Thoughts on Genesis: 17:1-8 (Part I)

After a long hiatus, I have decided to resume my “Thoughts On…” studies because 1) I have more time, 2) I do not like to start something and not finish it, and 3) because I believe the season is right to do it.

So without further ado,

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[a] walk before me, and be blameless. ² And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” ³ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be Abram,^[b] but your name shall be Abraham;^[c] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ 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^[d] after you. ⁸ And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8 NRSV)

When we last left Abram, he decided to take it upon himself to fulfill God’s promise of an heir by listening to the cackling of Sarai (who is truly a hen-pecking wife, but who could blame her? Abram used her to save his own hide…twice) and sleeping with Hagar her handmaiden. While this was perfectly acceptable in the culture of that day, it was not acceptable to God; he already had plans for Abram and Sarai, if they would just trust him and wait. Because they did not wait, Ishmael was born, which caused grief for everyone and would cause grief again. This created so much discord that Hagar fled from Sarai and had to be told by an angel to return and submit to her.

That’s where we left Abram.

Now, he is 99 years old and thinking to himself, “Wow, is this ever going to happen? I trust Yahweh, he has never steered me afoul, but does he really know what he is doing?” These are the thoughts of so, so many of us as we wait for promises from God. I am waiting on some promises right now, promises I believe that God will fulfill, but that does not necessarily mean I am always waiting patiently or even expectantly.

I wonder if Abram had just resigned himself to Ishmael being his heir; even with all of the problems that posed. I wonder if he was even expecting God to show up at this point in Genesis 17.

But God knew where Abram was.

“I am God Almighty;walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”

God starts with reminding Abram whom is speaking; throughout Abram’s pilgrimage God seems to interrupt him out of the blue, almost like if all of sudden a giant megaphone said my name outside the window as I am typing this blog. It would scare me to death! I am sure on more than one occasion it scared Abram too, or at least made him think he was going nuts.

God’s request to Abram is simple, “Walk with me and be blameless.” Easy, right? One cursory look at Abram’s past seems to dispel any possibility of this happening. Abram has been walking with God a lot, but the whole blameless part kind of slipped out the door with two lies and a baby.

But God does not leave it up to Abram! That’s the key to this encounter, it is GOD who will make the covenant with him, which was already demonstrated back before Abram became Hagar’s baby’s daddy, in chapter fifteen. God will initiate and God will be the one who will make him numerous, just as God will make him blameless. God works the same way with us: it is God’s love and desire for us that allows and empowers us to love and desire God in the first place.

Of course at this point, Abram is undone in the presence of God and falls on his face. I think I could use a little more of that myself. Maybe if I sought to have more encounters with our holy God, then  I would. Abram is afraid, and rightfully so, but God is about to cast out that fear.

There are several aspects to God’s covenant with Abram, these will be discussed in the next blog.

Williebemacin by William McPherson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.