And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Ver. 1. The Lord appeared to Abram.] After thirteen years' absence and silence, far aught we read; so that Abram began to conclude, that Ishmael surely was the promised seed, and all the sons he was likely to have to inherit the land. The Church then may err, when she cleaves not close to the word; though God at length will direct her into the right way, as here he did Abram.
I am God Almighty.] Or all-sufficient, self-sufficient (so Aquila), a independent, absolute, the original, universal good. Aben-Ezra interprets Shaddai, a conqueror: others, a destroyer, which a conqueror must needs be. Eundem victorem et vastatorem esse oportet, saith Cameron. And to this the Scripture alludes when it saith Shod shall come from Shaddai, "Destruction from the Almighty". Isa 13:6 Some there are that derive Shaddai of Shad a dug, because God feeds his children with sufficiency of all good things, as the loving mother doth the child with the milk of her breasts. Hence the heathen called Diana (and likewise Ceres) πολυμαθον and Mammosam, as if she were the nurse of all living creatures. God is the only satisfactory good, proportionable and fitting to our souls, as the dug to the child's stomach.
Walk before me.] Heb., Indesinenter ambula, Walk constantly, step for step, and keep pace with me. Austin would not, for the gain of a million of worlds, be an athiest for half an hour, because he knew not but God might in that time make an end of him. For "can two walk together and they not agreed?" saith the prophet. Amo 3:3 "Ye cannot serve the Lord," saith Joshua to the people that promised fair, Jos 24:19 that is, unless ye will serve him entirely, walk uprightly, as Abram here; walk evenly, without halting or halving with him. Holiness must run through the whole life, as the warp doth through the woof: all the parts of our line of life must be straight before God. "As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity," with openly profane persons, when "peace shall be upon Israel," Psa 125:5 upon all that are "Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile". Joh 1:27 Psa 32:2 Surely, as an unequal pulse shows a distempered body, so doth uneven walking an unsound soul, - such as is not verily persuaded that God is all-sufficient, able, and ready to reward the upright, and punish the hypocrite.
a Aυταπκης Iκανος. - Aquila. Aνενδεης. - Plato