The Sign of the Covenant

 

 

And when eight days were completed

for the circumcision of the Child,

His name was called JESUS,

the name given by the angel

before He was conceived

in the womb.

Luke 2:21, NKJV

 

 

 

2000 years before Jesus was born, God called Abram from among his idol-worshiping relatives, led him to the land of Canaan, chose him to be the father of a new nation, and promised that his descendants would inherit all the land that he could see.  When Abram asked how he would know that God would do all that He promised, God used an ancient covenant ceremony that Abram would understand.

 

A sacrifice was prepared--a cow, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a pigeon.  The cow, goat, and ram were divided in half, with the haves placed opposite of each other.  The dove and pigeon were left whole and placed opposite each other.  The ritual required that the two covenant parties join hands and walk in a circular pattern through the blood together, taking oaths, and swearing to uphold their part of the covenant.  In the case of Genesis 15, God put Abram to sleep and passed between the sacrifices Himself, swearing by Himself that He would uphold both parts of the covenant Himself.

 

It was customary in a covenant ritual for the two parties to slice their palms and join hands as they walked through the sacrifice, letting their blood commingle.  Afterward, they would exchange cloaks, belts, swords, and names, with the scar in their palm forever reminding them of their covenant.  This didn't happen between Abram and God, for the covenant was God's to uphold alone.  However, Abram also needed to enter into the covenant with something.  So thirteen years after the initial ceremony, God comes back to Abram, changes his name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah, and asks Abraham for a sign of the covenant in his own flesh--circumcision.

 

I'm going to proceed on the assumption that you, the reader, understand the meaning of circumcision.  If you're not sure what it is, GOOGLE is a good way to find out.  Suffice it to say, it is a minor medical procedure performed on men that results in the separation of flesh and the shedding of blood.  That being said, God told Abraham that the sign of the covenant among his descendants would be the circumcision of every male born in the household, and every male who joined by purchase or by choice.  Later it became an ordinance under the law.  And at ninety-nine years of age, Abraham circumcised himself and every male member of his household.  Every boy born after that was to be circumcised on the eighth day.

 

Why the eighth day? one might ask.  Because God created our bodies and He understood perfectly how they worked, even in the ancient world when medical science was unknown.  Modern research has proven that babies are susceptible to hemorrhages and in danger of bleeding to death in the first days after birth.  From days five through seven, a bacteria in the intestines causes the production of Vitamin K, which interacts with the liver in the production of prothrombin, the body's natural coagulant.  On the eighth day, prothrombin is elevated above one-hundred percent of normal, the only day in a person's life when this will be the case under normal conditions.  Therefore, the eighth day is the perfect day for a child to undergo ritual circumcision.

 

For 2000 years, the descendants of Abraham practiced this rite as the sign of their covenant with God.  He had passed through the blood for them; in Jesus, He would shed His own blood for them, bearing the scars in his hands and feet, on his head, his back, and in his side.  But as a man, a son of Adam and of the seed of Abraham, Jesus would also bear the mark of the covenant of His people with God, the mark of circumcision.

 

Perhaps by the eighth day, Joseph and Mary had been reconciled to their family and relatives in Bethlehem.  If not, they were likely still in the temporary shelter of woven palm branches against the mouth of a cave.  But as was the custom of their people, celebrated for over forty generations since Abraham, Joseph took the knife to his newborn son, cut away the foreskin and drew blood from the wound, thus signifying their ongoing covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.  And in obedience to the command of the angel given both to Joseph and to Mary, the earthly father held his chosen son toward heaven and named Him Jesus...for He would be the savior of His people and the world!

So as a Jew, Jesus bore in His flesh the sign of the covenant, the circumcision that marked His body as dedicated and consecrated to God.  Thrity years later, Jesus would wade into the Jordan River to be baptized, another sign of dedication and consecration which God would honor with His very presence and proclamation.  And for us, the Bible is clear that it is not our bodies, but our hearts that must be circumcised, and that though our bodies should be lowered into the watery grave of baptism and raised to walk in newness of life, the cleansing of the flesh merely illustrates the spiritual reality of a soul cleansed and made new through the blood of Jesus Christ.  It is a life lived for Christ, dedicated and consecrated completely to him, that is the mark of our covenant with Him.