Well, the OT was a bit harsh when it comes to rules and laws, but still I struggle to understand why God would ask such a thing to seal His Covenant.
Yeah I know how it happened, it was a symbol that made them God's people. I've read that for ancient deals, ancient rites, and in those days seals/alliances were sealed with blood and flesh, Ok I get it, why did God choose to harm a baby's penis in order to seal His pact?
It could have been a tattoo, an earring, a knife scar in the chest/back, etc
I've studied many wars and empires, so I'm used to read narratives about massacres, beheadings, mass rape, torture, burning, razing... And I have no problem reading things alike in the Bible (book of Joshua especially), but everytime circumcision is mentioned, I get a headache (ok, not a literal headache, but you get the idea). Seriously, if I had to choose I would gladly give up the skin of the 5 fingers of the right hand rather than losing my foreskin.
And besides, God only ask men to be marked, He never demanded that women were to have a sign too.
What do you think is the reason God choose to mark men in his most personal area?
Thank you
Just a thought, not that this is all that is going on with circumcision, but:
(And this may sound off-topic, or like a tangent, but I don't think so). I have noticed that those who mock Judaism's and Christianity's attendance to
circumcision like to point to the fact that it is 'unnatural'. Even you said it 'harms'. Truth is, it is painful too, though I don't remember, lol. Without arguing the merits of whether it harms or not or whether it is worth the pain, I think it is obvious, specially in modern times, that people think of themselves as individual entities, complete in and of themselves. possessed of a certain dignity by their mere existence, quite apart from any consideration of subservience to or dependence on God. Most never even realize that it might be strange to consider God as only a mere option, when in fact he is not only our creator, but our very sustenance --that much we are entrenched in our worldview of what we consider 'reality' and 'existence'. Since Adam, and certainly lately, we have declared independence from God, even we Christians have that mindset. We really are ignorant concerning who we are and who God is.
Mankind was not designed for mankind, nor the individual for himself, but for GOD. We are not complete beings until we see him as he is. When the ultimately lost see him, and are removed of all graces and virtues, the husk that is left is hardly possessed of anything resembling what we presently consider human --perhaps arms and legs or something is all, I don't know.
With circumcision God is demonstrating that man, 'as natural', is not what we are made for. "Why the sexual organ" and "Why men, not women", are questions that beg many implications --I won't go there right now, but I am sure both are relevant.
As for the notion that God is wrong to cause any large (and therefore, logically, even small, such as in circumcision) pain and suffering: Still the question is wrong in assuming that we have some dignity in our own right, to which God owes respect. He owes us nothing. (Even his word kept is not because he owes it to us, but because he keeps his word. It is who he is.)
