Genesis 17:5-16

⁵ No longer will your name be called simply Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a noisy crowd of nations.

⁶ I will make you exceedingly productive, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall issue from you.

⁷ And I will institute my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be your personal God and to your offspring after you.

⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your travels, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their personal God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you will abide by, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ You all will be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you all.

¹² He who is eight days old among you will be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any outsider who is not of your offspring,

¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, will surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul will be cut off from his people by death; he has broken my covenant.”

¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶ I will bless her, and what is more, I will actually give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” _________________________________________

New

From his infinite place in time and space, God intervenes again in the lives of this couple. He has plans for them – tremendous plans. To show them the way they will reshape the world, the LORD gives them new names. The names reflect their standing in the new world that they will help create. A huge, noisy crowd of nations will trace their ancestry to this couple. But there is more, The LORD will be the personal God of Abraham and Sarah. They have a relationship as well as a responsibility. The perfect word to describe this relationship is covenant, and the perfect symbol for this covenant is circumcision. This seemingly gross and barbaric custom perfectly symbolized the passing on of the relationship with God from generation to generation, with both the rights and responsibilities implied in the relationship.

The corresponding sign of the new covenant is believer’s baptism, symbolizing death to the flesh and the promise of new resurrection life in Christ (Colossians 2:11-17).

LORD, we accept our new names, and the new sign, recognizing both the relationship rights and responsibilities implied by it.