Unlocking Abraham, Pt. 3: The Covenant of Circumcision Introduced

Unlocking Abraham, Pt. 1: The Covenant of Redemption

Unlocking Abraham, Pt. 2: The Covenant of Circumcision: Promises

In the first part of the Unlocking Abraham series, we saw that the glorious Gospel Covenant of Redemption was revealed to Abraham. Through belief in the promises of this covenant, Abraham was justified in the sight of God and became the spiritual father of all believers. Among his descendants there would come a Seed, Jesus Christ, through whom all nations would be blessed.

In the second part of the series, we saw that Abraham was also given promises concerning his natural descendants, who would become as numerous as the stars. To them eventually would be given the land of Canaan. We also saw that God, in solemn covenant with Abraham, assured him that these things would certainly come to pass, no matter what (Gen 15). All of these promises given to Abraham are rooted in the sovereign grace of God, and ultimately serve His grand purposes.

Now, in Part 3, we will begin to take a look at the next step of God’s progressive dealings with Abraham, made in what Stephen called the “covenant of circumcision.”

15.) God made a Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham, containing the promises of seed and land.

Acts 7:2-8

²And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

³And said unto him, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.”

⁴Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

⁵And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

⁶And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

⁷“And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,” said God: “and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.”

 ⁸And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

Genesis 17

¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

²And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.”

³And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

⁴“As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

⁵Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

⁶And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

⁷And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

 ⁸And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

⁹And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

 ¹⁰This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

 ¹¹And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

 ¹²And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

 ¹³He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

 ¹⁴And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”

¹⁵And God said unto Abraham, “As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

¹⁶And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”

¹⁷Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

¹⁸And Abraham said unto God, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!”

¹⁹And God said, “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”

²²And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

²³And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

²⁴And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

²⁷And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

16.) The Covenant of Circumcision required obedience to God’s commands, particularly the command to circumcise, as a condition of receiving the blessings promised.

Genesis 17:9-14

⁹And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

 ¹⁰This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

¹²And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

¹³He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”

Genesis 18:17-19

¹⁷And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

¹⁸Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

¹⁹For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment; that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.“

We see in Genesis 17:14 that if one failed to obey God’s command to be circumcised, he was a covenant-breaker, to be cut off from his people, forfeiting all of the promised blessings. Does this sound like the Covenant of Gracious Redemption, given to Abraham decades earlier, by which Abraham received justification through faith? Is it possible that one could be united to Christ by faith, yet by his own disobedience, lose his salvation? God forbid! This is why discerning between the spiritual, eternal Covenant of Redemption, and the physical, temporal Covenant of Circumcision is so important. Two distinct seeds, two distinct sets of blessings; one received through faith, the other conditional on circumcision and obedience.

Again, I will reiterate that there was never a chance of the Covenant of Circumcision failing. In Genesis 15, God assured Abraham that His promises would come to pass. But this could not be accomplished without Abraham having a household that kept God’s command (Gen 18:19).

I would also like to make the distinction that the promises of land and seed are not given to Abraham as a reward for circumcision and lawkeeping. On the contrary, God called Abraham while he was still Abram, a moon-worshiper, and gave him the promises before introducing the condition of circumcision. Look at the way Genesis 17 is structured: In verse 1, God asserts His ability to ensure the accomplishment of His purposes, and His sovereignty over Abraham. God owes Abraham nothing; He has graciously decided to make His covenant with undeserving Abraham. On the other hand, Abraham is obligated to obey God simply because of who God is.

In verses 2-8, God repeats the promises of seed and land, which He has already given. Only then, after this repetition of the promises, God gives a “therefore” in verse 9. Note that God is not saying, “IF you obey men, THEN you will receive the promises,” but rather “I have guaranteed that you will receive these things. BECAUSE of this, you will obey this command.”

The Covenant of Circumcision was made with Abraham in a unique way. Yes, his descendants received blessings from it, but only through Abraham. Yet each of Abraham’s descendants was not promised to be a father of nations. In Genesis 15, God promised to ensure the promises to Abraham – the preservation of a faithful seed who would inherit the land of Canaan. God did not intend that each and every physical descendant of Abraham would inherit those blessings. If one disobeyed the command to circumcise, he forfeited his birthright just as surely as Esau. Later, we will see that the covenant of law given to Moses on Mount Sinai is rooted in this Covenant of Circumcision, and really is a drastic enlargement and clarification of the same promises and requirements: Israel had to obey the law in order to enjoy the blessings in the land. In this way, the Sinai Covenant can be understood as the flowering of the seedling Covenant of Circumcision.

17.) The Covenant of Circumcision played a subservient role to the accomplishment of the Covenant of Redemption.

Romans 4:8-10

⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

⁹Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

Also remember that law cannot disannul grace. When I say that the Covenant of Circumcision cannot be equated with the Covenant of Grace, I do not mean that it is in any way opposed to it, or that it is unrelated. No, it is very closely related, in at least two major ways.

First, the Covenant of Circumcision was a type which mirrored the Covenant of Redemption. The external sign of circumcision by which one was included in the covenant pictured the internal reality of regeneration, possessed only by those who are in Christ. The promised seed pictured the promised Seed of Christ. The physical nation pictured the spiritual nation. The physical land of Canaan pictured the eternal land of Heaven. This concept will be examined in more detail in later posts, when we look at Galatians 4, among other passages.

Second, the Covenant of Circumcision was one step along the path of fulfilling God’s promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15. In the Covenant with Noah, God ensured a stable earthly arena for the coming Redeemer. In the Covenant of Circumcision, God called Abraham to be the father of a nation, from which the Redeemer would be born. In the Sinai Covenant, God enlarged upon the foundation of the Covenant of Circumcision, creating the theocratic nation of Israel. In the Covenant with David, God revealed a more focused promise, that the Redeemer would come from the royal bloodline. Finally, in the New Covenant, we see the Central Event of history: The coming of the promised Redeemer, the Seed who would crush the serpent’s head, who would save His people from a fate much worse than the flood of Noah’s day; the Seed of Abraham; born under the law of Moses, which He perfectly kept; the Son and heir of David; Jesus Christ, the Lord.

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