The Covenant of Circumcision - Genesis 17

                    

We re-enter the story of God’s relationship with Abram 14 years after last week’s story when God called him to go to a new land, and promising him descendants. Now Abram still doesn’t have any descendants with his wife Sarai, though Abram now has a son, Ishmael through Hagar, a slave girl. Ishmael is now 13 years old. It’s a messy situation and it’s created a whole lot of pain, so much so that God sent Hagar an angel to reassure her that he hears her cries; Ishmael means, “God hears.” In today’s passage, we learn that Ishmael will be the father of 12 princes and the Lord will bless him, even though he’s not the son God will carry out the covenant with.

The Lord appears to Abram, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram falls facedown to the ground in worship and awe as the Lord goes on to tell him that he’s going to make Abram the father of many nations. The Lord changes Abram’s name to reflect what he’s going to do, changing it to Abraham, which means “father, progenitor, and chief.” Now the Lord promises to make this covenant an everlasting covenant between the Lord and Abraham and his descendants after him. This is a promise of relationship and presence, a promise of protection and identity for Abraham and his descendants. The Lord goes on to reaffirm his promise of the land for Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession. This promise is what lies behind the push after World War 2 to re-establish the nation of Israel. How many other nations, after being out of their land for over 1,800 years have ever been re-established? The Lord is faithful.

The obligations for Abraham and his descendants are obedience and faithfulness, to be the Lord’s people. The sign for this covenant, and the blessings that come from it, is circumcision; the covenant sign is made in the flesh of every male child who belongs to, or lives among, the people of Israel. The covenant is going to be played out through a son of Abraham and Sarah. Sarah is going to be the mother of the nations living in covenant with the Lord.

The covenant is based on walking faithfully with God and being blameless and obedient. The Hebrew words point to wholeness, honesty, devotion, integrity, and being without fault. This is what it means to be in relationship with God, this is the character God’s people are supposed to cultivate, this is part of our identity, who we are as his people created in his image, showing the world who our God is. Faith is not as much about what we do, it’s about who we are. Our character shaped by God, leads into what we do and how we live. As the blog The High Calling says, “Being blameless or integral means living a life of wholeness as God originally designed us to live.”

This points us to Jesus and how he fulfilled all the laws and the prophets, how he lived life the way we are called to live; living out God’s will and call on our lives in obedience and faithfulness. We call this Jesus’ active obedience, all part of our being saved from our sin. Jesus isn’t our example; we can’t do life as he did because sin still keeps drawing us away from God. Jesus is called the Second Adam, the one who lives out the covenants we can’t, the one person who completely believes in and trusts God the Father, even as it leads to the cross and offering his life and blood as the sacrifice for our sin.

God chooses circumcision as the sign for this covenant, just as he chose the rainbow for the sign of the covenant with Noah. These signs remind us over and over again of God’s promises to us and of our response to God. The One For Israel blog writes about why God chooses circumcision, “Circumcision is a blood covenant between all those in the house of Israel… and God, and God takes it seriously. He says it's an everlasting covenant, and those who do not enter into it are to be cut off from the people. Ordinarily in any ancient covenant blood is spilled as an ominous warning about the consequences of breaking it, but typically an animal is cut instead of a person. In the blood covenant of circumcision, we see the symbolism of a line being cut off, the seed of the man stopped in its tracks, as abandoning the covenant means being cut off from the people…. God could have chosen any sign…. So what was the point of it…. It's to do with the most graphic symbol there is of fleshly desire, and how our flesh can be at war with God. It's to do with our innermost being: our hearts.”

Circumcision’s a physical sign of the covenant made in the flesh of the male members of God’s people. It’s not only Abraham who’s called to be circumcised, but also the slaves and servants of his household. Later on, all Israelite males, all male slaves, and any male foreigner who lived in the land were also to be circumcised. If they became followers of God, they needed to be circumcised to be allowed into the temple area or participate in the Passover. Exodus 12:43–49, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it…. “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.” Circumcision is the sign of belonging to Israel’s God.

Through the generations, circumcision becomes a metaphor for faith. In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses says, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” Then in Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Circumcision is a sign of purity and right-living with God, of walking in the way of the Lord and trusting the way God has called us to walk.

Even in the time of Jesus, circumcision was part of the Jewish faith and identity; both John the Baptist and Jesus are circumcised on the eighth day. After Pentecost and the growth of the church among the non-Jewish peoples, circumcision became a point of controversy. There were Jews who demanded that anyone converting to following Jesus had to be circumcised. Circumcision was closely tied to law obedience and Paul seeks to expand our ideas of faith from simply following the law to a way of life focused on our character, shaped by loving God and neighbour. Paul speaks out strongly against circumcision of the non-Jews in his letter to the Galatians where he calls the people to live by the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” He writes in Romans 2:29, “No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” This echoes the Old Testament connection of circumcision to faith. 

Paul connects baptism with covenant as a fulfilment of the Exodus and God’s saving of his people by making a way through the Red Sea, and also as the fulfilment of circumcision under the Law. Israel’s identity came through circumcision and the Exodus; in the New Testament, the Church’s identity lies in baptism. The good news of the Gospel is not just about forgiveness from sin and brokenness; it’s about being whole again and living the life we were intended at creation. Many of us live with brokenness inside ourselves, pulled in different ways by our faith and our culture. We can be torn between what we understand as our faith’s response to various social issues and our culture’s response. Definitions of basic words and concepts such as love and tolerance separate rather than draw us together, creating conflict in our hearts and minds as we seek to follow Jesus. Some of us walk with unspoken hurt, fear, and even fear of trusting Jesus because trusting Jesus means fully committing to his way.

The good news is that through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for us and the grace he offers to us, we’re, through repentance and faith, made brand-new persons. When we choose Jesus’ way, he makes us whole inside, creating integrity within our hearts, souls, and minds as the Spirit shapes and guides us. Jesus re-establishes the lost intimacy, integrity, and relationship we once had in Eden with God and with each other, and will have again when Jesus returns. The Spirit helps us trust Jesus, healing our soul pain, guiding us to Jesus, helping us find peace and wholeness.