I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
2. And I will make my covenant He now begins more fully and abundantly to explain what he had before alluded to briefly. We have said that the covenant of God with Abram had two parts. The first was a declaration of gratuitous love; to which was annexed the promise of a happy life.
Here is, I. The time when God made Abram this gracious visit: When he was ninety-nine years old, full thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael. 1. So long, it should seem, God's extraordinary appearances to Abram were intermitted; and all the communion he had with God was only in the usual was of ordinances and providences.
Commenting on Genesis 17:1-3
And I will make my covenant between me and thee,.... The covenant of circumcision, so called from the token of it, which God is said to make or give (e), being his own constitution, and depended on his sovereign will and pleasure, see Act 7:8, and will multiply thee exceedingly; as he had before promised at several times, and now renews it, lest be should...