When I was 99, the Lord appeared to me and He told me that if I walked before Him faithfully I would be blameless. He then changed my name from Abram to Abraham and He made a covenant with me. God said that He would greatly increase my numbers, I would be the father of many nations, He would make me very fruitful, He would make nations of me and kings would come from me. His covenant with me was an everlasting covenant between Him, me and my descendants after me, for the generations to come. He then promised me the whole land of Canaan and that He would be the God of all my descendants to come. The Lord then told me that every male living with me had to be circumcised. He told me that circumcision is the sign of the covenant He made with me. God said that every boy who is eight years old must be circumcised, whether born in my household or a foreigner living with me. He said that any male who didn’t get circumcised would be cut of from his people because that was considered breaking the covenant. He then changed my wife Sarai’s name to Sarah and He said that we would bless her with a child who would be born in a year. He told me that she would be the mother of nations and kings would come from her. I couldn’t believe what I heard, I was going to have a son at age 100 and I doubted that Sarah was going to give birth at age 90. I wondered why God wouldn’t bless Ishmael with the same blessing, but God promised me that I would have a son and He told me to call him Isaac. The Lord also blessed Ishmael because of what I said and He promised that he would also be fruitful and greatly increase his numbers. He said that he would be the ruler of twelve nations and He would make him into a great nation. That same day I circumcised every male among me including my son, just as the Lord told me to do.
