Today's passage contains the story of another meeting with God, one very important for Abraham. Here God for the first time reveals to Abraham the name by which He will be called for several centuries, up to...
Today's passage contains the story of another meeting with God, one very important for Abraham. Here God for the first time reveals to Abraham the name by which He will be called for several centuries, up to the period of the Exodus. This name is El-Shaddai, "God of power" (v. 1). The translation "God Almighty" can formally be considered correct, but it does not reflect the full depth of the meaning of the name revealed to Abraham. For the point here is not only that the God of Abraham can do everything. The point is power, the power everyone in antiquity knew about, the supernatural power that lies at the foundation of the universe, hidden behind nature and manifesting itself in the most varied natural phenomena, from a lightning strike to a spring bursting forth in a dry steppe. The ancients believed that gods, spirits, and even some people, such as leaders, priests, sorcerers, and magicians, possessed this power. But no one ever claimed to be its only source and bearer. Meanwhile God, turning to Abraham, speaks of Himself precisely as "God of power," the God who is its only source and steward. Such a God, of course, cannot fail to be the Creator of the world and its only Sovereign.
But in this meeting there was something else, no less important. It is no accident that precisely now Abram becomes Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sarah; their former names were different (vv. 5, 15). A change of name always, among all peoples, meant a serious inner change. It meant that the former person who bore the old name no longer existed; in his place another, new person had appeared, and this new person bore a new name. Evidently, together with the name of his God, Abraham learns something else, perhaps something more important. But this "something" apparently belongs among those inner changes that cannot be expressed in words, and the sacred author only hints at the change that took place in Abraham by mentioning his new name.
Only now does God fulfill His promise about an heir (vv. 6-8, 16-21). It could not have been otherwise, for Abraham's heir had to be not simply the leader of his tribe, but also the leader of God's people. Among nomadic peoples in those times, a leader usually also fulfilled the role of chief priest; responsibility for relations with the higher powers rested on him. Abraham's heir therefore had to become, like Abraham himself, a man of God, a leader not only military and political, but also spiritual. And for this, both Abraham himself and Sarah had to live through a meeting with God and spiritual renewal, becoming different people.
One cannot enter into covenant with God and remain the same. He will unfailingly transform and renew spiritually those whom He has called after Himself, so as to make them worthy of the covenant that has been made.
