Signed and Sealed

Genesis 17.1-14 (ESV)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

And 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 you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Now, it should be said that this is a tricky passage for us to deal with, particularly with the sensitivities of our modern culture. But in many ways, this is a covenant upgrade for Abraham.

So chapter 17 both looks back to the covenant that God has already made with him back in chapter 15, and he gives him a new promise, a greater expansion of the promise in this chapter. God now formalizes the covenant that he made with Abraham as an everlasting covenant in verse 7 and 8. And then he adds a physical sign, the sign of circumcision, that physically commemorates this new covenant.

Also, Abram's name changes from Abram to Abraham here. He moves from Abram, which means exalted father, to Abraham, which is the father of many or father of a multitude. And so this name change is kind of a prophetic assurance that God is going to do this thing. Everyone who comes through the line of Abraham is part of this great multitude of which Abraham is the father. So every time someone says Abraham, they're really just rehearsing God's promise to multiply Abraham far beyond his household. He will be the father of a great multitude.

But then we get to this, you know, the thing that is culturally tricky for us to deal with – the sign of circumcision. It is a bloody sign. It is a boundary marking sign that we are uncomfortable with in our times today.

Now, the cutting of the flesh here is something that was pretty significant. It showed that you belong, that you were set apart for God. It also marked that you can be cut off from God's people if you were unfaithful. And so being part of God's covenant people came through shed blood. Even the most intimate parts of our life is to be under God's lordship and covered by blood which marked his sacrifice.

Now, of course, this really points us straight to Jesus. The New Testament talks about in multiple places that it is not the body that needs to ultimately be circumcised, but the heart. Jesus shows us that there is a true cutting away that happens inwardly by God's spirit. We read about that in Colossians chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 and Romans 2:29. These are signs that are now fulfilled in a new sign that we get – not circumcision but baptism. There is a washing away that happens because we are part of God's covenant people now.

Secondly, it points us to Christ because Jesus was the only covenant keeper. Actually, the only person who was holy before God, like Abram here was called to be. Jesus was the only one who was truly holy, set apart for God. And yet despite his holiness, he was cut off from God on the cross. When Jesus hangs on the cross, he says to God... Now because of that, we are the inheritors of this eternal promise. We have a new identity.

Just like Abram moved from Abram to Abraham, the father of a great multitude, we have moved from being outside of God's covenant to becoming Christians, people who are little Christ. In Christ, we are renamed. We are now the beloved children of his promise. And this new identity as being people in Christ, being Christian, in the same way as circumcision touched a really private part of your life, a private reality, the new identity we have in Christ touches every square inch of our reality. Our screens, our spending, our sexuality, all of that we are called to walk before him in holiness as people that have been set apart by him.

And at the same time, this sign which was given to Abraham and his household is now opened to everyone who would believe. The sign of baptism which we now have, which replaces the sign of circumcision, is a sign that covers both native-born Israelites and foreign servants alike. Just like in this sign of circumcision, we see that native-born Israelites, children of Abraham and those who come into his household through being purchased or through being redeemed or being sojourners within the country of Israel, everyone has the option to have this covenant signed. So too it is today that all who would believe, from every nation, from every tribe and from every place on earth, we have the option of being ingrafted into the covenant through faith.

So even in Genesis already, we see here God hinting at the fact that his family is going to be much bigger than the ethnic and the social fences that we put up or that are put up around the world. God welcomes outsiders from everywhere through faith.

And so Genesis 17 shows us this 99-year-old patriarch who has been renamed and redesignated and then re-signed as a person who now belongs to God. God binds himself to Abraham with an eternal oath. And he literally carves this promise into his flesh. And this becomes then a sign to us that we have our new identity in Christ. And just like Abram was marked with a physical sign, we are marked with a baptismal sign that we are part of God's covenant family.

And so let's pray and thank God that we have been engrafted and have joined his family through faith in Jesus.

Prayer:

Dear God, thank you for naming us and for claiming us well before we deserved anything. Thank you that our salvation is by faith, which is a gift from you. We pray that you will cut away our stubborn unbelief and write your promises on our hearts. Circumcise our hearts, we pray, every day so that we may live holy lives before you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.