Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant". (Gen 18,1-3)

When a man makes his path inadvertenly more complicated, he not always finds his way back. Then even his past falls can be a blessing to him - if they prevent him from future falls. And that is exactly what happened to Abraham. He made the right conclusion, he found his way back to faith, he was able to flip the switch of his life - at the age of 100! The moments following the second covenant were pivotal in his life. In them he had to decide with what inner attitude towards God he would go on.

And Abraham prevailed.

How can we know with such certainty? First of all, because he immediately obeyed God regarding circumcision, thereby accepting His covenant and election. And he believed the promise of the birth of Isaac, even though everything spoke against it, it was humanly impossible. In that belief he was quite alone: alone against reason, alone against nature, alone against his surroundings, even against Sarah, who did not believe it.

It was in this frame of mind that God visited him, a few weeks after the second covenant was made, that is, before Isaac was conceived. Abraham " was sitting in the door of the tent." This is not mentioned by accident. In a moment of complete peace and rest, the Lord "appeared" to Abraham, primarily to have a fellowship with him. One is tempted to exclaim: again, as in the days of old, when Abraham wandered the earth, God used to come to him, and His revelation to Abraham increased! Now Abraham still fears that God may disappear again ("do not pass away your servant"); after thirteen years of silence, God's visits are so precious to him that he would do anything not to lose them again.

But God does not want to miss this Abraham whom He Himself sought out in his noon siesta, a man of faith and now also a man of transformation! Neither anyone of those who follow His way in their pursuit of God.

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael. (Gen 17,25-26)

When God has spoken, things sometimes get complicated for a person. Of course, this would not be the case if man had not already set his own course, if he had not already made the decisions on which he had set his heart, in short, if he had not already begun to carry out his plan, which, thanks to God's visitation, starts to go to ruin.

And that is exactly what happened to Abraham, since he had already prepared his legacy for Ishmael. Even so, Abraham could accept the second covenant with God with a joyful heart because it offered him a new hope - Isaac. But the rest of the farm crew could only get excited if they honored his God from the heart. Otherwise, it could have seemed to them just an additional extension of the religion that was already practiced on the farm, and "nothing should be exaggerated." We do not know how large a proportion of Abraham's men were of one opinion or the other. Certainly almost all were aware of the special protection and blessing over their farm and dwelling. But even if any were indifferent in matters of faith, all were called upon to circumcise without distinction. They had to follow their master in this. Convincing everyone was certainly not easy, but Abraham saved the most difficult task for last. To talk to thirteen-year-old Ishmael, who was just coming out of his teens and whose conflicted nature was showing in full light.

The conversation might have gone something like this:

Ishmael: C-i-r-c-u-m-s-i-z-e? Wow, why? Tell me one sensible reason why we should do this!
Abraham: God includes us in his covenant and blesses us, Ishmael.
Ishmael: But he has already blessed us in everything, father. At least you often say so. When you have your pious moments.
Abraham: Please don't be like that, my son, what's gotten into you again.
Ishmael: Dad, have you seen my new bow? Is that a thing, huh? It shoots twice as far! I caught two rabbits and a daman today! That was cool.
Abraham: Come on, listen to me, Ishmael. It's really necessary.
Ishmael: But why, why, why? It hurts. And what's the point. We already have everything, we don't need anything.
Abraham: Yes, we do, thank God, but now something new is finally coming, something I've been waiting for all my life!
Ishmael: Really? Wow, what a wait you had, that must have been a long one. But what are you waiting for? You have everything, why don't you take it? What's it?
Abraham: Well, finally our own ch...

Abraham stammered at this point, unable to finish his sentence. He prayed in his mind that Ishmael would overhear, just this once.

Ishmael was finally circumcised. But only for the promise of a brand new pearl-encrusted crossbow with two dozen arrows and a fancy quiver, like no one else on the farm had.

Abram sighed softly: sometimes things get complicated when God has spoken...

Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 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.” (Gen 17,15-16)

So Sara will also get a new status, as evidenced by the change of her name. In those days, newborn children were not yet registered in the registry office, there was no set of recognized names, no calendar, and no holidays... so people could make up their children's names at will. That's why names were more meaningful, parents put their wishes, expectations, characteristics into them. Many times we see in the Bible how a child's name was clearly prophetic in nature. Indeed, in many cases God Himself (as now with Isaac) told the parents what name to give to the child. If the name bore a special meaning, then it certainly had an effect on the person. Exotic names are now given to children more often than in earlier decades, but nowadays it is more for the sake of lilt. However, some time ago, a research was carried out which came to an interesting conclusion: children with exotic names were statistically more successful in their studies or careers in some respects. The conclusion was that their special name gave them the impression of a certain exclusivity, of support from their parents, of an expectation of a special destiny. This helped them in their confidence that they could achieve it.

But in God's kingdom it is not about what we achieve or about statistics. But the name does have an impact here, "And I tell you that you are Peter; and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) We know the actual wording of the original text and its pun - the change of Peter's name is from the Greek "Petros" (stone fragment) to "Petra" (rock). Jesus changed Peter's name after he received a most important revelation from above. Yes, God has a tendency - beginning with Abraham - to change people's names when something spiritually significant happens in their lives - or when they achieve a different status. Peter was just then blessed and given a new name - it is not only in the Old Testament, Jesus does this in New Testament times too!

But notice that God did not completely change Abram's, Sarah's, or Peter's names, He only modified them. God is not only the best linguist (after all, the word came from Him, it was already there before creation...) But it is also a beautiful picture of God taking hold of man as he is, not quite erasing his personality, but transforming it into His image - crowning it with heavenly things.

Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. (Gen 17,22)

Abraham was becoming a man of faith - without it, not only could he stand in his situation, but many things would not make sense to him. For they went beyond the dimension of his own life, they reached far into the future, even into eternity. If he only wanted everything good for himself, here and now, he could not have been impressed by them, they demanded a different view of this life. But they were so essential to God that they formed the content of HIS covenant - and Abraham, despite all his faults, was learning to think differently about the dimension of his life than before. God had now come to confirm His promises to him, but interestingly they were not new to Abraham: He repeated that Abraham would have a son and inherit the land, something He had promised before, but which had not yet come to pass. (As for the land, he was told that his descendants would not receive it definitively until 400 years later.) But Abraham understood that the time had just come, as far as the promise of a son was concerned, and that while it was always in God's plan for him, it was to be a different Abram who was to receive a son than the one he had been so far. It required faith - to dare to trust, to stake everything on the one card with the name of God on it, and to abandon all other possibilities and certainties - and Abraham dared.

The central and most precious thing the covenant brought, "I will be God to you and your descendants forever," meant for Abraham the gift of God's patronage over his race, but equally a special mission on this earth. And with it, perhaps, the germ of a specific conflict - Abraham's descendants would be different. As a sign of the one who would "carry" the true God on earth he was given circumcision. Even in our early school years we had our initials on clothing, and since then we have marked our possessions, houses and cars in various ways - just as God marks his people with special interest. For example, "a mark on the foreheads of men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem." (Eze 9:4) or "the servants of God upon their foreheads" Rev 7:3. This marking on the forehead (as a symbol of mindset) is visible to God and the spiritual world; it is not some physical mark to identify and recognize these people to one another. It is even possible that some of the marked will be taken by surprise - like those in Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats ("when did we see you sick or in prison, and came to you?") A favorite topic of discussion, then, is the mark of the beast in Revelation. Here again, however, it is likely that this sign is spiritual, not physical - it characterizes how one thinks (= forehead) and acts (= hand). After all, God already spoke of such a sign in Ex. 13:16, and the meaning is in every respect spiritual, not physical.

In contrast, a circumcision is the sign of which the circumcised is well aware - yet it is not obvious at first sight. Nor is the circumcision of the heart, in the meaning it still has for us today: "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh..." (Fil 3,3)

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. (Gen 17,23)

Abraham was becoming a man of faith. It is more easily seen in obedience than in words - and as much as Abraham wavered and could not help but smile during his discussion with God at the thought that things might happen as God told him, in the end he obeyed God immediately. We can say he obeyed again - he had done the same after the visitation thirteen years ago. Only then he and Sarah were still physically able to conceive a child; now they are no more. Therefore, he had to show more faith now than then, faith in the life-giving power of God overcoming death, faith in the resurrection of the body.

This visitation of God now turned the whole family and farm upside down. Both Abraham and Sarah, together with all their servants and slaves, had grown accustomed to the fact that little Ishmael would be the heir and would take over Abraham's role when he grew up. And now another son is said to be born in his place, even though the parents are clearly past their physical prime. Has their master gone mad to believe this? They say that from now on (consider, he is ninety-nine!) he has a new name and should be called by it. And if only that. Finally he came up with the idea of getting circumcised immediately, but as God told him, he wants the same for them... And he's absolutely insistent about it.

The guys lamented silently at first, and then gathered their resolve wherever they could. They, unlike Abraham, had not met God and therefore did not have his motivation. Nevertheless, they could not deny that at the time God spoke to him, a strange atmosphere, full of awe such as they had never experienced before, engulfed the camp.

They could not resist their master long and obeyed him. For the next few days the camp was quiet, no work was done, and occasionally a painful groan came from this or that tent. It dawned on Abraham that he was now actually putting God's name publicly at stake by his faith. If Sarah did not become pregnant, the pain his men had to endure would be but a needless sacrifice to the folly of an old man on the way to his spiritual self-determination.

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. (Gen 17,7)

When concluding the second covenant with Abraham, God called it "His" covenant eight times. It was not something Abram forced upon God or had to convince Him to accept, as he tried to do in the case of Ishmael. It is a covenant of God's own, flowing from his sovereign purpose - with whom, exactly? With one man, Abraham, so that this precious man might enjoy the blessings of his family and business? Was that all it was about?

It is a characteristic of a blessing that it always involves much more than doing good to its recipient. Like everything that comes from God, God's blessing carries on and multiplies, perhaps it is fitting to say that it overflows to others around it, as a testimony of God and a help to this world. So also the blessing given to Abraham includes not only him, but other generations, even whole nations (v.4), who will be blessed because of his obedience of faith.

If God says eight times that the covenant is "his," then he also uses the word "everlasting" four times in connection with the covenant. It cannot be otherwise: what is God's own is also eternal.

The second Abrahamic covenant thus reflects God's eternal purpose with the world: to have a new nation on earth, a generation of those who are specially marked (and thus set apart for God from the world) and "walk" (i.e. live) before him. They will become a testimony to the world of who God is and what He is like. The first of these nations is Israel, but eventually, according to the promise, it will be many others (v.6).

Ultimately, the most precious thing that is in the covenant is captured by the verse in the title, "I will be a God to you and to your descendants." From the beginning, mankind has strayed and chosen other gods. The greatest privilege of all Abraham's descendants is to worship the one true God, from now until eternity. For today's man from so-called Christian countries, this is no longer the most important thing to be exulted in. For it is focused on someone else, it does not deal with the endless gratification of the self, it does not communicate what most want to hear today - what will religion bring me, how will it solve my problems? And will I be better off if I believe?

And yet, the question: who is your god? is crucial to the fate of the individual and of all humanity. As we look at God blessing Abraham and through him the world, we can realize anew why it is true - of God and of us - that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly....As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.... I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. (Gen 17,2.4.6)

The first covenant of Gen 15 was to confirm God's promise to Abram about the Promised Land, and as we have mentioned, it would not have been made at all if Abram had not demanded some proof from God. He asked "by what means shall I know that I shall receive it (= the land)?" So God asked him to enter a covenant by taking the animals and sacrificing them. It was sealed by means of their shed blood, as was the custom with the most important covenants at that time.

The second covenant, however, is different. First of all, God refers to it as "his (own)". This means that it arose out of God's sovereign purpose, and Abram was in no sense the initiator, only the recipient of it. Its primary content is not the land (which is mentioned only once), but focuses on the offspring itself. Abram becomes the progenitor of even many nations! This covenant was not made with the shedding of animal blood, but of man (Abram), because circumcision is necessary to include the participants in the covenant. As we have seen, this characterizes their new status, we might even say, their transformation; by participating in the covenant, Abram's descendants become something new, higher than before.  

In these two covenants with Abram God's plan of salvation and his dealings with man in all of human history has been expressed. The first covenant came to fulfillment in the formation of the nation Israel, announcing its departure from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land. This covenant thus includes the Old Testament period with its law and animal sacrifices in the earthly temple of Jerusalem.

The second covenant, which was in God's intention from the beginning and is therefore called "His" covenant, then came to its fulfillment through the shed blood of a man - God's son Jesus Christ. It is fulfilled in the followers of God who do not leave physical Egypt but spiritually "this world". Through personal transformation (which is symbolized by circumcision of heart, see Col. 2:11) they set out on a higher path. This covenant encompasses the New Testament period in which a single and final sacrifice was made, after which no more were required. The people of many nations - the participants in the covenant - are not brought to a particular land, but to eternity.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Heb 9,13-15)

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham (Gen 17,4-5)

A change in social status is always clearly visible when someone's name is changed. A wife takes on her husband's surname, people change their names when they want to cut themselves off from their past completely, start a new life, or fully integrate into a new nation. In a negative sense, a person was denied his name if his status was to be downgraded to that of a mere object, as in the days of slavery or in concentration camps.

God announces (in connection with his fatherhood) that Abram will henceforth have a changed name: "A-bra-ham." What does this mean? The Hebrew vowel "ha" inserted into his name characterizes the breath - the breath of God, the breath of life by which God created and animated man. Not only does Abram receive life for himself, but he becomes its source for generations and nations to come. This is despite the fact that his body is already dead to fatherhood. God can turn death into life.

This experience of Abram shows important principles of God's dealings with man. First, that God's dealings with the world are connected with the people (nation) who are born through the supernatural expansion of His life. They are here, in a broken world, holding the message of God. They are not of natural birth, they are signified by the supernatural birth that occurred when death was overcome by life. The gospel message was therefore from the beginning accompanied by the breakthrough of heavenly life into our corrupt world. We see clearly in Scripture how, with Jesus and the apostles, it was accompanied by healing and liberation, a stream of new life that had the power to restore the corrupt and the old. It was not just a mechanical proclamation (communication) of truth. The accompanying miracles were not an end in themselves, kind of a show which was to attract the crowds. It was a stream of supernatural divine life that touched the hearers if they stretched out their hands of faith to Jesus, as the woman with the issue of blood did.

And further, Abram's acceptance of the new life, so well expressed in his new name, was connected to his new level of relationship with God. Abram had to rise higher in his faith than he had ever been (he had never believed in the quickening of his body before, but now it was necessary). And then, at that height, he reached the fulfillment of the promise. It is not enough, therefore, to search the Scriptures for some technique to achieve miracles. The flow of power is the flow of life, and the measure of it is a matter of the heights to which one has ascended. Thus, we experience most of God's workings in the moments when we surrender to God, enter a new path, come to a decision, see God in a new way. On this new height we gain a new status in God's eyes and experience a new portion of life, a new victory.

It is no coincidence that, as with Abram, a new name is attached to it:

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. (Rev 3,12)

...you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 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. (Gen 17,11-12)

When God began to speak, and the word "covenant" was first uttered, Abram unconsciously remembered the first covenant, in which he sacrificed the animals and was then gripped by the darkness in which he had to drive away the vultures. At this moment, therefore, he instantly recalled the best parts of his flocks, with which he will honour the new bond between himself and God. He already knew well that the essential covenants would be made with the shedding of blood, because their observance was a matter of life and death.

But what was his surprise when God told him that this covenant would not be sealed with the blood of animals, but... his own!

Circumcision illustrates what we often see in God's dealings: God uses a custom that is commonly found in a given time, but modifies it and gives it a different, higher meaning. (We see the same thing later on, e.g. in the baptism, the Lord's Supper, etc.) Circumcision was practiced by several ancient nations, where (especially among the Egyptians) it served as an initiation ritual, a sign of accepting boys to become adult men. It was performed around the age of 12-13, when their sexual life was awakening, supposedly also with the aim of suppressing sexual activity. In any case, the Egyptians insisted on circumcision for many centuries afterwards - there is a famous case from history of a pharaoh who had a big problem to gain a respect of his subjects because he was not circumcised. And in the 6th century BC, when Pythagoras wanted to study ancient geometry treatises in Egyptian temples, he had to have himself circumcised, otherwise he would not have been allowed entry by the priests!

Even the nations who did not use circumcision (such as the Canaanites) certainly knew about the practice and its significance: a circumcised person had a different social status than an uncircumcised one. God took this concept and gave it a new meaning: circumcision would become a sign of the covenant, "marking" his people. But what is completely new: this change did not come later in life, but right at their birth. Each of the descendants of Abram and the members of his house is thus taken to a new level, simply by virtue of their descent; they acquire a new, higher status of which they can be justly proud - they belong to the Lord.