Genesis 17:22 - Printer Friendly

ESV: When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

NIV: When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

NASB: When He finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

CSB: When he finished talking with him, God withdrew from Abraham.

NLT: When God had finished speaking, he left Abraham.

KJV: And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

NKJV: Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

God's relatively lengthy encounter with Abraham ends here. For the first time, we're told about God's departure from one of these meetings. He "went up" from Abraham. Perhaps this detail is included to emphasize that God's appearance to Abraham really happened. It wasn't something Abraham imagined. God came. God spoke. God left. The words here suggest the idea of Abraham being left with a choice: will he believe, trust, and obey? Again on his own, Abraham must believe and act on what God had said. He does so in the following verses.

This willingness to follow God's instructions, and to do so immediately, is a key aspect of Abraham's character. This is the attitude which leads to Abraham being a model of godly faith: trusting obedience in the face of doubt (Romans 4:3). That compliance will be severely tested later on, when God gives an unimaginably difficult to command to Abraham (Genesis 22:2). The end result of that event is one of the Bible's greatest examples of faith (Hebrews 11:17–19).

Genesis 17:15–27 describes God's surprising revelation to the newly renamed, 99-year-old Abraham: His presumably barren, 89-year-old wife, Sarai, now to be named Sarah, would bear him a son within a year. Ishmael, now 13, would still be abundantly blessed, but this new son, Isaac, would be the one through whom God would keep His covenant promises. As soon as God left, Abraham immediately set about obeying God's command to circumcise himself and every male in his household as a sign of the covenant with the Lord.

God appears to Abram once more in Genesis 17, but this instance is very different from prior meetings. God reconfirms His promises to make Abram a father of nations and to give to him and his descendants the land of Canaan. This time, though, God changes Abram's name to Abraham and gives him a requirement to circumcise himself and every male in his household forever. He also changes Sarai's name to Sarah. God announces that Abraham and Sarah will have a son, after all. His 13-year old son Ishmael will be blessed, but this new son, Isaac, to be born within the year, will be the one to whom God's covenant promises will pass.

Genesis 17 records the details of God's appearance to Abram, now 99. Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael to Sarah's servant Hagar, God arrives to change Abram's name to Abraham, to confirm the covenant promises, and to command Abraham. He is to circumcise every male in his household as a sign of the covenant. Then the big news: within a year, Abraham's wife—now renamed Sarah—would bear Abraham a son. This long-awaited son would be the one through whom God would keep all of His promises to Abraham.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 5/4/2024 6:10:47 AM