At Genesis chapter seventeen, God initiated a covenant with Abraham that was in fact a token of another covenant. God required the circumcision of every male child when the infants were no more than eight days old. This was to be a covenant to be kept with God not only for Abraham’s generation, but for his seed and their generations from then on. This covenant of circumcision, God says, was as a token of another and greater covenant to be everlasting in it’s duration. That everlasting covenant no doubt dealt with the plans God announced to Abraham back in Genesis twelve. It was there that God declared His intent to make of Abraham’s descendants the great nation of Israel, out of which nation would eventually be produced the promised Messiah Jesus Christ, by Whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. To abide by the Divine covenant of circumcision was to bear a token of God’s intent to redeem the world. So serious a matter was this in the eyes of God that he declared anyone not submitting the physical circumcision of the flesh of the foreskin would be cut off from his people for breaking the Divine covenant. GuJ was apparently quite serious about that matter, as He is about all things He declares, for at Exodus chapter four, God nearly took the life of Moses for failing to take care of the circumcision of his son. Moses wife Zipporah quickly stepped in and performed the circumcision and the Lord released Moses. It is interesting to note that this incident took place just as Moses was leaving for Egypt to secure the released of the Israelites from bondage. What a tragedy it would have been had he died for his disobedience before that matter was accomplished. Even now, God still requires of us to undergo a circumcision, though not one of the flesh. At Colossians chapter two, we’re told that when we are baptized for the remission of sins, we undergo a circumcision performed by Jesus Christ that removes the sins of the flesh, rather than flesh itself. As before, to maintain this covenant of spiritual circumcision is to bear a token in one’s soul of God’s intent to eternally redeem us. And, again, as before, failure to maintain this covenant shall result in being cut off from the family of God.
Written and Recorded By: David Hayes Prophater