And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
2. And I will make my covenant ] See note on Gen 15:9; Gen 15:18. The words of this verse imply no knowledge of the covenant described in chap. 15. The covenant has yet to be made. P’s account of the covenant is different from that of J; and, the two traditions being distinct, there is no allusion here to the previous narrative.
fell on his face ] The prostration of humility and reverence, as in Gen 17:17. Cf. Num 14:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am come to renew, establish, and enlarge that covenant which I formerly made with thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And I will make my covenant between me and thee,…. The covenant of circumcision, so called from the token of it, which God is said to make or give e, being his own constitution, and depended on his sovereign will and pleasure, see Ac 7:8;
and will multiply thee exceedingly; as he had before promised at several times, and now renews it, lest be should think that Ishmael was the promised seed; for though Hagar’s seed is promised to be multiplied, yet here Abram’s seed by Sarai is intended, which should be exceeding exceedingly, or in great abundance multiplied; and especially as this may include both his natural seed by her, and his spiritual seed among all nations, who are of the same faith with him, see
Ge 12:2.
e “dabo”, Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. And I will make my covenant He now begins more fully and abundantly to explain what he had before alluded to briefly. We have said that the covenant of God with Abram had two parts. The first was a declaration of gratuitous love; to which was annexed the promise of a happy life. But the other was an exhortation to the sincere endeavor to cultivate uprightness, since God had given, in a single word only, a slight taste of his grace; and then immediately had descended to the design of miscalling; namely, that Abram should be upright. He now subjoins a more ample declaration of his grace, in order that Abram may endeavor more willingly to form his mind and his life, both to reverence towards God, and to the cultivation of uprightness; as if God had said ‘See how kindly I indulge thee: for I do not require integrity from thee simply on account of my authority, which I might justly do; but whereas I owe thee nothing, I condescend graciously to engage in a mutual covenant.’ He does not, however, speak of this as of a new thing: but he recalls the memory of the covenant which he had before made, and now fully confirms and establishes its certainty. For God is not wont to utter new oracles, which may destroy the credit, or obscure the light, or weaken the efficacy of those which preceded; but he continues, as in one perpetual tenor, those promises which he has once given. Wherefore, by these words, he intends nothing else than that the covenant, of which Abram had heard before should be established and ratified: but he expressly introduces that principal point, concerning the multiplication of seed, which he afterwards frequently repeats.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) I will make my covenant.In Gen. 15:18 the Heb. word for make is cut, and refers to the severing of the victims; here it is give, place, and implies that it was an act of grace on Gods part (comp. Note on Gen. 9:9). Abram had now waited twenty-five years after leaving Ur-Chasdim, and fourteen or fifteen years since the ratification of the solemn covenant between him and Jehovah (Gen. 15:17); but the time had at length arrived for the fulfilment of the promise, and in token thereof Abram and Sarai were to change their names, and all the males be brought near to God by a solemn sacrament.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. I will make my covenant The formal and symbolical cutting of the covenant was described in chap . xv; here Jehovah gives Abram the sign and seal of the covenant . Accordingly we note that in chap . 15:18, the Hebrew expression is cut ( ) a covenant; here it is give ( ) a covenant . “The freedom of the covenant of promise is expressed in this latter phrase . It was a gift from a superior, rather than a bargain between equals; and as it was accompanied by the rite of circumcision, it was typical of the freedom of that covenant made afterwards to Christians, and sealed to them in the sacred rite of baptism . ” Speaker’s Commentary .
Gen 17:2. I will make my covenant, &c. “Continue thou to do thy part, and I will continue stedfast to the purpose of making my covenant, and establishing it with thee; and I appear to thee now to renew and confirm it.” Struck with the awfulness of the Divine appearance, Abram fell prostrate on his face, and in this humble posture received the sacred oracles of his God.
REFLECTIONS.We have here another manifestation of God’s presence to the holy patriarch, for his comfort and support under the long exercise of his faith and patience. Observe,
1. The humble posture he appeared in before God: on his face. Learn, (1.) The nearer we come to God, the more shall we feel our sinfulness and vileness before him. (2.) Reverence and holy awe should be upon our heart and countenance, when we are speaking before God. (3.) When we are thus found before God in worship, God will be found near us in blessing.
2. The promise and command given to Abram. (1.) The promise, “I am God Almighty, or the pourer forth of blessings, I will multiply thee, &c.” Note; 1. He who promises is able also to perform; for he is Almighty in himself, and All-sufficient for us. 2. They who have God as their Covenant-God, have enough, nor need wish for more, except an increase in the enjoyment of him. (2.) His command: “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.”
Learn, 1. He who offers himself to be our God has a right to expect that we should be his entirely-devoted people. 2. God can ask for no less than our whole heart, and we can surely make him no less an offer.
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Charming view of Abram’s faith and humility. So, depend upon it more or less, are all Abram’s spiritual children. See Dan 8:17 – Dan 10:15 ; Rev 1:17 .
Reader! do not overlook the expression. God calls it his Covenant. Yes! a Covenant ordered in all things, and sure, must be God’s. And it is the happiness of his people, that He who hath made it, undertakes for its accomplishment. Jer 32:40 ; Isa 54:10 . Under this verse, it may not be amiss to remark, that Abram had more children naturally considered, than any other of the Patriarchs; and spiritually, who shall number them? Rom 4:10 ; Rev 7:9 .
Gen 17:2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
Ver. 2. And I will make my covenant. ] This is now the fifth confirmation of the Covenant; which shows that it is the alpha and omega , the first, second, and third of our salvation; and it is fit we should be well studied in it, and assured of our interest. For as the mercy seat was no larger than the ark, Exo 25:10-17 so neither is the grace of God than the covenant. And as the ark and mercy seat were never separated; so neither is his mercy from his people.
Genesis
WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS
Gen 17:1 – Gen 17:9 Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He was ninety-nine when God appeared to him, as recorded in this chapter. There had been three divine communications in these twenty-five years-one at Bethel on entering the land, one after the hiving off of Lot, and one after the battle with the Eastern kings. The last-named vision had taken place before Ishmael’s birth, and therefore more than thirteen years prior to the date of the lesson.
We are apt to think of Abraham’s life as being crowded with supernatural revelations. We forget the foreshortening necessary in so brief a sketch of so long a career, which brings distant points close together. Revelations were really but thinly sown in Abram’s life. For something over thirteen years he had been left to walk by faith, and, no doubt, had felt the pressure of things seen, silently pushing the unseen out of his life.
Especially would this be the case as Ishmael grew up, and his father’s heart began to cling to him. The promise was beginning to grow dimmer, as years passed without the birth of the promised heir. As Gen 17:18 of this chapter shows, Abram’s thoughts were turning to Ishmael as a possible substitute. His wavering confidence was steadied and quickened by this new revelation. We, too, are often tempted to think that, in the highest matters, ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ and to wish that God would be content with our Ishmaels, which satisfy us, and would not withdraw us from possessed good, to make us live by hope of good unseen. We need to reflect on this vision when we are thus tempted.
1. Note the revelation of God’s character, and of our consequent duty, which preceded the repetition of the covenant. ‘I am the Almighty God.’ The aspect of the divine nature, made prominent in each revelation of Himself, stands in close connection with the circumstances or mental state of the recipient. So when God appeared to Abram after the slaughter of the kings, He revealed Himself as ‘thy Shield’ with reference to the danger of renewed attack from the formidable powers which He had bearded and beaten. In the present case the stress is laid on God’s omnipotence, which points to doubts whispering in Abram’s heart, by reason of God’s delay in fulfilling His word, and of his own advancing years and failing strength. Paul brings out the meaning of the revelation when he glorifies the faith which it kindled anew in Abram, ‘being fully assured that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform’ Rom 4:21. Whenever our ‘faith has fallen asleep’ and we are ready to let go our hold of God’s ideal and settle down on the low levels of the actual, or to be somewhat ashamed of our aspirations after what seems so slow of realisation, or to elevate prudent calculations of probability above the daring enthusiasms of Christian hope, the ancient word, that breathed itself into Abram’s hushed heart, should speak new vigour into ours. ‘I am the Almighty God-take My power into all thy calculations, and reckon certainties with it for the chief factor. The one impossibility is that any word of Mine should fail. The one imprudence is to doubt My word.’
What follows in regard to our duty from that revelation? ‘Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.’ Enoch walked with God; that is, his whole active life was passed in communion with Him. The idea conveyed by ‘walking before God’ is not precisely the same. It is rather that of an active life, spent in continual consciousness of being ‘naked and opened before the eyes of Him to whom we have to give account.’ That thrilling consciousness will not paralyse nor terrify, if we feel that we are not only ‘ever in the great Task-Master’s eye,’ but that God’s omniscience is all-knowing love, and is brought closer to our hearts and clothed in gracious tenderness in Christ whose ‘eyes were as a flame of fire,’ but whose love is more ardent still, who knows us altogether, and pities and loves as perfectly as He knows.
What sort of life will spring from the double realisation of God’s almightiness, and of our being ever before Him? ‘Be thou perfect.’ Nothing short of immaculate conformity with His will can satisfy His gaze. His desire for us should be our aim and desire for ourselves. The standard of aspiration and effort cannot be lowered to meet weakness. This is nobility of life-to aim at the unattainable, and to be ever approximating towards our aim. It is more blessed to be smitten with the longing to win the unwon than to stagnate in ignoble contentment with partial attainments. Better to climb, with faces turned upwards to the inaccessible peak, than to lie at ease in the fat valleys! It is the salt of life to have our aims set fixedly towards ideal perfection, and to say, ‘I count not myself to have apprehended: but . . .I press toward the mark.’ Toward that mark is better than to any lower. Our moral perfection is, as it were, the reflection in humanity of the divine almightiness.
The wide landscape may be mirrored in an inch of glass. Infinity may be, in some manner, presented in miniature in finite natures. Our power cannot represent God’s omnipotence, but our moral perfection may, especially since that omnipotence is pledged to make us perfect if we will walk before Him.
2. Note the sign of the renewed covenant. Compliance with these injunctions is clearly laid down as the human condition of the divine fulfilment of it. ‘Be thou perfect’ comes first; ‘My covenant is with thee’ follows. There was contingency recognised from the beginning. If Israel broke the covenant, God was not unfaithful if He should not adhere to it. But the present point is that a new confirmation is given before the terms are repeated. The main purpose, then, of this revelation, did not lie in that repetition, but in the seal given to Abram by the change of name.
Another sign was also given, which had a wider reference. The change of name was God’s seal to His part. Circumcision was the seal of the other party, by which Abram, his family, and afterwards the nation, took on themselves the obligations of the compact.
The name bestowed is taken to mean ‘Father of a Multitude.’ It was the condensation into a word, of the divine promise. What a trial of Abram’s faith it was to bid him take a name which would sound in men’s ears liker irony than promise! He, close on a hundred years old, with but one child, who was known not to be the heir, to be called the father of many! How often Canaanites and his own household would smile as they used it! What a piece of senile presumption it would seem to them! How often Abram himself would be tempted to think his new name a farce rather than a sign! But he took it humbly from God, and he wore it, whether it brought ridicule from others or assurance in his own heart. It takes some courage for any of us to call ourselves by names which rest on God’s promise and seem to have little vindication in present facts. The world is fond of laughing at ‘saints,’ but Christians should familiarise themselves with the lofty designations which God gives His children, and see in them not only a summons to life corresponding, but a pledge and prophecy of the final possession of all which these imply. God calls ‘things that are not, as though they were’; and it is wisdom, faith, and humility-not presumption-which accepts the names as omens of what shall one day be.
The substance of the covenant is mainly identical with previous revelations. The land is to belong to Abram’s seed. That seed is to be very numerous. But there is new emphasis placed on God’s relation to Abram’s descendants. God promises to be ‘a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,’ and, again, ‘I will be their God’ Gen 17:7 – Gen 17:8. That article of the old covenant is repeated in the new Jer 31:33, with the addition, ‘And they shall be My people,’ which is really involved in it. We do not read later more spiritual ideas into the words, when we find in them here, at the very beginning of Hebrew monotheism, an insight into the deep truth of the reciprocal possession of God by us, and of us by God. What a glimpse into the depths of that divine heart is given, when we see that we are His possession, precious to Him above all the riches of earth and the magnificences of heaven! What a lesson as to the inmost blessedness of religion, when we learn that it takes God for its very own, and is rich in possessing Him, whatever else may be owned or lacking!
To possess God is only possible on condition of yielding ourselves to Him. When we give ourselves up, in heart, mind, and will, to be His, He is ours. When we cease to be our own, we get God for ours. The self-centred man is poor; he neither owns himself nor anything besides, in any deep sense. When we lose ourselves in God, we find ourselves, and being content to have nothing, and not even to be our own masters or owners, we possess ourselves more truly than ever, and have God for our portion, and in Him ‘all things are ours.’
exceedingly. Figure of speech Epizeuxis (greatly greatly). App-6.
And I: Gen 17:4-6, Gen 9:9, Gen 15:18, Psa 105:8-11, Gal 3:17, Gal 3:18
multiply: Gen 12:2, Gen 13:16, Gen 22:17
Reciprocal: 2Ki 13:23 – because of his covenant 1Ch 16:16 – which he made Psa 105:9 – General Rom 9:4 – covenants Gal 3:20 – but Heb 6:14 – multiplying
THE PROMISE RENEWED
I will make My covenant between Me and thee.
Gen 17:2
I. The sun, the moon, the stars, were the old gods of the Eastthe Elohim, the high and mighty ones, who ruled over men, over their good or bad fortunes, over the weather, the cattle, the crops, sending burning drought, pestilence, sunstroke, and those moonstrokes of which the Psalmist speaks when he says, The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. And these the old Easterns worshipped in some wild confused way. But to Abraham it was revealed that the sun, the moon, and the stars were not Elohim, the high and mighty ones: that there was but one Elohim, one high and mighty One, the Almighty Maker of them all.
II. Merely to believe that there is one God is a dead faithwhich will never be counted for righteousness, because it will never make a man righteous, doing righteous and good deeds as Abraham did. Abrahams faith was counted to him for righteousness because it was righteousness, and made him do righteous deeds. (1) His faith in God made him brave. He went forth he knew not whither, but he had put his trust in God and he did not fear. (2) Faith made him high-minded, generous, and courteous; as when he bids Lot go whither he will with his flocks and herds. Abraham was a plain man, dwelling in tents, but still, as the children of Heth said of him, a mighty prince, not merely in wealth of flocks and herds, but a prince in manners and a prince in heart. (3) Faith in God made Abraham a truly pious man,it made him the friend of God. His communion with God is the especial glory of Abrahams character. This gave him his name, the friend of God; or, as his descendants the Arabs call him to this day, simply The Friend.
III. Abraham believed God because there was in his heart something which there is not in all mens heartssomething which answered to Gods call, and made him certain that the call was from Godeven the Holy Spirit of God. Blessed is the man who has chosen his share of Abrahams faith: he and his children after him shall have their share of Abrahams blessing.
Canon Kingsley.
Illustration
When Abram was ninety years old and ninethus long had he tarried for the execution of Gods word.
Many a summer and winter had passed over him since he bade farewell to his country, and yet the hopes with which he entered Canaan seemed as far as ever from being realised. No sign had appeared of the fulfilment of the promise. Abram remained a childless man. Had God forgotten His word? And must the ownership of the land go to someone who was no blood descendant of his own?
Nay, just when his perplexity is greatest, there comes to him the definite and explicit assurance that his deepest longings are soon to be carried out. God never is before His time, and never is behind. When my perturbed spirit requires Him most, when the burden is heaviest to bear, when in the midnight neither moon nor stars appear, the voice of the Lord reaches me, a good and comfortable voice. Then He is a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary