It is I behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations.
Abram is ninety-nine, his body past hope of children, and he has just tried to make God's promise good by his own effort. Now God speaks, and the first thing He says about the covenant is not what Abram must do but where it rests — with Him.
God calls it "my covenant," and that "my" sets the tone for the whole chapter. One writer counts how often God takes the weight of the promise on Himself:
You will have noticed that at least ten times in this chapter God says, "I will." That stands in sharp contrast to the "you shall" repeated in the law. It is beautiful to see how God commits Himself to work out all He has set His heart on. He says, "I will set my covenant between Me and you." So He sets up a definite bond between Himself and Abram, in order to carry out His purpose.
The list of what God takes on is long, and it comes with no conditions attached:
God reveals Himself — He appeared to him — as the Almighty God. A covenant between God and him, to multiply him... father of many nations — and kings — a God to him and his seed after him — the land and their God. All this for ever, without condition, and his name changed for the covenant.
The timing of this word matters. God waits until every natural possibility has run out:
Chapter 16 is a kind of side note. Abram has a promise, and now tries to make it good on his own, apart from God. But once 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.
Up to this point God had promised Abram a land and a line of descendants. A "multitude of nations" — "many nations" in older translations — opens something far larger:
Now we have the wide extent of the earthly purposes of God beginning to unfold before us, even as far as the whole earth, and Abram was concerned in all... Not a word of this had been breathed before. That he should have a line to succeed him, one that should inherit the land and have it for ever: such was the utmost already granted... But here all is of another order and measure — beneficence according to the grace and purposes of God.
God does more than announce the promise. He stamps it on the man's own name:
So Abram, "great father," becomes Abraham, "father of a multitude." The change comes by adding a single letter in the Hebrew, "he," the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Number five speaks, as we know, of God with man. How truly does God with man change the lonely individual into the father of a multitude.
From that day he carries a name for something that had not yet happened:
To confirm this covenant God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "Father of a multitude." From this point on Scripture uses the new name, even though the promise wrapped up in that name had not yet come true. So God pledged Himself to bring it to pass in His own way.
The promise came by faith and not by law, and that makes the door it opens wide:
As faith is opposed to works, so grace is opposed to law. The grace of God who gave the promise opens the door of faith — the only door, and a wide one — to Gentiles no less than to Jews... grace goes out to the Gentile no less than to the Jew, who could hardly limit Abraham's fatherhood of "many nations" to his own people.
One writer follows the promise on to Christ:
Now this promise was to Abraham's Seed, that is, to Christ, as we learn from the letter to the Galatians. Is not the Lord Jesus Christ Himself also the Father of the many nations? A time is coming when He will be shown in this character, and will gather His households around Him like flocks of sheep.
- Source. God calls it "my covenant" — His own undertaking. In this chapter He says "I will" at least ten times, against the law's "you shall."
- Condition. God gives the blessings "for ever, without condition"; nothing in them waits on Abram's strength.
- Timing. God speaks only once Abram is "viewed as dead" at ninety-nine, so that the fruitfulness belongs to God alone.
- Name. A single Hebrew letter turns "great father" into "father of a multitude" — a name given before any child arrived, because God had pledged Himself to make it true.
- Reach. A "multitude of nations" cannot shrink to one people. The door swings open to Gentile as well as Jew, and the promise points on to Christ, the Seed.
And thy name shall no more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of a multitude of nations have I made thee.
Abram is ninety-nine and still has no child by Sarai. God speaks to him and gives him a name that describes a family he does not yet have. That change raises three questions. Why does God take the right to rename a man? Why now? And how far does "a multitude of nations" reach?
The whole change is one letter in Hebrew:
So Abram, "great father," becomes Abraham, "father of a multitude." The change comes from adding one letter in Hebrew: "he," the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The number five speaks, as we know, of God with man. How truly does God with man change the lonely individual into the father of a multitude.
The old name described the man; the new one describes the family growing out of him.
The name Abram means "great, or high, father," showing what he himself was as head of the family of faith. But Abraham points us to the greatness of the family he heads. The name means "father of a multitude" — not only of people, but of nations. In giving this name God is showing the vast results of the principle of faith and of promise. Nothing is so fruitful as faith. It is "exceedingly fruitful." It is the only principle that brings forth anything for God, because it counts on His power alone.
God Himself does the naming here.
There is another element here, a common one in Scripture: God's giving a name to Abram and to Sarai also. It signifies the title of direct authority, and entering into relationship on this ground. So Adam, so Pharaoh, so Nebuchadnezzar. Here, God having revealed His own name, gives one to Abram in connection with Himself. From then on He is the God of Abraham, revealing Abraham's place.
Other renamings in the Bible follow the same rule.
The changing of a name always implied that the one whose name was changed was subject to the one who changed it (see Gen. 17:5-15; Gen. 32:28; Gen. 35:10; Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7; Dan. 5:12).
The new name arrives at the exact point where Abram can do nothing about it.
Chapter 16 is a kind of parenthesis. Abram has a promise, and now tries to make it come true without God. But then Abram is set aside. His body is dead at ninety-nine years old. God reveals Himself and 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.
God gave the name before there was any child to show for it.
Abram then receives the promise of descendants. God changes his name to Abraham — "father of a great multitude" — and as yet he had no children at all! But God's promise is better than anyone else's performance. The promise has two sides. His children were to be like the stars — the heavenly family, those who inherit his faith, as Rom. 4:16 shows, and that includes every believer. And they were to be like the sand on the sea shore — the earthly descendants.
This promise goes far beyond anything Abram had heard before.
Now the wide extent of God's purposes for the earth begins to unfold before us. It reaches as far as the whole earth, and Abram had a part in all of it… No word of this had been spoken before. Until now God had granted only this much: a line to succeed him, one that would inherit the land and have it for ever.
Paul reaches back to this sentence. He uses it to explain how people outside Israel come into the blessing.
Verse 16 states the result for Gentiles who believe the gospel. The promise is of faith, so that it might be by grace. In that way it stands sure to all the seed of Abraham to whom God gave the promise. It is sure not only to the seed under the law, but to all who had the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all before God, as it is written: "I have made you the father of a multitude of nations."
- Named by God. Giving a name is a title of authority and of relationship; the one renamed belongs to the One who renamed him.
- Named when dead. Abram's own strength was gone first. Then came the promise of a multitude — "now that you are viewed as dead, I can do something with you."
- Named for a family. Abram spoke of the man. Abraham speaks of the multitude he heads. Faith bears fruit because it counts on God's power alone.
- Named before proof. He carried the name "father of a multitude" while childless. God's promise is better than anyone else's performance.
- Named for the nations. Paul quotes this verse to show the promise reaching every believer — stars in heaven, sand on the shore, Abraham "the father of us all."
And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
God speaks to a man of ninety-nine whose only son was born to a slave woman, and promises him nations and kings. How could that come true, and who are these nations and royal lines?
God has just given him a new name. One writer sets the two names side by side and shows how unlikely the promise looked:
His name is therefore changed from Abram to Abraham. The first means "great father," the second "father of a multitude." God adds, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful." At the time this seemed most unlikely. Abraham was 99 years old, and his only possible means of further fruit was Ishmael, the son of a slave woman. But God had other things in mind.
The change of name is not decoration. It shifts attention from the man to the family he heads:
The name Abram means "great, or high, father." It shows what he was in himself, as head of the family of faith. But Abraham points us to the greatness of the family he heads, for it means "father of a multitude" — not only of people, but of nations. In giving this name God is showing the vast results of the principle of faith and of promise. Nothing is so fruitful as the principle of faith. It is "exceedingly fruitful," because it is the only principle that brings forth anything for God, since it counts on His power alone.
The chapter opens with God naming Himself as the Almighty. That name is what makes verse 6 believable:
Surely these are promises which almighty grace alone could utter, almighty power alone fulfil.
God also chose His moment. He waited until Abraham could contribute nothing:
But "when he was about a hundred years old," and Abraham's body "was now dead," God can come in again. He makes a simple, grand announcement that Abraham's faith had never yet grasped: "I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be blameless." For a dead Abraham, an Almighty God alone would do. Abraham could not help God to raise the dead.
Earlier promises spoke of one line and one land. Verse 6 opens something far bigger, and Abraham never asked for it:
Abram was to have a child and be the father "of many nations." So the circle is clearly made far wider, and all in pure grace. Abram has not asked a word, and he does not seek any pledge or token.
The same writer notes that the promise grows in time as well as in reach:
So Abraham's hopes are not only opened up into a far greater sphere. The time is also unlimited.
The promise of kings was not a figure of speech. One writer points to a scene centuries later, on the hill where Abraham and his son had stood:
Centuries have passed. Look at the splendid scene on that lonely hill in the land of Moriah, where Abraham and his son once stood. "Kings shall come from you," God said to Abraham — and now Solomon, his direct descendant, is dedicating a glorious temple.
Abraham's fatherhood reaches further than his own family. One writer sets him beside Adam, the first man:
Abraham stands as the Adam of blessing to those who come after him, just as Adam stood as the head of responsibility. Abraham is the father of us all before God. Adam never was that. Adam was the father of us all driven out from God. Of course, with Abraham this is now spiritual and in Christ.
The promises to Abraham are not all of one kind. One writer separates two of them:
In one of the promises to Abraham, the seed named is Christ Himself. In the other it is a countless multitude. To this countless seed God promised permanent possession of a definite area of land, together with national supremacy in the earth.
- Dead first. God waited until Abraham's body was past hope, so that human strength could take no credit for the promise.
- Named next. "Great father" became "father of a multitude" — the new name points away from the man and toward the family God would build.
- Fruitful then. Faith counts on God's power alone, and that is the one principle Scripture calls exceedingly fruitful.
- Widened after. One land and one line grew into nations and kings, unasked for, all of grace, and unlimited in time.
- Reaching now. Kings came from him in history. Through Christ he is father of all who believe. And the land promised to his countless seed stays permanently theirs.
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 to thee, and to thy seed after thee.
God appears to Abram as the Almighty and sets out the terms of His covenant. It runs on through the generations, and it never ends. Three questions follow. Who is the "offspring"? What does it mean for God to be God to someone? And does any of it depend on Abraham?
The horizon opens wide here. And the word "everlasting" fixes how long it all lasts.
A far greater sphere now opens out for the hopes of Abraham. And the time is unlimited too. It is an "everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." God had not forgotten the lesser gift while greater things were in view — "all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
Notice which word never appears in this chapter. God binds Himself; Abraham is not asked to guarantee anything.
"I will" is the phrase that marks this covenant. It begins with "I will make My covenant" and ends with "I will be their God." The little word "if" stands out only by being missing, for it was a covenant with no condition on Abram's part. He had tried to get offspring by natural means through Hagar. But God meant to multiply him greatly, to make him a father of many nations, to secure the land of promise for his offspring, and to be their God in a special way.
Two things move together in this chapter: a widening circle, and a closer tie.
There were two things in the way in which God revealed Himself in chapter 17. First, grace spreads out to the Gentiles: "You shall be the father of a multitude of nations." For if He is the Almighty God, He could not be shut up, if we may say so, in Israel. The second thing is, I will be God "to you and to your offspring after you." That is, closer communion, a direct relationship with God Himself.
When God attaches His name to a man's name, that title carries weight, and it commits Him.
When God is called the God of someone, it shows a close tie between that person and God, whose name is now joined to his own. It shows a relationship based on what God is to the one whose name He has taken. And it implies a purpose to bless and honour in keeping with that relationship. This purpose must stand. God cannot be unfaithful.
"Your offspring after you" is not one simple idea. The promise of countless descendants stands apart from the promise about one Seed.
The promises of a very large offspring are separate... The reasoning in Galatians is that Christ alone is the seed meant in chapter 22, when it speaks of the nations of the world. And if we are in Christ, we are then the offspring of Abraham.
Israel later took the land under a different covenant, one that hung on their obedience. Did that settle the promise made to Abraham?
When the Israelites entered the land, it was not on the ground of this covenant, but of another covenant. Under that one, their hold on the land no longer rested on God's unconditional promise. It hung on their own obedience. This was not a fulfilment of God's covenant with Abraham. As we shall see, God does not treat it as one. He keeps His covenant with the fathers carefully in reserve, even while He clearly foretells that the nation will fail and be scattered under the later covenant made at Mount Sinai.
Long after Abraham died, God still called Himself the God of Abraham. That title says something about Abraham himself.
If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ceased to exist, could God still have taken their names to describe Himself to Israel? He might have said, I am He who was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when they existed... He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But this truth went further. Abraham was dead: his soul and body were separated. He was living for God, yet he was not what God meant him to be as his God... He was to be complete, and so raised from the dead. God's name showed His relationship with those who were gone for the moment. That proved the resurrection.
- Everlasting — no time limit, and no narrow border. The circle widens to many nations, and the term runs on for ever.
- Unconditional — the chapter is full of "I will" and holds no "if". What God promises rests on His faithfulness, not on Abraham's record.
- God Himself — the heart of the promise is a relationship: God ties His own name to a man, and that tie commits Him to bless.
- Offspring — the promise reaches countless descendants, and, as Galatians shows, one Seed, Christ. Those in Christ count as Abraham's offspring.
- Unbreakable — the conditional covenant at Sinai never cancelled this one. Death cannot cancel it either, for God is not the God of the dead.
And I give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be a God to them.
Genesis 17 is a chain of promises to Abraham, and verse 8 hands him a whole country. He owned no part of it. The verse joins two gifts: a land held for ever, and God Himself as their God.
The promises of this chapter pile one on another. None of them asks Abraham for anything first. One writer counts how often God binds Himself:
These, then, are some of the blessings of the everlasting covenant that God makes with Abraham. The covenant shows God's settled purpose to bless. Seven times in this message God says, "I will." Now Abraham learns that God looks for an answer in the believer's life to His own grace. Abraham is to walk before God and be perfect.
The walk God asks for comes after the gift; it does not buy it. Some readers treat the spiritual promises as firm and the earthly ones as negotiable. One writer answers that the two stand or fall together:
Here are "the promises made to the fathers," and to Israel, "beloved for the fathers' sakes." God made them to Abraham without any condition, whether they are spiritual or earthly. If you say that the spiritual promises are without condition, by the same reasoning the temporal ones are. God's promise to Abraham, "To you will I give this land," is as certain as the promises He has made in favour of us Gentiles.
The verse names the land by the one thing Abraham was in it — a stranger. He never took possession. When his wife died, he buried her in that land, and commentators read the burial as an act of faith in this promise:
God had revealed Himself to Abraham as the Almighty, and as the God of resurrection. He had assured him that the land where he was a stranger — all the land of Canaan — was his for an everlasting possession. All was his by promise, though not yet in possession. In the faith of God's promise he was careful to lay the body of Sarah to rest in the Promised Land.
Staying a stranger was not a delay in the blessing. It was the setting for it, and God gave him a new name to mark the covenant:
All this for ever, without condition, and his name changed for the covenant. Here, being a pilgrim, and continuing so, God is not ashamed to be called, and to lay the basis of being called, his God.
Israel later lived in Canaan. Israel also lost it. One writer says that spell in the land cannot be what "everlasting" meant:
Finally, God gave the land to the seed of Abraham "for ever," or as it is put elsewhere, "for an everlasting possession." Israel's possession of Canaan was certainly not like that. But has the Lord forgotten His promise? Or are we to assume that the promise was not meant for Israel? Far from it. … "He has remembered His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations; the covenant He made with Abraham" (Ps. 105:8-11). So Israel's possession, held on terms and for a time, is not the fulfilment of the covenant with the fathers.
The promise names Abraham himself, not only his descendants. He died owning none of it, so the promise must reach past his death:
The promise of God to Abraham could not be fulfilled if there were no first resurrection. Stephen tells us Abraham was a stranger, with no inheritance in it — not so much as to set his foot on. Suppose Abraham were not raised from among the dead until the heavens and the earth flee away, and he had to stand before the great white throne. Then God would have broken His word to Abraham, and that is impossible.
The verse does not end with land. It ends with a relationship, and one writer calls that the greater gift:
The sphere now opened out for Abraham's hopes is far greater, and the time also is unlimited. It is an "everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you." … God had not forgotten the lesser gift in presence of greater things — "all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
- Gift, not deal. Seven times God says "I will" in this chapter; nothing in verse 8 waits on Abraham's performance.
- Gift held by faith. The verse names the land by his own status in it — a stranger. It was all his by promise while none of it was his in fact.
- Gift not yet spent. Israel held Canaan on terms and lost it. So the everlasting possession still lies ahead.
- Gift beyond the grave. Abraham died without a foot of it. So he must be raised from the dead to receive it himself.
- Gift behind every gift. The land is the lesser half of the verse; the greater is God's own word that He will be their God.
And God said to Abraham, And [as for] thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.
God has just laid out His side of the agreement — a new name, nations, kings, land, and Himself as their God — and then, at verse 9, He turns to Abraham. What can it mean for a man to keep a covenant that God alone guarantees, and why is the answer a cut made in human flesh?
The order matters. God gives the sign only after He has put the promise beyond dispute.
The promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world was not by law, and so it was not conditional on his obedience to law. It came instead by the righteousness of faith. That is, it rested on righteousness already fully settled, not on righteousness that future works still had to build. So the promise could not be challenged; there was no possibility of it failing. Genesis 17:1-8 gives us the promise in the clearest terms. With God it is a settled matter, needing only time to be fulfilled. Only after this (in verses 9-14) do we see God giving Abraham the sign of circumcision.
The command is real. But it asks for a cutting off, not an achievement.
God's side of the covenant cannot be broken. But Abraham is told that he and his descendants are to keep His covenant (v. 9). This covenant is completely different from the covenant of law, which required obedience to all the commandments. God gave this covenant to Abraham long before the law. It clearly assumes that man is completely unable to keep the laws of Moses. Why? Because it required that every male of Abraham's offspring be circumcised... Man in the flesh can deserve nothing but judgment: only when the flesh is cut off can the promise of God become effective for anyone. So the question is not man's doing, but man's dying — man reduced to complete helplessness in doing anything. Then everything is plainly God's sovereign working in grace.
Circumcision later became part of the law of Moses, so verse 9 can look like law arriving early.
Let no one suppose that circumcision is necessarily a legal thing. In the setting where it is placed here it goes together with grace — the sign that the flesh is put to death. The law did take it in when that system came later. But in itself, as our Lord Himself shows, it came not from Moses but from the fathers — from Abraham.
Two chapters earlier Abraham asked for a sign, and God gave him slain animals to look at. Here he asks for nothing, and the mark goes on his own body.
Abraham no longer asks for a sign by which he may know that he is to inherit the land. Not a word of that kind falls from him. Instead God speaks of the seal of circumcision. It is not now something outside him, as we saw in the dead animals of chapter 15. Now the word is: "you shall keep my covenant... every male among you shall be circumcised." What does it mean? The flesh put to death before God. The sentence of death laid on man in His sight — on Abraham himself as well as on his offspring afterwards.
The duty ran down the generations and across the whole household.
Here, note, it was historically a covenant to keep a covenant in the flesh. Israel had to keep it and carry it out, and anyone who did not was to be cut off. It was imposed; the bought servant had to undergo it — it was his duty... still the word is, "You shall keep," Genesis 17:9. Now in Christianity, the seal of faith is a gift. It is the Holy Spirit, and it is power: "when you believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" — the guarantee of the inheritance.
The same mark later decided who could eat the Passover.
No one could have a place at the Passover table unless they had been circumcised. Only in this way did they come within the terms of the covenant which God had made with Abraham (see Gen. 17:9-14). On that ground He was now bringing them out of Egypt and taking them to Himself for a people.
The same order holds for Christians: blessing first, then a walk that matches.
As Christians we are not asked to walk well in order to get the blessing, and Abraham was not asked that either. We are asked to walk in a way that suits God because we are blessed. To walk like this and be perfect before God calls for dependence on God and His Almighty power. But this involves the entire refusal of the flesh. For this purpose circumcision came in, as a sign that the flesh must be put to death if the walk is to be perfect before God.
- Promise — God settles everything in verses 1-8 before He asks anything in verse 9. The covenant cannot fail; it only needs time.
- Sign — what Abraham must keep is not a list of achievements. It is a mark of death on the flesh, so man's doing gives way to God's working.
- Self — the animals of chapter 15 lay outside Abraham. This sign is in his own body: the sentence of death on him.
- Household — the covenant reached sons and bought servants alike, and later decided who could eat the Passover.
- Walk — Christians do not earn the blessing. They live to suit God because they are already blessed, with no trust in the flesh.
This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee -- that every male among you be circumcised.
God speaks this word to a man of ninety‑nine who had already tried to get a son his own way. The command sounds strange today — a mark cut into the body of every male in the household — so what is it for, and what does it mean now?
The timing matters, and so does what came just before it.
The first mention of circumcision in the Bible is in Genesis 17:10-14. God was silent for thirteen years. Then He breaks in and makes a covenant with Abram, when His servant is ninety-nine years old. Thirteen years earlier Abram had listened to Sarai his wife, and they tried to have a child through Hagar the slave woman. That led to the birth of Ishmael, with all the disaster that followed. It was offspring according to the flesh, not according to promise.
Earlier, God's sign to Abraham lay in dead animals. Now the sign is cut into the man himself.
Abraham no longer asks for a sign to show him that he will inherit the land. Not a word of the kind is said. Instead God speaks of the seal of circumcision. It is not now something outside him, as we saw in the dead animals of chapter 15, but "every male among you shall be circumcised." What does it mean? Flesh put to death before God, the sentence of death placed on man in His sight — in Abram's own person and in his offspring after him. Circumcision here is not introduced in a legal way. It is really the answer in man to the grace of God. Every child of Abraham takes the place of death by this sign, which pictures our death with Christ.
The sign came after faith, not before it.
Circumcision was the mark of being a Jew, the sign of God's covenant with His earthly people Israel (Gen. 17:10). But when was Abraham counted righteous? Before he was circumcised at all. So righteousness by faith was never limited to Israel alone. It is for all who believe, though they are not circumcised. To a Jew who gloried in circumcision as the distinguishing mark of God's people, this argument is unanswerable: when Abraham was counted righteous, he was uncircumcised.
The words "every male among you" swept in the whole household, whatever a man's origin.
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. "Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall My covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant."
The penalty for refusing it was severe.
If an Israelite was not circumcised he was to be cut off from his own nation. Why? Because he had broken God's covenant. He had no part in the blessing God had promised. God's promise is not given to man as alive in the flesh, but to those in whom the flesh stands under the sentence of death. The sign of circumcision was necessary for Israel. Today we should learn the spiritual reality of it, as seen in Philippians 3:3. Yet even in Christianity the outward sign of baptism has its serious place.
The appointed day carries its own weight.
It becomes clear that circumcision means the flesh must be kept in the place of death. The flesh can add nothing to the doing of God's will. "He who is eight days old" was to be circumcised, and the eighth day points to a completely new start. Only a new life within can produce anything for the pleasure of God.
Christians are not asked to keep the rite. What it stood for still holds.
If God covenants to bless by His Almighty power, then on our side there must be no confidence in the flesh and no allowance of its activity. For the believer today, circumcision is "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God" (Rom. 2:29). Refusing the flesh is not merely an outward neglect of the body that the world can see. It means refusing the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as something the cross has condemned (Col. 2:11).
- Flesh fails. Ishmael came from human arrangement. God waits thirteen years, then speaks when Abraham is ninety-nine and man can produce nothing.
- Flesh sentenced. The sign is no longer outside Abraham but cut into his own body — the sentence of death on man in God's sight.
- Flesh not trusted. Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised. The sign sealed a righteousness faith already had, and that blessing reaches people without the mark.
- Flesh universal. No one in the household was exempt, born there or bought. To refuse the sign was to break the covenant and be cut off.
- Flesh replaced. The eighth day points to a completely new start. For believers the reality is inward: refusing self-confidence and self-righteousness, which the cross has condemned.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and [that] shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
God gives this command to Abraham after a long wait, when his own attempt to secure the promised family had already failed. The mark is not a price for the promise but the sign of an agreement God had already made — so why did God set that sign in the flesh?
God did not negotiate this agreement. One reference work sets it beside God's promise to Noah, where the rainbow was the token:
The covenants made by God are of a different order. He makes His covenants from Himself, without consulting man. With Noah God made a covenant that He would not again destroy the world by a flood. As a token of that covenant, He set the rainbow in the cloud (Gen. 9:8-17). A covenant like this takes the form of an unconditional promise. Such was God's covenant with Abraham... He also gave him the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17:10-14; Acts 7:8).
The law of Moses later took up this rite, so it is easy to read it as pure law-keeping. One commentator answers that:
No one should think circumcision must be a legal thing. In the setting it is put in here it goes together with grace — the sign that the flesh is put to death. The law did take it up when that system was later imposed. But in itself, as our Lord Himself shows, it was not of Moses, but of the fathers... It means flesh judged, and that is the true spiritual meaning of what God then instituted.
So why a mark in the body, and not another sign in the sky? The mark speaks about the flesh it is cut into:
What does the sign mean? Clearly, it is a symbolic witness that faith, not flesh, is the principle of relationship with God. In giving Abraham circumcision, God says, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is profitless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark that means this: faith is the principle on which you are in relationship with Me."
The command came when Abraham had nothing left to give. The long wait was part of the lesson:
The flesh had already failed him, yet he later took the slave woman to himself, and had a child who was only the "wild man," not the child of promise. Nature was still strong in Abraham, so God went on for fourteen years as if the promise slept in His own mind — unfulfilled. But "when he was about a hundred years old," and Abraham's body "was now dead," God could come in again... "I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be perfect." For a dead Abraham an Almighty God alone would do, for Abraham could not help God to raise the dead. There He gives him the covenant of circumcision.
Circumcision did not make Abraham righteous. It stamped what was already true:
Romans 4 teaches that circumcision was "a seal of the righteousness of faith." "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." God counted him righteous, and then set His "seal" upon him.
The sign also marked out a people. It showed that Israel belonged to God:
Circumcision is a sign in God's people that they are indeed His, set apart to Himself according to His purpose. To the father of the faithful it was a token of the covenant God had made with him (Gen. 17:11)... It showed that God had set Israel apart to Himself from the nations around them.
How much did Abraham understand? Commentators differ. One writer holds that the full meaning waited for Christ:
As far as Abraham was concerned, circumcision was just a rite to keep. Nothing shows that anyone taught him its spiritual meaning... It looks as if its full meaning did not come to light until "the circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11) had actually taken place.
The reality the sign pointed to is a cutting off that no surgeon performs:
Circumcision was God's token of the covenant with the Jews, and of the putting off of the flesh, which was required to be part of God's people. It had its reality in Him... This is the true circumcision of Christ made without hands. Circumcision made by hands was only the sign of this putting off of the body of the flesh.
- Covenant — God made this agreement alone, without consulting Abraham. The sign in the flesh points to a promise, not a bargain.
- Sign — the mark says the flesh is profitless and under sentence. Faith, not flesh, is the basis of relationship with God.
- Timing — God gave it when Abraham's body was as good as dead, so the Almighty alone would keep the promise.
- Seal — faith came first. Circumcision only stamped God's seal on a righteousness Abraham already had.
- Reality — the outward rite pointed to "the circumcision of Christ": a putting off of the flesh made without hands.
And at eight days old shall every male in your generations be circumcised among you -- he who is born in the house, and he who is bought with money, any stranger who is not of thy seed.
The command falls on a baby eight days old. It also reaches past family lines to every male in the household, whether born there or bought from a foreigner. Why mark a child too young to understand it? And why mark people outside Abraham's own family?
God speaks after a long gap. Abraham had already tried to secure a son his own way:
The first mention of circumcision in the Bible is in Genesis 17:10-14. After a silence of thirteen years God breaks in and makes a covenant with Abram when His servant is ninety-nine years old. Thirteen years earlier Abram had listened to Sarai his wife, and tried to produce a seed through Hagar the slave. This action resulted in the birth of Ishmael with all its later disaster. It was a seed according to the flesh, not according to promise.
The rite was not attached to Ishmael's birth but to the son yet to come.
Circumcision was instituted, not when Ishmael was born, but in view of Isaac, the seal of the covenant. The principle was God's righteousness. Man was judged as evil and the flesh put to death.
Circumcision cuts away flesh. Commentators read that cut as God's verdict on human nature:
Circumcision means that the flesh must be kept in the place of death. The flesh can contribute nothing towards carrying out the will of God. Only a new life within can produce anything for the pleasure of God.
The same logic explains what happened to an Israelite who refused the sign:
If an Israelite was not circumcised, he was to be cut off from his own nation. Why? Because he had broken God's covenant. He had no part in the blessing God had promised. God does not give His promise to man as alive in the flesh. He gives it to those in whom the flesh is judged as under sentence of death.
The number is not arbitrary. Seven days close a week; the eighth opens a new one.
EIGHT. A new start outside of, but connected with, the order of creation: so, in resurrection. Circumcision was on the eighth day, the start of a new fellowship. Eight people were saved in the ark, to begin a new world.
For the child, the day points forward to what he will inherit:
"Eight days old" shows what a fair inheritance we are destined for. The eighth day speaks to us of new creation, now that the first week of the old one has run out. Only the power of that knowledge can keep practical circumcision going.
A baby of eight days understands nothing of what is done to him. That does not weaken the sign:
Circumcision took place as early as eight days old. At that age the child could not understand anything about it. Its meaning stays the same whether people understand it or not. The same is true of baptism, which also teaches death to the flesh.
The verse names two groups beyond Abraham's own children. Their numbers were large:
Abraham had 318 servants born in his house. Jacob had a still larger number. And they had been received into the covenant, though they were not natural descendants... There may have been thousands of such servants.
The sign was permanent. It even gave outsiders a seat at Israel's redemption meal:
The token of the covenant was to be in his flesh for an everlasting covenant, the sign of the lasting terms on which his descendants stood with God. How striking this is! Under the law the whole nation in the flesh had to carry the sign of circumcision. That sign was a seal of the righteousness Abraham had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Yet at any time, though the dividing wall still stood, any Gentile could freely take up the sign of that same righteousness. With his males circumcised, he could sit down to the Passover, the feast of redemption!
The outward mark was never meant to stand alone. In Israel it soon did:
The nation began to carry this out very carefully, but its true meaning was soon lost. It became just an outward rite with very little inward reality. It had no effect at all on how people lived. God never intended an outward rite to be kept without inward reality. That gives Him no pleasure.
- Covenant — the sign came after thirteen silent years. It pointed forward to Isaac, not back to Ishmael. It belongs to promise, not to human arrangement.
- Cutting — the cut marks the flesh as judged, under sentence of death. God's promise rests on nothing a person can produce.
- Eighth day — the day after the week ends stands for a new start and resurrection. The baby carries the mark of an inheritance long before he can understand it.
- Household — servants born in the house or bought with money entered the covenant too, though they were not natural descendants. Even a Gentile could take the sign and eat the Passover.
- Reality — a rite kept without inward truth gives God no pleasure. The mark was always meant to show in the way a person lives.
He who is born in thy house, and he who is bought with thy money, must be circumcised; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Genesis 17 is full of God's promises: again and again He says "I will." Then comes a sign in the flesh, and verse 13 puts it on every male in Abraham's house — sons and servants alike.
Abraham is ninety-nine here. One writer weighs what Abraham can still do at that age, and how often God says "I will" in this chapter.
The faith of Abram was tested further at this point. If his patience gave way at 86 years old, what now? He is now 99 years old. The whole matter has become impossible as far as man and the flesh are concerned. The power of God must come in if the promise is to be fulfilled. Yet notice how many times "I will" appears in Genesis 17. This is the statement of an unconditional covenant. All of it rests on God's unchangeable will and purpose.
The verse says the covenant will be "in your flesh." One writer explains what a mark in the flesh gives up.
Circumcision was the sign of this very covenant (see Gen. 17). It expressed the giving up of all confidence in the flesh. That giving up leaves a person to know, with a dead Abraham, the power of the Almighty. God insists that the token of the covenant must be in the flesh of all His people.
Later generations turned the mark into a matter of pride, which is the reverse of its meaning.
It is a sign that the flesh can have no recognition with God, and that the sentence of death must be passed on it. Faith in this way confessed that the flesh is utterly worthless, and took advantage of what God's grace provided… It is a solemn thing that such an ordinance should become a mere matter of boasting in the flesh. But that is what happened in Israel. The flesh boasted and took pride in the distinction. If they had understood its meaning, they would have seen that through it God was pouring contempt on the flesh and all its efforts.
Who counted as Abraham's household? One writer draws the line, and marks the first time Scripture ties a household to its head.
The sign was circumcision, and Abraham, his descendants and all his household were to keep it. That last term takes in everyone born in his house, and the slaves he bought. A servant who was only hired for a time was clearly left out. Here for the first time in Scripture we find a household recognised as identified with the man who is its head.
No one inside that circle could opt out.
The covenant of circumcision is now introduced. Every member of the household of faith must carry in his body the seal of that covenant. There must be no exception.
The mark did not create Abraham's standing with God; it stamped a standing he already had.
But what does the sign mean? Plainly, it is a symbolic witness that faith, not flesh, is the principle of relationship with God. In giving Abraham circumcision God says, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worthless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark which means that faith is the principle on which you stand in relationship with Me." But if circumcision is the sign of a covenant of grace, of relationship with God on the principle of faith, then it is a seal on the righteousness of faith. That righteousness was already Abraham's before he was circumcised.
The word "everlasting" reached the whole generation of Israel. One writer says what has since taken its place.
Circumcision is a sign in God's people that they truly belong to Him, set apart to Himself according to His purpose. To the father of the faithful it was a token of the covenant God had made with him (Gen. 17:11). The Lord's words, "So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant" (v. 13), took in the whole generation of His people of old. Circumcision showed that Israel were separated to Himself from the nations around them. The Christian is separated to God in Christ, who is risen from the dead and who lives in heaven, not on earth. The circumcision made without hands, the circumcision "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Rom. 2:29), has now taken the place of the outward rite.
- Source. The covenant runs on God's repeated "I will." At ninety-nine, Abraham could add nothing to it.
- Sign. God set the token in the flesh, because the flesh lies under a sentence of death and can claim no recognition from Him.
- Seal. The mark sealed a righteousness Abraham already had by faith. It never produced the blessing; it certified it.
- Scope. Born in the house or bought with money, the whole household stands with its head, and no male is left out.
- Succession. The outward rite has given way to the circumcision made without hands — a matter of the heart, by the Spirit.
And the uncircumcised male who hath not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples he hath broken my covenant.
God has just given Abraham circumcision as the sign of the covenant, and here He sets a penalty for refusing it. Why should a mark in the body carry so much weight?
The verse does not say the uncircumcised man is careless; it says he has broken the covenant. One writer explains the loss in terms of what the sign stood for.
If an Israelite was not circumcised he was to be cut off from his own nation. Why? Because he had broken God's covenant. He had no part in the blessing God had promised. God does not give His promise to man as alive in the flesh. He gives it to those in whom the flesh is judged and under sentence of death.
The mark did not buy Abraham's standing with God. It stamped what God had already reckoned to him.
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... Romans 4 teaches us that circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." God counted him righteous, and then He set His seal on him.
Refusing the mark was refusing a message. The message was about the worth of human nature before God.
But what does the sign signify? Plainly, it is a symbolic witness that faith, not flesh, is the principle of relationship with God. In giving Abraham circumcision God says, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worth nothing. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark that says faith is the principle of your relationship with Me."
Commentators differ on what being cut off meant in practice. L. M. Grant speaks of losing a place in the nation; F. B. Hole reads it as death — a penalty that later caught up with Moses himself.
God was acting for Israel under the covenant He had made with Abraham, recorded in Genesis 17:1-14. Circumcision was the token or sign of that covenant. God said plainly that the penalty for ignoring circumcision was death. Moses was chosen to be the chief actor in Israel's deliverance under that covenant — and he had not obeyed the sign! As the responsible person he was subject to the death penalty!
The wilderness years show how far the neglect went, and what it cost Israel in worship.
Nothing was more basic to this covenant than the ordinance of circumcision. The uncircumcised boy was to be cut off from his people (Gen. 17:14), and no such person could eat the passover at all (Ex. 12:48). So either Israel ignored these laws, or they almost entirely dropped the passover toward the end of the wilderness journey. By then no one under forty could have been circumcised at all... How the patience of the Lord with the people is evident!
Israel kept the ceremony and lost the point. The same danger meets anyone who values a religious practice for its own sake.
God set up circumcision with the covenant He made with the fathers, as we read in Genesis 17. The law confirmed it later. The constant tendency was to keep the outward ceremony and overlook its meaning. Israel was to be a people completely cut off for and to God. A circumcised heart would have cut off self-love, as they came to know the love of God.
The demand behind the sign has not changed, though the sign itself has given way to the reality.
If God makes a covenant to bless by His Almighty power, then on our side there must be no confidence in the flesh and no allowance of its activity... Refusing the flesh is not just an outward neglect of the body that the world can notice. 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).
- Sentence. The mark said the flesh is under sentence of death; to refuse it was to claim a place with God on the ground of nature.
- Seal. God counted Abraham righteous first, then sealed him. The sign confirmed that righteousness; it never produced it.
- Scope. Every member of the household bore the seal, with no exception.
- Seriousness. The penalty threatened Moses himself, and it silenced Israel's Passover through the wilderness years.
- Substance. The lasting danger is keeping the form and losing the meaning. God looks for the flesh refused in the heart, not just marked in the body.