Genesis 19:
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Genesis 18:
10 Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Reading: Genesis 17: 1-14
Acts 7:
8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision
The Hebrew word mul means to circumcise or to cut off (the foreskin of the male organ). In this scene, the Lord (Adoney) who has already initiated, cut, a covenant earlier with Abram whom He newly rebranded as Abraham is now giving circumcision as a sign of His covenant with him, his friend. There is much emphasis on the words covenant and circumcision so much so that if one is interchanged for the other, the meaning will still be the same. The word covenant appears eleven times in the passage of Genesis chapter seventeen. It’s almost synonymous with the word circumcision in each case.
Genesis 17:
5 Neither shalt the name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shalt be Abraham, for a father of many nations I have made thee
Genesis 17:
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty (El-Shaddai – margin), walk before me and be blameless…”
Genesis 15
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon
Genesis 15
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’
Genesis 16 is our consideration today.
Limited by my essential lack of world languages, I believe that the Yoruba have the most discreptive concept of God who’s all hearing. They describe him as abeti kara bi ajere – He that is all ears round like ajere. Ajere is a metal basket with millions of see-through holes. This is an equivalent of the Hebrew word of El-Shaddai which means the all breasted One.
Genesis 14:
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High,
Genesis 12:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed