17:1–8 At the end of chapter 16, when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, Abram was eighty-six years old; at the beginning of this chapter he is ninety-nine. The narrator does not routinely mention Abram’s age, so the gap here is significant. Abram has been waiting a long time, not just thirteen years since Ishmael’s birth but twenty-four years since the original promise, when he was seventy-five (12:4).

Now the Lord appears to Abram in order to renew the covenant he had made in Genesis 15. We see both similarities and differences between the two events. The promise of land and offspring remain the same, although it is becoming gradually more detailed. However, in the covenant encounter in Genesis 15 Abram was entirely passive—even asleep (cf. Gen. 15:12)—whereas in Genesis 17 he is given instructions that must be followed precisely if he and his offspring are not to be cut off (cf. 17:14). Sometimes theologians have made overly sharp distinctions between conditional covenants, such as the Sinai covenant—which is often compared to ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties—and unconditional covenants such as the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, which are in turn compared to ancient Near Eastern covenants of grant.258 However, there seem to be elements of both conditionality and unconditionality within all biblical covenants, which implies a more complex relationship between the parties.259 OT covenants have differences of emphasis, to be sure: the Sinai covenant is much more condition-oriented, while the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants emphasize the gracious aspect of the relationship. However, each covenant must be taken in turn and related to the unfolding narrative of biblical covenants, which find their climax in the new covenant, in which Christ fulfills all the covenants’ conditions so that we might experience their blessings entirely by grace.

A covenant is at its heart a vehicle for relationship, and so it begins with an identification of the parties. In this case the Lord identifies himself as “God Almighty” (Hb. El Shaddai; v. 1), an archaic title that appears primarily in the Pentateuch and in poetic forms. Most of the biblical names that incorporate “Shaddai” as a theophoric element are also early. The derivation and meaning of the name are extremely obscure; the rendering “God Almighty” is probably as good as any. Abram is commanded by El Shaddai to “walk before me, and be blameless” (v. 1; also of Noah in 6:9), a stipulation that implies not perfection but rather faithfulness within a relationship. In Akkadian to “walk before a king” has a corresponding meaning of personal commitment and loyalty.260 Abram’s recorded behavior in this narrative thus far qualifies as “blameless,” though far from perfect.

Abram’s response is to fall down before the Lord (Gen. 17:3), a fitting response of submission to the Lord’s words. Once again the unilateral nature of the covenant comes to the fore: the Lord has decided to make the covenant with Abram and set the terms and conditions of the covenant. Abram’s part is simply to submit himself to those conditions. This sets the tone for any view of the relationship between God and humanity that has covenant at its heart, as the biblical view does; it naturally elevates God as sovereign initiator and determiner of the nature of the relationship, of which man is the humble recipient. This is not a relationship in which the two parties negotiate the terms as equals but one in which “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:7).

It is striking that in nine of the thirteen times that this chapter uses the word covenant the Lord calls it “my covenant” (Gen. 17:2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 19, 21). Since it is the Lord’s covenant, it is only fitting that he initiates the relationship and sets the terms. He even dictates the one will be the heir of the covenant in the next generation. God promises that Ishmael will be blessed in many ways and will receive the sign of the covenant in circumcision, but the promise of covenant blessing rests ultimately with Isaac, not Ishmael. This is not because Isaac will respond properly to God’s invitation while Ishmael refuses it. On the contrary, Isaac has not even been born yet, and Ishmael is as yet only a boy. But God sovereignly chooses Isaac to be the heir of his promise, not Ishmael (cf. Rom. 9:7–9). Salvation is of divine election from the beginning, which is God’s right, since this is his covenant.

God continues to sketch out the scope of his plans for Abram; he will be the father not only of one nation, as promised earlier, but of many nations (Gen. 17:4; cf. 12:2). This refers immediately to the nations that will come from Ishmael and Esau, as well as Israel (cf. Genesis 25; 36), but it also has in view the spiritual heirs of Abraham through faith in Christ, who come from many different nations rather than all being Abraham’s physical descendants (Rom. 4:11–12). In view of this enlarging of the promise the Lord renames Abram (“Exalted Father”; cf. ESV mg.) as Abraham (“Father of a Multitude Nations”;261 cf. ESV mg. on Gen. 17:5).

This too is an expression of the Lord’s sovereignty and control over Abraham. It was not uncommon when a covenant was made in the ancient world for the great king to give a new name to the lesser king. In 2 Kings 23:34, for example, Pharaoh renames Eliakim as Jehoiakim before placing him as a puppet on the Judean throne. To rename someone is to exert power over the most fundamental aspect of his personality, especially in the ancient world, where names were viewed as expressions of someone’s identity in a far more powerful way than in contemporary society.

Previously, God had promised to give Abraham offspring, but now Abraham is promised that he will be very fruitful (Gen. 17:6). The command to be fruitful occurred at creation and after the flood (Gen. 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1, 7), lending the establishment of this covenant relationship with Abraham and his offspring overtones of a new creation. Abraham will become a father not only to nations but to kings as well, the highest form of organizational leadership in the ancient world.

This covenant will be established not only between God and Abraham but with his offspring after him as well (17:7). Since the Hebrew word for offspring (zeraʿ) is singular, this leaves open the question as to whether the covenant will be made with all Abraham’s descendants or with a singular seed yet to come. The answer, in a profound sense, is both. On the one hand, the Lord promises to be God to all Abraham’s offspring (v. 7), which is why they are to be marked out with the covenant sign of circumcision. Given the facts that salvation is by divine election and that similar promises are not made to other nations, this is no small privilege. Yet, in light of the promised offspring of the woman in Genesis 3:15 through whom God would accomplish his salvation, the covenant also has a singular goal in mind: the one seed of Abraham, through whom salvation will come to the whole world (cf. Gal. 3:16). It is as we are united to this particular offspring of Abraham by faith that Jews and Gentiles become God’s children and enter a new relationship with him.

The final part of the promise, which is now also explicitly made to Abraham and his offspring, is possession of the land of Canaan forever (Gen. 17:8). Given that this comes after the Lord’s declaration in Genesis 15 that Abraham’s descendants will be slaves in another land for four hundred years (15:13), this does not preclude temporary periods when the land will not belong to them. Indeed, they will have to wait until after this exile in Egypt to inherit the land, and, even after they conquer it, they will be required to spend one week each year in temporary accommodations during the Feast of Booths (Lev. 23:42–43). This practice will be to remind them both of their past wilderness wanderings and that their ownership of Canaan will always be typological of a greater inheritance, a heavenly city (Heb. 11:10).

The greatest privilege of all, however, is the Lord’s commitment to be Abraham’s God and the God of his offspring after him, a commitment so important that it is stated twice (Gen. 17:7, 8). Modern people might not find this commitment surprising or significant since we are used to the idea that we can choose to serve whichever deity meets our needs. On our view, humans choose their gods, not vice versa. We imagine, “Of course the Lord will be our God if we choose to follow him: he should be grateful for our decision.” However, this was not the way in which people thought in antiquity. Gods were often closely associated with territories, so to move from one place to another meant entering the realm of a different god, and there was no guarantee that the new god would show you favor. Moreover, if the God of the Bible—the eternal, sovereign, omniscient, all-powerful God—exists, he must necessarily be the one who chooses his followers, not vice versa. As a result, a commitment from this God not only to be our God but to allow our children to serve him as well is an inestimable privilege. And, in light of Abraham’s failures in chapter 16, the promise that the Lord would be his God and the God of his children after him is a treasure of great price.

17:9–14 Biblical covenants often had signs attached to them (e.g., the rainbow in Gen. 9:12–17), in this case the sign is circumcision. In making a covenant with Abraham the Lord has committed himself to a relationship with him, and real relationships always have a profound impact on our lives. The Lord has made his commitment in the implied “As for me” of 17:4, and now it is Abraham’s turn in the “As for you” of verse 9. For Abraham and his offspring to “keep the covenant” that the Lord has sovereignly made with them means accepting a mark on their bodies symbolic of that life-changing commitment to follow the Lord.

Circumcision is not a random act of mutilation;262 rather, it is a covenant sign that involves cutting, just like the cutting of the animals in Genesis 15. There, the curse of the broken covenant was symbolized by animal carcasses, starkly demonstrating the destruction that would come upon the covenant breaker. God himself passed alone between the pieces, symbolizing the fact that he himself would pay for any breach of the covenant. In Genesis 17, however, the sign of judgment is applied to Abraham’s organ of reproduction. This is the source of the hoped-for promised seed and also the organ of Abraham’s failure with Hagar. Turning the sign into the reality of curse would merely mean applying the knife a little more extensively, cutting off Abraham’s seed. If Abraham (or his descendants) failed to keep the covenant by not being circumcised, his seed would be cut off.263

The practice of “cutting off” (Hb. karet) people from the covenant community is prescribed for a variety of significant sins (e.g., Lev. 20:1–6). It is not always clear whether this has in view a divine sanction of death, a human sanction of execution, or the sanction of expulsion from the community. In context, to be cut off from the community of faith was itself a form of death, since the person was excluded from the only place where life and blessing were to be found. Whether or not that led to a person’s immediate physical death was a secondary consideration.

This mark is to be applied not merely to Abraham and his children; it is applied also to servants or slaves (Gen. 17:13). They too share in the inestimable privilege of belonging to the people whom the Lord has chosen to be his, with all the blessings that come with that status (cf. Ps. 33:12). This principle illuminates the pattern of household baptisms in the NT, where the sign of the new covenant, baptism, is applied also to family members and servants on the basis of the faith of the head of the household (e.g., Acts 16:15).

17:15–22 Sarai’s name is also changed to Sarah, though no significance is attached to this change, unlike that from Abram to Abraham. Both Sarai and Sarah are versions of “Princess,” a fitting name for the future mother of kings (Gen. 17:15). Sometimes the mere fact of the name change, and the power that it demonstrates, is more important than the content. So, when the Egyptians change Eliakim’s name (meaning “God has established”) to Jehoiakim (“the Lord has established,” 2 Kings 23:34), they hardly alter its meaning but vividly demonstrate their authority. In this case Sarah’s name change reflects a fundamental change that the Lord is bringing about in her status. She will no longer be barren Sarai; now, as Sarah, she will finally bear Abraham’s promised son (Gen. 17:16). It is through her that Abraham’s offspring will become nations, and from her kings will come (cf. vv. 5–6).

This promise seems to Abraham too good to be true; he falls on his face and laughs (v. 17). This is a laugh of happy incredulity rather than unbelief (cf. Rom. 4:19–21). He believes God but at the same time struggles to put that belief together with the facts in front of him: his own age of nearly one hundred and Sarah’s age of almost ninety. He seeks to redirect the Lord to a more feasible proposition, that Ishmael, the son he has already had with Hagar, might receive the Lord’s blessing and become the child through whom these promises might be fulfilled (Gen. 17:18). But, when God insists on his original plan, Abraham does not protest further; he already knows too well the Lord’s ability to do the unimaginable.

The Lord specifies a name for the promised child, emphasizing the certainty of the promise; the child will be called “Isaac” (Hb. yitskhaq; v. 19), derived from the Hebrew word “to laugh” (tsakhaq), and he will be born the very next year (v. 21). When he is born, Isaac will bring laughter of delight to his parents in place of their doubtful laughter at his promise (21:6). He is the one through whom the promise of an eternal covenant will descend, not Ishmael (17:19). Ishmael will indeed be richly blessed with the things this world values, fathering twelve princes264 as a reflection of Jacob’s twelve sons (cf. 25:12–16) and becoming a mighty nation (17:20). But he has no special place in God’s plan to bless the world through Abraham and his seed—in those terms he is a dead-end line. The son of the slave woman will not ultimately inherit the promise alongside Isaac (cf. Gal. 4:30). It is God’s sovereign right to choose who will be blessed and how, in terms both of the good things of this world and of the glories of the world to come. These blessings are not necessarily connected; those rich in eternal blessings are often poor and despised, while those like Ishmael may have possessions and power yet be strangers to a personal relationship with God.

17:23–27 As will become a common pattern in the Pentateuch, the giving of a divine command is followed immediately by a record of compliance. Abraham immediately has himself circumcised, along with Ishmael and all those born in his house or bought with his money (Gen. 17:23). It does not matter whether they are old (Abraham is ninety-nine), or young (Ishmael is thirteen), slave or free—all are included in this painful privilege of being marked out as belonging to the Lord in a unique way. There is no delay in his obedience—it takes place that very same day (v. 26). Abram’s faith in God leads him to obey the Lord’s word to him unquestioningly, thereby demonstrating the living reality of that faith (cf. James 2:22–23).