El Shaddai
Notes
Transcript
Genesis 17
Genesis 17
If Genesis 15 reveals the God who speaks and Genesis 16 reveals the God who sees, then Genesis 17 reveals the God who seals.
The covenant with Abram culminates in the confirmation of Abram as the text jumps thirteen years ahead from the previous chapter.
Here God not only gives to Abram the covenant—for a third time—but a new name: Abraham.
God also institutes circumcision, a sign that will become a hallmark of the Jewish faith, before promising the imminent arrival of the child through whom all the promises of God will start to come to pass.
If we can understand the significance of the sealing of this covenant promise, it will transform how we pursue Jesus in our lives.
Genesis 17 (ESV)
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,
13 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.
14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.
21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.
27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
The Shape of the Covenant (17:1–8)
Though it marks the third time God makes a covenant with Abram, Genesis 17 gives us the clearest account of God’s covenant with him.
That is part of why this chapter is referenced more than two dozen times in the New Testament. It brings God’s covenant commitment to Abram to a culmination. This occurs when Abram is “ninety-nine years old” (v. 1).
Thirteen years have passed since the events recorded in the Bible’s previous chapter.
But there is still no child for Abram and Sarai. Still no heir to the promise God made all those years ago
While Abram was already seventy-five years old when God promised he would be a great nation (12:2–4), the only child born to him thus far is Ishmael.
And every time Abram sees that teenager, he is surely reminded of his own failure to trust the promise of God.
After Abram’s sinful failure in Genesis 16, in fact, we might expect God to resist Abram in anger.
Instead, he keeps pursuing Abram in love by renewing the covenant.
God begins by announcing himself: “I am God Almighty” (17:1). El Shaddai- God Almighty
This isn’t the first name of God we have seen in Genesis. Throughout the book of Genesis, God is revealing more and more about His character and nature and who He is.
Elohim
The first name of God revealed in Scripture is Elohim, as Genesis 1:1 states:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Yahweh
The second name affirmed by God in Scripture is Yahweh, meaning “Lord” or “Jehovah.” This name of God, too holy to be voiced in Jewish tradition, is spelled “YHWH” without any vowels.(2) It is used first in Genesis 2:4 to finish the creation account:
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Adonai
God also confirms Himself to Abram as Adonai, meaning “Master.” Abram recognizes God as Adonai in Genesis 15:2 when he asks how God could promise descendants to Abram though he is childless.
2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
Last week we saw God reveal Himself as El Roi
God is next declared El Roi, “the God who sees me,” in Genesis 16:13
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
Now we have come to the name El Shaddai
God reveals Himself to Abram as El Shaddai, meaning “Almighty God” or “Self-Sufficient God.” Shaddai translates literally to “breast,” referring to God’s complete, nourishing satisfaction as a mother would provide her child.(5) Connected with El (“God”), El Shaddai denotes a God who freely sustains and blesses His children.
This is a proclamation of God’s presence and his character. It parallels his coming introduction to the promise to Jacob, Abram’s grandson, in 35:11.
As Exodus 6:3 makes clear, however, there is an important distinction between the way God reveals himself to Abram and then later to the people of Israel.
To Abram he reveals himself as God Almighty but not yet as Yahweh, “the LORD.”
God follows this introduction with the instruction that Abram is to “live in [his] presence and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).
These two commands are incumbent on all God’s people, past and present.
Believers are to live with awareness of the presence of God and stand before him in holiness.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
The character of God that shapes the covenant is the foundation for reshaping one’s character.
Genesis 17:2
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
reminds the reader that proof of God’s covenant with Abram will involve God multiplying him “greatly.”
This third round of covenantal promises connects back to the original covenant commitment in Genesis 1:28 where Adam is told to multiply.
In fact, the text is presenting Abram as a new Adam who will be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, just as the original progenitor of humanity was intended to do.
Perhaps realizing this, the one who had previously fallen on his face in wrongdoing now falls “facedown” before God in worship (v. 3).
He will do this again after the promise of the imminent birth of Isaac (v. 17).
God gives six aspects of the covenant, beginning in verse 4.
First, God presents Abram with a new purpose—he will be “the father of many nations.” This role will begin to play out throughout the rest of the book of Genesis, where his descendants become patriarchs of different nations (25:1–6, 12–18).
But in Romans 4:16 Paul will expand on the idea, making clear that Abram was never intended to be the father of only many biological descendants. Always on God’s mind were his spiritual descendants from the many nations, too. With regard to believers in Christ, Paul writes,
Romans 4:16 (ESV)
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
What is Paul saying?
Not just that many nations will come from Abram but also that many nations will come with him in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Abraham is the father of all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ.
The promise comes to him by faith, so that through Jesus, the ultimate biological offspring of Abram, believers of every nationality, that is, the figurative offspring of Abram, are welcomed into the family of God according to grace.
Second, God presents Abram with a new name: Abraham (Gen 17:5).
In the original language the name Abraham sounds like the combination of the words for “father” and “many.” This shift in names marks the covenantal moment in which Abraham finds himself.
The new name is picked up by Paul again in Romans. Of him, Paul writes,
Romans 4:17–18 (ESV)
17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abraham’s new name is intimately connected to his new purpose. Paul credits the man’s faith as the basis for the new role that leads to his new name.
Third, God presents Abraham with the promise of a new people.
Genesis 17:6 speaks of how God will increase Abraham’s family: God will make him “extremely fruitful” and cause “nations and kings” to come from him.
For one thing, God will establish his new people in a global kingdom. This verse EXPANDS the covenantal promise to be fruitful and multiply from Genesis 1 in several ways.
To begin with, it speaks to the prolific fruitfulness of Abraham. Abraham’s descendants will be as numberless as the stars or grains of sand (22:17).
In addition, Abraham will not only be fruitful but will also produce whole countries and leaders.
The apostle Paul notes that Abraham was strengthened in his faithfulness when God spoke this to him (Rom 4:19–22). The writer of Hebrews confirms that from Abraham came innumerable descendants (Heb 11:12).
Fourth, God presents Abraham with the promise of a new commitment.
Genesis 17:7 speaks of the “permanent covenant” God is making to be not just Abraham’s God but also “God of [his] offspring after [him].”
This is the same kind of language God uses in the Noahic covenant (9:6).
And this is not a temporary commitment. It is an everlasting covenant for all generations.
The author of Hebrews will use the language of the personal God in 11:16 where he says, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
Just as the Lord promises to Abraham that he will be his God, the author of Hebrews points out that for people of faith in the Old Testament, God is not ashamed to be their God.
Why? Because they are seeking a “city” that “he has prepared” for them, a city that will be the culmination of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham.
Fifth, God presents Abraham with the promise of a new place.
Verse 8 is the promise of God to provide the land of Canaan as an eternal possession.
Abraham had sojourned through many lands for almost twenty-five years.
There is now a promise that one day he and his offspring will have the land where he currently stands as their own. Forever.
The promise of land is mentioned by the author of Hebrews as a matter that helps evidence Abraham’s faith (Heb 11:8–10).
Abraham leaves a place of inheritance and goes to a place of instability because he trusts this faithful God.
He speaks of how Abraham believes God will ultimately provide for him in the future a “city that has foundations” and “whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:10).
While the modern reader knows the outcome of Abraham’s story, Abraham was stepping out into the unknown.
He was abandoning comfort and stability by leaving Haran. But throughout his relocation, he was driven by a motivation that God would provide all that he had promised.
All along, his expectation of a new place in the future transformed what he was willing to do in the present.
Finally, God presents Abraham with a new hope.
Verse 8 speaks of Abraham’s “future offspring.” The text has already established that Abraham can expect a child and that nations are to arise from him (15:4–5; 17:3–4). But who is this “future offspring”? Galatians 3:16 confirms it is the long-expected Messiah. There Paul writes,
Galatians 3:16 (ESV)
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
In part, then, Jesus makes his way to the cross, defeats Satan, sin, and death, and is raised so that he might fulfill the covenant commitments given to Abraham and receive the covenant blessings promised to Abraham.
This is what Paul is describing in Romans 4:20–25. The faith credited to Abraham was not just for Abraham alone but also for us. The coming Messiah would be the true, faithful offspring of Abraham. He would fulfill the covenant and receive its blessings.
That’s why Paul highlights how this covenant with Abraham foreshadows the promise established by Abraham’s ultimate offspring in the new covenant when Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).
Even in the covenant promised to Abraham in Genesis 17, the seed of a new covenant that would come in Abraham’s offspring is present.
The Sign of the Covenant (17:9–14)
Throughout Scripture, a covenant often comes with a sign.
When God made a covenant with Adam, he was given Eve.
When God made a covenant with Noah, he was given a rainbow. Now, when God makes a covenant with Abraham, he is given circumcision. Out of those 3, I think Abraham got the worst sign.
Why did God choose to seal the covenant in this way?
First, circumcision reveals the nature of the covenant, which is linked to a promise that originated back in Genesis 3:15—the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. The sign of this Abrahamic covenant thus involves the seed-generating organ of men.
Paul declares, however, that circumcision doesn’t just reveal the nature of the promise but also the nature of faith. Of Abraham he writes,
Romans 4:11 (ESV)
11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
So the physical marking of circumcision was intended to serve as a daily reminder of the spiritual marking of faith.
But this faith was not just for Abraham. It is for all who trust in Christ.
The process of circumcision signals the purpose of circumcision. What is the process of circumcision? It involves the cutting away(Gen 17:11).
According to verses 12–14, circumcision is intended to happen on a male’s eighth day of life as a sign of new creation and his participation in the covenant.
It is not just for Abraham’s biological line but also for foreigners brought into the “household” of God’s covenant people (v. 13). Those who fail to follow the sign of circumcision will be “cut off” from the covenant (v. 14) through their sin.
What is the purpose of circumcision?
As circumcision marks out the people of God, it also anticipates what God is going to do in Christ through the cross.
When Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21), it is an indication that the new creation is dawning.
The death of Jesus is the fulfillment of this covenant sign.
On the cross, he is crucified naked in a public display of one who has been cut off from his people. He is carried outside the gates of the city and separated from God.
He is literally bearing the weight of the curse of God for you and for me. Jesus takes the punishment of the covenant so we can receive the promise of the covenant.
The sign of physical circumcision thus points ahead to a deeper spiritual reality.
What starts with a physical marking of the flesh in Genesis 17:11 points ahead to the need for a spiritual marking (Deut 30:6).
This is why Paul says that, for new covenant believers, “true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh” but instead “circumcision is of the heart” (Rom 2:28–29).
For the believer who is under the new covenant established at the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is not a physical circumcision but rather one of the heart that is required. Physical circumcision is disgusting, messy, and intimate.
But this is necessary in that it helps us see that our sin is just the same: disgusting, messy, and intimate.
Only a circumcision of our hearts, a cutting away of sin, can set us free. When we are united to Christ by faith, his circumcision becomes our circumcision, both the physical circumcision he experienced on the eighth day and the figurative circumcision he experienced on the cross (Col 2:11–12).
Paul takes a hard line against those who would require circumcision from the new Gentile converts. Why? Because to require circumcision is to say that the individual does not share the identity of Christ (Gal 2:11–14).
For the church, baptism replaces circumcision. It is a visible, outward sign of one’s participation in the new covenant.
When a new believer goes under the water of baptism, he or she is acknowledging having once been cut off from the covenant due to personal sin.
But when he or she is lifted out of the waters, that is a symbol of being raised to walk in the newness of life offered those who believe Jesus has conquered the grave.
Baptism does not determine our place in the family of God. Rather, it displays our place in the family of God.
The Son of the Covenant (17:15–26)
The covenant with Abraham culminates in the first gender reveal party in recorded history.
Before the big announcement, Abraham’s wife receives a new name, Sarah, which means “princess.”
From her will come a royal lineage because she will help produce nations and kings (v. 15).
Here, in fact, we find a repeated theme of the covenant and kingdom.
The future promises have a royal component to them (v. 16; 35:11; 49:10).
Sarah receives a promise of blessing: she will have a son and a legacy.
The promise that she will produce kings and nations builds on the Genesis 3:15 promise.
The royal lineage that starts with Sarah will eventually focus into a coming son of King David. The New Testament highlights Jesus as the royal Messiah.
How does Abraham respond to hearing, “I will give you a son by [Sarah]” (17:16)?
Abraham’s response is both to fall “facedown” in worship and to laugh (v. 17).
Abraham is filled with a joyful amazement in God’s goodness, despite their advanced age.
Nevertheless, he wonders aloud about Ishmael being “acceptable” (v. 18), which would seem an easier solution to the promises getting fulfilled than he and Sarah parenting an infant in their advanced life season.
However, as Paul makes clear in Romans 4:19, Abraham sees the weakness of his body without being shaken in his faith.
Abraham’s laughter is not a sign of unbelief. Rather, it is a sign of faithful surprise and amazement at the overwhelming goodness of God. Abraham trusts in his provision.
The promise of this new son is closely connected to the name of this new son.
The child to be born is to be called Isaac, which means “he laughs” (v. 19).
And as sure as Abraham laughed over news of his coming, Sarah will also laugh in the next chapter when she hears for herself that she will conceive and give birth before a year has passed (18:12).
However, God is faithful to keep his promises, and a child is born.
God next affirms the covenant to be not just with Abraham or his immediate descendant, Isaac, but for all descendants.
Just as with Abraham, God will extend his promised blessing to Isaac as a “permanent covenant with his future offspring” (17:19).
Yet Isaac is not the only son of Abraham who receives the blessing of God in this passage. Abraham’s suggestion of Ishmael as a possible alternative leads God to tell Abraham of the blessings ahead for Ishmael.
Though Ishmael does not receive the promise of the everlasting covenant, he still receives a blessing from the Lord.
The blessings of Isaac and Ishmael, in fact, parallel each other (v. 20; cf. 26:4). Both are told to be fruitful and multiply.
From Ishmael will come “twelve tribal leaders,” like the twelve tribal leaders that come from Jacob (17:20).
Both are promised that they will be “a great nation” (v. 20).
Nevertheless, in that aforementioned pattern that shows up repeatedly in Genesis, God chooses the younger brother instead of the older brother to fulfill the royal promise started in Genesis 3:15.
After this encounter, God withdraws or ascends from Abraham (17:22).
This language is like what appears in God’s encounter with Jacob after he renames him Israel and blesses him (35:13).
The confirmation of the covenant with Abraham culminates in the commitment of Abraham and his household as they undergo circumcision as a covenant sign (17:23–27).
Close with the words of AW Tozer as we reflect on Genesis 17 and the promise God made to Abraham.
Tozer Topical Reader in Two Volumes 345. Encounter with God
I happen to believe that Abraham’s encounters with the living God nearly 4,000 years ago leave modern men and women without excuse.
Abraham stands for every believer. His eager and willing faith becomes every Christian’s condemnation. On the other hand, his fellowship with God becomes every believer’s encouragement.
If there is a desire in your heart for more of God’s blessing in your life, turn your attention to the details of Abraham’s encounters with God. You will find yourself back at the center, at the beating heart of living religion.
