Genesis 17
Circumcision
The Sign of the Covenant
1When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the sovereign God. Walk before me and be blameless.
This contact was thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael. Abram was 99 years old and Sarai was 89. The Hebrew for “sovereign God” is אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י (El Shaddai), meaning The One God, the Almighty One. The name El Shaddai appears when God is about to reveal His power.
Abram is commanded to walk before Jehovah just as a faithful servant would unto a king. The command to “be blameless” means to be unblemished, just as the sacrificial lamb on the altar is an unblemished sacrifice to God. Abram is to sacrifice his living life to a living God. This was the opposite of what the pagan deities demanded, which was human sacrifice unto death. Jehovah desires a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice.
2Then I will confirm my covenant between me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants.”
This is Jehovah’s fifth appearance to Abram. It has been 23 years since His last appearance in Genesis 15, when the covenant was signed.
This is the fourth confirmation that Jehovah made to Abram concerning the Abrahamic Covenant. Jehovah will keep His promise. Jehovah will multiply Abram’s seed across the earth and throughout history.
3Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him,
This was an act of worship. Abram knew the divine identity of the One who was speaking to him.
4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
This is a new promise. Up to this time, Abram had only been promised to be a father of one nation. Abram was the father of Judah, Israel, and many of the Arab nations.
5No longer will your name be Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.
Abram means “exalted father.” Abram carried this name for 99 years, even though he had no physical children (except for Ishmael). Many must have questioned the power of Abram’s God, since he was childless. Jehovah changed his name to Abraham, meaning “the father of a multitude.” However, at this time, he only had one child, which was Ishmael. Ishmael was not the seed-son.
6I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.
This is another new promise. Kings will come from the loins of Abraham. This would include Jewish kings, Arab kings, Edomite kings, and Ishmaelite kings. The genealogies of the Bible confirm the fulfillment of these prophecies.
7I will confirm my covenant as a perpetual covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
The Hebrew word for “perpetual” is עוֹלָ֑ם (olam), meaning until the end of a dispensation. Many English versions translate this term as eternal, but this is not the true meaning. The Eternal Order was never mentioned in the Old Testament. The Messianic Kingdom was mentioned, but the length of the kingdom was not. The length of the Messianic Kingdom is first mentioned in Revelation 20. It is listed six times as 1000 years. The Holy Spirit mentioned it six times, to make sure that the Amillennialists and Postmillennialists would not miss it.
This “perpetual covenant” will last for 1000 years. When Christ returns at His Second Coming, He will raise up Abraham and his descendants from the dead and give them the land that was promised to them.
Notice that the covenant extends to his descendants throughout all generations. The believing Jewish Remnant will be raised from the dead as well and placed into the land of Israel after the Second Coming of Jesus.
8I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God.”
Abraham will receive all of the land of Canaan, not just part of it. All of the land that Abraham walked will belong to him. The United Nations today does not quite see it this way, but this is because all of the nations of the world are under the control of the Evil One. It is irrelevant as to if the Jews are in the land or out of the land. By divine command, the land of Canaan belongs to the Jewish people.
God will keep His promise. Abraham and the believing Jewish Remnant will live in this land for 1000 years. The entire Jewish nation at this time will worship Jehovah as God.
All of God’s promises were unconditional. He will keep His promise, even if Abraham and his seed refuse to keep their promises.
9Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
Abraham and his seed are to keep the covenant promises not for salvation, but because they love God. If Abraham and his seed do not keep their side of the bargain, God will still keep His promises.
10This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
In many cultures, the males and females are circumcised. In the Jewish culture, only the males are circumcised. Circumcision was the signing of the Abrahamic Covenant. The men are signing the covenant with their own blood from their reproductive organs. This token is a symbol of the Messiah who will come from the loins of Abraham’s seed. It is the Messiah who will fulfill the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.
11You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder of the covenant between me and you.
Jehovah is a bloody God. He signs His covenants with the precious blood of His children.
12Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants.
Every Jewish child was to be circumcised on the eighth day. There are some health benefits, but the reason is theological.
13They must indeed be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of My covenant will be visible in your flesh as a permanent reminder.
Any Gentile who was brought to live under a Jewish household was to be circumcised. He was to become a recipient of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. Therefore, any Gentile enslaved by the Jews inherited the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. It was better to be a Gentile enslaved by a Jewish believer than to be a pagan king who rejected Jehovah.
14Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.”
This is not part of the Mosaic Covenant, but part of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was fulfilled in Christ. The Abrahamic Covenant is a perpetual covenant to the Jews. Therefore, the New Testament does not rule out circumcision for Jews, but it does for Gentiles. All Jews are commanded to be circumcised, according to the Abrahamic Covenant. Circumcision for health reasons is a separate issue.
If a Messianic Jewish believer refuses to be circumcised, then he will be “cut off from his people.” This does not mean that he will lose his eternal life, because then circumcision would be works salvation. However, he will suffer “the sin unto death” and lose his physical life. He will die prematurely. An example of this was when Moses refused to circumcise his second son. He was diseased, sick, and about to die. His wife Zipporah had to execute the circumcision. She told Moses that he served “a bloody God.” This is a true statement. Jesus spilt his own blood so that Moses, Zipporah, their second son, and all believers could possess eternal life.
About circumcision, Rabbi Rashi said, “Special angels take this blood and store it in a special place. When God is angry with Israel, He looks at this blood and He has mercy upon them.” The rabbi saw the value of atonement in circumcision, but instead of applying it to their future Messiah, he mythologized it.
The Mishnah states, “God swore to Abram that all of his descendant[s] who are circumcised will not be sent into Hell. Abraham stands guard so that none of his descendants bearing the mark of circumcision should enter into the place of divine punishment. But if a person dies without repentance, special angels come and attach his foreskin. He is again uncircumcised and can go into Hell. Abraham does not help him, since he is uncircumcised.”
During the days of Jesus, the rabbi taught that Abraham stood at the door of Hades and saved all Jews from going to hell. John the Baptist and Jesus had to correct this superstitious teaching.
15Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; Sarah will be her name.
Sarah means “the Princess.” Sarah is the only woman in Scripture to have her name changed. This was the first time in Scripture that Sarai was predicted to be the mother of the seed-son.
16I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of countries will come from her!”
The son will be Isaac. The three nations that will come from Sarah will be Judah, Israel, and Edom. Sarah will be the mother of Jewish and non-Jewish kings. All of the Jewish kings of Israel and all of the Edomite kings will come from Sarah.
17Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, “Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”
The Hebrew word for “and he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָ֑ק (va-yitzach), meaning to laugh in disbelief. Notice that Abraham has already begun calling Sarah by her new name, meaning that he believed Jehovah could fulfill this promise. Abraham was 99 years old, so he saw this birth taking place a year later when he was a hundred years old.
18Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live before you!”
For thirteen years, Abraham believed that Ishmael was the seed-son. He wished that Ishmael could become the seed-son.
19God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac.**** I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual covenant for his descendants after him.
Notice that Isaac, not Ishmael, was to become the seed son. He was to be the one who would receive the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. This verse destroys the teaching of Islam. The Messiah was to come through Isaac and the Jewish race, not from Ishmael and the Arab races.
20As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes; I will make him into a great nation.
Ishmael will receive additional blessings, but he will not receive the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Arab population today is around one billion, which is much larger than the Jewish population.
Just as there will be twelve Jewish tribes through Isaac and Jacob, there will be twelve Arab tribes through Ishmael. This will be fulfilled in Genesis 25.
21But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
Notice that God does not “cut a covenant” with Isaac, but He establishes a covenant which had already been cut with Abraham.
Sarah will give birth to Isaac the following year. This will give Abraham up to three months to heal from his circumcision.
Isaac will become the seed-son who will be in the line of the Messiah who will execute the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.
22When He finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
God visited Abraham in theophany form. The theophany disappeared from sight, going up to Heaven.
23Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) and circumcised them on that very same day, just as God had told him to do.
Abraham immediately obeyed God’s commands. His entire household agreed to circumcision, showing that they were believers in God’s promises to Abraham.
24Now Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised;
Men immediately after the flood lived much longer than those of today,
25his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised.
Ishmael was not the seed-son, but he did receive additional promises from God.
26Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day.
Father and son were circumcised together as part of the same family and same promise.
27All the men of his household, whether born in his household or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
All of Abraham’s household and purchased slaves were circumcised, meaning that they were all believers in the Abrahamic Covenant.
In conclusion, the human viewpoint of the satanic world system teaches that Israel is just another minor nation, like any other minor nation.
The divine viewpoint of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God teaches Israel will one day rule over all nations.
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1. SAQ--What is the theme of Genesis 16?
2. How was the sacrifice of Jehovah different than those of the pagan gods?
3. What does Abram mean?
4. What does Abraham mean?
5. What does Sarah mean?
6. What does Ishmael mean?
7. Explain why Ishmael cannot be the seed son.
8. Which nations will come from Abraham?
9. Which nations will come from Sarah?
10. Explain the theological reason for Jewish circumcision.