A Sign

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

A SIGN 

Gen 17:9-14

9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

NIV

Although this covenant and the sign Abraham was to do were circumcision of himself and every male in his household, family, servants, those born into his household, and those he buys from strangers. In Abraham's time, there was no Israel yet, for that would come through his grandson Jacob. However, Abraham was considered the father of all Israel. In the challenge with Jesus about ideas about the father, the Pharisees proclaimed, "Abraham is our father." The covenant is about the circumcision of the flesh; all Jews should follow that, as it was the covenant between God and their father Abraham. However, is it merely physical, and in our culture it is mostly normal that every male child is circumcised at birth, not when they are eight days old. In this postmodern society, physical circumcision has no spiritual context. Still, in a spiritual sense, it deals only with a sign among males, leaving women to belong to a male family. Yet, we are instructed that circumcision of the flesh is just that, and it defined who Israel was and is, but the true Israel are those who have circumcised their hearts. What does that mean? How can we cut away the cover over our hearts? Considering that circumcision of the flesh is the removal of a covering over the manhood portion of a male, we then would need to remove what covers the tenderest part of our heart, which includes everyone, men and women. That is, we need to expose the fullness of our hearts before the Lord. The question is what would be considered a covering over our hearts that must be circumcised? The other question is, if we do not circumcise our hearts, would we be cut off like those males who never circumcised their flesh? Would self-protection be one of those things that need to be removed? Our Attitudes are a reflection of our hearts, and our words come from what is in our hearts. Jesus made that clear: what goes into our mouths does not defile us, but it is what comes out of our mouths, for that is what is in our hearts. "As a man thinks, so is he." There are many coverings that we are told to rid ourselves of, and that would be the circumcision process of our hearts. Rid our hearts of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, or arguing, every form of malice, or gossiping, deceit, hypocrisy, unforgiveness, envy, jealousy, and pride, just to name a few. If any of those things cover our hearts, have we actually circumcised our hearts? We are told all of Israel will be saved, but we are also told those who circumcise their hearts are the true Israel. Let us be careful not to allow anything to cover our hearts.  Abraham's circumcision of the flesh was a sign of obedience; the circumcision of our hearts is also a sign.