Genesis 17

He is strong; the superlative degree is intended here, namely, He is most strong. He is called Elshaddai, God Almighty (Genesis 17:1). His almightiness lies in this, he can do whatever is feasible.

I will establish my covenant with you. When the Lord told Abraham that he would enter into covenant with him, Abraham fell upon his face (Genesis 17:2), as being amazed that the God of glory should bestow such a favor upon him. 2. God makes a covenant with us to tie us fast to h…

The Covenant was made with them. Genesis 17:7. I will establish my Covenant between me and you, and your seed after you, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God to you and your seed after you. And Acts 2:39. The Promise is to you and to your children.

Whether we are alone or in company God sees us; he is [illegible], the heart-searcher; the belief of this would make us live always as under God's eye (Psalm 16:8): "I have set the Lord always before me." The belief of a deity would be a bridle to sin, a spur to duty; it would a…

For the covenant of grace has these two main promises in it. First, that God himself — who is the God of comfort — will be an abundant reward (Genesis 17:1-2). By faith we take him to be so and are divorced from all other comforts in comparison with him. Second, that Jesus Chris…

Now it is said that he received (not one promise) but the Promises plurally; for these causes; first, because God having made one main promise unto him touching Christ, did repeat and renew the same diverse times. Secondly, because GOD had made diverse particular promises unto h…

And as eternity is here noted by ages, so on the contrary we read, that eternity is taken for a certain and distinct time. Genesis 17:8. God promised Abraham to give him the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession: that is, for a long season. For else Abraham's seed should…

2. God's power is excellent. He is El Shaddai, Almighty (Genesis 17:1). What cannot he do that can create?

Genesis 6:9: Noah was a just and perfect man in his time, and walked with God. Genesis 17:1: Walk before me and be perfect. And sundry kings of Judah are said to walk uprightly before God with a perfect heart, as David, Josiah, Hezekiah, and others.

Why, he tells you in Job 31:4: 'Does he not see my ways and count all my steps?' 'Walk before me,' said God to Abraham, 'and be perfect' (Genesis 17:1). Even as parents use to set their children in the congregation before them, knowing that otherwise they will be toying and play…

Nor can I think but he bestowed as many and as frequent prayers for his children; and particularly for his Ishmael, as any of you. We find one, and that a very pathetic one recorded (Genesis 17:18), O that Ishmael might live before you: and yet you know how he proved, a son that…

Indeed, the law was a severer teacher to awe the saints, in regard of the outward dispensation of ceremonies and legal strictness, keeping men as criminals in close prison until Christ should come. But imputation of Christ's righteousness, and blessedness in the pardon of sin, a…

And that it is the efficacy of Christ's death to kill all activity in his members, that he might act all in all; indeed, and that there is not any command in the Gospel, all is but promises, Christ is obliged to do all in us, and if he suffer us to sin, let him see to his own ho…

Any of us that have made a covenant with God by sacrifice; no man has him unless by way of covenant, for all these ways, though diverse in explication, yet all coincident to this having of Christ. And such as have made a covenant with God by sacrifice, they are his people; of th…

Fifthly, there is no way to defeat Satan's temptations, but by a sound belief of God's all-sufficiency, and the nothingness of the creature. 1. A sound belief of, and a dependence on God's all-sufficiency (Genesis 17:1): I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be you perfect.…

2. The sufficiency and stability of God's promises. 1. Sufficiency (Genesis 17:1): "I am the almighty God, walk before me and be you perfect." (1 Timothy 4:8): "Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come": of…

Oh for a spirit suitable to such a majesty whom I come to worship! Lord, draw out my affections, unite my heart, excite my graces that my whole soul may be carried after God: Thus commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established: when you are setting your fa…

For he says, that not only the false apostles, but all the nation of the Jews which were circumcised keep not the law, but rather that they which were circumcised, in fulfilling the law fulfill it not. This is against Moses, who says that, to be circumcised is to keep the law: a…

For no mother knows whether she shall have a child or no, or if she perceive herself to be with child, yet she cannot tell whether it shall be a son or a daughter. But Isaac was expressly named (Genesis 17): Sarah your wife (says the angel to Abraham) shall bear you a son, and y…

Therefore when God saw that we could not fulfill the law, he provided for this long before the law, and promised the blessing to Abraham, saying: In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And so has he testified that all the nations should be blessed, not by the law,…

For if he had sworn falsely, God would have taken revenge upon him, and his writings, before this: which he has not done. Whereas Paul says, Before God I speak it: he teaches us after his own example to bring ourselves into the presence of God, to walk before him as Enoch did (G…

In this regard Enoch is said to walk with God (Genesis 5:24). Abraham and Isaac before God (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 48:15). And David (Psalm 116:9; Psalm 139 throughout).

It may be said, how could Abraham be justified by such a faith? Answer: The promise of the multiplication of his seed, was a dependent of a more principal promise, I am your God all-sufficient (Genesis 17:1): and, I am your exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1). In this carnal s…

One is, that gouernours of families must vrge and compell all under them to admit, (at the least outwardly,) the practise of religion in the exercisesof faith, repentance, new obedience. Thus did Abraham, Gen. 17. and Iosua, c. 24. They that doe not first of all consent in Chris…

This repetition does again take away the means from these proud contemners of God wherein they flattered themselves. For it was a thing almost incredible that the Jews should perish as it were in a moment, who had so many promises made them, and with whom God had contracted a pe…

True it is they had deserved no such favor, but yet must the covenant of the Lord remain sure and inviolable, so as the testimony thereof appears in this remnant, although the people for their parts had abolished it wholly as much as lay in them. Which we ought diligently to obs…

Let this place come to our remembrance as often as we are exposed to the scoffs and taunts of the wicked: for although we are forlorn, and there be no eye to pity us, nor any to plead our cause, in regard of the enemies' rage which is more and more inflamed against us, yet our G…

The end also of our election is, that such as were the bondslaves of Satan before, should now submit and give themselves to God in absolute obedience. In the third place he adds, the seed of Abraham, to teach us, that election depends upon the free promise of God: not that the p…

He now prevents an objection which might be made against this doctrine, to wit, it seems strange that the Lord should call those nations to him which were far off before: as if they should say, Has God then chosen the posterity of Abraham in vain? Shall his promises so often rep…

For we have here a manifest and an excellent example thereof in this blessing, whereby we see how the Lord in Abraham's old age, weakness, yes and out of death itself multiplied his offspring. Which promise pertains not only to the Jews, but to other nations: and therefore his n…

It is a wonder that the Prophet says the people possessed the land but for a very little space, seeing 863 years were expired since they began to possess it, and 1400 years and more since Abraham entered into the land of Canaan. But the promise must be considered, in which it wa…

Abraham was the father of one nation, and yet all that descended from him after the flesh, were not reputed his children: for the Ishmaelites and the Idumeans were rejected. He was then a father of many nations (Genesis 17:5) when God adopted and joined to him by covenant the Ge…

This does not appear in the words; and therefore the knowledge of it must be left to God, whose eyes pierce the depths of the heart. Thus God distinguishes between Sarah’s laugh (Genesis 18:12) and Abraham’s, (Genesis 17:17,) though the one apparently does not differ from the ot…

33. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob As salvation was promised, in a peculiar manner, to the Jews, (the covenant having been made with their father Abraham, Genesis 17:7,) and Christ, as Paul informs us, "was a minister of the circumcision," (Romans 15:8,) the angel pr…

The next clause, which celebrates the perpetuity of the Divine mercy, is taken from that solemn form of covenant, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant," (Genesis 17:7) and again,

7. And they had no child By an extraordinary purpose of God it was appointed that John should be born out of the common and ordinary course of nature. The same thing happened with Isaac, (Genesis 17:17; Genesis 21:1-3,) in whom God had determined to give an uncommon and remarkab…

By the coming of Christ God manifested himself as a Father equally to the Gentiles and to the Jews; and, therefore, that promise, which was formerly given to the Jews, must now be in force towards the Gentiles, I will be your God, and the God of your seed after you, (Genesis 17:…

Whom he believed, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not, as though they were. (Genesis 17:4) 16 Therefore it is of faith.

The Design of the Psalmist is to be preserved in such a state and Condition, as wherein he may be upright before God. To be upright before God is that which God requires of us in the Covenant, that we may be accepted with him, and enjoy the Promises thereof, Gen. 17. 1. He that…

You cannot but know, that as Godliness entails a blessing, so wickedness and unrighteousness a curse upon posterity. An instance of the former you have in Genesis 17. 18, 20. On the contrary, you have the threatning, Zechariah 5:4 and both together, Proverbs 3:33 The Curse of th…

It is the same expression that is given of Noah, he was [Tamim] in his generation, or he was sound, upright-hearted or perfect with God (Genesis 6:9). And it is that which God speaks to Abraham (Genesis 17:2): Walk before me and be you [Tamim,] be you perfect, or sound, or uprig…

Whence then is it said, that God appeared unto them by the name of Elshaddai, but not by the name of Jehovah? The reason is because that was the name which God gave himself in the solemn confirmation of the covenant with Abraham, Genesis 17:1. I am Elshaddai, God Almighty, God A…

Fiftly, if God be every where, then we must labour to have hearts affected with this perswasion, that wheresoeuer we be, God is present with us. This lesson God taught Abraham, Gen. 17. 1. Walke before me and be vpright: and this Enoch had learned long before, Gen. 5. 24. and th…

Secondly, that this reason is not peculiar to the last petition, but generally belonging to them all: as, halowed be your name, because yours is the kingdome, power, and glorie, and so for the rest. The meaning Kingdome] This here imports three things in God: first, that he is a…

O what a ravishing and delightsome thing it is, to walk with God! And yet by this, the whole work of a Christian is expressed (Genesis 17:1). Can any life compare with this for pleasure?

In the covenant God becomes our God, and we are his people, and thereby all his attributes are ours also. Lest we should doubt when we see the inconceivable difficulty on all hands against us, God wraps it up in this expression: Genesis 17:1, I am God Almighty, all-sufficient. I…

1. God having ordained this a Sacrament to be used, it is necessary it should be used, if for no other end, yet for manifestation of our obedience. He that carelessly neglects, or wilfully scorns any Sacrament which God shall enjoin him to use, his soul shall be cut off (Genesis…

1. The commandment of God concerning circumcising children: in the room of which Baptism succeeds now under the Gospel (Colossians 2:11-12). God's commandment to this duty was first given to Abraham: and that for himself and all his posterity to observe (Genesis 17:10). After th…

I entred into Covenant with you, and you becamest mine. This is no small favor to be in Covenant with God: therefore when God told Abraham that he would enter into Covenant with him, Abraham fell on his face; Genesis 17:2. as being amazed that the great God should bestow such a…

1. Let us set God ever in our eye, study his Immensity. He is God Almighty, Genesis 17:1. He gives laws to the Angels, binds the Consciences of men, cuts off the Spirit of Princes, Psalm 76:12.