Genesis 17

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In the next, Genesis 17, we have another and higher scene. “When Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God: walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” Now here it is no longer Hagar, the type, as we know, of the Sinai covenant; it is not a prediction that man’s way only brings the child of flesh into the house, a trouble to all concerned.
But here Jehovah, unasked and of His own grace, appears once more to His beloved servant. “I am,” says He, “El-Shaddai: walk before me, and be thou perfect: and I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” God, not man, takes the foremost place now. It is not Abram who asks, but God who speaks.
Abram accordingly, instead of bringing forward his desires and difficulties, fell on his face – the right place – “and God talked with him” There was greater freedom than he had ever enjoyed before; but it in no way diminished the reverence of his spirit. Never was he more prostrate before God than when He thus opened His heart to him about the seed of promise, and was about to make further communications even as to the world.
Elohim then “talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” It is not now about his seed a stranger in a land not theirs. 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. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.” 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 forever: such was the utmost already vouchsafed. And when the doubting mind sought and would have security from God Himself, God deigned to enter as it were into a bond with him, but along with it gave him to know that many a sorrow and affliction must precede the hour of His judgment in favor of the chosen seed. But here all is of another order and measure – beneficence according to the grace and purposes of God. “I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 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 unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger – all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee; every man-child among you shall be circumcised.”
Let none suppose that circumcision is necessarily a legal thing. In the connection in which it is put here it is the concomitant of grace – the sign of flesh’s mortification. Undoubtedly it was incorporated into the law when that system was afterward imposed; but in itself, as our Lord Himself shows, it was not of Moses, but of the fathers; and as being of the fathers – of Abraham – it was, as we see here, an emblem significant of the putting flesh to death. God would have it dealt with as an unclean thing; and certainly this is not law. It may be turned to legalism as anything else; but in this case it is rather in contrast with law. It means flesh judged, which is the true spiritual meaning of that which God then instituted.
The chapter then exhibits grace that gives according to God’s own bountifulness; at the same time flesh is judged before him. Such is the meaning of this remarkable seal.
Accordingly we have the promise brought out when Sarah’s name was changed from being “my princess” (Sarai) to be “princess” (Sarah) absolutely. So she was to be called thenceforth. “As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai; but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations: kings of people shall be of her.” Then goes out the heart of Abraham even for Ishmael, with the historical notice that circumcision was instituted from that day.