuine struggles of faith.
But he does direct Abraham’s attention to the truth of his word in verse 19. He says that Sarah will have a son and then God names him Isaac, or “he laughs.” What he’s promised will come to pass despite appearances and obstacles.
In verse 20, God reassures Abram that he’ll take care of Ishmael. He’ll be blessed, fruitful, will multiply, and twelve kings will come from him, mirroring Jacob’s twelve sons.
Ishmael will be blessed by God, but the covenant will go through Isaac (v. 21). This is the language of election, language Paul picks up on Romans 9, when he says, “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (vv. 6-8).
God’s people aren’t his by physical birth, but by spiritual rebirth. Even though Ishmael is circumcised, he’s not part of the covenant. Only those who’re circumcised in heart belong to God. Only those who’re trusting in his promises are counted as righteous.
An Obedient People
Those called into a covenant relationship with God are also called to obey God. And that’s what Abraham does in verses 22-27. The doubts that Abraham expressed earlier seem to have evaporated. The text says that Abraham obeyed “that very day” (vv. 23, 26). This was a swift obedience. There was no hesitation or delay.
Abraham does his duty and applies the sign to all males in his household. Notice the diversity of men who received the sign (vv. 26-27). Men of all ages and status were brought into a bond with God and with each other.
The promises of God are literally cut into Abraham’s flesh. Now that he bears the sign of the covenant on his flesh, he’s ready to be the father of the covenant child.
Radical Obedience
God’s presence and promises compel radical obedience. Just think about what God has asked Abraham to do to himself and his men. Whatever hard thing you think God is calling you to do, whatever command of God that seems really costly to you, it won’t be as painful as circumcision was to Abraham at ninety-nine years old, without a hospital, without anesthesia. This was a costly, painful, and immediate obedience.
What commands of God are you needing to obey today? Repent and be baptized. Love your enemies. Live with your wife in an understanding way. Respect your husband. Children, obey your parents. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. Flee youthful passions. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. Be generous and ready to share. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Abstain from sexual immorality. Encourage one another. Show hospitality to one another. Do not neglect to meet together. Make disciples. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor.
God’s plan is to reveal his power to the world through people like Abraham and Sarah, his covenant, marked off, chosen, and obedient people.
God’s people live before his face, have him as their highest treasure, and reveal his power and presence in the world.
[1]Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 297.
[2]Daniel I. Block, Covenant: The Framework of God’s Grand Plan of Redemption (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 92, 95.
[3]Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything (Kingsford, Australia: Matthias Media, 2009), chapter 3.