When God established His covenant with Abram in chapter 15, it is important to understand that this was only part of the whole deal. Like a wedding ceremony, you must say, “I do”, but then also have a way of showing others publicly that an agreement between you and your spouse has been made. It had been at least thirteen years since Abram had seen the burning torch move through the bloody trench between the animals, but the covenant would not be finalized until this moment. Abram is at this point ninety-nine years old when God once again appears to him.
God tells him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.” This sentence alone is packed with so much to discuss. But briefly, notice that God says He is almighty. In the previous chapter, Abram’s doubt of this fact led him to sin, sleeping with Hagar, one of his slaves, in order to help God come through on His promise to bless Abram with a son. This was a declaration. God is saying that He knew that Abram doubted His ability and He is also saying that this doubt was unfounded. He then tells Abram to walk before Him and to be blameless. That is a tall order. Abram already has done quite a few things for which he should be blamed. What does it mean to walk before God? God has already proven in his interaction with Hagar that we all universally walk before Him. Nothing escapes His sight. Even a lowly slave in a desert does not slip past His watchful eyes. But I think this has more to do with living your life in a way that acknowledges God’s omnipresence. If you walk as if God is looking over your shoulder, you are at least thinking about God, and more than likely walking more blamelessly. Being blameless is a command. Given our fallen condition, this is a command that we cannot meet on our own, but through Christ, as we conform to His image, God sees Christ’s blamelessness as it covers our pitiful attempts to be perfect.
God then repeats His promise to bless Abram. Abram falls to his face. This ought to always be our reaction in our interactions with God. Whenever we encounter Him, we will always be in a state of disgrace based on our own merit, and His grace will always seek to shower us in His grace. Ultimately, this should lead us to worship. This great paradox, that a perfect God with every right to destroy all the evil in the world (you and me) who decides He will patiently work to cover us with His own perfection that we might live is so encouraging. Our outrage when we are wronged ought to drive us to understand just how strange it is that God hasn’t destroyed us. No one has been more wronged than God. But He is patient, desiring that none should perish, though the whole world has shaken our collective fist at God and tried at every turn to steal His throne.
Abram then receives a new name. The New Testament tells us that every Christian will eventually receive a new name. Here, Abram becomes Abraham. “Exalted father” becomes “Father of many nations”. We ought to be aware of how significant the changing of a name can be as this is exactly what happens at a wedding. This is yet another component to a covenant. The changing of the name is another outward sign of a significant life change, and in this case, represents the terms of the covenant. ‘Almighty God’ will make him the ‘Father of many nations’. And in case any of this was unclear to Abraham, God goes on to say that this covenant is not only to be established with him, or even his son, but with all of his descendants forever, and that they will receive the land of Canaan as an inheritance as an everlasting possession. God is creating a family, inexorably tying Himself with Abraham’s descendants in such a close way that people would know this God by Abraham and his descendants (God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob).
The terms of the covenant for Abraham? Well, like a wedding ceremony, this covenant will involve an outward sign like the swapping of rings. But for Abraham and his people, God demanded that every male child be circumcised. They are to have this done when they are eight days (I originally wrote years due to lack of sleep) old. Anyone who wishes to be a part of the people of God must have this done. Anyone who does not must be considered cut off from God’s people, having broken the covenant.
But what is this really all about? This seems a bit trivial. Why would God demand something as barbaric as this? It seems so base and insignificant to a modern reader. Perhaps we have not considered that it would have seemed the same to Abraham. But why circumcision? At this point, I’m going to go ahead and admit that in many ways this puzzles me as well. But there do seem to be a few explanations. First, the covenant demanded an outward sign. While circumcision may not seem like the most likely candidate for this sign, it was the one that was chosen. While circumcision is not in any way unique to the Hebrews, it did come to identify them and set them apart. Another reason circumcision was chosen was because it symbolized part of a man being stripped away. Circumcision is a part of a man dying. In the New Testament, flesh comes to symbolize much more than the skin on our bones. Flesh also means our sinful nature. The circumcision God demanded on the outside represented a future circumcision of the heart that would be performed on the inside. None of this would have been apparent to Abraham and his extended family as they obeyed God in this command. They did all of this on the basis of faith.
And Abraham obeyed without delay. The very same day, Abraham took Ishmael and all who were born in his house and circumcised them. Obedience is something we do immediately, especially when God is the one who is asking something.
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