God’s Symbol of Promise – Genesis 17:1-27

Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising

Genesis 17:1-27; June 14, 2026 Sunday PM

God’s Symbol of Promise

Last week we studied Genesis 16 and the choice Abram and Sarai made to fulfill God’s promise of a child. Hagar had given birth to a son, Abram’s son, and his name was Ishmael.

Abram was 86 at the time. Even though a son was born, he was not the son of promise. God’s grace in the words and promise to Hagar did not reflect the same promise God had given to Abram, and so the promised son was yet to be brought forth.

As we come to Genesis 17 this evening, we see an important revelation by God in the rite of circumcision and what that was all about. Pray.

1. Circumcision Instituted (17:1-14)

17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

Abram is now 99 years old.

When Abram was 75 he left Haran as Genesis 12:4 notes. That was right after God had first given to him the promise of land, a family, and the blessing.

Within that promise was the promise of a family.

God was kind and rescued Abram and Sarai from their lie as they went to Egypt for good.

God continued to protect His promise when Lot chose his land, and even as Lot was captured and rescued by Abram.

In chapter 15 God repeated His promised and Abram looks to the stars that God used as an illustration and he believed.

To emphasize the promise of land, God cuts a covenant and adds more details.

When Hagar was born, Abram was 86, and that was 11 years since God’s initial promise to Abram.

Now in chapter 17 Abram is 99 years old – 24 years since God initially made His promise to Abram. And yet, there is no child yet.

That is a long time for a person to wait for a child to be born, especially when we consider the human factor of one’s ability to conceive at an older age.

But here, at age 99, God again promises to Abram that He would multiply Abram exceedingly. The LORD begins by identifying Himself as Almighty God (אֲנִי־אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י) and then urges Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. Perhaps that instruction was particularly made in response to the situation with Hagar and Ishmael – no more of these alternative plans, Abram.

Notice Abram’s respectful response:

3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

What an amazing thing Abram witnesses here. He humbly falls on His face, and God talks with him.

Has there been silence from God since he was 86 years old, 13 years?

God tells to Abram essentially what He had said before, but he hears it again. To stamp the promise deeply into Abram’s mind, the LORD changes his name to reflect the promise: father of many nations.

Names in the bible are important as they reflect the wishes of the parents, or here the very promise of God.

God told Hagar what to name his child, and the Angel in Matthew 1 told Joseph what to name Jesus. Now it is Abram’s turn. Each time his name would be said and pondered it would be a reminder of God’s promise.

And so God speaks to Abraham and speaks as if this had already taken place. God has made him a father of many nations, even when the circumstances have not unfolded in the present.

Abraham would have the privilege of having future nations come from him, future kings. Notice in verse 7 that the promise to Abraham is not just with him but also with his descendants as an everlasting covenant. God would be their God, and verse 8, God would give to them this land … as an everlasting possession.

Certainly language like this informs our understanding of the present and Israel’s claim to the land. Our kindness toward Israel as a country is rooted in scriptural passages such as this, which is why no doubt in my mind there is such an obvious attempt in the present to downplay claims like this and continually to speak of the land as occupied.

I am a simpleton when it comes to these things, and it sounds like God has given to Abraham’s offspring that land. I do not recall reading about Ishmael’s land promise.

God promised these things to Abraham, but now God asks Abraham and his offspring to do something about this. God would keep His promise, but they had to act upon His commandment here:

9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

God gave specific instruction that was to be done for every male child among his family. This act of circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant between Himself and Abraham. Every male son born to Abraham or acquired and put within the family was to have this procedure done. It was to be done when the child was eight days old.

Now, we have to admit when we observe this that at first take, this seems a bit strange. We don’t normally go around and talk about things like this, but this was God’s commandment to Abraham and all who would come after him.

This surgical act would obviously make a permanent mark and send the message forever of God’s covenant with Abraham and his family. At the age of 8 days there was nothing this child could have really done to gain this designation. It was simply done to the child.

There is probably a play on words here as well in verse 14 whereby the child who is not circumcised would eventually be cut off from his people because he has broken God’s covenant. Initially, it would certainly be the parent’s decision. But later, if the child recognized the error, he could voluntarily have it done so he could comply with God’s commandment. We see examples of older boys, men, having this done in some of the later narratives.

And so we have here the initiation of God’s symbolic act of circumcision that signaled God’s covenant with them.

2. Focus on Sarai/Sarah (17:15-22)

15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

For the first time in Genesis, as far as I can tell, this is now the first time the LORD God has made it crystal clear that the promised child would come specifically from Sarai, now Sarah.

On a human level, we could ask this question: why could God not have said this back in Genesis 12 when Abram was 75-years old? If God had clarified it then, so we might reason, perhaps everything would have turned out differently. Abraham was a man of faith, and so why could not the LORD have saved a whole lot of grief and mentioned this specifically earlier?

But that is to question the wisdom of God and His timing and revelation, and we are best not to go down that road. God has His purposes for why He does everything as He does, and His timing is always precise. If we applied logic to everything in the bible, we would have God prevent sin from entering the world in Genesis 3, and thus the rest of the bible would have been completely different.

We have certainly pondered that before, but we must deal with the way God did unfold history and hence the future.

In any case, now we have Sarah receiving a name change and the promise. Notice that God is still speaking to Abraham. Not only would Abraham be the father of many nations, now his wife Sarah would be designated as the mother of nations. She too would have future sons as kings.

And so the promise is very clear now.

Notice what Abraham thinks of this:

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Abraham, the man of faith, now exhibits what seems to be some doubt. Abraham had earlier fallen on his face (17:3) and respectfully heard the word of the LORD. Now he falls on his face and laughs. He reasons to the LORD that at their age, this did not make any sense. In other words, it would seem, that even to this point Abraham and Sarah still have a working understanding that Ishmael could really be the one.

You know how it can be in our minds. We read the bible, hear what it says, try to believe all those wonderful things. But then there is the reality that we sometimes have: yes, the bible says this, but in reality we have to make it happen. We have to get things done rather than wait around for some wording in a psalm or epistle come to pass. Right? We have this disconnect between our pious faith at church among the people and our day-to-day pragmatism that we really prefer.

I’ve heard this as a pastor also. It’s as if the bible and God can handle the small problems, but the big issues require the experts of our day who can give the real solutions.

What does Abraham mean by that last phrase? Maybe it is this: LORD, let your promise extend through Ishmael because he is here, right now. May He be under your blessing (be before you).

Now remember, Abraham was 86 when Ishmael was born, and Abraham was now 99. Thus, Ishmael has been in their home for 13 years now. He’s in 8th grade, growing, learning. Why not him, LORD? With this statement we now see what we see several times down the road where God has distinct promises with different children.

Abraham’s reaction to God’s promise of a Sarah-born child was laughter, but the LORD does not chide him for this and simply corrects his error:

19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

God clarifies the truth for Abraham. In hearing verse 19, we might think of the Angel’s response to Joseph in Matthew 1 as we hear the promise of a son and the name. What we don’t see here is the explanation of the name Isaac, though we did see Abraham’s laughter in verse 17.

We have all heard this taught in the past no doubt, as the name Isaac means laughter. Sarah will later share in this laughter (18:12; 21:6).

As we think of the name Isaac, we might think of Yitzhak Rabin, the former two-term prime minister of Israel, who was assassinated in 1995. His name Yitzhak is the Hebrew pronunciation of Isaac. Many Jewish people have named their children Isaac.

The name Isaac sends a message just as circumcision illustrates a promise. The ways of the LORD are to symbolize His promises and His commandments in tangible ways.

The LORD did not ignore their wishes for Ishmael and now explains his future:

20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

Just as Hagar received a promise of encouragement, of sorts, about her son Ishmael, now too Abraham gets news of his future. Yes, the LORD said, He would bless Ishmael and give him future children as well. He will have a very large family. He too will have twelve princes (as would Jacob) and in the end a very great nation.

In essence, God’s promise through Ishmael is that he would have children and some even rulers – 12 princes. But the promise is just that. Verse 21 contrasts the promise to Ishmael with the promise through Isaac in that Ishmael and his family essentially would be outside looking in, while Isaac would enjoy the covenant promises of Abraham of land, people, and God’s blessing.

The LORD is very specific this time: next year Sarah would give forth a son. Now the clock is ticking. God’s promise is on the calendar and they now could watch the days unfold. In other words, in three months Sarah would become pregnant.

We’ll see how they both react to this as it unfolds in chapter 18, but now notice we have the record of Abraham following through with this new command of circumcision.

3. Circumcision Done (17:23-27)

23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.

That last phrase is precisely what we see here: as God had said to Abraham, so he did. We don’t have any record here of Abraham balking at this strange new rite; we have the record of Abraham hearing God and then doing it. Yes, he did laugh at God’s clarification of a son through Sarah, but God simply corrected that with His clear word.

And so, Abraham took care of what God had said. The text indicates that Abraham did this to himself, unless it is written as if he did it by using a proxy. But it sounds like Abraham did this himself. Think of the awkwardness of this at the different ages we have here. Ishmael was 13, and the others in the house were probably much older.

Sometimes the work of the Lord is hard, and perhaps even harder to explain. But we must obey, and we see Abraham doing that here. He did not exclude himself either:

24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; 27 and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

And so God has established this new rite for Abraham’s offspring to continue as a symbol of God’s promise.

As we come to the New Testament, we do see this rite become an issue that the early church had to work through. No longer after the cross would circumcision need to be done to signal God’s promise and inclusion in His promises. But that is to get ahead of ourselves.

For those who have gone through these chapters in the past, perhaps many times, we recognize that we are in the middle of some of the most dramatic narratives in the scripture. God’s future people hinge on this one pregnancy and birth. Next time we will see that begin to unfold in this very important and interesting story.

What can we grasp from Genesis 17 for our own lives?

1. God uses time for His purposes. Time gives us, gave Abraham, time to wait upon the Lord. We look at time as a negative so often, but it is the soil in which God causes our faith to grow if we let it. James 1 tells us to persevere so that we are not lacking anything. God builds character in us through the passage of time and an increasing trust in Him. Thus, let us not balk at the passing of time, but embrace it for God’s glory.

2. It is God who establishes signs and symbols for His work. We have circumcision here signaling the covenant between God and Abraham, between God and Abraham’s offspring. Ishmael’s name and Isaac’s name signal what God has done, or in Issac’s case, the human reaction to what God would do. Abraham did not come up with something creative to remember God’s promise; it was God who established it. In the NT, it was Jesus who established the remembrance of His work for us on the cross. In my mind, this reminds me that it is God who establishes how we remember Him. And so let us remember Him in all these things.

3. God’s ways are clearly not our ways. This is a lesson we have to learn over and over. We apply our human logic to the ways of God, and so often we find ourselves down the wrong road or accusing God of something that is absurd. He is pleased to bring about His amazing promises through the frailty of the likes of us. In the NT, we see Paul speak about us as earthen vessels “that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7b). Peter and John deferred attention from themselves to Jesus, for it was not their power that healed the lame man but God’s. God would use an elderly couple to have a child of promise to signal to the world that God’s ways are not man’s ways. May we never forget that as we do His work even today. Our weapons are prayer and the Word of God, not by might or power as the world says. May we glorify God in our weakness as we trust in God to do what only He can do.