Genesis 17:15-27

The Voice

¹⁵(continuing to Abraham) As for Sarai, your wife, the covenant applies to her as well. No longer will she be known as Sarai; her new name will be Sarah. ¹⁶She will receive My special blessing, and she will conceive a son by you. With My blessing on her, she will become the founding princess of nations to come. Kings of many peoples will be counted among her children.

The Scriptures tell us that names matter. What we call people and places often describes and defines them in ways other kinds of words do not. People’s names may recall the circumstances of their birth or reflect their character or perhaps depict their destiny. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham to signify that he will become the founding father of many nations. The change in Sarah’s name is a bit more complicated because both “Sarai” and “Sarah” mean “princess.” Still the name “Sarah” becomes her covenant-name, the name by which generations know her. As the wife of Abraham’s youth and old age, Sarah is destined to become the founding princess of many nations, a royal mother to many kings.

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face and erupted into laughter in a moment of private absurdity, as he thought to himself, “Yeah, right! How can a centenarian father a child? Am I supposed to believe that Sarah, my 90-year-old wife, is going to have a baby?”

Abraham (to God): ¹⁸There’s Ishmael of course. May my son Ishmael be blessed and live a long life beneath Your watchful eye.

Eternal One: ¹⁹No, Abraham. I mean what I am telling you. Your wife Sarah will certainly become pregnant and bear a son. I want you to name him Isaac. I will continue to establish My covenant with him; through his line My covenant will last forever. ²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard your prayers for him! Look, he is your son too. I will bless him as well and make his lineage fruitful. His descendants will also be of a huge number. In fact, he will be the father of 12 princes. I will make sure that a great nation arises from his descendants as well. ²¹But My special covenant—this I will establish with Isaac. Sarah is going to give birth to him at this very time next year.

²²When God was finished talking with Abraham about all of this, He left and Abraham went home. ²³Abraham immediately took his son Ishmael and all of the slaves born in his household or bought with his money—every single male within his household—and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, just as God had told him to do. ²⁴Abraham was already 99 years old when he was circumcised. ²⁵His son Ishmael was 13 years old when he received the mark of the covenant. ²⁶On the day Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised, ²⁷all men of the household, no matter where they had come from, were circumcised along with them.