Genesis 17:9-14. 9And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Yesterday we talked about how God is moving Abraham from passive faith to active faith. In Genesis 17, the Abrahamic Covenant is starting to look more and more like a normal Ancient Near East covenant. The superior king (God) accepts obligations toward his vassal king (Abraham), and the vassal accepts obligations to his superior. What is God’s obligation? It came in verses 7 and 8 – Land.
Genesis 17:7-8. 7And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God’s obligation – give the land to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession.
Abraham’s obligation – actively obey God, starting with…circumcision. Ouch.
This is not the invention of circumcision. Circumcision was a common practice among many, but not all, ancient civilizations. In Egypt it was a sign of social status, priests and nobles were circumcised. For many others it was a fertility rite, young men reaching puberty were circumcised. Of course, the Philistines were notoriously uncircumcised. Like so many other things in the life of Abraham (altar building, sacrifices), circumcision was nothing new, but it would take on a whole new meaning.
Different from every other culture, Hebrews circumcised every baby at eight days old. Clearly this was no fertility rite or even a rite of status. So what was circumcision about? The answer is dedication to God. The cutting off of the foreskin was a reminder of the cutting of the covenant, something that God did with God. God alone would be responsible for any breach in the covenant. God is fully dedicated to Abraham – “I will be God to you.” And Abraham? Is he fully dedicated to Yahweh?
That’s what circumcision is asking for, a permanent, painful, and deeply personal dedication to God. Not the dedication of the infant so much as the dedication of the parents of their sons to God and his service. In essence, God is saying in this covenant, “I’ll give you this land, and you give me your children.” This is the restoration of Eden, of creation. God created the land and gave it to Adam and Eve. To his dedicated servants and their offspring after them. But their rebellion brings the dedication of every single person born in Adam into question. Do you love me? Will you trust me? Will you serve me? Will you work and keep this garden if I give it back to you? Or will you worship it and thus destroy it? Will you be fruitful and multiply in faithful love? Or will you use one another to build towers to Heaven?
So at ninety-nine years old, Abraham was circumcised. He then circumcised Ishmael and all the other males in his household. Now that’s dedication. But it’s only symbolic dedication. It’s not heart change.
And that’s what circumcision is really all about, the need for the circumcision of the heart. The cutting away of the old nature and its rebellious desires.
Deuteronomy 10:15-16. 15Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
But here’s what we all know, man can circumcise his own foreskin if he must, but he can’t circumcise his own heart. No one is that dedicated. That committed. That able. “The heart is deceptive above all and desperately wicked,” the prophet told us. It’s easier for a ninety-nine-year-old man to cut away his own flesh than for a sinner like you and me to change our hearts. In fact, that second thing is impossible.
Except for God.
Deuteronomy 30:6. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
The Lord God will. This is a New Covenant promise fulfilled in us through Christ. In Christ, we have experienced what Paul calls the circumcision of the heart, a circumcision not made with human hands (Col. 2:11-12). This is a spiritual circumcision whereby sin is cut away from our inner being. Not to prove our dedication to God (that can never be proven), but, once again, to prove his dedication to us. He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves – purify our hearts to love him and serve him in our eternal possession, the land of his everlasting love and grace.
For Abraham, circumcision was obedience. For us, the circumcision of the heart produces our obedience. The removal of the deception of the heart by Christ, the Truth. The removal of the wickedness of the heart by Christ our righteousness. Now we can obey God from a pure heart, a heart of faith, a heart of love. The new heart that at its deepest level wants what God is offering – the life and love of Jesus in us. The blameless new heart that can now be trusted to choose to walk in the ways of the Lord for all our days as God himself guides into the “Promised Land” of his eternal presence.
You: Do you focus more on your dedication to God, or his dedication to you?
You in Christ: The new heart is beating in you, Christian. How does this truth change how you see your ability to walk in God’s ways today?
Christ in you: Where can you see your heart becoming more and more trusting of God?
Prayer: Father, you have circumcised my heart by your grace. Lead me in your ways as I learn to trust my new heart. Amen.
To Live is Christ 