Blameless

DEVOTION

GENESIS

BLAMELESS

Gen 17:1-8

17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." 3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

NIV

Thirteen years have passed since the debacle of Sarai, Hagar and Abram with the resulting birth of Ishmael.  We cannot be certain if God had been completely silent in his relationship with Abram for those years, but Abram certainly enjoyed the blessing of God on his life. He may have spent time in discernment of what had happened, how he made a mistake in not trusting the promise of God. We cannot be certain what took place during those thirteen years, but now the Lord appears to him. What that appearance was, we are not told. It could have been a visible manifestation of the glory of God. It may have been God in a physical form, Jesus. From the Hebrew word used here it certainly implies Abram saw the Lord as he appeared to him. What he says to Abram in his greeting has great significance. He tells Abram who he is exactly, and what Abram is to do. Abram has been commanded to walk before the Lord and be blameless. Some would combine this with the New Testament command:

Matt 5:48

48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

NIV

But we should look at both these words in their original intent of being complete, whole, having integrity. Both the Hebrew word translated blameless and the Greek word translated perfect mean that same thing. God was telling Abram as Jesus is telling us, to walk before him with integrity, with honesty rather than being a perfect human being, without any sin. We might endeavor to hide our sin from each other, perhaps out of embarrassment, or that others would think poorly of us, because they believe they have no sin, or that ours would be worse than theirs. But we cannot ever hide or keep our sin to ourselves before God. He does not care what kind of sin we have, for Jesus died for all our sin, no matter how great or small. Because of Jesus we are in fact blameless, innocent before God. But the point of these words is to reveal that we, as Abram, should walk with integrity before God, being brutally honest with God. Honest with how we feel, how we act, how we live, how we sin. Abram’s response was one very familiar in his culture. He fell on his knees bowing his head to the ground. We see this type of prostration in the Muslim form of prayer, still practicing the eastern culture that Abram grew up and lived in. Here we have God confirming the covenant with Abram. This whole covenant concept had a great deal of meaning in that day. Men, tribes, nations made covenants, agreements sealed with certain actions of two men. We could detail all these actions, but it would take nearly a complete book to do this covenant real justice. The main point that is revealed to us here is the new name Abram gets as a result of this covenant. One of the steps in covenants between men is to exchange names. Here God or Yahweh, spelled in the original language JHWH takes the H in his name and places within Abram’s giving him the name AbraHam. We also see God did that with Sarai, giving her the name SaraH. The significance of  this is enormous. God was establishing Abraham and Sarah as his covenant partners. If anyone messed with them, God would avenge them wholeheartedly. But more importantly, which is the lesson for us, God was telling them he was now not only with them but in them, a part of them, his name was within theirs. This is the covenant Jesus made with us. That we would be his people, He gave his life for us, so that we would not perish, but have eternal life. Yet we also see he has changed our name also.

Rev 2:17

17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

NIV

Although we may not know our new name at present, we have a new name that Jesus has given to us, just as God gave Abram a new name. We are in a covenant relationship with God, with Jesus, and with the Spirit, who has actually come to dwell within us, as God was demonstrating to Abram in putting the H of his name within Abram’s. With Abraham being marked with the seal of God, a portion of his name, we are sealed also, but the Spirit of God. So let us walk before the Lord with integrity, blameless.