Abraham, part 12 - The Sign of the Covenant
Genesis 17v1-14
26th November 2010
Abraham had had a long life. Sometimes he'd got it right and sometimes he'd got it wrong, just like us. But one thing had been constant in his life for many years: God's promise that he and Sarah would have a son, and from that son would come descendants too numerous to count. Now an old man, Abraham was visited again by God:
Genesis 17:1-6
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me
and be blameless.
I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
Abram fell face down, and God said to him,
"As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.
No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
God confirmed the covenant between them, and repeated the promise of a son and many descendants. He also promised him land:
Genesis 17:7-8
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you
for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and
your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
And God made this demand of Abraham and all the males who followed him:
Genesis 17:9-14
Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the
generations to come.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among
you shall be circumcised.
You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those
born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner - those who are not your offspring.
Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your
flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.
Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has
broken my covenant."
God had already made His covenant with Abraham in Chapter 15, when Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and sacrificed animals to God, who walked between the animals as a smoking brazier with a blazing torch. Genesis 15v18 says On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram. As this passage makes clear, circumcision is not another covenant, it's the sign of the covenant between them.
God wanted Abraham and his descendants to have a sign of His covenant that they would never forget.
Abraham was not in the covenant because he was circumcised, he was circumcised because he was in the covenant. And a Jew is not in the covenant because he is circumcised, he was circumcised because he's in the covenant. Circumcision is not the covenant, it's the sign. As Paul wrote:
Romans 2v28-29
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not
by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
The external is a sign of the internal. It's not a cause of the internal, it's a consequence of (or, rather, a response to) the internal.
In the same way, a person is not a Christian because he's been baptised; he gets baptised because he's a Christian. We don't enjoy fellowship with Christ because we share the Lord's Supper; we share the Lord's Supper because we have fellowship with Christ.
The external is a sign and a consequence of the internal.
Colossians 2v10-12
...you have been given fulness in Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority.
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done
by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who
raised him from the dead.
Whether we're Gentile or Jewish, our hearts need to be circumcised. When we believe God, it is credited to us as righteousness, and then we enter into relationship with God. The outward sign confirms this. If our hearts do not change, the outward signs are of no benefit to us.