Key Verse: Genesis 17:16 –

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

If you’ve ever been involved in choosing a baby’s name, you know it can be complicated. Unless there’s a family tradition for a child to take on the name of a parent or relative, the field is wide open.

Parents may think grand thoughts about the perfect name that will sound just right or stamp the child with a unique image for life. Parents-to-be put a lot of thought into names and a lot of money into the pockets of people who publish books like 10,000 Names for Your Baby. With all that effort, we can still go astray: I’m sure you know people who have never liked their name, or that you can think of some names you’ve heard but would never use. [DD]

Our text tells the story of a man who had no choice in the naming of his child, but he just laughed about it. In fact, that was the name of his child: “he laughs.” It’s a story so good you may find it hard to believe, but I doubt that a single person in the story would care if you do or not. [DD]

A lasting covenant (vv. 1-8)

The name of the man was Abram, and the story claims he was ninety-nine years old when this story took place. Ninety-nine. He was old, but he was active. Abram had moved from his home in Mesopotamia on the strength of God’s promise to bless him with a family to follow him and a land in which they could live. He was already seventy-five when he made that move: three-quarters of a century in the rearview mirror and starting over (Gen. 12:1-4). His wife Sarai was sixty-five, but still considered to be beautiful. With a decent inheritance and some good investments in sheep, they had quite a retinue of family, flocks, and servants. [DD]

Abram and Sarai found Canaan to be accommodating. They enjoyed the land God had promised, but had no luck with the second part of the promise. Children were not forthcoming, though the text records several additional accounts of God’s promise to that end.
As noted in last week’s lesson, evidence suggests that multiple writers contributed to the narratives in Genesis – one of the reasons why God’s promise to Abraham is repeated several times. The initial story of call and promise (12:1-3) is from an author known as the Yahwist (abbreviated as J). “J” is probably the oldest layer of tradition, and refers to God by the name “Yahweh.” Both J and the Priestly writer (P) include restatements of the promise that Abram and Sarai will have children.

The Yahwist repeats the promise in 13:14-16, 15:1-6, and 18:1-15. The most formal of these is the story in chapter 15: as Abram expressed despair at having an heir, God “brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:4-6). [DD] The promise was followed by a formal (and spooky) covenant ceremony.

Chapter 16 relates the account of how Sarai gave up and persuaded Abram to impregnate the Egyptian maid Hagar so she could give birth as a surrogate mother. Ishmael was born, but Sarai and Hagar didn’t get along after that, leading to strife and an unhappy situation.

This is followed by the Priestly version of the covenant promise to Abram (chapter 17), our text for the day. The story begins with a note that Abram had reached the age of 99 when Yahweh appeared to Abram, saying “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless” (v. 1). Patriarchal texts in which God appears as the source of life and fertility often use the title El Shaddai, which is typically translated as “God Almighty,” though the meaning is uncertain. (See “The Hardest Question” online.)

As God (known as Yahweh) had called Abram to “go . . . to the land I will show you” (12:1), now God (known as El Shaddai) challenges Abraham to “walk before me and be blameless” (v. 1). The word for “blameless,” tamīm, was also used to describe Noah (Gen. 6:9) and Job (1:1, 8), both stellar examples of righteous living.

These, then, were the primary covenant requirements on Abram’s part: he was to walk faithfully/blamelessly before God, who pledged to “make you exceedingly numerous” (v. 1b) and “the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (v. 4).

Abram fell on his face at the very thought of a centenarian siring a multitude, but God was serious, announcing that Abram’s name would be changed to “Abraham” as a sign of the covenant (v. 5). The names are dialectical variants of the same word, which something like “Exalted Father.” [DD]

Further promises in vv. 6-8 reinforce the pledge that Abraham would be “exceedingly fruitful,” the ancestor of nations and of kings. God’s covenant would last “throughout their generations” as they lived in the land of Canaan, to be given to them “for a perpetual holding.”

A cutting requirement (vv. 9-14)

The Priestly source is marked by a particular interest in cultic and ritual requirements, so it comes as no surprise that this story adds the stipulation that male circumcision would become a mark of Abraham’s and his descendants’ identity “throughout their generations” (vv. 9-10).

Circumcision was defined as the cutting of “the flesh of your foreskins” – the prepuce covering the end of the penis. For Abraham and his household, it was to be done immediately, as a sign of the covenant (v. 11). Then, as new boys were born into the clan, circumcision was to take place when they were eight days old (v. 12). Note that the rule did not apply to Abraham and his descendants alone, but also to the relatives and servants who made up his extended household – 318 males, according to Gen. 14:14. One did not have to be a literal descendant of Abraham to be counted among those living in covenant with God as Hebrews (vv. 13-14).

The practice of circumcision was neither new nor unique to Abraham’s descendants: we know that other cultures, including the Egyptians, had practiced it long before Abraham, though not necessarily requiring it of every male. In their cultures, it may have been a mark of priesthood or some other office. [DD]

After Israel’s settlement of the land, and particularly in the post-exilic period, circumcision was strongly emphasized as a mark of Hebrew identity. “The uncircumcised” were regarded as heathens, and any Hebrew male who wasn’t circumcised was to be “be cut off from his people” for breaking the covenant (v. 14). Highlighting the covenant sign of circumcision would have been especially appealing during that period, when the Priestly writers are usually located.

Many years later, Paul cited this story when arguing that faith, rather than circumcision, was the key to living in covenant with God. Paul held that Abraham had believed the promise and had been reckoned as righteous (15:4-6) years before he was told to practice circumcision (17:9-14) – that is, long before he could be identified as a Jew. Thus, Paul insisted, those who argued that Christian males must be circumcised failed to understand the difference between faith and works.

A new generation (vv. 15-22)

As Abraham received a new name, so Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah, a less archaic form of the same name, which means “Princess” (v. 15). If Abraham was to be the father of kings, it was appropriate that their mother be a princess: “I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her,” God said, repeating the promise that nations and kings would rise from her offspring (v. 16).
Though v. 3 had Abraham falling to his face in worship, he responded to God’s latter promise with a genuine “ROTFL” – Abraham “fell on his face and laughed” at the thought: “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (v. 17).

Finding the promise hard to believe, Abraham spoke up for Ishmael, his son by the maid Hagar: “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” (v. 18). God, however, insisted that a son would be born to Sarah, and that his name would be Isaac – meaning “he laughs,” or “may he laugh” (v. 19).

Given that both Abraham (17:17) and Sarah (18:9-15) laughed at the thought of having a child, the boy’s name would be a perpetual reminder of God’s faithfulness despite their skeptical laughter.

God’s covenant with Abraham would pass down through his son Isaac (v. 19, 21), but Ishmael was not forgotten. God promised to make him “the father of twelve princes” and ancestor of “a great nation” (v. 20). A tribe known as the Ishmaelites would later interact with Israel, both peacefully and not. To this day, Arab Muslims trace their ancestry to Abraham through Ishmael.

We may wonder why stories of Israel’s covenant with God should be of interest to modern believers, but they remind us of an important truth. God has been at work for a long time, and God desires to live in a positive relationship with humans. God calls us to follow on the right path and experience promised blessings, but we have the option of accepting the promise and being true to it – or choosing to follow our own way.

And that’s no laughing matter.