from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 13

Genesis 17:1-22: Change of Name

The Story

Primary and Junior

Abram was living in the Holy Land. He had come at the Lord's call from his first home in the far East; he had camped near Shechem and near Bethel; he had been to Egypt and come back; he had separated from Lot and made his home in Hebron. From there he had gone out to his first battle, and now he was again peacefully camped by the oaks or terebinths. The chapter following our lesson gives us a picture of the tents by the path and the tent door where Abram sat in the heat of the day. The tree with its friendly shade was near, where travelers rested while Abram ran to the herd not far away, and where they ate the meal that he got ready. This was the home where Abram was living when the Lord appeared to him, and made a covenant with him, and promised him great blessings.

Abram was ninety-nine years old, and his wife Sarai had no child. The Lord told him that they should have a son Isaac, and that his descendants would become a great nation. Ishmael also, the son of Hagar, Sarai's maid, should be the father of a nation. The Lord would give Abram all this blessing and the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and He told Abram that every man child that was born in his house or that was bought with money should be circumcised when he was eight days old. This was a ceremony that had the same meaning as baptism. It was a sign that the child should be the Lord's, and that wrong and evil things should be put away for His sake. Do you remember in the Gospel of Luke the story of an old man who was promised a son, and how the neighbors and cousins came together on the eighth day to circumcise the child and to give him a name? That was in the same hill country of Judaea, perhaps in this very town of Hebron where Abram lived. It was long, long afterward, but the people still remembered the command which had been given to Abram.

At the same time that the Lord blessed Abram and commanded circumcision, He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, and the name of his wife Sarai to Sarah. The new name, Abraham, means "father of a multitude"; but there was a deeper meaning than that in the change. The letter "h" which was added to Abram's name and to his wife's, was from the Lord's own name Jehovah, and it was a sign that Abraham and Sarah were to be His children, to obey Him, and as far as they could, to be like Him. You may like to read with this lesson some verses of the next chapter and some from the first chapter of Luke.

1. At what places had Abram lived in the Holy Land? Where was he now living?

2. What is a covenant? In this covenant between the Lord and Abram, what would the Lord do? What must Abram do?

3. What would Abram's name be from this time? What would his wife's name be? Why was the letter "h" added to their names?

4. What does it mean to have a part of the Lord's name added to our name?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

"God Shaddai," translated "God Almighty," was the name by which the Lord was known to Abraham. So it is plainly said in Exod. 6:3. Swedenborg tells us that Shaddai was a name used by the idolatrous people in the land from which Abraham came (Josh. 24:2, 14, 15), and the Lord permitted him to call Him by the name already familiar. It is a sign of the Lord's gentleness in leading people to a truer knowledge of Him, and of His patience with our imperfect conceptions of Him. We none of us know Him as He truly is in His infinite love and wisdom; we none of us call Him by His true name.

The name Shaddai had been given by the idolaters to the god who they thought sent certain experiences of rebuking and of consolation which came to them. When the name is applied to the Lord, it means especially His presence with us in temptation and in the consolation which follows temptation. The name Jehovah means the Lord as the one who is, and brings to mind especially His infinite love. The fact that the Lord was first known by Abraham as God Shaddai and afterward by his descendants as Jehovah, suggests that in our regeneration we may first know His power and consolation in temptation, before we can know the fullness of His love. Read much of interest in A. 1992, 7193.

A covenant is an agreement with something to be performed on each side. In this covenant with Abraham, the Lord would make his descendants a great nation, and would give them the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Abraham and his family on their part were to observe the rite of circumcision. What do the Lord's part and Abraham's part of the covenant represent in our relations with the Lord? Our duty is to put away what is evil, for the Lord's sake. The Lord can then multiply our spiritual life without end and give us an eternal home in heaven. (A. 2026, 2039)

Should there be something in our experience that is represented by the change of name? Spiritually our name is our quality, our character; as we say that one has a good name or a bad name, or a name for this or that. The Lord's name is His Divine quality - His goodness, truth, and power. When do we drop our old name and receive something of the Lord's name? You find a similar thought in Rev. 3:12, in the promise to people who overcome, that the Lord's name shall be written upon them.

What change that took place gradually in our Lord Himself during His life on earth is represented by this dropping of the old name and taking of the Divine name? The laying down of the finite and imperfect nature, and the forming of a nature wholly Divine. (A. 2009)

Do you see why circumcision was on the eighth day? It was because it represented a new beginning. By repentance, the old state is left behind and a new and better state is begun. It is the first day of a new spiritual week. (A. 2044)

Abraham's laughter (verse 17), like Sarah's (Gen. 18:12), had something of unbelief and scorn in it. (See also Gen. 21:6.) But in the deeper sense, the laughter means the happiness in the new development of heavenly life which is represented by the birth of Isaac. (A. 2072)

There is a beautiful thought in this giving of a son to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, as in the giving of John the Baptist to the old Zacharias and Elisabeth. New births of heavenly life come only from the Lord and not till we feel our own powerlessness to become heavenly of ourselves.

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