“This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you… And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Genesis 17:10-14
On the eighth day following the birth of a baby boy, the child’s immune system was strong enough to go through the rough operation of circumcision; it was ideal to do this at such a young age mainly because it would get the painful experience over with and save the child some scary memories. Circumcision means “cutting around”… quite literally this was the procedure of removing the foreskin from the male reproductive organ. We see God instructing Abraham to carry out some out of the ordinary practices. However, this command didn’t exclude the adults (OUCH!).
What was the purpose for these commandments?
Did God just want to see Abraham go through pain?
Later in history doctors would find that circumcision is actually a healthy procedure that prevents infection to build in the private area of males. What seemed to be unusual and pointless pain, would actually be discovered later as most healthy and purposeful.
Sometimes we too hear God’s instructions and wonder why He would ask us to go through such painful and unusual procedures. As time passes, we begin to realize what seemed painful and pointless is actually God’s wisdom and grace saving us from infection and more pain.
This is also an illustration of God’s separation of clean from unclean, Holy from unholy. Circumcision was an outward illustration of what God would do in our hearts in the New Testament. Upon establishing the everlasting covenant with us He instructs us to separate ourselves from the unclean practices of the flesh (2 Cor. 7). God commands us to cut off the fleshy tendencies, freeing us up to live healthy and purposeful lives.
Is it painful? Yes
Is it appealing? Not really
Is it worth it? As Paul would tell us, “nothing will compare to this all surpassing glory of Christ.”
