GENESIS

Notes on Genesis 17

Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Sometimes it may be hard to know whether to wait on God or whether it is time to take action and do something. It is clear that Abraham should have waited on God and not tried to help God fulfill His word. So how is one to know?

Miracles are something only God can do. If a woman is past childbearing and God promises a son, then one has to wait on God for the miracle. If God tells us to build a boat because of a coming worldwide flood, then we would have to build the boat to be saved. The answer then would be to seek the directions from God and not lean to our own understanding.

God did not tell Abraham to take Hagar and have a child by her. God did tell Noah to build a boat. If God would have told Noah that a flood was coming but He would provide a way to escape it, then Noah would have just waited on God.

Now we have the written word of God as a guide that many before us did not have. God will not tell us to do anything contrary to that word. We have a gold mine within those pages if we allow ourselves to study and read. What a privilege we have. We do not have to be in ignorance.

God makes laws for our benefit, not our misery. All His word is for the good of mankind. If we can remember that, it is easier to understand. Why did God make a day of rest? He sure didn't need to rest but we do. If He had not have started the seventh day of rest, slaves, servants and others would never have any relief. The next time we enjoy a day off from our jobs, we should remember who it was originally that put that thought into mankind to provide a day of rest.

Even though we should worship God every day, having one day set aside for that purpose refreshes us spiritually as well as physically. God is good to make this for us. If we get into arguments on whether we rest on a Saturday or Sunday, we get into legalism. God set aside the seventh day. The word Saturday or Sunday isn't in the bible I've read which is the KJV. So many years have passed so which one really is the 7th day? Some think of the work day starting on Monday, so the seventh day would be a Sunday. If we start our work day on Sunday, the seventh would be Saturday. The calendar has changed so much, who can tell for sure which is the seventh day. However, if they changed the rest day to Saturday, it would be okay with me. Having it on a Sunday is okay too. A day of rest both spiritually and physically is the main point. It is a gift from God.

Through Jesus Christ many teach that we are free from strict Sabbath observance because He is our rest. We still need at least one day off a week from our labor but we can worship everyday in spirit and in truth. Paul the apostle had a lot of trouble trying to keep peace between Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ so we don't want to repeat the trouble, just be led by the spirit and walk in the law of love for one another. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, the author of our salvation not the observance of days, months and years. Paul writes:

Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.

back to Genesis

Genesis 17:2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

Abraham is the literal father of many nations some of which are Israel, Judah, the descendants of Ishmael and others. Yet after the coming of the promised Messiah who is Jesus, those who believe in the Yeshua (Jesus) become adopted into the family of Abraham through faith. This does not mean that natural descendants are saved without Christ as some teach. Without Christ we remain in our sins. Sin is what destroys our soul and condemns us to eternal hell. We must turn from sin and turn to Christ in order for those sins to be removed. He was our propitiation for our sins.

The definition for propitiation is the act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of making propitious. In theology, the atonement or atoning sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious to sinners. Christ is the propitiation for the sins of men.

Here are the words of our beloved apostle John

1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

Genesis

Genesis 17:5 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.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 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.

That was the covenant given through Abraham. Here is what the prophet Jeremiah says about a new covenant through the coming Messiah:

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Through the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, this new covenant is possible. When one receives Jesus Christ and repents of sin, he or she is "born again" by the spirit of God. There is a inner change that takes place. Now the moral law of God comes within that believer and makes them obedient by something inward. The Holy Spirit abides within each believer. Instead of using human will power to abstain from sin, we have the Holy Spirit within to give us strength. He takes the "want to sin" out of our hearts. There are occasional times of temptations when we are tried and can decide to return to sin or stay with the Lord by walking in the spirit instead of the flesh but the Holy Spirit is there to give us direction and guidance so that we are able to resist temptation and follow Christ.

Do you know that through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that a Jew can love a Muslim, a Muslim can love a Jew, a Protestant can love a Catholic, and we can love our enemies? There will never be peace in the Middle East until everyone is born again by God's spirit. Notice I didn't say until everyone accepts Christianity. Christianity is a term that is used loosely to represent anyone who believes in Jesus whether or not he or she has repented of sin and has been born again by God's spirit. There is a difference in the outward confession of a religious belief and an inward change that is done by the Holy Spirit of God. True faith is more than just a religious belief system.

True religion can never be forced upon anyone because we must repent of sin and receive Christ by faith, not by someone demanding that we convert to Christianity. The church in the middle ages made a mess of the gospel and tried to use force. What a waste of time and effort. It doesn't save one soul and it doesn't change one life for the good. Each and every individual must make this decision for themselves. Babies of course cannot do this but babies have never sinned so they cannot be lost. It is sin that condemns us to hell. It is sin that Jesus Christ came to deliver us from so that we can have eternal life. To receive this deliverance, we must repent or turn from our sin and believe in Him to take our sins away. This is when we are born again by the spirit of God. Jesus did this for us.

Genesis 17:8 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.
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 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.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Through Jesus this covenant has changed.

Romans 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

If we through Christ have the law of God in our hearts by faith in Him, it is the same as keeping the whole law of circumcision.

The nation of Israel as a whole rejected the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Yet God has not cast away the Jews. They were only temporarily broken off until they receive the promised one, Jesus Christ.

Here is how Paul explains it:

Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The whole purpose of the law and the coming of Christ was to take away our sins so that we can have eternal life that was taken from us at the fall of Adam. Through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, this life is given back to us. Our old bodies of sin have to die but the new bodies received at the resurrection will live eternally. Those that abide in unbelief and refuse this good way will be placed in hell where the devil and his angels will go in the end.

Genesis 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
16 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.

It is through Isaac that the promised Messiah was to come. We can be part of this promise only through faith in the one that came years later, Jesus.

Genesis 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

This shows that Abraham loved Ishmael and wanted him to be the promised one thinking that he and Sarah was much too old.

Genesis 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

This was a sign that Abraham believed God and was obedient to His covenant.

Genesis 17:24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, 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 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

We can practice circumcision as Gentile believers if we desire for health reasons but believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, repenting of sin and then walking in the Holy Spirit daily keeping the spirit of the law within our hearts takes the place of outward observances and ordinances of the Old Testament law. Jesus replaces it with a better way planned from the beginning which changes the inner man and brings the law within our hearts. Now we serve God out of love and not out of keeping the ritual sacrifices and ordinances of the law. That would have been impossible for most of us. Jesus made a way for all who believe in Him to be saved from sin and be given eternal life. The condemnation of the law is taken away and we are saved by grace and not by the works of the law. Praise God for His mercy. DC

Genesis 18