Covenant and Relationship with God - Genesis 17:1-14

Bible Study Lesson for September 2

Introduction: V. 1-3

The story begins with a time marker. Abram is now ninety-nine years old, which means that Ishmael is 13 years old. I try to point out these time markers when they appear because they remind us that we don’t have the whole story. We only get the parts that are important for the development of the covenant. In between the birth of Ishmael and this story, a lot probably happened. Ishmael is now a young man and Abram is now very old.

God speaks to Abram 13 years after his failure, and says “I will make my covenant between me and you.” This reveals some things about covenant relationship that I think we forget. First, God doesn’t say, “We will make a covenant.” God takes full responsibility for the covenant. Second, God does not consider the covenant as finished. It’s not a one-time promise that God made in Chapter 15. Making a covenant is an ongoing process. These are two ideas to keep in mind when we think about our relationship with God. God always establishes the relationship; whatever closeness we have with God is because of God’s initiative in relating to us. Second, we should always understand our relationship with God as an ongoing relationship; it is never done. Can you imagine a married couple who doesn’t feel the need to talk to each other or do anything for each other because they have arrived at perfect marital bliss just by virtue of having had a wedding ceremony?

Abram’s response to God is simply to fall on his face in reverence, which allows God to continue uninterrupted. At this point we might expect God to lay out demands for Abram, but the covenant begins with a totally different set of commitments. The beginning of the covenant is God’s promise to bless Abram and his descendants. God will make some surprising promises here.

V. 4-8 “As for Me...”

If we think about a covenant as a contract between a stronger party and a weaker party, it is perhaps surprising that God begins by making such bold promises. First God reaffirms the commitment to give Abram descendants and land. It is at this point that God decisively renames Abram; from now on he will be Abraham. Abram means “exalted father,” which was an ironic name in Genesis 12 when Abram was confronted with the reality of his childlessness. In chapter 15, Abraham seized fatherhood for himself, apart from the promise. Abraham means “father of many.” In renaming Abraham, God is emphasizing that the promise is not yet fulfilled, because this ninety-nine year old father of one will have to live up to a new name.

Likewise, God makes clear that the covenant with Abraham will be an everlasting covenant with his descendants, and that the land that Abraham lives in as an immigrant will one day be his land. It is central to Abraham’s story that he never sees the covenant promise fully realized. Likewise, even after Israel inherits the land, the promise of the eternal covenant is always under threat and historically uncertain. To believe the covenant is to constantly be learning more and more what it means to trust God.

God concludes the promise section of the covenant with the greatest promise of all: “I will be their God.” In later stories, this promise is lengthened to also represent the people’s commitment: “They will be my people and I will be their God” (see Exodus 6:7; this will also be a common refrain in Ezekiel and Jeremiah). But here—at the beginning—God merely promises to be their God. Relationship with God always begins with God’s self-offering love. In the great covenant relationship, God is the party who risks rejection. The New Testament carries this idea forward: Jesus offering himself is the ultimate act of self-offering love and risking rejection. For Abraham, the people of Israel, and Christians today, there is no application process for becoming a part of the people of God. This gives us security in relationship with God: knowing that if there is a break in this relationship, it will be we who do the breaking. God will never cut us off or cut us out. In Christ, we have God giving God’s self to us. This does not mean, however, that nothing is expected of us.

V. 9-14 “As for you...”

The central symbol of obedience to the covenant for Jews quickly became circumcision. This was especially true as Jewish people began to spread around the ancient world between the Exile and the New Testament period. Circumcision took on even more importance during this time as they were no longer able to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem due to being so far away. Here at the beginning, God calls circumcision “a sign of the covenant.” Signs and symbols are important and God says that any uncircumcised male is to be expelled from the people of God.

We need to bear in mind the New Testament’s long reflections on the place of circumcision for Christians. We talked about this a lot in our study of Romans last year, so I won’t belabor the point. We need to remember that the symbols of inclusion that we have must maintain their proper place. Walter Brueggemann points out that rituals like circumcision (and baptism) have tremendous potential to empower faith when they are understood as an affirmation that “what is said and thought must also be done.” Both circumcision and baptism represent an act of obedience that signifies entry into the community. But as these symbols are carried forward for generations, they risk becoming either meaningless and automatic rites of passage that can nurture self deception, or “instruments of oppression and conformity.” I’ll give a couple of examples.

As I said, symbols are important. In our culture, it is now common for husbands and wives to exchange rings at their wedding ceremony. Imagine a married man were to see an interesting woman out and about and, before introducing himself to her, he quietly slipped his wedding ring off and into his pocket. That would communicate an intent, or at least a willingness, to break his commitment to be faithful to his wife. But, the symbol also does not guarantee faithfulness, and the adulterer would never think to defend himself by saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong; I left my wedding ring on the whole time!”

By the time the New Testament was written, Jewish identity around the Roman Empire had become defined by practices like circumcision and dietary laws. Circumcision of sons was one of the chief ways to mark a Jewish family as children of Abraham. The problem was that this “once in a lifetime” ritual runs the risk of replacing covenant obedience and reliance on the faithfulness of God. John the Baptist warned his audience, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:8b). The outward sign of circumcision was intended to be a visible sign and reminder of the covenant, not the actual covenant itself.

Losing focus on the meaning of baptism results in the same problems for Christians. As Baptists, we believe that baptism is the sign of a person’s free acceptance of the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. We believe in adult believer’s baptism by immersion. We have argued and redefined what “adult” means over a long history, but at minimum we believe that a person being baptized should be able to decide for themselves to be baptized. From time to time, we have to address what to do with adult converts from other Christian churches, who perhaps have been baptized by sprinkling or as infants. 

Whatever decisions we make, we have to be careful not to trivialize baptism, nor to make baptism an oppressive means of achieving conformity. I tend to believe that we should respect the conscience of the person seeking membership: do they believe their baptism was meaningful or somehow deficient? Likewise, I could conceive of a situation where a person is unable to be submerged, either because of their health or the accessibility of the baptistery. In those situations, might we amend the ritual to make it possible for the person to engage in an important, symbolic act of initiation? We must always remember that the purpose of a ritual of inclusion is to be... well... inclusive, and we must be aware of and attentive for ways that our views of baptism might exclude others.

Conclusion

In exploring the ongoing relationship between God and Abraham, I believe we can see the seeds of God’s saving work in history. Exploring these fourteen verses, I have found a God who graciously initiates relationship with people. Though it is easy to forget, our relationship with God depends on God’s goodness and faithfulness and not our effort. God does provide us with ways to respond to this good and faithful grace, but we must never confuse our response with a way of earning or securing our salvation. Our entry into the community of faith by our baptism is a symbol of our desire and commitment to live faithfully to this faithful God.