Genesis 17 "Ninety and Nine"

Abram is 99 years old in this chapter and some important changes take place.

Abram's name is changed to Abraham.
Circumcision begans.

v3-4 "And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations."
v5 "Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee."
v11 "And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you."

Abram: father of height
Abraham: father of a multitude

We have witnessed three beginnings so far in Genesis:

1) Adam and Eve
2) Noah after the flood
3)Abraham the father of the nation Israel

I want to zero in on the verse where Abraham asked God a question and think on the phrase "How soon we forget."

v17 "Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old bear?"

It has not been too long (by chapter measure) that Lamech had a son at the age of 182. Chapter 5 verse 28. And Adam at the age of 132 in Chapter 5 verse 3.

Many times we forget what God has done and therefore we forget what God can do. Abraham is feeling old and it seems normal to think so since we seldom live to a hundred. But in the next chapter v5 we will seeAbraham run to fetch something for his visitors to eat. He ran. So maybe he is not in as bad a shape as he thinks or maybe, even though he is favored, he has forgotten what God can do. Again we jump ahead to verse 14 of the next chapter.
v14 "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son."

In the balance of Chapter 17, Abraham obeys the Lord and circumcised himself and all the men and boys of his household including Ishmael who was 13 years old.

This was a physical manifestation of the covenant between God and Abraham. Later, in the New Testament, we can see the spiritual circumcision of the heart. Colossians 2:11 "In who also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without ands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: V13 And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses;" It would be good to read the first two chapters of Colossians for the spiritual application.

I just want to note here the change in man's attitude toward God. The Lord appears to Abram and introduces himself as Almighty God and tells Abram to "walk before me". One writer states that another way to translate the Lord's name given here would be "All-sufficient"* which would relate to the "is anything to hard for God" above. He relates the original to a term used as when a mother cradles a child and nourishes it. We have nevertheless come a long way from the garden where the Lord walked in the cool of the day and now Abram "fell on his face". It is appropriate that we should do so for He is an awesome God. I simply believe that He intended that we walk beside him as a friend as did Enoch. The disciples got to do that for a short time, someday we will be restored and be able to do so again in new bodies. We can walk as a friend spiritually now but one day we will do so in our whole person.

As God changed Abram to Abraham, so He reveals more of his character by the different names he gives us.

*CI Scofield reference Bible footnotes.