Shalom My Brother In Him,
Perhaps a small bit of context concerning the source of circumcision might be in order. After all, context is the only way to discern a 'prooftext' from a 'pretext', short of direct intervention by Adonai.
Think of the following as a key to understanding the interrelationships of elements in a matrix. The reason I bring it up is that 'circumcision' is one of those aforementioned elements as you will soon see.
Suppose we take the Days of Creation and use that sequence as primary elements needed to construct a matrix. In this case, only the first three sets are required. It would appear as follows;
- Creative declaration
- Covenants
- Terms
- Sign of Covenant
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
| Light/Darkness | Water Above/Water Below | Water/Land->Seed Plants |
| Adam | Noah | Abraham |
| Life | Saved from destruction | Blessings on Descendants and the Nations |
| Gates of the Garden | Rainbow | Circumcision |
When Adonai separated Light from Darkness, these elements are clarified in Torah. Light & Darkness are repeatedly associated with life & death, good & evil, blessings & curses, etc., throughout scripture. Even His instruction is characterized as a 'lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path'.
His covenant with Adam is explained as follows;
We may understand the
Sign of the Covenant as passing though the gates of the Garden of Life into a life ending in Death.
The second Covenant He made with Noah. Here He is bringing the
Waters above and Waters below back together to flood the entire surface of the planet. At the end of Noah's ordeal, He makes a covenant promise that He will never again destroy the earth by Flood. In this covenant, Noah must obey His instruction in order to survive. But this covenant does not require Noah to do anything further to receive the blessings associated with this promise.
The
Sign He gives is a
Rainbow. Any physicist will tell you that a rainbow is formed by the refraction of the various frequencies of visible
Light through the
Waters above. Starting to catch on?
The third covenant He makes is with Abram. It has to do with
Abram's seed. He changed Abram's name to Abraham to reflect His as yet to be fulfilled
Promise to multiply his offspring exceedingly. Now do you see it?
The Third Day, He separated the water from the land to produce
Seed bearing plants
Pay carful attention here:
The mark or sign of this covenant is the circumcision. Please notice (forgive me if this is a little graphic) that Abraham's
Seed must pass through the
Sign of the
circumcision in order for the
Covenant promise to be fulfilled.
In conclusion, anyone would have to go a long way to convince me that the
Sign of the Covenant of Blessings to the Nations is now somehow irrelevant -
To the Nations!
Shalom Shalom (that is 'Perfect Peace')
Thank you so much for the study. I like how you compared the signs and the days of creation, and put together your reasoning to preserve, or perhaps better stated "To Glorify" God in His Instruction. I came to the same conclusion, that Circumcision is not irrelevant, albeit by different reasonings, which would be inevitable given that we all have different "Crosses" (Lifes experiences) to bear. I can find nothing amiss in your understanding and find myself agreeing with pretty much all of it. Although I never looked at it this way, it is certainly a perspective that Glorifies God, in my view.
I would share some of my perspective, not that I am anybody, or that it even matters, but in fellowship. Please therefore, bear with me a little as I share my hope.
It is written that God created man after His own image. Adam was created with the ability to reproduce, obviously. Was he created "Circumcised" or uncircumcised? A lot of things changed the day Adam listened to the woman, and not His Father. But we only know for sure what is written, and God chose not to answer my question directly.
I know there are volumes and volumes of Words God spoke to His creation that we are not privy to. Like with Noah, we are only shown a glimpse, and just a very few Words that God spoke to Noah. And almost nothing of the words spoken when God and Noah walked together. Obviously God informed Noah of what animals were clean and what animals were unclean, but we are not privy to the conversation. Was it Noah's father who told him? Was it passed down from Adam after the fall? Amalek knew Adultery was a crime against the God of Abraham, worthy of death, but we are not privy to the discussions where he was shown this. Noah's sons knew of the evils of "Looking upon the nakedness of their father", but we are also not privy to that discussion.
So I choose not to assume that Abraham was the first to receive the sign of Circumcision, rather, I can say I can't know given the limitations of what the Scriptutres Say. Or that Israel was the first to be shown what is clean for food and what is not, given that there is evidence this knowledge was known long before them.
I see the sign of the rainbow in like fashion. I did a word study years ago on the word "Water". It was a long and exhaustive study which was fascinating. Basically, from my small mind, I found that "water" simply means "influence" in most cases. When a man is submerged in water, there is no surface of man that is not influenced in some way. It touches all of the outside of man. And this "influence" floods this earth.
"
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die."
But unto righteous Noah, God said; But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, (That God designed, and Noah built) thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
And when the Flood was over for Noah, he was given the sign of the rainbow.
For me, it seems this happens to this day. We are surrounded by sinful influence, it's in everything, all parts of ourselves are affected by the unclean influence which floods the earth. And God has designed a "way" in which we can weather the Storm, as we wait ap[on the promise of a world in which Righteousness, dwells. I think Yeshua speaks to this.
Matt. 7:
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them (Like Noah), I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
At any rate, we both have come to the same conclusion, from study of the same Scriptures. I think this is because we place our trust in the Scriptures, and not all the "other voices" in the garden God placed us in. And it has been my experience so far, that no two people walk the same, "on the narrow path" that leads to Life. Some have longer strides, some make deeper footprints. Some are wounded, and limp. But they all come to the same place
because they are all on the same path.
The strong help the weak, the older help the younger, all in their obedience to the Lord's Christ, "but seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and HIS Righteousness". Noah, Abraham, David, Rehab, Zacharias, Simeon, Anna, the Wise men, Paul, James, Peter, and the other examples of True Faith in the Holy scriptures. All walking the same path Yeshua walked, all fighting the same battle, standing against the storms with the Armor of God to protect them from the wiles of the devil.
I am always fascinated by how the Scriptures are structured in such a way, that they are profitable for "Every man" regardless of the cross he is given to bear. Regardless of the world God placed him in. I am blessed to have found several men who have also studied and have come to the same conclusions about Circumcision and the Torah etc. But they all found their own way there, through belief in God's Instruction "AND" His Son who prepared the Way, as did Noah and Abraham. And I am both humbled and grateful to have found them.
Great post Brother, I am encouraged by your study.
