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Welcome to Day 2381 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom \u2013 Theology Thursday \u2013 Why Circumcision? \u2013 I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2381 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2381 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. \xa0 Today is the fourth lesson in our segment, Theology Thursday. Utilizing excerpts from a book titled: I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible written by Hebrew Bible scholar and professor Dr. Michael S Heiser, we will invest a couple of years going through the entire Bible, exploring short Biblical lessons that you may not have received in Bible classes or Church. The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God\u2019s redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it\u2019s also a book that seems strange to us. While God\u2019s Word was written for us, it wasn\u2019t written to us. Today, our lesson is Why Circumcision? Circumcision is mentioned nearly 100 times in the Bible. It is a central focus for Old Testament and New Testament theology (Rom 4:9-12: Gal 2:1-12: 5:1-10). If we\u2019re honest, that just sounds absurd. Circumcision was the sign of God\u2019s covenant with Abraham (Gen 17:9-14), but it was also widely practiced in the ancient Near East (the method, though, wasn\u2019t always the same). Jeremiah 9:25-26 notes that Israel\u2019s neighbors were circumcised. Archaeologists have also found that it was practiced in Syria and Phoenicia. Textual remains indicate that circumcision in Egypt goes back to at least 2200 BC, centuries before the Israelites were enslaved. Israelite men may have even submitted to Egyptian circumcision while in Egypt, since Joshua commanded the men crossing into the promised land to be recircumcised in order to \u201croll away the reproach of Egypt\u201d (Josh 5:2, 9). The evidence suggests that circumcision did not distinguish Israelite men from their foreign neighbors. When God told Abraham to be circumcised, he was past the age of bearing children, and his wife, Sarah, was incapable of having children (Gen 18:11). Nevertheless, it would be through Sarah\u2019s womb (Gen 17:21: 18:14) that God would fulfill His promise of innumerable offspring to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3). God\u2019s covenant with Abraham could only be realized by miraculous intervention. The miraculous nature of Isaac\u2019s birth is the key to understanding circumcision as the sign of the covenant. After God made His promise to Abraham, every male member of Abraham\u2019s household was required to be circumcised (Gen 17:15-27). Every male\u2014and every woman, since the males were all incapacitated for a time\u2014knew that circumcision was connected to God\u2019s promise. It probably didn\u2019t make any sense, though, until Sarah became pregnant. Everyone in Abraham\u2019s household witnessed the miracle of Isaac\u2019s birth. From that point on, every male understood why they had been circumcised: Their entire race\u2014their very existence\u2014began with a miraculous act of God. Every woman was reminded of this when she had sexual relations with her Israelite husband and when her sons were circumcised. Circumcision was a visible, continuous reminder that Israel owed its...