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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 831 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Why Circumcision? - Wisdom Wednesday


Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 831 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. The past several weeks on Wednesday we have been focusing on interpreting current events through a Biblical Worldview.

To establish a Biblical worldview, it is important that you also have a proper understanding of God’s Word. Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors. In order to help us all have a better understanding of God’s Word, I would like to invest the next several weeks reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser, which he has compiled into a book titled I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. If you study local customs or cultures within nations around the world, you are likely to find certain practices that just will not make sense to you. This may apply to diet, dress, rituals, superstitions, or physical changes. One such practice that God set forth as a sign of separation from the world and dedication to Him was the practice of circumcision for all males that are the decedents of Abraham. These descendants became the Nation of Israel.  So the topic of our essay today is…
Why Circumcision?
Circumcision is mentioned nearly 100 times in the Bible. It is a central focus for Old Testament and New Testament theology as mentioned in Romans 4:9-12.

Now, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it also for uncircumcised Gentiles?  Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted as righteous by God because of his faith. But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised! 

Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith.  And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.

More details about circumcision in the New Testament is also found in Galatians 2 and 5.

If we’re honest, circumcision as a covenant sign just sounds absurd. Was it unique to the Abraham and the Nation of Israel? Not really. Circumcision was the sign or mark of God’s covenant with Abraham and is found in Genesis 17:9-14, "Then God said to Abraham, 'Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.  This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.  You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you.  From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased.  All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.  Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.'"

If you study the cultures in that area where Abraham was from, you will find that it was also widely practiced in the ancient Near East although the method wasn't always the same.