Genesis 17:5

‘Abram’ means ‘high father’. ‘Abraham’ sounds like ‘father of nations’.

‘Stay near to me and have no blame.’ God did not say, ‘Do nothing that is wrong. So you will have no blame.’ Instead, he said in this verse, ‘Stay near to me.’ And Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abram believed the *Lord. Therefore the *Lord considered that Abram was right with him. That was true about Abram and it is true about us. We have all done wrong things. We all deserve to have blame. So we must stay near to God. We must believe God. If we do that, God takes away our blame. Then, like Abraham, we are *righteous (right with God).

v9 And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my firm agreement. You yourself shall keep it. And your *descendants who will be after you shall keep it. Their children and their grandchildren shall keep it. v10 This is my firm agreement, which you shall keep. It is a firm agreement between me and your *descendants who shall live after you. You yourself shall be *circumcised. And every male person who is among you shall be *circumcised. v11 You shall *circumcise yourselves. This shall be a sign of the firm agreement that is between me and you.

v12 You shall *circumcise every male baby that is among you. You shall *circumcise him when he is 8 days old. You shall *circumcise every male who is born in your house. You shall *circumcise every male whom you buy with your money from any foreigner. You shall do it even if he is not your *descendant. v13 Every male person that is born in your house shall be *circumcised. Also every male person that you buy with your money shall be *circumcised.

So a mark of my firm agreement shall be in your body. It will show that my firm agreement shall last through all ages. v14 You shall separate from his people any male person who is not *circumcised. He has broken my firm agreement.’