Genesis 17

Genesis 17:1

The name Shaddai, rendered Almighty, denotes all sufficiency, as well as infinite power. And what strong encouragement to the study of perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord is it, that God is all-sufficient and almighty to prepare us for, assist us in, and reward us for it

Genesis 17:2

Cor. xii. 8.—“My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Phil. ii. 12, 13.—“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.” 1 Cor. xv. 58.—“Be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Ver. 2. God’s making a covenant here, and in many other places, denotes the enlargement, renewal, establishment, or confirmation of it. It cannot be imagined that, in the various instances in which this phrase is used, he had not respect to his former declarations of the same kind as still in force; Ps. cv. 8, 9, 10. Gen. xv

Genesis 17:18

Exod. xxxiv. 10—27. 1 Kings viii. 9. ver. 7, 19, 21. xviii. Ezek. xvi. 60, 62. Ver. 3. He fell on his face, in token of his fear and reverence, as being afraid and ashamed to look upon God; ver. 17. Exod. iii. 6. Lev. ix

Genesis 17:24

iii. 23. ix. 8. and xliii. 3. ix. 7. “God is greatly to be feared—to be had in reverence of all that are round about him;” and xcv. 6. “Let us worship and bow down before the Lord.” Psal. xcvi. 4, 9. and cxi. 9. Rev. xv. 4. Ver. 4. Abraham was not only the natural parent of multitudes, and the example and teacher of faith to all believers, but was the covenant-head with respect to the Israelitish nation, and was typical of Jesus Christ, as the covenant-head and father of God’s chosen ones; ch. xii. 2. Rom. iv. 16, 17. Gal. iii. 28, 29. Ver. 5. God’s giving names to persons, imports his making them to correspond with them in their condition or usefulness; ch. xxxii. 28. 2 Sam. xii

Genesis 17:25

Is. lxvii. 2, 4, 5. Rev. ii. 17. Jer. xx. 3, 4. xxiii. 6. and xxxiii. 16. Mat. i. 21. Abram signifies high father; Abraham, the high father of a multitude; Sarai, my princess; Sarah, princess of a multitude. Ver. 6. The Ishmaelites, Midianites, Edomites, Hebrews, and their kings; ver. 20. Num. xxxi. Gen. xxxvi. Mat. 1. but chiefly Jesus and his spiritual subjects; Rev. xvii. 14. xv. 3. xi. 15. and i. 6. 1 Pet. ii. 9. Psal. xlv. 16. Ver. 7, 8. Isaac, and his Hebrew descendants, were properly the nature of the land, and he had been seen with whom this covenant was established; ver. 21. By it God in Christ became, to the Hebrews in general, the head of their nation and church, and he assumed them for his peculiar people: he bestowed upon them the land of the Canaan as his land; in the enjoyment of which they tasted his goodness, and had access to contemplate the glories of the new-covenant-state, and of the heavenly blessedness; Exod. xix. 5, 6. and xx. 12.—But as it respects Christ and believers in him, it implies God’s interesting them, in all his persons and perfections, by every amiable relation, and his giving them all that he hath and doing all his works for their happiness and comfort; Ps. lxxxix

Genesis 17:27

v. 15. and xvi. 5, 6. This covenant, as it respected the Hebrew nation, together with the possession of Canaan, and the various ceremonial ordinances by which they were marked the peculiar people of God, and in the observance of which they were to enjoy their rest and prosperity: Canaan, is represented as everlasting, or for ever: but in these passages is more than a long time is meant; ch. xlviii. 4. Exod. xii. 14. xxi. 6. xxxi. 1. xxxii. 13, and xl. 15. Lev. xvi. 34. and xxv. 23, 30, 46. Num. x. 8. xv. 1. xviii. 18, 19. and xxv. 13. Deut. iv. 40. xv. 17. and xviii. 5. Josh. iv. 7. and xiv. 9. &c. But as this covenant respected Christ, and believers in him, and all the spiritual blessings contained in it, are everlasting in the strictest sense; Heb. 13. 20. and ix. 12, 16. 1 Pet. i. 4. 2 Pet. i. 11. And it is perhaps chiefly because the covenant of peculiarity with Israel, and the ordinances and blessings thereof, prefigured these eternal relations and privileges, that they are represented as everlasting. Ver. 9.—13. Circumcision is called God’s covenant, because it was a token and confirming seal of it. On God’s part, it imported that he would give them the promised Messiah out of the loins of Abraham; who, being a true man, should be cut off for the salvation of his people; that, being reconciled in Christ, he gave himself to be their God, accepted them for his people and promised them pardon of sin and sanctification of their nature and life; and xxx. 6. Col. ii. 11. On the part of the persons circumcised, it imported their acceptance of God Christ as their God, and of redemption through the blood of his Son; and the engagement to have no longer intimate friendship with the world, which he in wickedness, but to mortify their lusts, and to apply themselves to the internal and spiritual piety; Females considered as represented in the males, with respect to this ordinance, the children were not to be circumcised till the eighth day:—to teach us the neither circumcision nor baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation; and to cause till that time children and other animals were reckoned too impure for dedication to God; Exod. xxii. 30. Ver. 14. Not infants, who could not circumcise themselves, but successfully neglected this ordinance when they were grown up, were exposed to cut off from their people. Such renounced the distinguishing badge of the ham’s seed, renounced their covenant alliance with God, and fellowship of the people. Nothing could therefore be more reasonable, than that they should be excluded from the privileges of the Hebrew church and nation, and as as Heathens.—And this is perhaps the whole import of cutting off 11 people, in most of the passages where we find it; Exod. xii. 15, 19. and xxx. 33, 38. Lev. vii. 20, 21, 25, 27. xvii. 4, 9, 10, 14. and xxii. 3. Num. ix. 3. and xix. 13, 20. But, in some cases, death, by the immediate hand of God, or of the magistrate, is certainly included, or therewith connected; Exod. xxxi. 14. Lev. xviii. 20. xix. 8. and xx. 3, 5, 6, 17. Num. xv. 30, 31. And surely there is no injustice that a presumptuous and obstinate rebel against a fundamental law of the church and nation of God should be punished with death. Ver. 17. Abraham laughed, in virtue of his firm belief of the promise, and his satisfaction therein; Rom. iv. 19, 20. John viii. 56: but Sarah laughed in unbelieving derision; ch. xviii. 12. Ver. 18. Let Ishmael live, and prosper in thy favour and under thy special care; chap. xlviii. 15. Ps. xxxi. 22

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XVII.—How infinite the extent, how rich the mercy, of God’s granting himself, as God Almighty, God All-sufficient, to be my God, and the God of my seed! Let me by faith heartily and hastily catch the word at his mouth, and cry—My Lord and my God, and the God of my seed! Thrice blessed heritage of the hosts of nations, secured to us as our exertion for ever! Though neither my house nor my heart be so with God as they it, yet he hath made with me the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things sure: and this is all my salvation, and all my desire. Upon this foundation let me and mine be sealed to the day of redemption, by receiving the circision which is of Christ.—Through his blood shed for us, and his Spirit, applied to us, must our natural corruptions be mortified, our hearts purified, and our souls saved. Without this we can in no wise enter the kingdom of God. Nor let me ever forget to entreat that the Ishmaels of my carnal relations may be made alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord; be partakers of his covenant-blessings now, and live before him for ever hereafter