Genesis 17:5–11

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 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 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.

Surely these are promises which almighty grace alone could utter, almighty power alone fulfil.

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.

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.

So Abraham's hopes are not only opened up into a far greater sphere. The time is also unlimited.

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 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.

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.

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."

"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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.