창세기 Chapter 17

Translation: ESV

1

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,

Key Message

The Almighty God returns even after a long silence and calls us to wholeness.

▸God appears again to Abram after thirteen years of silence following Ishmael's birth.

God appears again to Abram after thirteen years of silence following Ishmael's birth. 'God Almighty (El Shaddai)' is a name of God appearing here for the first time, declaring him as the Almighty who transcends all limits. 'Be blameless (tamim)' is not an invitation to legalistic perfection but an invitation to live a whole and sincere life in relationship with God.

Related Verses

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
2

that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.'

Key Message

God's covenant does not change with time, and the promise of multiplication is guaranteed by God's faithfulness.

▸This is the declaration that God establishes a covenant again with Abram.

3

Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,

Key Message

The proper posture before God's presence is worship and submission, and God speaks to the one who falls prostrate.

▸Abram's act of falling on his face is the posture of highest worship and submission.

4

'Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

Key Message

Abram's covenantal calling is a universal calling to be the father of many nations, transcending a single people.

▸The content of God's covenant is proclaimed more specifically.

5

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Key Message

God's renaming is the granting of a new identity and mission; we receive a new name within our relationship with God.

▸The name change from Abram ('exalted father') to Abraham ('father of a multitude') is not a simple renaming but a change of identity and the granting of a new mission.

6

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

Key Message

God's promise includes even the royal dimension, and God's plan of salvation through Abraham's descendants unfolds.

▸God's promise becomes specific.

7

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

Key Message

God's covenant is eternal, and the promise that God will be our God is the core of salvation that runs through history.

▸The expression 'everlasting covenant (berit olam)' declares that this covenant is an immutable promise transcending temporal limits.

8

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

Key Message

God's promise transforms the sojourner's life into an everlasting possession; seeing it with the eyes of faith is faith.

▸The promise of the land among the covenant contents is proclaimed.

9

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

Key Message

God's covenant is grace, but the responsibility of obedience as a response to that grace is also given.

▸This declares that Abraham also has a responsibility to respond to God's covenant.

10

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

Key Message

Circumcision is the sign of God's covenant inscribed on the body and a concrete mark indicating belonging to the covenant community.

▸Circumcision is instituted as the sign of the covenant.

11

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

Key Message

The sign of the covenant inscribes the covenant community's identity on the body, showing that the relationship with God is inscribed throughout all of life.

▸The circumcision command is specifically repeated and emphasized.

12

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

Key Message

God's covenant community transcends boundaries of blood and status, and the sign of the covenant applies equally to all members.

▸The timing of circumcision (eighth day) and the subject (both those born in the household and foreign servants) are specified.

13

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

Key Message

The sign of the covenant inscribed in flesh is an eternal memory showing that God's grace reaches even the most concrete areas of life.

▸The expression 'in your flesh' indicates that the covenant is remembered eternally through a physical sign inscribed on the body.

14

Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.'

Key Message

Refusing the sign of the covenant is refusing the covenant itself, leading to separation from the community.

▸Refusing circumcision is not a mere omission of a ritual but means exclusion from the covenant community.

15

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

Key Message

God gives Sarah a new name as well, declaring that she too is an equal participant in the covenant and the mother of many nations.

▸Just as Abram's name was changed to Abraham, Sarai's name is now changed to Sarah.

16

I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.'

Key Message

God's covenantal blessing is given equally to both Abraham and Sarah, and the fulfillment of the promise is accomplished through the collaboration of both.

▸Remarkably, God not only mentions Sarah as 'the mother of many nations' but directly gives her a covenantal promise.

17

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?'

Key Message

Faith is not the denial of impossibility in reality but trusting in the God who transcends reality.

▸Abraham falls on his face and laughs.

18

And Abraham said to God, 'Oh that Ishmael might live before you!'

Key Message

Abraham's prayer for Ishmael shows parental love, and God hears our human longings as well.

▸Abraham pleads for Ishmael to be recognized as the child of promise.

19

God said, 'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

Key Message

God's promise is not shaken by human alternative plans, and Isaac's name contains God's unwavering promise.

▸God answers firmly with 'No' and declares that the heir of the covenant is Isaac who will be born from Sarah.

20

As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.

Key Message

God's grace reaches even those outside the chosen covenant line, and God hears all prayers.

▸God responds to Abraham's prayer for Ishmael (verse 18).

21

But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.'

Key Message

God's promise has a specific time, and the precision of that time becomes the basis for faith.

▸The specific time announcement of 'this time next year' shows that God's promise is fulfilled not in a vague future but at a specific and precise time.

22

When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Key Message

God's encounter ends temporarily, but the promise of his word remains forever.

▸The expression that God 'went up' after finishing the conversation is an idiomatic expression indicating the end of the theophany.

23

Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

Key Message

Abraham's immediate obedience is the most beautiful expression of faith, and God's word is to be carried out on that very day.

▸Abraham obeys immediately on the same day he receives God's command.

24

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

Key Message

Obeying God's command regardless of age is faith, and Abraham's circumcision at 99 is a model of whole-person commitment.

▸The picture of Abraham being circumcised at 99 years of age shows obedience that transcends the limits of age.

25

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

Key Message

Ishmael also becomes a member of the Abrahamic covenant community by receiving circumcision, and the picture of father and son standing before God together is beautiful.

▸The record that Ishmael was circumcised at the age of thirteen is the biblical basis for the Islamic tradition of performing circumcision at the age of thirteen.

26

That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.

Key Message

Faith is more powerful when practiced together within the family community, and a parent's obedience is a model that leads children.

▸The emphasis that father and son were circumcised together on the same day highlights the communal character of this event.

27

And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

Key Message

Abraham's complete obedience is the whole-person response to the covenant, and the beautiful picture of the entire community obeying God together.

▸The closing declaration that every male member of Abraham's household without exception was circumcised confirms complete obedience to the covenant.