In this episode we jump back into the story of Abraham where God introduces several new things into his covenantal relationship with Abraham. Abraham is now 99 years old, and it has been 13 years since Abraham mistakenly pursued his own path of producing a child with his handmaiden, Hagar. Now, with both Hagar and Ismael in his household, God appears to Abraham to advance the development of his covenantal relationship with him, a covenant that would now be signified by the circumcision of all his male descendants, and those who would join that covenant community. The overarching theme here is that moving more deeply into a covenant relationship with God eventually requires something in our human nature to be cut away. In other words, walking with God leads us through a purification process that removes things hindering our ability to partner with God in bringing more life into the world. In this way, Abraham and his covenant community would represent to the world what it is like to walk with God, and how that covenantal relationship transforms our human nature.
The correlation between circumcision as the sign of the covenant and the widening of Abraham's influence to be a father of many nations - plural - is important to note. Like producing a book, the closer you get to publication, the more editing and revising and "cutting out" that takes place. When God announces Abraham's influence is going to spread out beyond his physical descendants, he simultaneously institutes a generational sign of the covenant that signifies a cutting away of human nature.  The implication is that the wider your influence, the deeper the covenant is cut into our "flesh" to remove aspects of our human nature that may frustrate our capacity to partner with God in bringing more life to the world.
Key Passages
Genesis 17:1-14

vs 1 - The word for "before me" in Hebrew is panim meaning face or presence, but also before. The here is that Abraham would be walking in God's presence, but also walking before him as God's representative.
vs 1 - The word for "blameless" in Hebrew is tamim meaning complete, whole, sound, unblemished. It's the same word used to describe Noah and his generations (Genesis 6:9), and the acceptable condition of sacrifices used on the altar in the Tabernacle (Lev. 1:3,10; 3:1,6,9; 4:3,23,28,32 etc.). The implication is that as Abraham walks with and before God, there is a requirement for every aspect of his life to come into alignment with God's nature, to participate with God in moving from corruption to wholeness.

Romans 4:16-17

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* Intro Music: "Admirable" Carlos Herrera Music

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