CIRCUMCISED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

Jeremiah 9:25-26

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There are times that you can read the scriptures and come away confused as to what the word of God is trying to convey regarding your life and the way the Lord expects you to live it. Today’s scripture passage, the final verses of Jeremiah 9, could qualify as such. Look again at this declaration from God:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”  Jeremiah 9:25-26

At the heart of the matter here is the act of circumcision or lack thereof and unless you have a solid understanding about what that means biblically, then you will never be able to grasp the significance of what the Lord is trying to get through to us here. Let’s start by going all the way back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and this instruction given to Abraham by God:

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” Genesis 17:9-14

The matter of circumcision given to Abraham and all his descendants who would follow was not optional. Rather, God commanded it to happen. Every Israelite male at the time of the command was to be circumcised and from that point on, all Israelite baby boys were required to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This circumcision would mark the males, signifying their special place with God and the everlasting covenant they would have with Him. They would be His people and He would be their God. Anyone who rejected the command to be circumcised would be cut off from God and his fellow man because he would have disobeyed God’s direct command and broken the covenant in doing so.

But there’s more to the matter of circumcision than this. Much more.

I say this because if you go back to our passage from Jeremiah, the word of God speaks about the whole house of Israel being uncircumcised in heart.

Huh?

What does God mean? Surely people aren’t to have their hearts cut like foreskins, right?

Here is where we need to separate the literal from the figurative because God here is using the ideal of circumcision to apply toward what He expects a believer’s heart condition to be like.

In other words, God expected more of a change within His people than just a physical alteration. He expected an inner spiritual transformation to take place as well, a transformation that would indicate full devotion and obedience to the will, way, and word of the one and only true God, the Lord God Almighty.

Two specific scriptures from Deuteronomy reinforce this point. First, look at these words from Deuteronomy 10:16:

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. Deuteronomy 10:16

The people of Israel had a propensity, not unlike us today, to stubbornly go after their own desires and, in doing so, fall into sin and out of God’s favor. This is why God commanded His people to circumcise their hearts and show that they were as committed to keeping their side of the covenant as God was in keeping His.

But how could the Israelites ensure their hearts were circumcised and inclined toward God in a way that He expected, a way that would be pleasing in His sight?

The answer is found in the second key verse from Deuteronomy:

The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. Deuteronomy 30:6

How do you circumcise your heart?

You turn to the Lord, the Great Physician, the only One who can do heart surgery in a way that changes us, not physically but spiritually in an operation that leaves us loving Him with all our heart and soul.

You see, this is what the Lord desires more than anything, for His people to be just as dedicated and invested in loving Him as He is in loving them.

We may never love as perfectly as the Lord because no one does but we can take the right steps to ensure we love Him, and in turn others, as best we possibly can.

It all starts when we allow Him to circumcise our hearts and transform us to be the people He wants us to be from the inside out.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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