Genesis 17:1-8. 1When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
In Genesis 15, God cut the covenant with Abraham (Abram). Abraham’s ever growing doubts forced him to ask two bold questions of God, “What will you give me?” and “How will I know?” On that starry night, God added to his promise from Genesis 12. Your offspring will come from your own body, Abraham. You will have a biological son. Not Lot. Not Eliezer. And to make sure Abraham understood God’s faithfulness to him, he cut the covenant and walked through the bloody pieces alone as Abraham sat entranced.
Then came the debacle that is Genesis 16. Once again, Abraham failed to care for his wife Sarah. Together, their failure to seek God left a pregnant woman on the run through the wilderness. Surely Abraham’s failures throughout this spectacle would negate the covenant. Nope. Remember, in Genesis 15, God made a covenant with God. God stood in for Abraham as his substitute. God walked through twice. What does that mean? It means that nothing Abraham does, no failure, no faithlessness, no fear, can remove God’s covenant love and mercy from his life. No probation period? No time out? No set back to God’s plan? No, God doesn’t move based on our response to him. He moves based on his perfect will. His gracious, loving will. In fact, God will respond to Genesis 16 with Genesis 17, the covenant repeated and…growing?
And so here in Genesis 17 we hear things we haven’t heard before. God gives even more grace. You will be the father of a multitude of nations, not just one nation, but many. Kings shall come from you, not just sons, but princes. This covenant is an everlasting covenant; it will have no end. The land will be your everlasting possession. And the greatest of promises, I will be God to you. And not some lesser, local deity, but God Almighty, El Shaddai. The God of all protection and provision.
This IS the covenant, possessing God and possessed by God. This is something unlike anything else in ancient religion. An intimate relationship, a friendship, whereby Abraham will become like his god, thus restoring the image of God on Earth.
Genesis 17: 1. “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
It’s been twenty-three years since the cutting of the covenant and six chapters into the story of Abraham before we get a command. Walk before me and be blameless. This is the nature of every covenant. It is always a two-way street. Both parties make promises to each other. In a covenant where clearly one king (God) is far superior to the other (Abraham), the greater king declares the terms. The lesser king simply says, OK.
God is asking Abraham to live a life of obedience. Blameless obedience. To submit. To walk in the ways of God not the world (like he did with Hagar). This command from God stirs up several questions:
Does God need Abraham to obey? No. The self-sufficient I Am does not need anything, even our obedience. There is nothing we can do to add anything to God.
Will Abraham walk blamelessly from now on? Keep reading (Hint: No).
Will God cancel the covenant with Abraham when he sins? Abraham will sin again, and God won’t cancel this everlasting covenant. It will remain an unconditional covenant for Abraham. God is requiring the righteousness of Abraham, but Abraham has already been declared righteous by his faith in God (Gen. 15:6). Abraham is imputed with righteousness because God, his substitute, is righteous.
So why will God start making demands of Abraham now? Because God is moving Abraham from passive faith (hearing the promises of God and trusting them), to active faith (walking blameless before God). Not to earn his righteousness, but because he has been granted righteousness as a gift.
Hopefully by now you can see the parallels between the covenant with Abraham and the covenant that Christ has made with us, his Church, the New Covenant.
Does God need our obedience? Since we have the same God as, no he does not.
Will we walk worthy (Eph. 4:1), in love (Eph. 5:2), in the light (Eph. 5:8), in wisdom (Eph. 5:15)? I know I don’t and won’t.
Will God cancel the New Covenant with us when we sin? Never. The New Covenant is also an everlasting covenant founded upon Christ’s sinless life. Like Abraham, we are declared righteous by faith in Jesus, an imputed righteousness is now ours by our union with Christ.
So why does God make demands of us if Jesus already did it all? Because like Abraham, we are called to move from passive faith (simple faith in the word and promises of God in Christ), to active faith (walking in the good works that God has graciously given to us to do). Not to earn our righteousness, but because we have been granted righteousness as a gift.
You: Do you live a life of both passive faith in Christ (he has done it all) and active faith from Christ (he empowers me to do it all)?
You in Christ: How does our position in Christ allow us to trust all of his New Covenant promises to us?
Christ in you: How does our union with Christ allow us to walk blamelessly before him? Why must we know that we are counted as blameless before we can walk blamelessly?
Prayer: Father, you are my El-Shaddai that empowers me to live a life of righteousness before you, only because I know that Jesus has already lived the required life for me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 