Sermons at Trinity Church

Genesis 17

14^th March 2004

Will Daws

 Click here to download a .pdf version of this sermon

 All Bible references in this sermon transcript are taken from the English Standard Version. This can be found at www.biblegateway.com

Let me begin by asking you a few questions. In whom do you trust? Who do you trust to keep their promises? Politicians? Your friends? Genesis 17 contains a lot about trust and response as it reports God’s instructions to Abraham.

Genesis 17 picks up the whole idea of covenant, and develops it further. However, if we are not to misunderstand Genesis 17 then we need to go back a bit and rehearse the background. We need to look at the context. Genesis 17 is not the full and final statement of the covenant between God and Abram – it belongs with the previous statements and builds on them.

The first bit of background to look at is Genesis 12v1-3. Even though the word covenant was not mentioned in Genesis 12, it is clear that that’s where the relationship begins. In these verses, God lists the promises and benefits of the relationship. What was strange about these verses is that in some senses the covenant was one-sided or unilateral. Nothing in Abram earns him the covenant. It is wholly initiated by God, based on his generosity and contained in his promise.

Genesis 15 contained 2 sections that helped us understand more about the covenant. V1-6 of chapter 12 showed God promising Abram that he will fulfil the promises of chapter 12. Abram responds in belief and God credits it to him as righteousness. These verses say the same things as those in chapter 12. Abram doesn’t earn this relationship with God. On the contrary, he is given it. The covenant between God and Abram is a covenant of grace appropriated by faith. It is given completely by God’s generosity and grace and received in belief.

The second half of Genesis 15 showed the ‘cutting of the covenant’. Carcasses of animals were cut in two and the two parties of the covenant were to walk down between the halves of the bodies. This sealed the agreement of the covenant. However, the surprise in Genesis 15 was that God was the only one to walk between the carcass halves. Again, it was as if God was establishing a one-sided, unilateral covenant – initiated, established, and indeed fulfilled in him.

By the time we get to Genesis 17, much of the covenant seems impossible. God had promised that Abram and Sarai would be a great nation, yet they are now well beyond child-bearing age. After all, Abram is, as we are told in v1 of chapter 17, 99 years old. How on earth can Abram Father a great nation at this age? He has tried another route – using a servant girl – but it is clear that the offspring from that episode is not the offspring of the promise. This passage sees God respond to the seeming impossibility of the promise being fulfilled. It has two aspects – God’s promise and God’s demands.

God’s promises v1-8

 In the first 2 verses of chapter 17, God comes to Abram and confirms the covenant he had previously made with Abram, telling him that he will be great in number even if as yet he has no children through his marriage.

As if by way of confirming this promise, God changes Abram’s name to show exactly what he would do. It was a tradition in those times when a covenant between nations was made, for the king of the lesser nation to have his name changed to reflect the agreement. Similarly here, Abram, which means the Father (God) is exalted, is changed to Abraham, which means ‘a father of a multitude’. What an outward statement of what is promised! In the days when names meant so much, it was a powerful way of saying the promise was to go through Abraham.  Not only will he be a great nation, but he will father a multitude of nations.

This name change is followed by a further declaration of other parts of the covenants:

“I will make you fruitful;

“I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.

“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant.”

Often when looking at a passage, it is helpful to see what is repeated again and again. I wonder if anyone has spotted what was repeated in these verses?

“I will”

I will, I will, I will, I will …It sounds a bit like Tony Blair’s election manifesto, doesn’t it?! I will bring in more teachers, cut crime, taxes and have a big conversation with you! Well the difference is that God is not promising something he won’t stick to. From the very beginning of this passage, v1 God declares, “I am God Almighty”. There is no idling around here. God wants Abram to know that He is the Almighty God, who is sufficient and all powerful. Nothing absolutely nothing is too difficult for him. He is faithful and will keep his promises. He will do as he has promised. Is that something you need assurance? Are you unsure of God’s promises? Unsure of the future? Abram needed assurance at that time. The Bible gives us promises today as a continuation of this covenant. God promises us that if we have trusted in Christ then we have been saved, rescued from hell. Jesus is coming again. If we are doubting God’s promises at any time, then we need to turn to assurance like there is in these verses. He is the Almighty God, he will, will do as promised. And the evidence works itself out in the rest of the Bible. Remember my question at the beginning – who can you trust? You can trust the God who says “I will”. The God Almighty.

These promises pick develop some of the earlier promises a little further. Not only will he go into the land, but God will give him the land. Abraham will be fruitful and will father kings. And moreover, the ultimate covenant blessing – ‘I will be your God’ – will belong to both Abraham and his descendants. God will be their God and they will be his people.

Any Bible scholards amongst you might be surprised at the promise of kings to come, given the episodes with Samuel, Saul and David. But it seems Kings are part of God’s plan from the start.

Well, God’s promises to Abraham continue as we move on to Sarai, his wife. V15-22 develop the theme of God’s gift. V15 sees God saying to Abrahm “As for Sarai your wife, you will not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name”. Another name change, for another significant reason. God continues to offer promises, this time full of statements about what God will do as far as she is concerned:

V16 “I will bless her”

“I will give you a son by her”

“She shall become nations”

“Kings of peoples shall come from her”

V19 “Sarah shall bear you a son”

Again the impetus for the fulfilment of these promises comes from God. Again we see that this covenant, this relationship between God, man, his wife and all their children is be initiated and fulfilled by God. It does not rest on Abraham but God.

If we are Christians then we too have a covenant, established in Jesus. This covenant is a gift, totally established in Jesus. This covenant is a gift in his grace and generosity. It is totally initiated and maintained by him – a covenant of grace entered by faith. Colossians chapter 2 talks about the new covenant. It tells us: “We were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with him.” The new covenant brings blessings, new life, membership of God’s people and a place in heaven. The passage from Matthew 26, which Emma read, talks about Christ sharing bread and wine with his disciples. This is slightly before he was crucified. Just before he was killed on the cross. He points out that the wine symbolises his blood. The blood of the new covenant. Christ’s death brings the new covenant to us, that whoever believes in his death will not die, but will have a promised future in his eternal kingdom. All that is done in the new covenant is done by God. Unbelievably he simply makes it available for us to take. He offers his forgiveness in the covenant, do we accept it or not?

I wonder if any of you are responding with surprise to this. Why should God be offering me a covenant? Of course he wants a relationship with me, I’ve just got to give it to him. Well, there is no of course. See, what the Bible shows us so far is a pattern of sin and man’s failed attempts to bring himself up to God’s level. Man was cut off from God by his actions and rejection of God. He was without hope. So for God to make this covenant was an amazing step of generosity. Just as God offering the covenant of grace is with us today. Amazing. We who are without hope have hope because of God’s grace. God’s covenant with us is out of his generosity and mercy. There is no of course to God’s covenant.

But there’s a difference between this and the earlier covenant reports of Genesis. God promises to Abraham, but he also demands.

God Demands

In the time of Abraham, a covenant was usually a relationship formed between a superior party and its neighbour. It was based on the surrender of control by the inferior party to the superior. In stating the covenant, God told Abraham that he was willing to be his covenant overlord, offering blessings and expecting loyalty. 

If you look at the first 8 verses of this passage, the main thrust is God saying: “I will”. Now look at v9. “God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and your offspring after you: every male after you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me and you.”

But this is not the only demand made on Abraham. Look at the end of v1: “Walk before me and be blameless”.

V1 shows that a shift in attitude and behaviour is required of Abraham. Walking before God means to live life before him, to take every step looking to God, in his presence. It was about being like Noah, who earlier in this book was described as blameless, living a life of devotion to God. God is the Lord almighty, he is the one acting in the covenant, yet we are called to respond with our lives in obedience.

The theme continues in v9-14. God Has made the covenant, but the people are called upon to demonstrate their desire to demonstrate that they wanted to participate in the covenant. Circumcision is the means by which Abraham and his descendants were to demonstrate their desire to participate in that covenant.

In some respects you have to feel for Abraham. After all, you can imagine him saying, “Noah got a rainbow, I get circumcision!”

Circumcision is rather like a marriage ring. It doesn’t make the relationship. It doesn’t hold the relationship. But it does demonstrate that you want to be in the relationship and that you’ve accepted the demands of the relationship. Circumcision is a sign or symbol of the relationship. V11 reports God telling Abraham: “it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you” . 

In v23-27, Abraham demonstrates his obedience to God’s demands. He circumcises himself and all males in his household. He is committed to being in God’s covenant. It is his choice. He is saying that this is where he wants to be – in relationship with God. He is prepared to pay the cost of being in the relationship.

V14, on the other hand, tells us about the man who is not circumcised: “He will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant”. Again, it must be emphasised that while circumcision does not guarantee that relationship with God and receipt of the promises – Ishmael was circumcised on the same day as Abraham, but in did not received the blessings of the covenant. Rejecting circumcision reflects no desire to receive God’s promises. It shows a lack of faith in God.

To understand this better, it is perhaps helpful to remember the marriage ring. Imagine a situation where a married man or woman goes to a mixed party alone. As he enters, he removes his wedding ring. The act of removing that ring demonstrates that the man does not want to be seen to be a married man.  Similarly here, by refusing to be circumcised, a man is showing that he does not want to be considered to be in a relationship with God. God will therefore give him what he wants. It is not God who is breaking the covenant, but man.

So what does this say to us if we who are Christians are Abraham’s offspring? It says that the Christian life is response in faith and obedience to the God who takes the initiative and comes in sheer grace to seek me out. It says that God gives a mark of belonging to seal that unseen contract between his undeserved love and our wobbly faith. And baptism is a mark of initiation into the New Covenant, just as circumcision was into the Old Covenant. In Colossians 2:11 the Apostle Paul brings these two sacramental acts together and links them with the dying and rising of Christ:

“You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.”

Baptism, then, it would appear in some way corresponds to circumcision under the Old Covenant. It is a mark of the covenant or agreement between God’s grace and our response. Not just of God’s grace, nor just of our response. It is the seal both on God’s initiative and our response. And because of God’s initiative the strong injunction here in Genesis 17 was to circumcise even the very young in Jewish families as well as the adults. There would seem then to be a case for baptising children of believers, as well as those who are old enough to answer for themselves. But that is a sermon in itself!

But water baptism doesn’t save you. It is baptism with the Spirit that is key and Christ is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). If our inner attitude of response doesn’t grasp hold of God’s loving initiative then the baptised person no more tastes the reality of salvation than did the nominal, circumcised Jew. Covenant signs are conditional, not automatic. But they are important.

Just as we have a covenant promises of God. So we also have God’s demands today. We are to walk before God and be blameless. We are to show that we are joyfully in relationship with God and want to keep it that way. The first letter of John in the new testament says this: 1John 2v3: “And by this we know that we have come to him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to live in the same way that he walked.”

One Christian writer, Oswald Chambers, once said:

“Beware of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God, and professing your faith in Him as the Saviour of the world, while you blaspheme Him by the complete evidence in your daily life that he is powerless to anything in and through you.”

We demonstrate this relationship in obedience. Obedience of God’s commands, his teaching that we find in the Bible. What’s more this isn’t just a Sunday only religion. Circumcision lasted all the time for Abraham. 24/7. Our obedience should similarly be 24/7. So what about you? Does your faith permeate to every area of your life, even the most personal and intimate? Does your relationship with God govern your truthfulness at work and at home? Does it control the things with which you fill your mind, the ambitions and desires of your heart? If you are in a covenant relationship with God then no area of your life can go unaffected. And if we find that hard to accept? Well then maybe we still don’t understand the awesomeness of God’s grace - the outstanding gift which he offers us. If we truly understand it, then his demand for us to live blamelessly should not be hard to accept

If we can understand how God’s demands fit in the context of God’s covenant promises, we are closer understanding how God’s covenant in Christ applies to us and our response to him. God is the one we can trust. The one whose promises are for us to hear. How do we respond to them?

The concept of promise and demand, is of fundamental importance. We have seen that keeping laws did not relate Abraham to God, but was an outward sign of an inward  and spiritual thing that happened to him. So it is with us as Christians. Keeping God’s law does not relate us to God. Accepting Jesus, God’s grace and the covenant relate us to God. Keeping God’s laws joyfully demonstrates that we know God and love him.