To properly examine this covenant we need to break it down into seven parts.
Abraham will be multiplied exceedingly (Gen. 17:2)
In the Hebrew text, both verbs speak of action that is not complete and are so indicated in the English text by the word “will” (“will” make, “will” multiply). This implies that this covenant speaks of a work in progress and is an amplification of the promise given in Genesis 15:5 (“…tell the stars…so shall thy seed be”). If we are one of the faithful in Christ, we are part of that process that began with Abraham (“and if you [are] Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” Gal. 3:29).
Abraham will be a father of many nations (Gen. 17:4)
This is an expansion of the promise recorded in Genesis 12:2-3. There the promise was that he would be the father of a nation and in him the nations of the world would bless themselves. Abraham is now told he will be the father of a multitude of nations. As the covenant is not limited to his immediate descendants or the children of Israel, this covenant transcends the first promise and enlarges it.
Interestingly, God now shifts His manner of speaking to saying the promised facts have already been accomplished: “I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:5 NRSV). The principles that were founded in Abraham’s faith, as we have seen earlier, are established and sure. It is not merely a future event that will take place, but God has set the faith of this man as a fundamental scriptural principle. Paul refers to this in Romans 4:
“For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham Or he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations 9 – in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations,’ according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be” (Rom. 4:16-18 NRSV).
The promise is elaborated even further in Genesis 17:6: “And I have made thee exceeding fruitful, and made thee become nations, and kings go out from thee” (Young’s Literal).
There is a phrase in Ephesians that we should touch upon at this point. “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:3-4 KJV). By our baptism we have become part of this covenant bestowed by Almighty God. Paul links us to this event for we too, through our faith, have become part of the divine plan and purpose of the Almighty. We were “chosen before (predestined)” not in the sense that our names were already written in this event, but rather in the sense that through our baptism we have been given a place in the “nations.” Our heritage is in these words to Abraham. We have become his children and as such his heirs.
As a sister in a recent Bible class said: “It makes shivers go down my spine when I think that by my baptism I have become part of these words – that! am part of those of the nations who have been bestowed on Abraham.”
To be God to you and your descendants after you (Gen. 17:7)
The reader’s attention is here drawn to what I believe is the central issue of this covenant – a very intimate relationship which is described by God captured in the phrases “between me and you” (v. 2) and “as for me” (v. 4).
Throughout the chapter the language concerns my covenant (vv. 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 21). This is the second time that this personalized rendering of the word covenant is used in scripture. The first time was with Noah (Genesis 9:8, 11, 12, 13, 15). This covenant has been bestowed by God in a very personal way. He is to be God to Abraham and his seed and has chosen Abraham and his seed to be His people.
Paul talks of this in Romans 9:22 when he speaks of the “vessels of mercy,” namely ourselves, called out not just from the Jews but from the Gentiles also, for the fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Hosea 2:23 (“I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God”).
I have bestowed to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojourning’s (Gen. 17:8 Yugs. Literal)
This translation is according to the Hebrew, which again speaks of a promise as a completed act. We must note that again we have a confirmation of resurrection, as Abraham never possessed any of this territory other than that which he purchased from Ephron (Gen. 23:17). In the first promise, Abram was told that his seed “has been given” the land. In this he is told that “I have given to you and your descendants after you…” This time the words specifically include Abraham in the promise.
We are reminded of the words of Jesus Christ, “As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matt. 22:23 RSV).
“This is my covenant which you shall keep”(Gen. 17:10)
We now come to Abraham’s part, which is better appreciated when we know the Hebrew word for “keep” is shamar which has the meaning of “guard” or “protect.”
Genesis 2:15 “to till it and keep it.”
Genesis 3:24 “a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life” (NRSV).
Exodus 20:6 “…them that love me and keep my commandments.” Jeremiah 51:12 “Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen.”
This covenant was a gift from God which needed to be protected (guarded) by Abraham and his descendants. The gift that we have is that “we are God’s children now” (1 John 3:2). The people who knew no mercy now have mercy (Hosea 2:23). We watch over that gift that it does not become a source of ridicule for others, that we do not bring shame upon the gift and that it is such a precious gift we will do everything in our power to give it honor in our lives.
As Abraham and all his household needed to honor the gift of this covenant, God gave a physical sign to link them to this gift. In Romans 4:11 we are told that “he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness he had in uncircumcision.”
Circumcision did not make him righteous; God had already declared that in witness to his life of faith. Circumcision is but the physical sign of one’s special relationship with God. In Genesis 9, God sets a “token” in the heavens as a sign of His peace with creation. Here Abraham is told to set a “token” in his flesh symbolizing the holiness of the relationship between God and himself and his descendants after him (as we are told to be baptized). Rather than an imposition, or an inconvenience, it was to be a sign of joy and a witness to the gift of God.
We must not overlook the words of verse 14, however. The parent who so despised the gift that he did not put the sign of grace in the flesh of his son cannot be abided in the people of God. Any man who denies this gift by denying circumcision is in effect making it null and void.
We can compare this to baptism where despising the symbol is, in effect, despising the gift. When someone says our sign and seal (baptism) is unnecessary or out-dated, they belittle the gift it represents.
The true significance of this act is seen in the words of Moses and brought to new life in the words of Paul.
“Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer” (Dent. 10:14-16 NRSV).
“You have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:10-12 NRSV).
Abraham is told to “walk before me and be blameless.” There was a necessity for him to cut off sinful desires and pursue that which leads to life. In this act of circumcision, flesh and all that it signifies is cut off. In our case, the act of baptism, burial in water, exhorts us to consider ourselves dead to sin, having no more to do with it.
The “princess” becomes the “noblewoman” (Gen. 17:15)
Sarah was given a reiteration of the words to Abraham: “I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (Gen. 17:16 NRSV). This makes clear the covenant is to be through Sarah, not Hagar. The descendants are to come through the promise, not by way of the flesh.
I will establish my covenant with him (Gen. 17:19-21)
Abraham cries out for Ishmael and indeed God affirms “I will make him a great nation” (the Hebrew literally means “I have given him a great nation”). The eternal covenant, however, and this is repeated twice for emphasis, is only active through the child of promise. In the first instance God says He “has established” and in the next instance He says He “will.” The first is the completion of the reference to Sarah, that out of her “have come nations.” The second is in reference to Isaac himself as a direct comparison to Ishmael. At a future date this covenant will be confirmed again to him as the child of promise.
There is much in the study of this particular covenant that has been left out and in the future, God willing, we will uncover still more wonders of God’s gift that He will be our God and we shall be His people.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One