Reflections on Genesis 17

Genesis 17 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Abram was ninety-nine years old when the LORD appeared to him again and said, "I am God All-Powerful. If you obey me and always do right,
   
2. I will keep my solemn promise to you and give you more descendants than can be counted."
   
3. Abram bowed with his face to the ground, and God said:
   
4. I promise that you will be the father of many nations. That's why I now change your name from Abram to Abraham.
   
5. (SEE 17:4)
   
6. I will give you a lot of descendants, and in the future they will become great nations. Some of them will even be kings.
   
7. I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God.
   
8. I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God.
   
9. Abraham, you and all future members of your family must promise to obey me.
   
10. As the sign that you are keeping this promise, you must circumcise every man and boy in your family.
    
11. (SEE 17:10)
    
12. From now on, your family must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old. You must even circumcise any man or boy you have as a slave, both those born in your homes and those you buy from foreigners. This will be a sign that my promise to you will last forever.
    
13. (SEE 17:12)
    
14. Any man who isn't circumcised hasn't kept his promise to me and cannot be one of my people.
    
15. Abraham, your wife's name will now be Sarah instead of Sarai.
    
16. I will bless her, and you will have a son by her. She will become the mother of nations, and some of her descendants will even be kings.
    
17. Abraham bowed with his face to the ground and thought, "I am almost a hundred years old. How can I become a father? And Sarah is ninety. How can she have a child?" So he started laughing.
    
18. Then he asked God, "Why not let Ishmael inherit what you have promised me?"
    
19. But God answered: No! You and Sarah will have a son. His name will be Isaac, and I will make an everlasting promise to him and his descendants.
    
20. I have heard what you asked me to do for Ishmael, and so I will also bless him with many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make his family a great nation.
    
21. But your son Isaac will be born about this time next year, and the promise I am making to you and your family will be for him and his descendants forever.
    
22. God finished speaking to Abraham and then left.
    
23. On that same day Abraham obeyed God by circumcising Ishmael. Abraham was also circumcised, and so were all other men and boys in his household, including his servants and slaves. He was ninety-nine years old at the time, and his son Ishmael was thirteen.
    
24. (SEE 17:23)
    
25. (SEE 17:23)
    
26. (SEE 17:23)
    
27. (SEE 17:23)
    
    

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    Thirteen years passed between the events of chapter 16 and those of chapter 17. At the age of 86 Abram and his wife Sarai enacted their own plan to help God accomplish His promise of an offspring. Thus Ishmael was born through Sarai's handmaid, Hagar. Now at age 99 God appeared again to Abram to repeat the promise and institute His covenant.  Abram was 75 when God first made a promise concerning his offspring. Though his faith lapsed somewhat after eleven years and he tried to do it himself, Abram's faith apparently remained strong otherwise. Here, at age 99, 24 years after God first mentioned the promise, God reaffirmed the promise and included details. Now was the time for its fulfillment. A year from this time a child was to be born.
    
    Abram accepted this renewal of the promise without doubting. Though he laughed at the idea of having a child at age 100, it was not a laugh of scorn or doubt, but of amazement. He "fell to the ground, laughed, and thought in his heart, "Can a child be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?" (17:7) The covenant that God instituted with Abram was to be everlasting. It included the giving of the land of Canaan in which he was residing "as an eternal possession." (17:8) Plus, nations and kings of peoples were to come from the son that would be born to Abram and Sarai.
    
    God enacted two other parts to this covenant with Abram. The first was the changing of names. Abram and Sarai were given new names. They were now to be called Abraham - meaning Father of a multitude - and Sarah - meaning princess. This part was to serve as a reminder that they were people of the covenant. The second additional part that God enacted was that of circumcision which was to serve as an outward sign that they were participants in this covenant with God. God told Abraham, "This is My covenant, which you are to keep, between Me and you and your offspring after you: Every one of your males must be circumcised." (17:10) Without this sign, a descendant was breaking the covenant and no longer a part of it, as explained in 17:14: "If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."
    
    As an indication of his faith, Abraham was immediately circumcised along with "all the men of his household--both slaves born in his house and those purchased with money from a foreigner." (17:27)