When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

(Genesis 17:1-5 ESV, bold mine)

Three things pop out to me in this passage.

God gives Abram the command to “be blameless” in Hebrew is tamiym which means complete or whole. God is telling Abram to be complete perfect and sufficient. That’s a huge command.

Then Abram falls on his face… the word translated “fell” is the Hebrew word naphal which also means fail and is translated a few times as overthrow ( Judges 9:40, 2 Sam 17:9, 2 Chron 14:13, Ps 106:26 and 27). And that’s what the command does… it overthrows us. The law wrestles us to the ground and never let’s us win. It brings us to the end of ourselves.

Then, God gives us GRACE. In the last line, the Lord declare, “for I have made you…” Reminding us that we can’t live up to the perfect standard, we’ll fail every time… but HE will accomplish all things on our behalf. We are graced to do the work of God, we don’t work to receive His grace.

To greater confirm this, God adds the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet to show His touch of grace even more! (five is the number of grace)

God’s grace is greater than the command! He loves you and is taking care of you! Praise Him!