1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; 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 a father of many nations.
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many 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 in 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 wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
16 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.
17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
1. Yahweh reminds Abram of His covenant with him.
2. Yahweh institutes a sign of the covenant.
3. Abraham circumcises all of the men and boys in his household.
Verse 1. This passage outlines the covenant which God made with Abram. As the chapter unfolds, you will discover that covenants provide a basis for a relationship. A husband and a wife are in relationship, but what would that relationship be without the marriage vows, the witnesses, and the covenant seals (in the signed covenant and the rings)? Both parties in the marriage enjoy a huge sense of comfort and security knowing that the relationship is bound in a covenant. God’s covenant with His people is not much different from this. In this chapter we find that God’s covenant stipulates the parties, promises, signs, and requirements. When a contract or an arrangement is sealed with blood, the serious nature of the covenant is confirmed and solidified. Such was the case with the covenant God made with Abram. He sealed it with the blood of beasts in Chapter 15, and here Abram sealed it with the circumcision of the foreskin of his own flesh.
The parties in this contractual arrangement are laid out in verses 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, and 19. Party #1 in the covenant is God Himself. As He introduced Himself in the first verse as “El Shaddai,” or “Almighty God,” it is clear that Abraham was covenanting with the one and only, sovereign Lord of the Universe. There is no other god that is supreme over Him. There can only be one God who is all powerful. Because His power is absolute, nobody can thwart His purposes. He most certainly would uphold His end of the contract. The second party in the covenant is mentioned multiple times throughout the passage—God made the covenant with Abram and his seed. It was not just Abram. God was in covenant with a people, not just a person. Thus, we begin to see how God relates to both individuals and to corporate bodies. In the New Testament, we find God relating to a visible church body. The Church of Thessalonica was “in God and in Christ” (2 Thess. 1:1). The candlesticks of Revelation 2 and 3 represented local, visible churches in Asia Minor. It was these churches that were in relationship with Christ Himself.
Verses 2–9. These verses enumerate the expectations placed on Abram in the covenant. He must walk before God’s face with sincerity. The word sometimes translated “perfect” is better rendered as “sincerity.” To walk before the face of God is to maintain a right relationship with God. It is to love Him and to desire His presence. In each of our relationships in life, we experience times of closeness and times of distance. We may even offend one another from time to time. But it is quite another thing to break a relationship and to cease all fellowship with one another. A relationship is broken when the parties separate and will have nothing more to do with one other. So, according to the stipulations of this covenant, Abram must continue to walk in relationship with God, with sincerity of heart. A similar idea is expressed in 1 John 3:6. “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” Any whom God has saved will hate their sin. They cannot bear to live with it. When they do sin, they confess and repent of that sin because of their love for God. This is the walk of faith and love.
Yahweh also outlined His part in this covenant. Reiterating many of the blessings already laid out in previous encounters, He promised that Abram would be the father of many nations. Kings would issue from him. The promise of land was also included. But now the heart of the covenant is found in verse 7: “I will be a God to you, and to your seed after you.” This same covenant promise is repeated many times throughout the Old Testament (Zech. 8:8; Hos. 2:23; Jer. 7:23, 30:20). It is also repeated for Gentile Christians in Romans 9:26 and 2 Corinthians 6:16. This is why many Gentile believers consider themselves included in this original covenant made with Abraham.
Do note that God made this covenant with both the father and the children. The same wording is used in the New Covenant promise in Acts 2:38, where the promise of the regenerating and sanctifying Spirit of God was given to the fathers gathered to hear Peter’s sermon. Peter told these men that the promise was to them and to their children. This is standard operating procedure for the covenants God makes with men. Therefore, can we say that the promise is extended to both the men listening to Peter’s sermon and to their children? For 1600 years, the descendants of Abraham believed that the promise extended to both them and to their children. Was Peter going to disenfranchise them of this idea in his first sermon after Christ’s ascension? Of course, he made no such clarification. That is why many families to this day believe that their children may be included in these covenant promises. They are just as much a part of the visible people of God on earth as Abraham’s children were in the Old Testament.
Verses 10–14. Following the introduction of the parties and the terms of the covenant comes the outward sign of the covenant. A sign is an outward indication of an inward spiritual reality. In other instances, God has provided outward visible symbols of spiritual realities, such as the rainbow after the Flood and the blood of the Passover lamb placed over the doorways of Israelite homes during the Exodus.
The outward sign of this covenant is circumcision. Since the flesh to be removed in the circumcision is only found on men and boys, women were exempted from this circumcision throughout the history of the Old Testament. Why should God limit the circumcision rite to the males in the household? The same question may be asked of the Deuteronomy 16:16 mandate requiring only the “males” to appear before God three times each year for the feasts. Furthermore, it was the “males” commissioned by the Apostle Paul to pray “everywhere,” in households or in churches, with the “lifting up of holy hands” (1 Tim. 2:8). Since every man is the head of his home, as Christ is head of the church (Eph. 5:25), and every boy is a head-in-training, the mark of the covenant was deemed unnecessary for the women.
It is clear that God is very serious about this sign of the covenant, as those children not circumcised would be “cut off from the people” with whom God was establishing a relationship. The visible body of the Old Testament church was made up of those who were circumcised into it.
In order to be a member of the church in the New Testament, one must be baptized. Circumcision is no longer necessary. Both circumcision and baptism are signs of the removal of the “filthy flesh.” They are both pictures of cleansing and regeneration. Yet, there are several important differences between baptism and circumcision. While both of them signify the regeneration of the heart, circumcision is a painful and somewhat arduous experience, involving a bloody excision. Baptism is a simple bath, or cleansing, using water. Also, as already mentioned, women and girls were not circumcised. However, the first references to women baptisms are found in Acts 8:12 and Acts 16:14.
Verses 15–27. A man’s name will define him, especially if God gives him the name. And that is what happened with Abram when God changed his name to Abraham, which means “the father of nations.” Appropriately, He also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, or “princess.” Still, Abraham was somewhat weak in faith concerning the promise of a posterity. He still suggested Ishmael as a suitable “son of the covenant” who might walk before Yahweh in covenant faithfulness. But God again rejected the son of the bondwoman in the covenant blessings, though He still promised him temporal blessings. From this we learn that even those who are circumcised into the covenant people of God may eventually find themselves excluded from the covenant.
Finally, God declared in no uncertain terms that Sarah would have a son. The name Yahweh assigned for this covenant lad was “Isaac,” an ironic twist on the word “laughter.” The laughter of incredulity would transfer to a laughter of joy and celebration upon the birth of this little boy. To this day we all have reason to laugh with joy upon hearing of the birth of Isaac, for our Savior came from the line of this man. The chapter ends with a testimony to Abraham’s faithful obedience as he circumcised his entire household, both sons and servants.
1. The Bible presents our relationship with God in terms of both covenant bodies and individuals. Thus, anybody who was circumcised in the Old Testament or baptized in the New Testament has been initiated into the visible church of God. This body of the church is actually in relationship with God, but this does not mean that everybody participating in the visible church is really circumcised of heart, regenerated, and guaranteed to be saved in the end. Although God expects heart regeneration of all those who have received the “sign of the covenant” in Deuteronomy 10:16, heart regeneration is not always the case. You may be a member of a church that is in relationship with God, but your own heart has yet to be regenerated and you have yet to establish a personal relationship with the Lord. Hence, it is not enough that our children be baptized and be members of a church. They must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and walk with Him in relationship all the days of their lives.
But why does God bother instituting a covenant using these outward signs if everybody making up the visible church may not be truly saved in the end? We must conclude that God chooses His own means of relating to His people and bringing them to salvation. It is for the same reason that God instructs us to read and preach His Word. Not everyone who hears the Bible preached gets saved, but that should not deter us from preaching the Word! Certainly, if we did not preach the Bible, few would be saved. Not everyone who comes into the visible people or church of God by circumcision or baptism are saved in the end.
2. Keep in mind the heart of the covenant—God will be our God, and we will be His people. The New Testament speaks of us belonging to the family of God (1 Tim. 3:15). Indeed, God counts us as belonging to His “group,” His family, when we are in the covenant. We can call Him “our Father” because we are in His family.
1. What are the themes of Chapters 1 through 17?
2. Who are the two parties in this covenant deal that God makes?
3. What does God require of Abram in this covenant?
4. What does God offer to Abram in the covenant?
5. What does the name “Abraham” mean?
6. What are the similarities between circumcision and baptism? What are the differences?
7. For those who want to be part of the visible church today, must they be circumcised? What sign does God require for those who join the church in the New Testament?
1. Are we in covenant with God? How do we know that we are in covenant with God? Why are the outwards signs of the covenant important to God, and to us?
2. What is the state of our relationship with God right now? Are we walking in close relationship with Him, or has the relationship become more distant