Walking Before God: What Genesis 17:1 Reveals About Faithful Obedience

Walking With God and Walking Before God

My experience with walking with my children is probably much like yours. They are either running 3 feet ahead or lagging behind, but our eyes are always on them. Once in awhile they will walk calmly with you but normally that is when they are older. As God's children He has instructed us many times to follow Him or walk with Him.

God’s Command to Abram at a Defining Moment

Only once did God command someone to walk before Him. This command comes at a decisive moment in Abram’s life, when God is about to reaffirm His covenant and define what faithful obedience looks like.

"When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." Genesis 17:1

What must it have been like for Abram to know that the eyes of God, El Shaddai, were constantly on Him? Abram knew what God's expectation was of him. It was to be blameless. Every step he took was being watched both with love and with the knowledge that he would be held accountable by Almighty God.

What Does It Mean to Walk Before God?

How would that shape Abram's life? How does it shape ours? But what is God saying to Abram when He says to "walk before Me?" Let’s think about what God is saying in this command.

The expression can be interpreted to mean, "walk, looking at my face." When God sees us He is watchful and we have an accountability towards Him. If God's face is truly always before us, then we can understand His character better and recognize His will for us. Our behavior and how we live our life will be perfected and whole, but only through His grace. When we take our eyes off of His face that is when troubles come.

El Shaddai and the Promise God Alone Fulfills

And what of this name God gives Himself in this verse? It is El Shaddai meaning He is all sufficient. Abram doesn't have to try to work out God's promise himself by having a child with his maid servant. No, God will provide for him because He is and always will be faithful and true to His promises. And God will provide for us as well, what seems impossible. Through His Son we can become blameless. What God required of Abraham is echoed throughout Scripture.

Pressing Toward the Mark With Purpose and Hope

Even though we know that sinless perfection is impossible until Heaven, because we love God we can't be content with a halfway effort for Him. We strive to be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We have to try to run the race to win, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:24. We should all be "pressing toward the mark" (Philippians 3:14). This simply means that we don't just wish we could follow Jesus, but we actively and purposefully seek to become the person He wants us to be.

These are the kinds of words that should describe us: determined, self controlled, disciplined, focused, and purposeful. Do you see yourself in those words? And why do we work so hard? Because our goal is an eternal reward in Heaven with our Father, not the success of the world. We long to hear these words from Him, "Well done though good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23).

Scripture shows that God has always joined this kind of wholehearted obedience to His covenant promises. Only after telling Abram to "walk before Him and be blameless" did God announce His renewed covenant and Abram's new name to signify this covenant. His name would become Abraham, the father of many nations. How people must have scoffed at Abraham's new name! A 99 year old man with only one child but whose name implied multitudes of offspring. But God is a God who causes "things that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

God creates realities where none previously were. Just as He did for Abraham so He can do for you and I. He calls us "saints" in Scripture and so we are. We don't say this in a boasting, prideful way but in a trusting way, just as Abraham trusted God's promise. We are declared justified and righteous by God, not because of what we do, but because of Jesus. Even though we struggle with sin, we know God can create perfection in us where none existed before. So if this is who we are, how do we walk forward each day in trust and obedience to God?

God Who Goes Before Us and Guards Behind Us

Scripture declares our identity in Christ, but God also promises to lead and protect those who walk with Him. Isaiah explains that the Lord will go before and behind His people, Israel, as they return from Babylonian exile. He tells us,

"For you shall not go out with haste, Nor go by flight; For the Lord will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard." Isaiah 52:12

God prepares our way and also protects us from the enemy. He surrounds us like a parent whose child is in front of them or behind them. No caring parent lets a child run out into danger nor do they let danger attack their child from behind, so God our Father does with us.

When we follow God our will is submitted to Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart because our hearts are safe with Him. He is our loving parent who leads and guards, causing us to want to walk in His ways.

He has also told us how we should walk. We are told to walk in Jesus, in My ways, in good works, in newness of life, in love, and walk in the light (Colossians 2:6; Deuteronomy 8:6; Ephesians 2:10; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 1:7). This is our practice of our faith. Everything in our life should be focused on serving and glorifying God. And how is this walk empowered?

Galatians 5:16 tells us we walk by the Spirit. And in 2 Corinthians 5:7 Paul tells us we walk by faith. None of our walk would be possible without the Holy Spirit and our faith in God and His Son. The very faith scripture tells us is given to us by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:9). Among all who have walked with God, Enoch and Noah stand out as remarkable examples of obedience and holiness.

Examples of Those Who Walked Closely With God

Only two people in the Bible are specifically mentioned that are said to have walked with God: Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Noah (Genesis 6:9). Enoch was blessed by escaping death. His story can be seen as an illustration of the hope all believers share: transformation and eternal life with God. This comes, ultimately, through our bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51–52). Noah, who lived faithfully in a world full of iniquity, was blessed to renew the earth after the flood.

Both men were obedient to God and His will. Both preached judgment would come (Jude 14,15; 2 Peter 2:5). Like many that came after them, they were ignored. Abraham, Moses, David, and Daniel also led lives called out for their closeness to God. How closely today are we walking with God? Are we like my children I mentioned above?

Childlike Trust in the Walk of Faith

Like little children who trust their parent to protect them and always be there for them, both to discipline them and love them, we approach God in much the same way. We may run ahead of Him but we always know He is watching us. And we can look back and see His face. We may follow Him because His path is safe, and in walking with Him we receive both blessings and spiritual maturity.

But however we walk, we know it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us and unites us with Him. His is the path of righteousness that leads to eternal life. When we stray, He will forgive us, if we ask. Walking in the way of the Lord brings us blessings (Psalm 119:1) and it is with the heart, not just the lips, that we serve Him. May every step we take be a step in trust, obedience, and joy as we walk with our faithful God.