Genesis 17, Circumcision, and...wait, you want to do WHAT do my WHAT?

Rabbi Tuckman, giving an example of circumcision. Robin Hood rejects his offer.

The last blog focused on Genesis 16...and Bert's uni-brow. I'm not sure if I got more views than ever because of my brilliant writing or because people liked looking at Bert's uni-brow. I'm going to pretend it's my incredible writing style...let's just move on.

In Genesis 16, Abram involved himself in a major soap opera by sleeping with his wife's female servant, which was his wife's idea, (you want me to do what?), which resulted in him impregnating said servant, causing his wife to get upset, (big surprise there). All this was due to Abram and Sarai not trusting God's plan and promises, recreating the Fall of man, (see Genesis 3). The result was an offspring, (Ishmael), who is prophesied to grow up and create descendants who would forever be set against the children of Abram, (see also Israel/Palestine, Israel/Iran, Israel/everyone else who hates Israel, etc). Other than that, it was a pretty ho-hum story. Now we're in Genesis 17. Let's hope this chapter involves more of trusting God on the part of Abram and less soap opera type fooling around with the wrong sort of women. The lesson as always: women will get you in trouble. JUST KIDDING! (My wife and daughters are now going to kill me).

Ahem, let's move on...Genesis 17:1-14

"When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.' Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 'Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." (V1-8)

Okay, sorry to quote a chunk there, but I felt like it was important. Let's take some notes:
- Notice how many times God uses unconditional and unilateral language, I will, I shall, etc are used six-seven times in the verses. God is again showing that HE will accomplish the promise of the covenants. It is a guarantee, a done deal. God is the one who initiated the covenant with Abram and God is the one who will make sure the covenant is fulfilled. See also the previous blog about the unilateral covenant of God.
- The covenant is for Abram and his offspring. God is going to be the God not only of Abram, but of his children and his children's children. It is an everlasting covenant. God has chosen a unique person to create a unique people out of all the peoples of the earth. Through this unique person and people there is going to come a unique and singular Savior of men. See also the previous blog about the importance of family trees in the Bible.
- God again promises to give Abram and his descendants the land he mentioned to Abram previously. The covenant promises of God are very important because Abram's children, (at least the good ones), are going to walk by faith in the promises of God. Some of these promises are not going to find fulfillment for 400 years. But the fact is that God has spoken, God has promised, and his words can not be undone.

This has nothing to do with Abraham, but it is an awesome name card.

- God changes Abram's name, (which means exalted father), to Abraham, (which means father of a multitude). If the Almighty Creator of everything on earth decides to change your name, you say "Yessir" and move on. Abram meant exalted father. That sounds nice for the father of one son who you got through your female servant, (weird). But God is foreshadowing and promising that Abraham will not just be the father of one son, but he is going to be the father of nations. It's a reminder to Abraham that God is going to be faithful to his promises.

I hear you right now asking yourself, "So what?" (Clever how I slipped that in, huh?) "What does Abram/Abraham, and his promises have to do with me, my broken dishwasher, and my angry two year old in the 21st century?" First of all let me say I am sorry you have an angry two year old. I have one myself and I know how unpleasant that is. Secondly let me say I understand your question. This chapter of Genesis seems very vague and unconnected to everyday life. But I want you to remember the purpose of this blog series is to give you, my dear readers, a groundwork for understanding the Bible story. The covenants between God and his people are very, very important. So even if we have to get in passages which are not nearly as entertaining as Bert's uni-brow, we're going to have to do it in order to make sure we understand the Bible correctly. How you and I view Israel and the people of God is incredibly important and will impact how you read the Bible for the rest of your life. So hang with me and we'll get through it.

Alright, as one pea said to the other, let's keep rolling...
"And God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant...every male among you shall be circumcised...You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you...He who is born in your house...shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations...shall be circumcised...Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." (V9-14, abbreviated by me).

Quick, what is the theme of this section? You guessed it, circumcision. Ouch. If you don't know what circumcision is I will just let you Google that one yourself. There are no adequate explanations here or cute pictures I could use. I'll just say it involves cutting off something from a very sensitive area of a man's anatomy. Nuff said? Good.
By the way, for those of you who want to learn how to study the Bible for yourselves here's a great tool. You should always note when the Bible uses a particular word or phrase over and over again because it usually means that particular topic or word is important. We see that in the previous section where God said over and over again, "I will" or "I shall" about 19 times. Here the word circumcision is used six times in five verses, so it's probably important.

Circumcision. Why does God tell Abraham to do this? I mean this is alright for a newborn boy, but to do it to a 99 year old grown man. Sweet Georgia Brown that would hurt! Questions aside, here's what we know:
1) Circumcision was meant to be a sign of the covenant God had given to Abraham. Every male associated with Abraham, his descendants and his male servants, had to be circumcised. Remember when God gave Noah a sign of a rainbow to confirm his covenant to Noah? Abraham and all those after him are given a sign to confirm the Abrahamic covenant. I'm sure Abraham would have preferred something more rainbow-like rather than cutting his...but I digress.
2) Circumcision was a sign of the covenant, not an act that entered a person into the covenant. For Abraham and the Israelites after him, circumcision signified a relationship with God that already existed. Israelites were set apart because of their relationship to God through Abraham. Circumcision did not earn them anything in relation to God, it simply signified what was already there. This is very important. The apostle Paul builds on this in Romans 4, (which is in the New Testament), saying that circumcision was a sign of the covenant relationship that Abraham had with God by faith. It was not a work that earned him anything before God. Remember, Abraham was already counted righteous by God because of his faith, not because of his works.

3) Biblical circumcision has nothing to do with whether or not you circumcise your baby boy. Personally I've seen what a circumcised (ahem) looks like and it looks painful. I've never seen an uncircumcised (ahem) so I don't know but I hear there are health benefits. If you have any further questions, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND NOT AWKWARD ask your doctor or anyone else but me!
4) God is serious about this circumcision thing. Like I noted before, he mentions it 6 times in 5 verses. He also concludes the section by saying, "if you're not cut, (you know, down there), then you'll be cut off from the people of God", (my translation). This was not an optional choice if you wanted to be part of God's people. It's mandatory. God takes this very seriously.

All this talk of circumcision and male...parts. Wow. And you thought this blog would be boring. Shame on you.

More could be said about this, but I think I've had enough of this conversation for now. Hopefully you've learned more about the Abrahamic covenant. Next time we get to talk about old people making babies. How exciting. Stay tuned.