In class on Sunday, we went over Joshua 5. The people of Israel have just crossed the parted Jordan River on dry ground, and set up memorial stones upon their entrance into the Promised Land. They are about to embark on Jericho, but first, there's some business that needs attended to. For whatever reason, the boys who had been born during the Israelites' time in the desert had not been circumcised according to the Law. So Joshua told the people to make flint knives and circumcise the men & boys of Israel. During class, the following question was posed:
"Why circumcision?"
If circumcision is "the outward sign of entrance into the covenant community or the community of God’s people" (according to Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, p. 975), then why not something more visible to everybody - like a tattoo or a brand or a piercing or hairstyle? Why circumcision?
We threw around some ideas as a class, but nothing really seemed to hit the spot, other than, "well, we're really not sure." So Sunday afternoon & evening found me looking into this. I knew I had actually heard an explanation for this before, but couldn't remember exactly where. So off I went to various resources (including Grudem's Systematic Theology referenced above).
One of the things that I came across was the fairly basic idea of covenants in the Bible, and covenant signs in particular. Throughout the Bible, God makes covenants with His people, and often attaches a sign to help them remember the covenant. In general, the sign held some significance to the promise God made as part of the covenant. An easy example is God's covenant with Noah after the flood. God promised to never again destroy the earth with a flood. And what was the sign of the covenant? A rainbow. Despite the floods that ravage parts of the earth from time to time, the rainbow still serves to remind us that God will never again destroy all life with a flood.
Likewise, circumcision was intimately connected to one of God's covenants, with Abraham. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram to leave his country, telling him that He will make him into a great nation, and that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (12:3) In Genesis 15, God enters into covenant with Abram, telling him that "a son coming from your own body will be your heir" (15:4), that his offspring would be as uncountable as the stars in the sky. In Genesis 16, Abram & Sarai were getting impatient with God and tried to fulfill His promise on their own. Abram sleeps with Sarai's maidservant, Hagar, and Ishmael is born. God has already been making promises to Abram, but so far there has been no mention of circumcision. Which brings us to Genesis 17.
In Genesis 17, God tells Abram that He will confirm His covenant with him. He changes Abram's name to Abraham (from "exalted father" to "father of a multitude"). He tells Abraham that He will make him fruitful, and that "kings will come from you." (17:6) and that this covenant will be an "everlasting covenant." (17:7) And then God gives Abraham the sign of the covenant - circumcision.
I think God may be telling Abraham (and his descendants to come) something to the effect of, "Hey, I promised you offspring, but you & Sarah didn't trust me and tried to do it in the flesh. Now I'm going to wait until you're really old, cut off your flesh, and not just any flesh, but flesh of the organ that is pretty important when it comes to having kids. And hopefully this will be a reminder to you and your descendants that my promise is not just for Isaac, but for One who will one day bless the whole earth."
Consider Galatians 4:22-23 (the following is the ESV text, with parentheses added by me):
"For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one (Ishmael) by a slave woman (Hagar) and one (Isaac) by a free woman (Sarah). But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise (after the cutting off of Abraham's flesh)."
So circumcision seems to have started as a symbol to remind Abraham that God fulfills His promises. He doesn't need our creativity to help Him fulfill His promises. But circumcision & God's covenant with Abraham doesn't stop with Isaac. Remember what Genesis 17:6 said - that kings will come from Abraham. There were no kings in Israel for nearly 1000 years. And God told Abraham that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you," but, in general, Israel was not a source of blessing to the nations, but an instrument of God's judgment, in particular as they settled the Promised Land. So the everlasting covenant was just that - looking far beyond Abraham and Isaac, to One who would be a King who would bring God's blessing to all nations. That's why each generation of God's people were called to carry on the sign of circumcision until that One came. That's why the New Testament says that circumcision is no longer of any value, because the One to whom it points, the One who fulfills God's covenant with Abraham, has come. Because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the son of Abraham, has fulfilled all of God's promises (see 2 Corinthians 1:20), we no longer observe circumcision as God's people. Instead, we celebrate baptism, where we identify with Christ's death & resurrection, and we celebrate communion, where we remember His body, broken & given for us, and the cup as the new covenant in His blood, shed for us on the cross.
Appendix, of sorts
For those of you who can't get enough of circumcision, or would rather read some more informed & educated words, here are some notes I found as I was looking into this.
From Zondervan's NIV Study Bible (1985 Copyright) notes on Genesis 17:
- Circumcision was God's appointed "sign of the covenant", which signified Abraham's covenant commitment to the Lord--that the Lord alone would be his God, whom he would trust and serve. It symbolized a self-maledictory oath: "If I am not loyal in faith and obedience to the Lord, may the sword of the Lord cut off me and my offspring as I have cut off my foreskin." Thus Abraham was to place himself under the rule of the Lord as his King, consecrating himself, his offspring and all he possessed to the service of the Lord.
From the Reformation Study Bible notes on Genesis 17:
- By this ritual the organ of procreation was consecrated to God.
From the MacArthur Study Bible notes on Genesis 17:
- Circumcision was not entirely new in this period of history, but the special religious and theocratic significance then applied to it was entirely new, thus identifying the circumcised as belonging to the physical and ethnical lineage of Abraham. Without divine revelation, the rite would not have had this distinctive significance, thus it remained a theocratic distinctive of Israel. There was a health benefit, since disease could be kept in the folds of the foreskin, so that removing it prevented that. Historically, Jewish women have had the lowest rate of cervical cancer. But the symbolism had to do with the need to cut away sin and be cleansed. It was the male organ that most clearly demonstrated the depth of depravity because it carried the seed that produced depraved sinners. Thus, circumcision symbolized the need for a profoundly deep cleansing to reverse the effects of depravity.
- God introduces circumcision as the initiatory sign of the covenant. Circumcision was practiced by several ancient Near Eastern peoples. Here, however, it has a distinctive role: a rite that is not unknown in Abraham’s world is picked up by God and assigned distinctive significance in the history of the covenant God enters into with his people. Abraham loses no time in complying (17:23-27). This is a social “boundary marker” which across the course of history increasingly marks the Hebrews out as different; but it is more than that. It is so definitively established as the unique sign of the everlasting covenant that failure to comply means one is cut off from the people of God (17:13-14). Even before there is a great quantity of stipulation in the covenant, its framework, its boundary, and its symbolism are being established.
- Abraham’s understandable but unhappy skepticism that he will bring forth a son of Sarah at this late stage in their marriage leads him to propose Ishmael as the one through whom God will fulfill his promises (17:17-18). But God will have none of it. Ishmael will sire great numbers, but the covenant line goes through Isaac (17:19-21). The history of the covenant people is thus decisively shaped by God’s sovereign choice.
- ... physical circumcision could never be seen as an end in itself, not even in the Old Testament. It symbolized something deeper: circumcision of the heart. What God wants is not merely an outward sign that certain people belong to him, but an inward disposition of heart and mind that orient us to God continually.
- On Joshua 5: Circumcision is now carried out on all the males that were born during the years of wilderness wandering. At one level, this is rather surprising: How come they weren’t done as the boys were born? In many instances the multitude stayed in one place for long periods of time, doubtless developing community life. What prevented them from obeying this unambiguous covenantal stipulation? There have been many guesses, but the short answer is that we do not know. More important, in this context, is the fact that the rite is carried out now universally. It thereby stands as a decisive turning point, a symbol-laden communitywide affirmation of the covenant as the people stand on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Egypt is now behind; the promised rest awaits. “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” (5:9).
- Circumcision was instituted directly by God as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace (Ge 15; 17). The gracious character of this covenant is evident in the form and content in which he passes alone through the severed animal pieces.
- Although indeed a blood-shedding rite, circumcision was only a partial "cutting off" that spared the recipient of being cut off entirely from life. Like the Passover blood on the doorposts, circumcision identified the recipient with the Mediator of the covenant of grace.