And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money -- every male among the people of Abraham's house -- and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that same day, as God had said to him.
God has just spoken to Abraham about His covenant. Part of it was a sign, to be cut into the body of every male in his house. What Abraham does with that word, and how soon, is the weight of this verse.
The verse marks the gap between hearing and doing, and how short Abraham made it.
Having finished this great communication God left off talking with Abraham. That same day Abraham is careful to keep the covenant by performing the rite of circumcision. He puts into practice the word he had heard. He acts in keeping with the way God has revealed Himself.
The speed matters more when you see what God asked of him.
The closing paragraph of the chapter shows how Abraham's faith showed itself at once in works. He accepted the outward sign of circumcision for himself and for his house. No time was lost. The thing was done "that very day." The operation itself was not pleasant. It ran against natural feelings. In each one the flesh would have cried out to be spared.
Commentators read the sign as a verdict passed on human nature itself.
But God speaks of the seal of circumcision. It is not now something outside him, as we saw in the dead animals of chapter 15... What does it mean? Flesh put to death before God. The sentence of death is put on man in His sight — on Abram himself, and on his descendants after him. Circumcision here is not introduced in a legal way... It is really the answer in man to the grace of God.
Yet the sign came to a man God had already counted righteous.
Romans 4 teaches that circumcision was "a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith." "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." God counted him righteous, and then set His seal upon him.
Abraham did not treat this as a private matter between himself and God. Every male he had authority over came under it.
Abraham's obedience was blessedly prompt. It is a bright scene, though it is in the flesh. All that belonged to him, all his house, come under God's covenant.
The verse names two groups: those born in the house, and those bought with money. That line matters, and writers see a principle set here for the first time.
The sign was circumcision. Abraham had to keep it, and so did his descendants and all his household. That last term takes in everyone born in his house, and every bondservant he had bought. It left out the casual servant, who was only hired. Here for the first time in Scripture we find a household treated as one with the man who is its head. They are those over whom the head has authority, so that he can command them.
Ishmael is named first in the verse, which raises an obvious question: does bearing the sign make a man an heir? Commentators are clear that it does not.
Everyone born in Abraham's house, or bought with money, had to be circumcised. Circumcision was the seal of the promise made to Abraham. If one of the promised seed was not circumcised, he lost his title. But it was a seal he had a right to by birth. And the real blessing was by promise: circumcision did not bring anyone into it at all. God called Abraham's seed in Isaac. The covenant promises belong to that seed, not to Ishmael. Yet Ishmael was circumcised just as much as Isaac.
The outward rite has passed, but writers hold that the thing it stood for has not.
If God covenants to bless by His Almighty power, then on our side there must be no confidence in the flesh. We must give it no room to act. For the believer today, circumcision is "a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God" (Rom. 2:29). The refusal of the flesh is not to be merely an outward neglect of the body, which the world can see. It is the refusal of the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as that which has been condemned in the cross (Col. 2:11).
- Heard. God stopped speaking. Abraham now had the word, and the test was what he would do with it.
- Obeyed. That very day, without delay, he did the painful thing his nature would have argued against.
- Sealed. The knife was a sentence of death on the flesh, set on a man already counted righteous by faith years before.
- Household. Everyone under his authority — his son, servants born in the house, servants bought — came under the covenant with him. Here Scripture first ties a household to its head.
- Promise. Ishmael bore the sign, but he was not the heir. The sign never made the blessing. That came by promise, in Isaac alone.
And Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
God had just laid out His covenant with Abraham, and that same day Abraham cut its sign into his own body at ninety-nine. Why did God wait so long, and what did the mark mean for a man already counted righteous?
The number ninety-nine only makes sense against the years before it. Between Ishmael's birth and this chapter there is a long gap in the record.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born. The next chapter tells us that Abram was ninety-nine years old when the Lord spoke to him again. So for thirteen years Abram's life seems to have been empty of any communication from the Lord. What a harvest of the flesh.
The age is not a small detail. It marks the point where Abraham had nothing left to give, and that is when God moved.
Chapter 16 is a side note. Abram has a promise, and now tries to make it good independently of God. But when Abram is set aside, his body now dead at ninety-nine years old, God reveals Himself. He says, I am going to give you many descendants, and you must circumcise them, and so on. That is: now that you are viewed as dead, I can do something with you.
The New Testament explains what the cut meant. It points back to a righteousness already counted to Abraham, and forward to the death of Christ.
Circumcision was, therefore, the seal of the righteousness of faith. Some fourteen years earlier God had counted Abram righteous. Abram believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness. First righteousness by faith, then the seal. The New Testament says that believers are circumcised: "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11). The circumcision of Christ is the death of Christ; in Him the body of the flesh is put off.
Verse 24 sits inside a paragraph that stresses speed. Faith here shows itself in what Abraham did.
The closing paragraph of the chapter shows how quickly Abraham's faith expressed itself in works. He accepted the outward sign of circumcision for himself and for his household. He wasted no time: the thing was done "that very day." The operation was not pleasant, and it ran against natural feelings. In each case the flesh would have cried out to be spared. How fitting, then, that it pictures the death to the flesh that the New Testament speaks of. There the question is not the material body of man, but the fallen nature belonging to that body, with its appetites and desires.
The order matters. Isaac was born only after his father carried the sign in his own body.
Abraham was circumcised at ninety-nine years old, so Isaac was to be born of a circumcised father. God would fulfill the promise only when the strength of the flesh is seen to be cut off, for the works of the flesh are refused altogether. The promise can be realized only by faith in the living God.
God counted Abraham righteous years before this day. So the mark could never be the ground of blessing, and that opened the door to people who never bore it.
Abraham was justified by faith centuries before the law was given through Moses. He was also justified by faith, and so he was certainly saved, years before he was circumcised (Genesis 15:6; 17:26). No one, then, needs to keep the law or be circumcised in order to be justified by faith. It was therefore plain that Gentiles could share in the grace of justification just as much as Jews.
- Waiting — Abraham tried to secure the promise his own way. Thirteen silent years followed — the harvest of the flesh.
- Death — God speaks again only when Abraham's body is as good as dead: now that he is set aside, God can work.
- Seal — The mark did not make Abraham righteous. It sealed a righteousness God had counted to him by faith fourteen years earlier.
- Obedience — Faith answered that very day. The act ran against natural feeling, and it pictures death to the fallen nature.
- Reach — Faith came first and the sign came after. So the blessing was never fenced in by circumcision, and Gentiles share the same justification by faith.
And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 17 ends with Abraham obeying at once, and verse 25 records the age of Ishmael — thirteen years old, circumcised on the same day as his ninety-nine-year-old father. If the covenant was to run through Isaac, who was not yet born, why mark Ishmael at all?
Abraham did not wait for a better moment.
When God had finished this great communication, He stopped talking with Abraham. That same day Abraham is careful to keep the covenant by carrying out the rite of circumcision. He puts into practice the word he had heard, and acts in a way that matches the revelation God has made of Himself.
Abraham had prayed for this son. The mark placed on him admitted that the blessing would not come the way Abraham first asked.
When Ishmael was thirteen years old Abraham circumcised him, and all the men of his house. In this act Abraham acknowledged in faith that the blessing he had asked for his natural offspring could not come through the strength of the flesh. God secures all His mercies in resurrection.
Ishmael carried the same mark as everyone else in the house, yet the covenant was not transferred to him. Abraham's plea for him was heard — but God answered it His own way.
Abraham had received such favour, yet his heart went out to the child of the slave woman. He said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" ... But no. God establishes His covenant with the child of promise, the son of the free woman. Ishmael, for Abraham's sake, does not go without His blessing: he fathers twelve princes and becomes a great nation. So the reasonings of a saint fall, and God's will alone stands, even in blessing outside the covenant of promise.
The rite and the promise are two different things, and only one of them carries the inheritance.
Everyone actually born in Abraham's house, or even bought with money, had to be circumcised. Circumcision was the seal of the promise made to Abraham... But, further, the real blessing was by promise: circumcision did not bring into it at all. Abraham's offspring was called in Isaac. The covenant promises belong to that offspring, not to Ishmael. Yet Ishmael was circumcised just as much as Isaac.
Age made no difference to who received the sign.
For Abraham, the first man to receive it, circumcision had been "a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith" (Rom. 4:11). That did not stop the thirteen-year-old Ishmael from receiving it, or the eight-day-old Isaac... Notice too that circumcision is the "putting off of the body of the flesh" (Col. 2:11), and that the true circumcision "put no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3).
Ishmael left that day bearing the covenant sign in his body. What he became later shows how little that sign did for him.
Abraham's heart yearned over Ishmael. He cried out that Ishmael might live before God. More than that, Abraham circumcised him, so Ishmael carried the mark of the covenant outwardly (Gen. 17:18, 25). All of it, however, was useless... He remained a wild, unmanageable and quarrelsome man — a fitting picture of the flesh.
The rite Abraham carried out that day had a meaning he was never told.
As far as Abraham was concerned, circumcision was just a rite to keep, since nothing shows that he was taught its spiritual meaning... The Messiah was cut off, as predicted. He was severed from His life down here in flesh and blood, so that He might take up life again in resurrection. As identified with Him, we put the sentence of death on the old life in the flesh that we once lived, and so put off the body of the flesh. So the meaning of the rite was the putting of the death sentence on the flesh and all its works. God's unconditional covenant of promise is not made good on the ground of the flesh.
- Same day. Abraham heard God and acted the same day, putting the word he had heard into practice.
- Same mark. Ishmael at thirteen received what Isaac would receive at eight days. The sign speaks of the flesh cut off, not of age or merit.
- Not the same place. Every male in Abraham's house carried the mark, but the inheritance came by promise, and the promise ran through Isaac.
- Not the same result. The sign on Ishmael's body did him no good. His later wildness pictures the flesh, which no outward rite improves.
- Same lesson for us. The rite pointed to the death sentence on the flesh. Christ was cut off and rose again, and those joined to Him put no confidence in what they are by nature.
In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son;
God has just finished speaking with Abraham. Before the day ends, the ninety-nine-year-old man and his son Ishmael have obeyed in their own bodies. Why the hurry? Why include Ishmael? And what does this painful sign really mean?
The verse gives a date, not a discussion. One writer notes how fast Abraham moved, and how far the command reached:
Abraham's obedience was prompt, and blessedly so. Though it is a scene in the flesh, it is still a bright one: all who belonged to him, his whole household, come under God's covenant.
Faith here showed itself in action, and the action cost something:
The last paragraph of the chapter shows how Abraham's faith quickly expressed itself in works. He accepted the outward sign of circumcision for himself and for his house. He lost no time; the thing was done "that very day." The operation itself was not a pleasant one. It ran against natural feeling, and in each man the flesh would have cried out to be spared. How fitting, then, that it pictures the death to the flesh that the New Testament speaks of. There it is not the physical body of man that is in question, but the fallen nature that marks that body, with its appetites and lusts.
Genesis 15 had already settled how Abraham stood before God. This chapter takes up something else — how he was to walk:
As Christians we are not asked, any more than Abraham was, to walk well in order to get the blessing. We are asked to walk in a way that suits God because we are blessed already. To walk like that, and to be perfect before God, calls for dependence on God and on His almighty power. But this means the complete refusal of the flesh. That is why God brought in circumcision: as a sign that the flesh must be put to death if the walk is to be perfect before God. In Genesis 15, death came in as the ground of justification. Here the refusal of the flesh, through the sign that speaks of death to the flesh, is for holiness of walk.
The order of events matters. The promised child had not yet arrived, and the father received the mark first:
When this wonderful meeting ended, Abraham took Ishmael and all his male servants, both those born in his house and those he had bought, and circumcised them... Abraham himself was circumcised at the same time, at 99 years old. So Isaac would be born of a circumcised father. God would fulfil the promise only when the strength of the flesh was seen to be cut off, for the works of the flesh are refused completely. The promise can be realized only by faith in the living God.
Ishmael was circumcised that day too. Yet the covenant itself was established with another son:
But no: the child of promise, the son of the free woman, is the one with whom God establishes His covenant. Ishmael, for Abraham's sake, is not left without His blessing; he fathers twelve princes and becomes a great nation. And that very day Abraham is circumcised, and Ishmael, and every male born in his house or bought with his money (vv. 25-27). So the reasonings of a saint fall away, and God's will alone stands, even in blessing outside the covenant of promise. Even there no flesh shall boast in His presence. The flesh is never improved; it passes under a sentence of death.
The mark cut into Abraham's body that day was not a badge of law-keeping. It answers to something God has made ours in Christ:
So circumcision here is not brought in as a matter of law... It is really man's answer to the grace of God. It is what God has made the Christian's portion in our Lord Jesus: that "circumcision made without hands," which God has given us in Him, for in Him we are circumcised. Now it is not a victim that dies; every child of Abraham takes the place of death by this sign. The sign pictures our death with Christ, the perfect deliverance of the person as dead with Him. Until you know what it is to be dead in this way, you cannot enjoy what it is to be free toward God.
- Same day. God speaks, and Abraham acts before the day ends — obedience that loses no time is the mark of real faith.
- Same house. The sign did not stop with Abraham. Sons and servants alike came under God's covenant.
- Same knife. The cut went against natural feeling, and that is the point. The flesh is put to death, not improved.
- Same rule for Ishmael. Blessing outside the covenant is still blessing. But even there the flesh cannot boast; God's will alone stands.
- Same lesson for us. What Abraham carried as a sign, believers now have in full: death with Christ, and freedom toward God.
and all the men of his house, born in his house, or bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
Genesis 17 ends in action: every male in Abraham's house took the covenant sign that same day. That raises two questions: why did the whole household share one man's sign, and what did the sign secure?
One writer links Abraham's speed to what he had just learned about God.
Having finished this great communication, God left off talking with Abraham. That same day Abraham is careful to keep the covenant by performing the rite of circumcision. He puts into practice the word that he had heard, and acts consistently with the revelation that God has made of Himself.
One writer draws the meaning out of the pain itself.
The closing paragraph of the chapter shows Abraham's faith turning at once into works. He accepted the outward sign of circumcision for himself and for his house. They lost no time. It was done "that very day." The operation was not pleasant. It went against natural feelings, and in each man the flesh would have cried out to be spared. So it is a fitting picture of that death to the flesh which the New Testament speaks of. Only there the subject is not the material body of man. It is the fallen nature that marks that body, with its appetites and desires.
The verse names two groups: men born in the house and men bought from outside. Together they make something Scripture had not shown before.
Though the fulfilment of this covenant depended upon God and not upon Abraham, there was a sign given in connection with it... The sign was circumcision. Abraham was to keep it, and so were his descendants and all his household. His household meant everyone born in his house and every slave he had bought. The casual servant, who was only hired, evidently did not come under it. Here for the first time in Scripture we find a household treated as one with its head. Its members are those the head has authority over, so that he can command them, as we see in verse 19 of the next chapter.
The men bought with money had no claim by birth. They received the mark anyway. One writer follows that through to what Christians have now.
So circumcision began with Abraham. It was to carry on in his descendants after the flesh, and even with any stranger born in their house. It was the required sign of the Lord's covenant in his flesh. But the Christian enjoys it in the better way of the spirit. He is circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11)... It was a privilege granted to strangers, to slaves.
Because the mark covered everyone in the tent, it is easy to think the mark made the blessing. One writer notes that no one was left out, and that the sign sealed something already true of Abraham:
The covenant of circumcision is now introduced. Every member of the household of faith must bear in his body the seal of that covenant. There must be no exception... We are taught in Romans 4 that circumcision was a seal of the righteousness that Abraham had by faith. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Because God counted him righteous, He set His seal on him.
Another writer makes the same point from the other side. He points to Ishmael.
Circumcision was the seal of the promise God made to Abraham. If one of the promised line was not circumcised, he lost his title; but it was a seal he had a right to by birth. Further, the real blessing came by promise: circumcision did not bring anyone into it at all. Abraham's line was called in Isaac, and the covenant promises belong to that line, not to Ishmael. Yet Ishmael was circumcised just as much as Isaac.
- Heard. God finished speaking, and Abraham did not wait. He put the word straight into practice, in line with the God who had revealed Himself to him.
- Hurt. The sign was painful and against natural feeling; every man's flesh would have asked to be spared. That is why it pictures death to the fallen nature.
- Household. Here Scripture first shows a household identified with its head. Sons, home-born servants and bought men all shared it. The hired servant did not.
- Strangers. Men bought from foreigners had no claim by birth, yet they carried the covenant sign. That privilege for strangers and slaves finds its answer in the circumcision of Christ, not made by hands.
- Seal. The mark sealed a righteousness Abraham already had by faith. It did not create the blessing. Ishmael was circumcised just as Isaac was, yet the promise ran through Isaac alone.