GENESIS 17
If a seed of faith is to inherit the promises it must come in by God’s power. The law and the flesh profit nothing. This chapter begins, “I am Almighty God” — He can and must do everything. No movements or workings of nature are of any avail; everything that is for God must be effected by His almighty power. Now if we walk before Him in the sense of this we shall be perfect. We shall come into the good of His covenant, and obtain spiritual promotion, and we shall be prepared to accept circumcision; we shall have no confidence in the flesh.
The religious world is full of the Hagar and Ishmael principle, that something can be secured on the line of flesh and law, but all that has to be set aside. God can and must do everything if there is to be a true seed to inherit His promises. The old hymn says:
“The gracious work must all be Thine,
Begun and ended in Thy power”.
That is the lesson of this chapter; the whole work of divine grace must be of God. When we walk before God in the sense of that, we are perfect. We have no thought then of expecting anything from nature, or flesh, or law; everything must be of God. In chapter 24 Abraham says, “The God before whom I have walked”. But Jacob had to say, “The God before whom my fathers walked”; and, “The God who fed me”! Abraham and Isaac walked before God, but Jacob could only say, He fed me and cared for me. Jacob was imperfect because he was always making schemes, and working out plans to accomplish [p. 140] a divine end, but at last, he learned the whole work must be of God. God would pass all our souls to the region of perfection; God must begin and finish. When we learn that God is Almighty God, that He can and must do everything from first to last, then we can afford to let the flesh be cut off with every expectation from it. In walking before God all the conditions of perfection are present. God says, as it were, Walk before Me in the sense of what My power can and will do, and you will be all right.
There are at least ten “I wills” in this chapter which may be contrasted with the ten “Thou shalts” of the law. It is very beautiful to see how God engaged Himself to the one who believed Him; “I will set my covenant between me and thee”; He established a definite bond between Himself and Abraham in view of the great result which He would bring about. And in connection with that God gave him a new name; that is, new divine honour. It is a spiritual elevation when God gives a new name; it is like the king giving a title or a peerage. God has a right to ennoble any one; so He takes up Abram and gives him an enlargement of honour. Abram — great or high father — sets forth what he was personally as head of the family of faith: but Abraham brings into view the greatness of the family; it means “father of a multitude”, and he was to be not only father of a multitude of individuals but of a multitude of nations. God would multiply the seed of faith; He unfolds here the wide and vast result of the principle of faith and promise. The effect on Abraham was that he fell on his face; that attitude was characteristic of this chapter; he fell on his face twice: here and in connection with Sarah (verse 17).
[p. 141] What a joy it must have been to Abraham to contemplate such a great result for God! A multitude of nations and kings all begotten by the faith principle — so as to be suitable to inherit the promises of God! There is nothing so fruitful as the faith principle “exceedingly fruitful” (verse 6); it is the only principle that brings forth anything for God, because it counts only upon His power. We think sometimes of results for God in a limited way; we get narrowed up; but this is a very enlarging chapter. Abraham was to be father of a multitude of nations; nations and kings were to come out of him. It looks on to the time when nations and kings will be characterised by faith, and will be able to take up the promises and inherit them for the glory of God. In the meantime we are amongst the seed of Abraham: all saints in the church period are children of Abraham; and it is all brought about by God’s almighty power. God engaged Himself not only to produce the seed but never to fail them. “I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee” (verse 7). That is God saying, as it were, I will never fail the seed of faith, I will always be a God to them.
God has committed Himself, He has entered into covenant. A covenant supposes two parties. On God’s side He commits Himself to man and says, ‘I will’: He signs His name to it, as it were, so that we can say with holy reverence, God cannot withdraw from what He has committed Himself to. Then what comes out here is that Abraham and his seed after him had to keep God’s covenant by circumcising every male. On their side they had to keep the covenant;
[p. 142] otherwise the blessing of it would be invalidated so far as they were concerned. “The uncircumcised male ... shall be cut off from his peoples: he hath broken my covenant”. If God has committed Himself to us in grace and power, on our side the covenant of circumcision must be kept. It is a figure of the setting aside of the flesh. And this is imperative. If God undertakes to bless His people, and to be everything to them, in view of bringing to pass all His own thoughts of blessing, He will not tolerate any confidence in the flesh on their part, nor any allowance of the activity of the flesh. His people must keep His covenant, and hold themselves for Him, by circumcision. This is spiritually as true for us as for Abraham.
It is necessary to look at several Scriptures to see the spiritual import of circumcision. First look at Romans 2: 28 — “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in flesh: but he is a Jew who is so inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not of men but of God”. This shows that true circumcision is an inward thing: it is something that takes place in the heart and spirit. Then in Romans 4: 11 we get another step — “And he received the sign of circumcision as seal of the righteousness of faith which he had being in uncircumcision”. It is looked at here as a seal; Abraham got the righteousness of faith in chapter 15 and the seal of it in chapter 17. I think this suggests the gift of the Spirit as the power by which the flesh can be set aside. The Spirit is the seal of the righteousness by faith, and I think circumcision suggests the Spirit coming in as divine power for the practical setting [p. 143] aside of the flesh. The Spirit brings in the power of God — the power of Him who said to Abraham, “I am Almighty God”. How wonderful that the Spirit should be given to us as the seal of the righteousness of faith, in order that we might have power to set aside the flesh. There is no witness that God has a people here unless the flesh is set aside; and hence circumcision is imperative; the soul that refuses it is cut off; he has broken the covenant. God is not going on with the flesh and He will not have His people go on with it. The Spirit is given so that we might not go on with the flesh, but that it might be set aside practically.
Genesis 16 is like Romans 7: it is an attempt to get a divine seed on the line of law and flesh. But the way the seed comes in is by faith and resurrection power, and the Spirit is given to us as a seal of the righteousness of faith — answering in that way to circumcision — so that there might be the practical setting aside of the flesh; and if it is not set aside there is no true witness that we are in covenant relationship with God. That is our side of the covenant as seen here. “God said to Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep ... that every male among you be circumcised” (verse 9). “And the uncircumcised, who hath not been circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples; he hath broken my covenant” (verse 14). This shows how important our side is: God will not break the covenant, but we have to see to it that we keep the covenant by recognising the presence of the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit in the practical refusal of the flesh. The Spirit [p. 144] has come in as power: how important it is to walk in the sense of that! That is why God says, “Walk before me and be thou perfect”. God means us to realise that power has come in by the Spirit so that we may refuse the flesh and all its workings, and thus be manifested here as His people. As having the Spirit, our capability is equal to our responsibility.
Now turn to Colossians 2: 9, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority, in whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ”. Circumcision as alluded to in Romans would be in relation to the Spirit: in Colossians it is in relation to Christ. When I see that the fulness of the Godhead is in Christ, and that I am filled full in Christ, I do not need the addition of a single bit of anything that flesh could contribute, and I can let it go. I doubt whether any of us really accept circumcision until we see it is a great privilege and gain to do so. We are filled full in Christ, and all the fulness of the Godhead is in that blessed Man risen and glorified; we do not need a single thing outside Christ. When we see this we are prepared to accept what was done when Christ died, when He was cut off; that was circumcision — the cutting off of flesh absolutely in Christ’s death. It is the body of the flesh in its totality, and not sins (verse 9). I suppose we have all noticed that ‘sins’ ought not to be there; it is “the body of the flesh”; you are prepared to let the whole thing go because you are filled up in Christ.
[p. 145] Then Philippians 3 sums up the meaning of circumcision, “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh” (verse 3). If any one could have trusted in flesh Paul could, but he says in effect, I have cut it all off, I do not want a bit of it. It is helpful to compare Genesis 17 with Philippians 3 to see how circumcision comes in in view of the inheritance. Here is a man with his eye on the inheritance, he has the prize of God’s calling on high before him, and in view of getting possession of inheritance in a risen and glorified Christ, he accepts the cutting off of every hope and glory in connection with flesh. Then the solemn end of the chapter shows the uncircumcised cut off from the people of God. “Many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory is their shame, who mind earthly things”. They are the uncircumcised, of whom God said that they should be cut off from His people as having broken His covenant.
Then Sarai — ‘Jah is prince’ — becomes Sarah ‘Princess’. She is ennobled, too. She is a figure of Israel as the vessel of promise, but viewed as dead according to the flesh. Israel is a barren woman who could not naturally bring forth anything for God, but when she learns that princely power is with God which can act in sovereignty in spite of her state, she becomes the ‘princess’ to give birth to the seed of promise. This is a lesson which in principle we have to learn. When we learn that flesh and nature are powerless and dead, but that princely power is with God, then [p. 146] we can be honoured of God, and can bring forth Christ morally and in testimony here.
Abraham intercedes for Ishmael, but God dwells on Isaac — ‘Laughter’. Faith can laugh when God acts purely from Himself, and in His own power. Abraham could not laugh over Ishmael, because what was of the flesh came in there, but the one who could laugh over Isaac could pray, in the sense of grace, for Ishmael. Ishmael speaks of Israel according to the flesh. God would bless him in hearing prayer — a finger-post to blessing for Israel if they had taken note of it — but Isaac was the one with whom His covenant would be established, the One brought in in resurrection power, as Romans 4 would suggest. God’s goodness was there for Ishmael. He ever cared for stubborn and rebellious Israel — a nation truly like Ishmael, “a wild ass of a man”. But whenever a cry of need came, even from perverse and rebellious Israel, God heard it. Ishmael’s history would have been most instructive for Israel if they had taken heed to it. God was saying to them by it, If you only cry to Me you will get blessing. But they were too proud to take the place of need, and therefore they missed the blessing. They claimed the privileges of the covenant without realising what was involved in the sign of the covenant. Therefore they did not keep the covenant; they always had confidence in the flesh; they were never truly circumcised. God had to tell them that they were uncircumcised in heart and ears. And that is why they are now fallen and cut off. Their history is a solemn warning to all who take up divine things in a fleshly way.