Written by: Nik Hookey - Boys Brigade

Genesis 17 v 1-5
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Obey me and do what is right. I will make an agreement between us, and I will make you the ancestor of many people.”
Then Abram bowed facedown on the ground. God said to him, “I am making my agreement with you: I will make you the father of many nations. I am changing your name from Abram to Abraham because I am making you a father of many nations.

Notes
Names were very important in Biblical times, and in many cultures still today. The name of a person was supposed to some up their whole character. A bit unfair, when people change so much as they grow up! Abram means great father, Abraham means father of the nations. 

Just as God gave Abram a new name, so God gives us a new name when we become Christians. God says that he will call us “My delight is in you”. I know a man that actually did change his name when he became a Christian, as a sign that God had changed his name. He wanted to show that in his new life with Jesus he would be different.

God’s promise to Abraham is not that he will be father of the one nation of Israel, but that he would be the father of many nations. God’s concern has never been for one nation, but for all the people of the earth. The nation of Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations, to draw them to God, not the exclusive people they eventually became. 

In the same way Christian believers are intended to be a ‘light to the nations’. We should be people that welcome those who are outside, who don’t yet know Jesus. We must not be a people or church that blesses itself. It is through us that many people should be blessed, by coming to know Jesus.

Genesis 17 v 6-9
I will give you many descendants. New nations will be born from you, and kings will come from you. And I will make an agreement between me and you and all your descendants from now on: I will be your God and the God of all your descendants. You live in the land of Canaan now as a stranger, but I will give you and your descendants all this land forever. And I will be the God of your descendants.”
Then God said to Abraham, “You and your descendants must keep this agreement from now on. 

Notes
Living as strangers
God does not just promise Abraham a line of descendants and kings and nations. He also promises a land to him. This is not just a plot of land for him to build a house on, but a whole country. The country does not belong to Abraham – he comes from further east, a place called Ur. Canaan is to become the land for the descendants of Abraham to live in. This promise is not fulfilled for many years, and the nation of Israel spent many years banished from it. The land of Israel is very much a part of the promise that God makes to his people Israel. This is partly why it is so important today. Religious Jews attach great importance to the land that they believe God has given to them to live in. The land is a sign that God is blessing them. Secular Jews living in Israel are probably more concerned about the land in terms of the area of land showing that they are a strong nation.

However, for Abraham, the land of Canaan is a land that he will live in as a stranger. He is to serve the one true God, unlike all the people around him. Peter tells us in his letter that “you are like foreigners and strangers in this world… People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong.” (1 Peter 2.11-12) Christian believers, then, also live as strangers in the world. Maybe you feel like that at work or college – that because you are a Christian you are an alien species! God says, “Yes!” But God will help you to live for him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 17 v 10-14
This is my agreement with you and all your descendants, which you must obey: Every male among you must be circumcised. Cut away your foreskin to show that you are prepared to follow the agreement between me and you. From now on when a baby boy is eight days old, you will circumcise him. This includes any boy born among your people or any who is your slave, who is not one of your descendants. Circumcise every baby boy whether he is born in your family or bought as a slave. Your bodies will be marked to show that you are part of my agreement that lasts forever. Any male who is not circumcised will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my agreement.”

Notes
God’s mark
Ouch! All the guys are probably crossing their legs at this point! This is the bit where God says that every guy who is a Jew has to be circumcised, to show that they belong to God. Generations of Christian men have been grateful to Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15), which decided that Christians did not need to be circumcised as people who converted to Judaism had been. So why did God ask Abraham and his descendants to do this?

Some have suggested that circumcision was much more hygienic for people in Abraham’s time, who did not have access to hot running water and power showers. Some have suggested that being circumcised would help to reduce men’s lustful thoughts! These things may be true, but it is not the reason that God gives. God says that circumcision is a sign that Abraham’s people have agreed to be God’s people.

When an important agreement (or covenant) was made in that time, the promise was always sealed by the spilling of blood. In fact the word for this type of promise is literally a ‘cutting’. When you make this agreement you ‘cut’ it. This has probably survived in modern English when we talk about ‘cutting a deal’. Abraham and his people spill their own blood. They do not use an animal, as often happened, but spill their own blood. This shows how committed they are to the promise. Christians do not have to cut themselves to show how committed we are to God. God wants us to ‘circumcise’ our hearts – to cut away old attitudes, and to fully love God.

Genesis 17 v 15-19
God said to Abraham, “I will change the name of Sarai, your wife, to Sarah. I will bless her and give her a son, and you will be the father. She will be the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will come from her.”
Abraham bowed facedown on the ground and laughed. He said to himself, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth to a child when she is ninety?” Then Abraham said to God, “Please let Ishmael be the son you promised.”
God said, “No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will make my agreement with him to be an agreement that continues forever with all his descendants.

Notes
God does amazing things
It’s hard enough to imagine your parents ever being young enough to give birth to you. In this part of the story, Abraham has difficulty believing that a ninety-year- old could have a bouncing baby boy. I don’t think he’s being particularly unreasonable here. As I write this, my wife has been pregnant for about eleven weeks. She’s a young woman, normally with tons of energy, but these first few weeks of pregnancy have left her exhausted, as the growing baby draws its nourishment and energy from her. How on earth would a ninety year old cope with that? Would a ninety-year-old woman still have all the necessary bits to produce a baby? In the normal course of things, the answer has to be no. But this is not a story about normal events, but about what God can do with his people.

Abraham laughed at the idea, and because of that, the child to be born is going to be stuck with the name Isaac, which means ‘he laughs’. A constant reminder for Abraham of his irreverent response to God, and an interesting name for Isaac to live up to! Maybe it’s also the way that God responded to Abraham! The God who is the Creator of the universe can do pretty much whatever he wants to do!

God may be asking you to do something for him today – maybe it’s to speak to someone you know that isn’t a Christian. Maybe it’s to enrol on a course for Christian leadership. Maybe it’s to go on a mission trip somewhere in this country or overseas. You may be thinking, “I can’t do that!” God says, “Hey, I can do that with you!”

Genesis 17 v 20-23
“As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him and give him many descendants. And I will cause their numbers to grow greatly. He will be the father of twelve great leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will make my agreement with Isaac, the son whom Sarah will have at this same time next year.” After God finished talking with Abraham, God rose and left him.
Then Abraham gathered Ishmael, all the males born in his camp, and the slaves he had bought. So that day Abraham circumcised every man and boy in his camp as God had told him to do.

Notes 
The certainty of God’s promise
God hears Abraham’s compassion for his other son, Ishmael, and reassures Abraham that Ishmael too will be blessed. God’s main purpose, though, will be carried out through Isaac. Isaac is to be part of the family line into which Jesus is born many years later. It is through this family line that the saviour of the world will be born. It is in Jesus that the promise finds it full meaning, for through Jesus’ death everybody in the world, regardless of his or her ethnic origin, can come to God for forgiveness and healing.

God assures Abraham that Isaac will be born to Abraham and Sarah exactly one year after the promise is made. This again shows how God’s promises are to be completely trusted. You see, Abraham was circumcised that day. I don’t want to be indelicate, but Abraham would have been quite sore, for quite a while! This might reduce the window for the normal process of conception still further. Those of you who can remember your biology lessons will know that each month there is a small time window of about thirty-six hours within which conception can take place. Since a pregnancy lasts for nine months, that leaves less than three months for conception to take place. This is not impossible, but definitely a challenge! When God is in charge, the difficult becomes probable. The son, Isaac, will be born one year from the day that Abraham and his family are circumcised.

The difficult situations that we face are not difficult situations for God. Instead they are opportunities for him to show his power.

Genesis 17 v 24-27
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised. And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. Abraham and his son were circumcised on the same day. Also on that day all the men in Abraham’s camp were circumcised, including all those born in his camp and all the slaves he had bought from other nations.

Notes
God is powerful!
Double ouch! How many guys reading this would have liked to be circumcised by their dad when they were thirteen years old? Most of the men circumcised that day would have been much older. I’m told that we men have an extremely low pain threshold, so I suspect there were a lot of guys going round the camp that day looking rather pathetic. Probably the women were looking relieved that God hadn’t given them then anything painful to do. Or they may have been thinking that this was payback time for childbirth!

The guys in Abraham’s camp must have had a lot of respect and trust for him. We do not hear of any acts of rebellion, but obedience to God’s instruction through Abraham. They underwent a painful process, and a process that marked them out as God’s people for all time. The history books tell us that when the Greeks conquered Israel in the centuries before Christ, they built a public gymnasium in Jerusalem. Gymnasium is derived from the Greek word for naked. The games that were played there were played in the nude. The history books also tell us that some of the Jews were ashamed of the marks of circumcision, and tried to reverse the process. Now that really doesn’t bear thinking about!

What is it that marks us out as Christians today? God asks his people to circumcise their hearts, to remove hatred, malice and envy. Instead, we are to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. It was said of the early Christians, “See how they love one another.” May God help us to show that love to the people we meet today.

Genesis 18 v 1-5
Later, the LORD again appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre. Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When Abraham saw them, he ran from his tent to meet them. He bowed facedown on the ground before them and said, “Sir, if you think well of me, please stay awhile with me, your servant. I will bring some water so all of you can wash your feet. You may rest under the tree, and I will get some bread for you so you can regain your strength. Then you may continue your journey.”
The three men said, “That is fine. Do as you said.”

Notes
This story takes place ‘later’. This is either the very same day on which God made his agreement with Abraham, and Abraham was circumcised, or very soon after. This is quite an eventful day! Three strangers come visiting Abraham. Abraham does not know who these people are, but we are told that it is the LORD appearing once more to Abraham. How will he respond?

Abraham responds by showing hospitality to the men. He brings them water to wash their feet, and to make them feel more comfortable. One of the highest ways of showing hospitality to someone in Abraham’s day was to provide water for foot washing. This was because the open sandals that were worn would allow the feet to get filthy very quickly. Also, instead of nicely made up roads driven on by relatively clean cars, they had camel tracks. And camels occasionally feel the need to relieve themselves all over the road. Now, you and I might occasionally step in some dog poo with our nice shoes, but the mess stays on the outside. Imagine stepping in camel poo with sandals on!

Abraham also provides the three men with bread to give them more strength for the journey. He provides a shady place for them to sit down and rest. He shows care and compassion for these men. He does not know who they are, but knows he must care for them. Jesus tells us that we also should remember to welcome strangers (Matthew 25.35). Remember to by kind to the new person at work or at college. Who knows – you may be welcoming an angel!


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes