The mark of God’s blessing
For study leader: At the age of 99, i.e. not before Abraham counted himself as good as dead (Heb 11:12), Abraham is circumcised: As an outward sign of a promised salvation so that they may know, understand and walk before God in Abraham’s faith, he is asked to have every male of his household circumcised as well.
Warm-up: What difference does it make in your work organization, church, or family whether you are left in the dark about its purpose and strategy, or whether you are informed what is going on?
Read Gen 17
1) vv1-2: If you compare this new epiphany with previous revelations to Abraham, what is new here?
- What distinguished God’s covenant with Abraham from the one with Noah, Gen 6:18?
- v1: What prompted God to speak to Abraham again? [Age of 100-1 years]
- vv17-18 show that Abraham had settled for Ishmael. Why?
- Why did God not allow this, vv2+7 [Hint: What if he would have?]
2) vv15-21: How did God’s blessing for the promised son of Sarah differ from that for the son of Hagar, v19?
- Read Gal 4:21-26. What was Paul’s allegorical interpretation of these different blessings? [Mount Sinai, also known as “Agar”, perhaps named after Hagar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar#cite_note-9]
- How does the ‘present Jerusalem’ resemble Hagar’s offspring?
- vv5+15: How did Sarai’s offspring warrant a change of her own and Abram’s (v5) names? [Sarai: My princess. Sarah: Princess, v15, and Abram (Noble Father) Abraham (Father of many)]
- In what sense did Abraham become the ‘father of many‘: Many believers, circumcised or not? cf Ro 4:10
- Why did Abraham need to know any of this? Why not let Sarah have Isaac and let history run its course without bothering to tell Abraham?
- And why should we care? In other words, why consider what God says in the Bible about his plan for every believer? Hint: What did knowing God’s promise do to Abraham? cf Ro 4:19-21 [It inspired and sustained Abraham’s faith that saved him]
3) God apparently told Abraham not before the age of 99 that he should ‘walk before him and be perfect’. Why only now?
- v1: What did this mean to ‘walk before God and be blameless’? cf Mi 6:8
- Did God decide that it was about time now for Abraham to ‘get his act together’? Why not?
- Why does God want us to be blameless?
- To be ‘good enough for God’? Or because we need it? cf Mt 9:11-12; 1Pet 2:11
- ESV renders v1 as the condition for v2 (“…that I may make my covenant…”). More literal translations state that God was about to establish a covenant unconditionally, or else there would have been no covenant for Abraham to keep in the first place.
4) (If time permits) vv9-14: Who was to be circumcised and why?
- What did circumcision signify in the OT? cf Deut 10:16
- Read Ro 4:11 (‘…seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised’) => How could circumcision “seal” a righteousness? Hint: What were seals used for in antiquity?
5) (If time permits) The Christian church at some point banned the practice of circumcision. Why? 1Cor 7:18-19; Gal 5:2.
- How else is circumcision still applied to every believer? cf Phil 3:3
- Read Col 2:11 How are believers ‘circumcised without hands’?
- Could this refer to the sacrament of baptism (Col 2:13)? [Water baptism is administered by human hands as well]
- Read Ro 2:29 -> In what sense is circumcision “by the Spirit”? cf Eph 1:13-14
6) Personal and application
- What do you think determines whether and how Christians pursue blamelessness?
- What does it mean for Christians to ‘walk before God’? Are all God’s people called to be perfect? (Deut 18:13, Mt 5:48)
- How do you define ‘blamelessness’? Does that definition include humility?
- Do you view God’s command to be blameless as a demand, or as a promise? Why?
- Should you regard yourself as someone who has the same promise as Abraham to partner in this covenant with God? What difference does that make? cf Gal 4:28-29
- Like in previous chapters, the writer describes God and not Abraham as the one initiating this covenant relationship. How does that compare to your actual experience of how God’s covenant came to include you?
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