Our Covenant Ancestors Abraham and Sarah—Lectionary Reflection for Lent 2B (Genesis 17)
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 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. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 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.
15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
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Three
major religions look to Abraham as their spiritual ancestor. Two of them
(Judaism and Christianity) trace their lineage through Isaac to Abraham and his
wife Sarah, while Islam traces its lineage through Ishmael to Abraham and
Hagar. The common denominator is Abraham. It is with Abraham that the LORD
(Yahweh) made a covenant of blessing (Gen 12:1-4). Here in Genesis 17, God
Almighty (El Shaddai), we read another covenant story. Both stories remind us
that we serve a covenant-making God. Scripture offers us several stories of God
making a covenant. In Genesis 9, it's a covenant with Noah. Later in Exodus,
God will make a covenant with Moses and the Hebrews. Jeremiah will speak of a
new covenant, written on the heart rather than stone (Jer. 31). Of course, on
the night of his final meal, Jesus made a new covenant in his blood (Lk 14:20).
This is actually the third version
of God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15 being the other), but this is the
first to include Sarai/Sarah as an active participant. There are similarities
between this version and the one in Genesis 15, though it is Yahweh who appears
to Abram promising descendants. Since Sarai was past the age of childbearing,
she offered Hagar as a surrogate. While Hagar produces a child, Ishmael, as we
see in Genesis 17 God wants to fulfill the promise through Sarai. Thus, Sarai
(now Sarah) will be the mother of many nations, even as Abraham will be the
father of many nations. This is a covenant promise made to an elderly couple
who to this point were childless. Nevertheless, they will be the ancestors of
many descendants who will inhabit the land of promise. The lectionary omits
verse 8, which speaks of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants inhabiting the land of
Canaan “as a perpetual holding.” (Gen. 17:8). As they dwell in the land God
will be their God.
Although the historical-critical
analysis will uncover a layering of sources, with priestly and Yahwistic
sources present. However, for our purposes, it is useful to read this
canonically, with the final redaction being our text. What is different about
the first and third versions of the covenant is that in the first version, God
promises Abraham that the nations will be blessed through his descendants. You
might see this as a covenant that looks outward. This third version has a more
inward-leaning perspective. While the couple are promised that nations and
kings will arise among their descendants. Nevertheless, the focus is on
inhabiting the land. Of course, it is that very land that is in dispute at this
moment as the modern nation of Israel is at war with ruling authorities in a
small strip of land in Gaza. We would be
wise to stop here and ponder what it means to dwell in the land, as several
people groups claim this region as their home. Some are Jews, some are Muslims,
some are Christians, and some hail from other groups such as the Druse.
The passage begins with God
appearing to Abram and saying to Abram: “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk
before me, and be blameless. And I will make my
covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.” (Gen.
17:1-2). This announcement leads Abram to prostrate himself before God. He has
heard the call to walk blamelessly before God, to walk in the ways of God. What
are these ways, might the prophet Micah have an answer to that question? What
is Micah’s answer but to “do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly
with your God” (Micah 6:8). Whether Abram had really done this might be open to
question, but God has chosen him to be the covenant bearer, together with
Sarai.
The
lectionary creators (Revised Common Lectionary to be exact), as they often do,
omit part of the chapter. That would be the aforementioned verse 8, where God
promises to give Abraham and Sarah the land of Canaan as a perpetual holding.
It also includes verses 9-14, which describe the covenant marker of
circumcision. God said to Abraham about this marker:
This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. (Gen 17:10-12).
Barbara Brown Taylor points out something interesting
about the addition of circumcision here: “His faithfulness will now require
more of him than simply answering to his new name. He is about to become bodily
involved” [Feasting on the Word, p. 55].
If we
consider that the first readers of Genesis were exiles or recently returned
exiles this covenant promise is important. While their dwelling in the land
seemed tenuous, the word they hear in this covenant is that God has made an
everlasting covenant. The land from which they were exiled is still the land of
promise. In verse 8, the covenant and its promise of living in the land, with
God being their God, is unilateral. There are no stipulations, just God’s
promise. Of course, this promise depends on an heir, which to this point
Abraham lacks (at least with Sarah as the mother of that heir). If we turn to
Genesis 18, we will hear Sarah laugh when she hears that she is going to bear a
child (Gen. 18:9-15). Of course, this
promise to Sarah means that Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar is not
the chosen one (at least for Jews and by virtue of spiritual descent,
Christians).
While
the lectionary creators remove the reference to circumcision as the covenant
marker, there is another marker that we need to keep before us. That is the
name change. In Genesis 17, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham because he will
be the father of a multitude, while Sarai is now Sarah, for she is the mother
of nations.
While
the faith of Abraham, Sarah, and the other ancestors can waver at times, God
remains faithful to the promise. According to the narrative, Sarah might be too
old to bear a child, but she will nonetheless bear that child (Gen. 21:1-7). The
child is named Isaac, which means God laughs (in juxtaposition to Sarah’s
laughter). As Ryan Bonfiglio writes: “The laughter of Sarah’s disbelief has
been transformed into the laughter of joy, not only for her but for all those
who witness what God has done” [Connections, p. 41].
The
reading from Genesis 17 reminds us that God makes unbreakable covenants, for
God is faithful. That promise in Genesis 17 was made to Abraham and Sarah’s
descendants, the first of whom was Isaac. It is a promise made to a people who
are given an everlasting home. So how do we who are Christians fit into the
picture? It has often been the teaching of Christianity that because Jews
rejected Jesus they abrogated the covenant, which has now been passed on to the
followers of Jesus. But is this the right way to read the covenant promise? Do
we replace Jews as God’s covenant people or might the covenant promises be
extended to us through Jesus? That seems to be the point that Paul makes,
suggesting that the promise made to Abraham and his descendants is rooted in Abraham’s
faith, not through the law (Romans 4:13-25). Paul reads the covenant promise
made to Abraham through the lens of Jesus, such that he is the promised
offspring. Thus, those who have faith in Jesus are Abraham’s offspring, whether
Jew or Greek, male or female, or slave or free (Gal 3:23-29). The challenge for
Christians is to read this Pauline vision without embracing a replacement
theology.
As we ponder
the meaning of the Abrahamic covenant for Christians, we must understand that
the promise is everlasting. There is no replacement policy, for God is faithful
to the promise. The question is whether there is an expansion clause that would
allow others to benefit from it. That seems to be Paul’s message, or at least
the way I would read it. For Christians, the Pauline message is that Jesus is
the seed through whom the promise is extended (Gal. 3:16). Thus, we can follow
the lead of Sibley Towner who writes: “We can rightly understand the “seed” as
all the progeny of Abram, even as we affirm with Paul that in the full sweep of
the Christian canon, Christ is the pivotal figure in the extension of that
blessing upon the nations that God promises to be the destiny of Abram and his
progeny” [Feasting on the Word, p. 55].
There
is the additional question of the land as an inheritance. If it is a perpetual
holding, how should we understand it in a modern context, after the establishment
of the state of Israel in a land that, as with the conquest depicted in Joshua,
was already inhabited? At this very moment, we are seeing the ramifications of conflicting
claims to a land called Holy by three religious traditions. How might the
descendants of Abraham, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, share this land of
promise in peace? Genesis 17 would seem to exclude the Muslim descendants of
Abraham as the promise is made to Abraham and Sarah. But what of the promises
made to Hagar concerning her son, Ishmael? It is a complicated story, but if
peace is to come to this Holy Land, the nature of the covenant will need to be
sorted out.
I
am constantly reminded not to read Scripture in a way that separates God’s
people from God’s covenant with Israel and with the church. As we read the biblical
story we discover that while Israel often stumbles, God always remains
faithful. The same is true for us. We also stumble with some regularity, but
again God remains faithful. This is a good word to remember as we continue this
Lenten journey that points us back to God’s covenant promises. Yes, God is
faithful, even when fall short. So, we sing:
The
God of Abraham praise,
who reigns
enthroned above,
The Ancient of Eternal Days, the God of love.
The Lord, the
Great I Am,
By earth and heaven confessed,
we bow before
your holy name, forever blest.
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