Circumcision and Jesus

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Genesis 17:9–14 NKJV

9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 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; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 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.”

Ishmael, promise, flesh - cont.

Abraham, Hagar...

Whenever we strive to hurry God along, or usher in his promises by the will of the flesh, Hagar always gets squashed.

The problem with children is that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

Everything unclean must be cut off in order to enter into eternal life.

Relationship with God cannot be accomplished unless all uncleanness is cut off.

Leviticus 18:29 NKJV

29 For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

“cut off from the people” - that is, since they are uncircumcised in their actions, they will be treated as uncircumcised. They are unclean and defiling the whole camp. They must be removed.

Hence, capital punishment in Israel. It was a national circumcision.

Executions took place outside the camp, where everything unclean was held. Nothing unclean could enter the camp of God’s people.

Just as the foreskin was cut off and discarded outside the camp as a token that God would cut off that which was unclean, so that we might be his people and live with him in unbroken fellowship.

Deuteronomy 30:6 NKJV

6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

those outside the camp were unclean. those executed outside the camp were unclean and their continued existence defiled the whole camp.

Rahab and her family were kept outside the camp of Israel - they were Canaanites. They had to be engrafted into Israel in order to be brought into the camp.

Matthew 27:32–34 NKJV

32 Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. 33 And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.

Isaiah 53:4–9 NKJV

4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

As Isaiah foretold, he was the foreskin of the world, taken outside the camp, and crucified for us.

HE bore all of our uncleanness, alienation, shame, disgrace.

The salvation of the world doesn’t come through babies.

Ishmael was born of the flesh. Only the power and promise of God will provide the lamb and the redeemer.

Hebrews 13:11–14 NKJV

11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.