Responding to the Promise

After 13 years of silence God returns to Abram and clarified the promises and covenant that He had made in the past. God gives a series of new names to remind Abraham of the promises. God also gave a command that would display Abraham's faith, the sign of circumcision. Abraham, as Romans 4 makes clear, did this not a work of fulfilling the covenant, but a response of faith that had started long in the past. Faith responds sometimes dramatically to the promises of God. So Abraham responded to God's command the same day.