October 19, 2025 - Genesis 17:1-14 - "God's Everlasting Covenant"

Genesis 17:1-14

"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And 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 unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant."

When Abram was ninety and nine years old, the LORD appeared to him. Thirteen years had passed since his last recorded word from God. He had lived on the promise that God had revealed, waiting for the LORD to fulfill what He had said. Yet God had not forgotten. The covenant still stood, unbroken, and the LORD appeared again in Grace and Mercy.

“I am the Almighty God,” He said — El Shaddai. The One Who has His hand on everything. Not merely in control, but ordering all things. The One by Whom we live and move and have our being. The One Who gives breath and causes even a sneeze or a cough. Here was the LORD revealing His name, His character, and His covenant purpose. Whenever the LORD has something to say to a sinner by way of Grace, it is always through the LORD Jesus Christ.

This appearance to Abram was no mere vision. It was, as throughout the scriptures, a manifestation of the LORD in the person of Jesus Christ before His incarnation — the same Who walked in the garden, Who spoke to Hagar by the well, Who would later come in the flesh. He is the Almighty, the Eternal I AM, revealing Himself as the covenant LORD (John 1:1,14).

“Walk before Me and be thou perfect.” Not sinless perfection, but completeness — to be whole in His presence. The call of God to Abram was not to produce something, but to be something as he walked before the Almighty. So too, Christ Himself, the true Seed, walked before His Father in perfect obedience, the fulfillment of all Righteousness. Abram is a type — a foreshadowing — of Christ. The father of many nations, as Christ is the Father of the redeemed seed given to Him by the Father before the foundation of the world.

The LORD said, “I will make My covenant between Me and thee.” Those words echo through eternity. The covenant of Grace was not the work of man, but of God Himself. Abram could not produce it; he could only believe it. It was God’s “I will,” not Abram’s “I shall.” And here we see Christ again — the One with Whom the Father made an everlasting covenant before the world began. Abram’s life was a shadow of that eternal purpose.

Then the LORD changed his name — from Abram to Abraham. From “father” to “father of many nations.” Though he had no child according to the promise, yet God declared what He would do. “A father of many nations have I made thee.” In Christ this is fulfilled, for as Paul said in Galatians 3:16, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Through Him, nations and kings would come forth — a kingdom of priests, redeemed by His blood.

“I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant.” That everlasting covenant finds its fullness only in Christ. He is the Seed. He is the Everlasting Possession. The land of promise, and the inheritance is His — and all Who are in Him are heirs together with Him.

And God gave a sign — the sign of circumcision. “This is My covenant, which ye shall keep… every man child among you shall be circumcised.” On the eighth day, every male child was to bear this sign, pointing forward to that day when Joseph and Mary would bring the child Jesus into the temple, and Simeon, by the Spirit, would behold the true fulfillment (Luke 2:21-39). There He was — the Man-Child of Promise, the Seed of the woman, the One Who would bruise the serpent’s head.

Circumcision is a painful cutting away of the flesh, a shadow of the greater circumcision to come in the death of the LORD Jesus on the cross, where the flesh of sin was cut off of His people and cast away as a foreskin, never more to be seen. For Christ Himself bore the circumcision of suffering — the cutting away of sin in His flesh upon the cross. The ceremony of the circumcision of the flesh was never salvation. It foreshadowed the suffering of Christ — the baptism of His death. There on the cross, He bore the sin of His people, and it was cut away and cast aside forever. The covenant was sealed in His blood. So when God said, “My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant,” He was pointing to Christ. The covenant in His flesh, pierced and broken, by which every promise is fulfilled.

El Shaddai — the Almighty God — still speaks the same word today: “Walk before Me and be thou perfect.” In Christ we are made whole. In the Mediator of the Covenant we are saved! And in His seed — the LORD Jesus Christ — we are counted among the nations of promise, the everlasting family of faith.