Covenants, Circumcision and Does It Even Matter? - Part 1

November 20, 2022

The Abrahamic Covenant was the beginning of God’s establishing His people through Abraham.

Covenant refers to the act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind. Through the covenant God bestows blessings on humans in conditional and unconditional terms. Conditionally, God blesses humans as they obey the terms of the covenant. Unconditionally, God bestows blessings on humans regardless of their obedience or disobedience to the terms of the covenant.

A covenant was an agreement or promise between two parties solemnly professed before witnesses (usually the respective gods) and made binding by an oath expressed verbally or by some symbolic action. As a result of covenant, a new relationship was established, a relationship often expressed in kinship terminology. The goal of covenant was šhālôm, peace, wholeness of relationship.

God and His Covenant

1. God works 2. through the Word or a prophet 3. to wage war 4. to make a covenant with a people 5. to constitute that people as his people 6. God establishes a temple presence among them because He will live among them.

God made a covenant to give Abraham a land, a seed and a blessing.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.Genesis 12:1-3

A requirement of the covenant was circumcision of all males.

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.Genesis 17:10-14

Circumcision was a Jewish practice to show that you belonged to God and were one of His covenant people.

Those born after the exodus during the 40-year wilderness wander were required to be circumcised.

At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.Joshua 5:2-9

Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.Jeremiah 31:31-34

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.Matthew 26:28

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.Hebrews 9:12-15

In the New Covenant, Jesus is the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sins, Jesus is our High Priest with God, mankind has a direct relationship with God and God has written His Word in our heart through the Holy Spirit.

Under the New Covenant, the Law has been fulfilled and, at the completion of the covenant, Israel will turn to God as He pours out His Spirit upon Israel.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.Joel 2:28-32

God and His New Covenant

1. God works 2. by his Spirit 3. through the Incarnate Word 4. to war against and defeat his foe(s) 5. God establishes a covenant with a people 6. God’s covenant establishes that people as God’s people 7. God establishes a temple among his people, because He will reside among them.

God has a plan that spans eternity past to eternity future.

The glory of God and the redemption of mankind has always been front and center in God’s plans.

God has always been looking for a people who would represent His name and character amongst those who do not know Him.

God always keeps His promises.