Thursday • 1/27/2022
Thursday of 3 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Genesis 16:15–17:14; Hebrews 10:1–10; John 5:30–47

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94)

Genesis 17: gift and obligation

Chapters 15 and 17 of Genesis depict two different phases of God’s covenant-making. “The earlier chapter,” as commentator Derek Kidner explains, “fixed the basic pattern of grace and answering faith; nothing was asked of Abram but to believe and ‘know of a surety.’”* In Genesis 15, God promises and Abram believes; moreover, by the theophany of a flaming furnace, God says, in effect, “I’m all in!”**

If Genesis 15 teaches that righteousness is imputed to Abraham by faith (Genesis 15:6), Genesis 17 teaches that faith utterly devotes itself to the God who grants new identity and fellowships with us. For in Genesis 17, the covenant transaction takes on new layers: while God expands his promises, he calls on Abram to declare his own dedication to the covenant through the cutting of his foreskin. Abram declares and symbolizes his own being “all in.” It’s worth recalling Paul’s teaching that the Gentile believers of Colossae have been “circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, … when you were buried with [Christ] in baptism” (Colossians 2:11b–12a). If Abram’s circumcision marked his “all in,” our baptism marks ours. 

While Genesis 17 finds God repeating and expanding his promises of land and progeny (Genesis 17:6–8), this chapter also introduces two new factors into the relationship from God’s point of view. He confers a new identity on Abram and he draws near for fellowship with his people. 

 New name. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, that is, from “Great Father” to “Father of a Multitude” (Genesis 17:4–5). A few verses later, God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, that is, from one name that means “Princess” to another that means essentially the same thing (Genesis 17:15–16). These are the first of many name changes in the Bible—for instance, from “Not Loved” to “Loved,” and from “Not My People” to “My People” (Hosea 2:23; Romans 9:25). It’s not insignificant that Genesis 17 introduces a change in identity at the same time it introduces the Old Testament version of baptism. 

God renames strangers as friends, sinners as saints, rebels as disciples, and aliens as citizens. Quite in tune with the heart of God and the meaning of baptism, Jerusalem’s 4th century bishop named Cyril said that at our baptism we all receive the name Christopher, which means “Christ Bearer.” Amen!

Intimate presence. “…for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you…” — Genesis 17:7. In the words “to be God to you” lies the essence of the covenant. There’s land, to be sure, and there’s progeny and the establishment of an inheritance. But at its heart, the covenant is about presence. Kidner states it nicely, “Spiritually, the essence of the covenant is personal, like the ‘I will’ of a marriage: so the pledge I will be their God (8b; cf. 7b) far outweighs the particular benefits. This is the covenant” (Kidner, p. 129). 

Utter consecration. What Yahweh calls for at this stage in his unfolding of his covenant with us is commitment to him personally. He is not yet detailing a prescribed, encoded way of life; that dimension of the relationship awaits Moses. The point is, there’s a Person before there’s a Path. 

Consecration to God on my part (as in Genesis 17) is based on God’s prior consecration to me (as in Genesis 15)! Grace takes the lead, and grace stays in the lead. Even after the Law is introduced with the detailing of precepts and statutes and food regulations and ritual protocols, the covenant relationship remains fundamentally personal. When Moses in Deuteronomy and the Prophets after him develop their theology of circumcision, they make it a matter of the heart: “Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer” (Deuteronomy 10:16; see also Jeremiah 4:4). 

I pray we daily find ourselves awed by the grace of the gift of new identity in Christ, and of the intimacy of our Heavenly Father’s love. May every day bring a heart-renewal of our baptismal consecration: to know and love the One who has first known and loved us. Amen!

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

* Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967), p. 128. 

Image: Pixabay

** See the analysis of Meredith Kline in his By Oath Consigned.