Genesis 17:1-8
Details, Details, Details – Which is Exactly What Abra(ha)m Wants
Or
Papa’s Got a Brand New Name
“Names had power in the ancient world. By naming the animals, Adam demonstrated his mastery over them. In a similar way, God’s changing Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah signifies both a reiteration of the covenant promise and the designation of these people as God’s chosen servants.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p49)
“There are no parallels in the ancient world to covenants between deity and mortal, though certainly gods are known to make demands and promise favorable treatment. In most of these cases kings report their care of the sanctuaries of the god and then tell how the deity responded with blessing. But these fall short of a covenant relationship initiated by deity for his own purposes.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p49)
“Covenant: a contractual agreement associated in the Bible with the agreement between Yahweh and the Israelites that promises land and children in exchange for exclusive worship and obedience.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p813)
For the fourth time in six chapters, God appears before Abram to talk about what he is to do and what God wants to do through him. God reiterates the same promises for Abram and his descendents that had already been communicated, to various levels of belief on Abram’s part. Once again, Abram hears the promise that he and Sarai will be the parents of a great nation whose numbers will grow dramatically and whose influence throughout the world would become quite prodigious.
However, some disparity presents itself; a subtle variation in God’s words becomes rather apparent. The difference between God’s declarations in this chapter compared to the declarations in chapters 11-16 is the specific mention of word “covenant.” This concept is introduced in order to establish something firm and definite between God and Abram, where vague guidelines and promised had previously existed in their relationship. This covenant contains all of the guarantees that Abram has heard before, but, for the first time, there are some ground rules and guidelines by which God asks Abram to live.
Conditionality between deity and mortal had existed before – many gods of the region had set forth agreements between themselves and their adherents. However, most of them centered around kings and rulers making sure their took care of the deity’s temples and paid them whatever money, resources, and sacrifices they demanded. Or, in other terms, these provisional arrangements were typically negative and fear-based in context and focus. The god/deity would declare what was to be done and, if the humans did not fulfill their end of the bargain, there would be destructive consequences. Yes, beneficial treatment was promised if the simple rules were followed and obeyed, but the negative results were outlined just as specifically.
“I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Genesis 17:1ff-2, TNIV)
Thus, what God was proposing in order to fulfill the promises given to Abram and Sarai was rather revolutionary for its time and place in world history. God outlined exactly what Abram would experience, what his descendents would do, and how Abram would be the beginning of it all, except that God didn’t include an “or else” clause anywhere. What makes this covenant revolutionary is how God’s purposes were intent upon blessing Abram and having Abram see all of the promises finally set into motion. God had been making promises for 6 chapters, and, with each set of promises, Abram initially expressed doubt and then finally believing after God reiterated the assurances. But when push came to shove, God displayed to Abram just how important he was in God’s eyes – God desired Abram’s obedience and that obedience would be honored with the implementation of all God had set forth.
(Side note: The only exception to this concerns the issue of male circumcision, something that, while physical in nature, is symbolic in context to how it applies to God’s promises. Circumcision will be addressed in the next section of commentary.)
“No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5, TNIV)
And how did God express concretely how Abram see the promises realized – by changing Abram’s name to Abraham. This was not merely a matter of semantics; it was the definitive means by which God was proving to Abraham how sincere and serious the terms of the covenant would be. In Hebrew, Abram means “exalted father,” which, in itself, isn’t a bad title or descriptor, especially since God had notified Abram several times that he would be a father to a great nation. However, Abraham, in Hebrew, means “father of many or a multitude,” an entirely different and much more expansive way of describing the man who would be the Patriarch of the entire Jewish race.
What is God announcing to Abraham, Sarai, and those who would read and hear these words throughout the rest of history? I would like to proffer forth the opinion that this name change that God wrought in Abraham’s life (and Sarai’s later in the chapter) was God’s means of proclaiming to all present and future generations exactly how important the covenant would be in the lives of the Hebrew people and how committed God is to seeing through to completion and execution the promises laid out to Abram in the covenant. Abraham’s new name, in and of itself, is a promise and assertion that the covenant is real, alive, and an act of love, flowing from God to Abraham and to Jews throughout time immemorial.
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendents after you for generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendents after you." (Genesis 17:7, TNIV)
Teachers: I feel that we must approach this chapter in terms of emphasizing how much God loved Abraham, Sarai, and the Jews. Abraham and Sarai had been struggling mightily with truly believing the promises of God (remember the episode with Hagar in last chapter), so God finalizing and codifying the covenant in this way only further displays how much God cares for them and how greatly God wants them to believe in the promises they’ve heard. God has yet to punish them for their unbelief up to this point and at no point during the creation of the covenant does God imply and punishment for unbelief. Blameless and faithful obedience is what God is asking of Abraham in order to see the covenant brought to fruition in his and Sarah’s life. The kids must see and understand this – to underscore God’s love throughout this section is to miss the point of the covenant. God’s expectations for obedience through the implementation of the circumcision ritual will be discussed in another section (and most likely NOT discussed in a classroom in a specific sense).
Or
Papa’s Got a Brand New Name
“Names had power in the ancient world. By naming the animals, Adam demonstrated his mastery over them. In a similar way, God’s changing Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah signifies both a reiteration of the covenant promise and the designation of these people as God’s chosen servants.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p49)
“There are no parallels in the ancient world to covenants between deity and mortal, though certainly gods are known to make demands and promise favorable treatment. In most of these cases kings report their care of the sanctuaries of the god and then tell how the deity responded with blessing. But these fall short of a covenant relationship initiated by deity for his own purposes.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p49)
“Covenant: a contractual agreement associated in the Bible with the agreement between Yahweh and the Israelites that promises land and children in exchange for exclusive worship and obedience.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament; p813)
For the fourth time in six chapters, God appears before Abram to talk about what he is to do and what God wants to do through him. God reiterates the same promises for Abram and his descendents that had already been communicated, to various levels of belief on Abram’s part. Once again, Abram hears the promise that he and Sarai will be the parents of a great nation whose numbers will grow dramatically and whose influence throughout the world would become quite prodigious.
However, some disparity presents itself; a subtle variation in God’s words becomes rather apparent. The difference between God’s declarations in this chapter compared to the declarations in chapters 11-16 is the specific mention of word “covenant.” This concept is introduced in order to establish something firm and definite between God and Abram, where vague guidelines and promised had previously existed in their relationship. This covenant contains all of the guarantees that Abram has heard before, but, for the first time, there are some ground rules and guidelines by which God asks Abram to live.
Conditionality between deity and mortal had existed before – many gods of the region had set forth agreements between themselves and their adherents. However, most of them centered around kings and rulers making sure their took care of the deity’s temples and paid them whatever money, resources, and sacrifices they demanded. Or, in other terms, these provisional arrangements were typically negative and fear-based in context and focus. The god/deity would declare what was to be done and, if the humans did not fulfill their end of the bargain, there would be destructive consequences. Yes, beneficial treatment was promised if the simple rules were followed and obeyed, but the negative results were outlined just as specifically.
“I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Genesis 17:1ff-2, TNIV)
Thus, what God was proposing in order to fulfill the promises given to Abram and Sarai was rather revolutionary for its time and place in world history. God outlined exactly what Abram would experience, what his descendents would do, and how Abram would be the beginning of it all, except that God didn’t include an “or else” clause anywhere. What makes this covenant revolutionary is how God’s purposes were intent upon blessing Abram and having Abram see all of the promises finally set into motion. God had been making promises for 6 chapters, and, with each set of promises, Abram initially expressed doubt and then finally believing after God reiterated the assurances. But when push came to shove, God displayed to Abram just how important he was in God’s eyes – God desired Abram’s obedience and that obedience would be honored with the implementation of all God had set forth.
(Side note: The only exception to this concerns the issue of male circumcision, something that, while physical in nature, is symbolic in context to how it applies to God’s promises. Circumcision will be addressed in the next section of commentary.)
“No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5, TNIV)
And how did God express concretely how Abram see the promises realized – by changing Abram’s name to Abraham. This was not merely a matter of semantics; it was the definitive means by which God was proving to Abraham how sincere and serious the terms of the covenant would be. In Hebrew, Abram means “exalted father,” which, in itself, isn’t a bad title or descriptor, especially since God had notified Abram several times that he would be a father to a great nation. However, Abraham, in Hebrew, means “father of many or a multitude,” an entirely different and much more expansive way of describing the man who would be the Patriarch of the entire Jewish race.
What is God announcing to Abraham, Sarai, and those who would read and hear these words throughout the rest of history? I would like to proffer forth the opinion that this name change that God wrought in Abraham’s life (and Sarai’s later in the chapter) was God’s means of proclaiming to all present and future generations exactly how important the covenant would be in the lives of the Hebrew people and how committed God is to seeing through to completion and execution the promises laid out to Abram in the covenant. Abraham’s new name, in and of itself, is a promise and assertion that the covenant is real, alive, and an act of love, flowing from God to Abraham and to Jews throughout time immemorial.
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendents after you for generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendents after you." (Genesis 17:7, TNIV)
Teachers: I feel that we must approach this chapter in terms of emphasizing how much God loved Abraham, Sarai, and the Jews. Abraham and Sarai had been struggling mightily with truly believing the promises of God (remember the episode with Hagar in last chapter), so God finalizing and codifying the covenant in this way only further displays how much God cares for them and how greatly God wants them to believe in the promises they’ve heard. God has yet to punish them for their unbelief up to this point and at no point during the creation of the covenant does God imply and punishment for unbelief. Blameless and faithful obedience is what God is asking of Abraham in order to see the covenant brought to fruition in his and Sarah’s life. The kids must see and understand this – to underscore God’s love throughout this section is to miss the point of the covenant. God’s expectations for obedience through the implementation of the circumcision ritual will be discussed in another section (and most likely NOT discussed in a classroom in a specific sense).
posted by APN | 6:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home