Read Genesis 17
The Covenant of Circumcision
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years oldwhen he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
Go Deeper
Sometimes, God’s ideas just flat out don’t make sense. He has been continually promising Abraham a child, which is all well and good. The only problem is that Abraham and his wife Sarah keep getting older! God repeatedly makes these assertions, yet all the while they become more and more unrealistic. Sure, Abraham might have been able to have a child decades ago. But at the age of 99? Laughable. In fact, as soon as God got done with His speech, “Abraham fell facedown; he laughed” (v. 17). It’s an understandable response from Abraham. He probably wasn’t laughing out of humor as much as he was out of frustration. Was God really going to continue on with this charade?
Sometimes, it’s hard to keep the faith. It’s hard to continually believe in God when your situation doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look, in those moments when life isn’t going according to plan (and hasn’t been for some time). At one point or another, all of us can relate to Abraham’s response to God. Abraham’s circumstances were contradicting God’s promises that he was being told! We can’t help but laugh at His insistence that He will be faithful to accomplish what He has promised.
When we find ourselves falling face down, laughing at God, what’s the best next step? It’s probably the very thing we don’t want to do. Pick yourself up off the floor and take a step of faithfulness. Then another. Then another. In those moments, we are training ourselves to trust God more than our emotions and trust God more than our own logic.
Our emotions aren’t reliable indicators of our reality and our logic is flawed. While Abraham no doubt felt like giving up (see verse 18), he had the courage to take the next step of faithfulness. Like Abraham, whatever God is calling you to do today could be painful, difficult and contradict our own logic! Despite this, we are called to obediently follow no matter how significant or insignificant it might seem. Today, we get the chance to trust God’s promises more than ourselves!
Questions
How do you think Abraham was feeling in this passage?
Why do you think God gave Abram and Sarai new names?
What keeps you from doing what God has asked you to do?
Did You Know?
The name Abram meant “exalted father.” In this chapter, God changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of many.” This is a reminder to Abraham that God is not just promising him that he will have a child, but that he will have many children.
6 thoughts on “Genesis 17”
From barrenness to multitudes of children, a stunning example of what God does best as he turns the impossible into possible! God issues name changes for 2, then a covenant and a mark of remembrance for all his people. Even though this seems laughable to Abraham, he immediately obeys and takes care of business—no arguing with God but full obedience. There will be plenty of times our feelings and intellect may lag behind what God calls us to do, but may we like Abraham be obedient in the details of life, for that is the pathway of blessing. Remember obedience can ripple and reverberate through generations and into eternity.
Wow, Abraham’s head must have been spinning. God gave him many instructions and new things to process. But Abrahams immediate response was to OBEY. That very day, as soon as God left him, he went and did what God said to do. I like the fact that God explained exactly what to do. This is where I have stutter steps is in the not for sures. “I feel” or “I think” that God is telling me to do… and then comes the second guesses. I desire to just trust and be obedient immediately. I pray that we all would.
God thank You that we/I are obedient immediately. God thank You for a deepening trust in/to You minutely. That I do not second guess myself. God help me to completely surrender to what You desire for me to accomplish for Your glory and honor. Not my will but Yours God. God help me to not divide my world into two compartments. Help me stay in the fellowship with You. Thank You that You are in the ordinary tasks of daily living. Thank You for me seeing You in these tasks, talking them over with You , and giving You the glory and honor in and through them. God thank You for Your love goggles, thank You for listening, hearing ears. God thank You for all the BUT GOD moments in these minutes of this day to praise You, give You glory, and to magnifiy Your name, in Jesus name amen
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When we have a God encounter. We need to be like Abraham and obey immediately. Too many times, I’ll quinch the Holy Spirit by MY delay. Lord, help me to be discerning and to trust and obey!
Obedience in covenants with God can be upside down given the circumstances, but I’d rather obey God than suffer the consequences.
“Our emotions aren’t reliable indicators of our reality and our logic is flawed.” Worth repeating.
10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
It is so curious that when God is having this seminal encounter with Abraham that the chosen sign of the covenant was circumcision. What that?!
Man. I feel more normal now. Abraham’s relationship with god is similar to mine.
I relate so much with trying to help god pave his path on this earth.
Really trying to surrender and trust him with new things I haven’t before. This daily reading has been such a blessing.