Covenant and Promise in Genesis 17

Genesis 17:2 – 14
November 6th, 2022

So, we left of reading the first verse of chapter 17 of Genesis last week where it says:

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.

And we talked all about that. And it continues:

2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.

God's Covenant with Abraham

Alright, back to verse 2 where God says:

2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

This verse is predicated on verse one, and so God seems to be saying: "You walk blameless before me, Abram” and I will “make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” Did you note that He said, “and I will make MY covenant between me and thee and (I will) multiply thee exceedingly.” So, much referring to letting God guide and to letting God provide. We read in the early church in Acts chapter 2 where Luke summarizes the growth of the earliest church after Pentecost saying:

Acts 2:47 “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

We can build, we can campaign, we can strategize and send forth missionaries who will fill buildings around the world, but in our day and age, even all the way back to the nascent church, GOD adds to the true body of spiritually converted souls – not Man. Being mortal, living in a world that is about numerical growth, this fact is brutally hard to take when you choose to embrace it. And it can be hard to face. I commend those of you who show up and tune in and refuse the mass appeal of the popular.

Reflection at the Airport

Because of the decreasing strength in my legs, and the very badly designed Salt Lake City airport, I am required, if I ever want to get home in one piece, to use the wheelchair service to take me from the gate to the parking lot. The other day I had a nice girl assigned to the job (it was hilarious watching the poor kid trying to push me up an incline – I tipped her well) but she told me that she had been working this job for over a year. When we got outside the terminal there was a crowd of people waiting with signs to welcome the returning missionaries of the LDS church. She told me that sometimes the lobby is full of missionaries returning and leaving – with hundreds and hundreds of these arrivals and departures happening all at once.

All a fleshly effort to recruit people to a myth. All by the arm of the flesh. All calculated by water baptisms, priesthood ordinations, and temple worthiness. As she wheeled me out, I sunk into deep reflection. I felt so supremely inadequate in the face of the fleshly material power of what Mormonism has become. I contemplated my failure to gather people by the millions, and thought about Joseph Smith’s boastful words when he was alive where he said:

“Come on! ye prosecutors! Ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! For I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.”

Commitment to Authenticity

As I drove home, I thought about my devotion to being authentic – how I may have, in the end, simply played the fool, about all the people who loved the antagonism I brought to television, but how I rejected the lies for seeking, sharing, and changing if the facts indicated the.

The Struggle of Staying True to Faith

For a moment I felt like I had really done it wrong. That perhaps I should have put my hand to staying the course of what has been, perhaps staying LDS, or if leaving it, embracing the narrative of the Evangelicals – the one that says we are still waiting on Jesus to return, Satan is still winning, hell is still burning, God is still losing, and belief is necessary to escape His wrath. Perhaps I should have focused my strength on becoming “big” instead, a megachurch, where at least we could send people out into the world as missionaries and save them from death and hell? At least our numbers would reflect success, or what Christians have labeled fruit and what most believers see as a sign of God’s approbation?

By the end of the night another dark night of the soul came rushing in, and I was confronted with the value of fleshly success in this world as compared to looking and trusting that it is God who adds, that the faith is truly in the hands of the Spirit, and that it works on individual’s hearts. The process can be humbling, soul-crushing and can wind up proving (to those who will receive it) who is really in charge. I had a come to Jesus meeting a couple days later. One where I too was on my proverbial face. It was not a time where I was congratulated for seeking the truth and choosing to wait on Him but one where I was reminded gently, but straightly, that I am not in charge but that am a servant of God Almighty.

The Importance of Humility in Faith

One where the destination of Jesus in his life best represents the end results of seeking and preaching the truth, of being true to God and one where the flesh, our will, is not done, but His. Here, in Genesis, what is Abram response to the burly God’s words? (verse 3)

3 And Abram fell on his face:

In the other meetings with God we do not read of Abram falling on his face, do we? Remember that I said last week that God appears to reveal himself more and more in the scriptural narrative? It seems that in this revelation the impact was profound and Abram did what all souls in scripture do when confronted with the living God – he fell on his face. Why? Because no flesh will ever glory in His presence. Ever. He is God Almighty, and we are but creations whom He so loves. And in this love, He will never allow us to think that we are the ones who create nations or that we are the ones who “add to the church daily.”

Examples from Scripture

It was in this position of Abrams knees on the ground and forehead to the earth that verse three adds:

“and God said to him,”

Did you catch the subtle principle? I am not so sure that God will attempt to directly confront and speak to souls whose hearts are not contrite, humble and whose face resists facing down. He may call to them through His spirit as creations, but I find meaning in the words of verse three

“And Abram fell on his face and God said to Him.”

I love the humility. And God appears to love it too. And so he responds.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus came and said in Matthew 18:3-4 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

He added in Matthew 23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Paul describes Jesus in the most distinct manner, saying in Philippians 2:5-8

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of

The Appeal to Humility

A servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

1st Peter 5:5

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Humility and Exaltation

James adds

James 4:10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Paul says at Philippians 2:3

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

And in Romans 12:16

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Obviously, the appeal to humility in life, before others and especially before God, is promoted in scripture and God appears to respond to such when the choice is made. And so God speaks to Abram who is on his face and says

4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

Abraham's Covenant and Name Change

How would this be? First, physically, as Abraham would have nations spring forth from both Ishmael, and soon Isaac, and then through all the six sons through his third wife, Keturah. But he would become the father of many more “spiritually” as Paul makes it plain in Galatians 3:29, saying

“And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Does this not throw the door open on the numbers that flow into the Kingdom through the Father of Faith?

At this point God does something significant, saying

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.

Later in Nehemiah 9:7, we read

“Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;”

Abram literally means “a high or exalted father.” Abraham (which is created in Hebrew by only adding what we would call an H) seems really simple and easy to compute but from a truly etymological perspective the meaning of the word is sort of difficult to be assigned. The reason given for the change made in the patriarch's name is debated and it really depends on the Rabbi speaking to get an answer.

Some suggest that it was because God said that it was because he would make him “a father of a multitude of nations." OR “the father of a great multitude." Others elaborate on this, saying that it was because he would become the father of a “powerful multitude."

Interestingly, Rabbi Solomon Jarchi defined the name “cabalistically,” meaning he assigned numerical values to the name which added up to two-hundred and forty-eight, which, he claimed, was the “exact number” of the bones in the human body. But this is incorrect the number of bones is less in the end, but actually changes as we mature from birth.

One Rabbi Lipman says that the “h” God added as the fourth letter, signifies and points to the fact that the Messiah would come in the fourth millennia of the world. Another says that the H was added because the H is so prevalent in the name of God (YHWH)

And Adam Clarke points out that one William Alabaster, in his book, “Apparatus to the Revelation,” speaks to him being the Father of the Romans, and therefore he concludes that Abraham was the first Pope!!

Yippe kai yay!

Some look to the Arabic root word here (which is rahama) because it means “numerous” but this connection is also a conjecture

At verse 15 we are going to be confronted with a similar difficulty in the renaming of Sarai (which means “my prince” or princess) to Sarah, and the whole change of her name is made by the substitution of a Hebrew h (he) for a y (a yod). In her case the former seems to describe someone who is over or princess in her own family while the latter change appears to indicate her governance over the nations of which her husband is termed the father or lord.

The Significance of Renaming

Hence the promise states that she shall be a mother of nations, and that kings of people should spring from her.

LISTEN – What is particularly interesting, even if it is superstitious and bordering on seeing connections where none

The Letter Insertion and Symbolic Meaning

Exist, IS the fact that the very letters that God inserts into the names of both Abram and Sarai (a He and a Yod) are letters from His own name, YHWH which may (MAY) have some symbolic meaning that He is involved in the nations that would spring forth from them. I tend to love this so I tend to see this as having merit. Conjectures are typically futile and obviously ridiculous in some ways but in them we may stumble across some buried truths and the two letters could have some reference to such.

God's Covenant with Abraham

At verse six God continues to:

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

Of course, from Abraham many kings came – kings of the Jews, of the Ishmaelites, of the Idumeans, of the Midianites, and many others. But emphatically there were two Kings that would come from Him of the utmost import – David, the first, and the Messiah the last and final. Let’s read from verse 7 to 14 now and cover what comes next:

Genesis 17:7 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.

The Everlasting Nature of the Covenant

All right, back to verse 7 where God says:

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.

For starters, and again, who does God say would establish the covenant? He says that He would. 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.

The everlasting element of His covenant is important because He is eternal and only He has the power to promise the everlasting energy to support the promise. Understand, however, that the term everlasting, derived from the Hebrew word olam, can mean eternally, but it literally means to the vanishing point or out to the horizon.

The word is used twice in verse 7 and 8 combined, and if we are biblical literalists then we must believe that the term means eternal. Because of this, there is the idea that what God establishes here is either eternal and will never go away or it will last until the vanishing point.

It’s tricky because in the one sense, this promise coincides with the Isaiah description that His kingdom would increase forever (which, of course, would occur by people flowing into it eternally by faith) . . . first the Jews and then the Gentiles in and through adoption. But there is another way in which the promises of the covenant, in terms of eternality, are truncated. How?

Let’s read verse 8 where the same word, translated eternality does not bear the same weight, as God says to Abraham:

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.

Here olam appears to be used in its accommodated meaning, and this promise carries out to the…

Everlasting Promises and Covenants

Vanishing point of the Law. This is why the Writer of Hebrews wrote In Hebrews 8:13:

Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

So, while it is true that the Nation of Israel possessed the material land of Canaan, it was only until the Mosaic dispensation was terminated in the complete introduction of the Gospel which occurred when Jesus came out of the Holy of Holies and showed His own that He was who He claimed to be when on earth. That was the vanishing point or eternality of this part of the promise.

So, we are faced with what can admittedly be seen as a convenient conflation of the term everlasting – in one sense it is eternal, meaning that His Kingdom would increase forever with people continually being adopted by faith into the family of Abraham but in the other sense it is of a limited duration or until the vanishing point when the former covenant was dissolved forevermore.

God's Promises to Abraham

What is interesting to me is the fact that God adds, after speaking of the material land where ownership would vanish, this important reiteration. Listen to the line again where God says:

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.

Meaning, I will continue to be all who are of your line “an everlasting God,” in the everlasting and eternally increasing kingdom even though the everlasting possession of the land of Canaan will be of a limited duration. Pretty radical, huh?

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

Got that? God described His covenant to Abraham and tells him that He and the seed after him would keep it in their generations, and then he says:

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.”

Circumcision as a Sign of the Covenant

Now, circumcision means, a cutting around, because in this rite the foreskin of the male reproductive part was cut away. The old joke that this was certainly of Hebrew origin says because no Jewish woman would accept anything unless it was 30% off.

(A fine Jewish man told me that joke so neener neener neener, you woke souls). God commanded Abraham to use circumcision (listen) as “a sign” of his covenant that was just described as everlasting.

Is the sign of the covenant, circumcision, everlasting? It is! So all of you ant-eaters out there get out the kitchen knife and start hacking! Not really. If the covenant was everlasting in the sense of the material, then circumcision must still be practiced today, just like the land of Canaan must still be in possession of the Nation of Israel.

But there is a huge exception to this idea (remember, the circumcision in the new covenant is of the heart) and so we can see that the everlasting elements to the material promises all change. The land promised changed to a heavenly city, and the circumcision demanded was later applied to all souls, not just males, and was spiritually of the heart.

Do you see the shift going on between what was established materially and how it was fulfilled (and continues to exist) spiritually?

Abraham will receive the sign of God’s covenant and at ninety-nine years of age, was circumcised, as also his son Ishmael, and all the male of his household (which we will read in verses 10-12). We will also see that God will repeat the precept of physical circumcision to Moses (in Exodus 12:44 and Leviticus 12) and any who intended to partake of the paschal lamb sacrifice would also receive circumcision at that time. The rite was performed on all male children on the eighth day after their birth.

The Jews have always been very exact in observing this ceremony, and it appears that they did not even neglect it when they were in Egypt (according to Joshua 5:1-9). All the other nations that sprang from Abraham (besides the Hebrews) like the Ishmaelites, the Arabians, etc., also practiced circumcision. At the present day it is an essential rite of the Muslims, and though not prescribed in the Koran, it prevails wherever the faith is found. The Jews esteemed uncircumcision as a very great impurity; and the greatest offence they could ever receive was to be called "uncircumcised."

Paul frequently mentions the Gentiles by

The Spiritual Meaning of Circumcision

This term but not as an insult – it was just a distinction that stood in opposition to the Jews, whom he alternately called "the circumcision." Because of great disputes on whether gentile converts to Christ should be circumcised, the apostles' first gathering occurred in Jerusalem and it is what caused Paul to write to the Gentiles in Galatia that

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature," (Galatians 5:2-3; 6:15)

People become new creations when they allow God to circumcise their hearts, cutting away all the elements of the former fleshly views and leaving the receptacle of the spirit. True circumcision, or what ancient circumcision foreshadowed, is also referred to as happening to the ears and scripture refers to people whose "uncircumcised in heart and ears," as those who refused to accept the law of God and/or the gospel of Christ.

Origin and Misconceptions

As long as we are on the subject some have tried to suggest that the Israelites stole circumcision from the Egyptians. This idea was popularized by the Greek writer Herodotus but his writings were about 500 years before Christ but Abraham and his practice of it was 1800 years before and so most scholars suggest that Herodotus was frankly wrong. I don’t think it matters one way or the other. Who cares. Everything that God uses in this world does not need to be original.

God further elaborates on circumcision in verse 11 saying

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. The word token here is oth and it means that it is the mark or sign or symbol that illustrates that God made a covenant with Abraham and His seed. For many, the sign represented to the world a people who were committed to righteousness. But as with everything in the Old Testament, it, again ALWASY pointed to more spiritual matters, and all the way back in Deuteronomy 10:16 Moses will say to the Nation of Israel

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.”

Paul's Teachings on Spiritual Circumcision

Paul writes in Romans 2:25-29

For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

He will add in Colossians 2:10-12

Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And he will further clarify circumcision in Romans 4:8-16 saying

Roman 4:8 Blesseth the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. 9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where

The Principle of Circumcision in Biblical Covenant

No law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith. At this point God describes to Abraham more details of the sign of the covenant He makes with Abraham, adding.

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.

Leviticus 12:2-3 tells us that because previously to this they were considered unclean, the act of circumcision was understood to not only be a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham but it also served as somewhat of a consecration of a person to God. Interestingly, and according to Leviticus 22 no calf, lamb, or kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason.

God's Instructions on Circumcision

God adds at verse 13.

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.

This of course speaks to a slave who might come into a family through purchase in that day, showing once again, that God works around what is in the world and does not necessarily interfere to make all things right. According to the Jewish writers, the father was to circumcise his son; and the master, was to circumcise the servant born in his house or the slave bought with money. If the father or master neglected to do this, then the magistrates were obliged to see it performed; if they neglected to perform this ordinance, then the individual himself, when he came of age, was obliged to do it solo.

The Consequence of Non-Compliance

Then God adds.

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.

Some have imagined that a sudden temporal death was implied but the simple meaning seems to be that such should have no right to nor share in the blessings of the covenant, which we have already seen were both of a temporal and spiritual kind. If this was the case, then abiding death was implied, for it was impossible for a person who had not received the spiritual purification through the line of promise to enter into relationship with God without it. This is the principle of circumcision of the heart – if a person refuses it, the idea is that they too will be cut off from the congregation of those who willingly circumcise their heart, and ears.

We will talk more about circumcision next week as we continue with chapter 17.

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