By Elliot Ritzema
Scripture Reading: Genesis 17:1-27, Genesis 18:1-21, Romans 4:9-25
The life of faith often involves long periods where nothing seems to be happening, where the main thing God seems to be asking us to do is wait. We would prefer it if God zapped us in an instant, gave us what we want, took away our struggles with sin, and made us holy. But if the life of Abraham is any indication, it seems God has never worked this way.
At the beginning of Genesis 17, thirteen years had passed since Genesis 16. It had been nearly twenty-five years since Abram’s first call in Haran (Genesis 12:4). God appeared again to Abram, this time telling him he would be “the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4), kings would come from him (v.6), the covenant between him and God would be “permanent” (v.7), his name would be changed to Abraham (and his wife’s to Sarah) (vv.5,15), and circumcision was established as a sign of this covenant (v.10).
Why circumcision? This was not a unique practice in Abraham’s time; other nations did it. Here, though, God invests it with an extra layer of purpose as a sign of His covenant with Abraham. Aside from Genesis 17:11, the only other time the phrase “sign of the covenant” appears in the Bible is in Genesis 9:12–17 of the rainbow as a sign that God would not destroy the earth by a flood again. Like the rainbow with Noah, circumcision is proof of God’s covenant with Abraham. Circumcision was the sign of Abraham’s entry into God’s promise and his way of participating in the bond of the covenant.
The sign of circumcision was for all those in Abraham’s household (Genesis 17:27), not just his biological descendants. Membership in the covenant family doesn’t depend on blood, as the apostle Paul picked up in Romans when he said that the one who is of Abraham’s faith is counted among Abraham’s descendants (Romans 4:16). What matters for belonging in this covenant is our faith.
In the New Testament, baptism is a sign of God’s covenant, an indication that we have died with Christ and been raised with Him (Colossians 2:12), and a sign that we have become part of His body (1Corinthians 12:13). God elected Abraham not to bless him and his family alone but for the sake of a multitude of nations. In Jesus, that blessing finally came to pass.
In the grand scheme of things, the time Abraham had to wait was worth it given all that God was up to in his life and in the life of the world. The thing to do, when faced with a time of waiting in our own lives, is to remember God’s past faithfulness and trust that He is still at work to bring about the goodness of His promise and make us holy.
Written by Elliot Ritzema
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