Genesis 17:1

THE COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION, Genesis 17:1-27.

1. Ninety years old and nine Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael . Comp . Genesis 16:16; Genesis 18:25. Slowly the years roll on, and God keeps promising, but not fulfilling .

The Lord appeared The words imply some visible theophany . Probably the appearance of Jehovah’s Angel, as in Genesis 16:7. Comp . Genesis 17:22.

I am the Almighty God Hebrews, I am El-Shaddai . Compare the use of this word in Genesis 28:3; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 43:14; Genesis 48:3; Genesis 49:25; and in Exodus 6:3; where see note . We have met with the name El-Elion in Genesis 14:18-20; Genesis 14:22, which designates the Supreme God, or God Most High . El-Shaddai denotes the Powerful or Omnipotent God . This name is appropriately introduced here as designating the Almighty Power which can override all opposing forces, and work miracles in order to fulfil the divine promises and plans . The deadness of Abram’s body, and also that of Sarai’s womb, (Romans 4:19,) shall not hinder the accomplishment of what El-Shaddai pledges.

Walk before me Let thy heart, thy life, thy character be such as one should be on whom El-Shaddai gazes. The long deferring of the promised seed was, that Abram might acquire a permanence of faith in God: something like Enoch, who walked three hundred years with Elohim.

Genesis 5:22. El-Shaddai would lift Abram from a passive to an active faith.

Be thou perfect Complete, finished, blameless. The conscientious walking as in the sight of the Almighty leadeth on to perfection.