And at eight days old shall every male in your generations be circumcised among you -- he who is born in the house, and he who is bought with money, any stranger who is not of thy seed.
The command falls on a baby eight days old. It also reaches past family lines to every male in the household, whether born there or bought from a foreigner. Why mark a child too young to understand it? And why mark people outside Abraham's own family?
God speaks after a long gap. Abraham had already tried to secure a son his own way:
The first mention of circumcision in the Bible is in Genesis 17:10-14. After a silence of thirteen years God breaks in and makes a covenant with Abram when His servant is ninety-nine years old. Thirteen years earlier Abram had listened to Sarai his wife, and tried to produce a seed through Hagar the slave. This action resulted in the birth of Ishmael with all its later disaster. It was a seed according to the flesh, not according to promise.
The rite was not attached to Ishmael's birth but to the son yet to come.
Circumcision was instituted, not when Ishmael was born, but in view of Isaac, the seal of the covenant. The principle was God's righteousness. Man was judged as evil and the flesh put to death.
Circumcision cuts away flesh. Commentators read that cut as God's verdict on human nature:
Circumcision means that the flesh must be kept in the place of death. The flesh can contribute nothing towards carrying out the will of God. Only a new life within can produce anything for the pleasure of God.
The same logic explains what happened to an Israelite who refused the sign:
If an Israelite was not circumcised, he was to be cut off from his own nation. Why? Because he had broken God's covenant. He had no part in the blessing God had promised. God does not give His promise to man as alive in the flesh. He gives it to those in whom the flesh is judged as under sentence of death.
The number is not arbitrary. Seven days close a week; the eighth opens a new one.
EIGHT. A new start outside of, but connected with, the order of creation: so, in resurrection. Circumcision was on the eighth day, the start of a new fellowship. Eight people were saved in the ark, to begin a new world.
For the child, the day points forward to what he will inherit:
"Eight days old" shows what a fair inheritance we are destined for. The eighth day speaks to us of new creation, now that the first week of the old one has run out. Only the power of that knowledge can keep practical circumcision going.
A baby of eight days understands nothing of what is done to him. That does not weaken the sign:
Circumcision took place as early as eight days old. At that age the child could not understand anything about it. Its meaning stays the same whether people understand it or not. The same is true of baptism, which also teaches death to the flesh.
The verse names two groups beyond Abraham's own children. Their numbers were large:
Abraham had 318 servants born in his house. Jacob had a still larger number. And they had been received into the covenant, though they were not natural descendants... There may have been thousands of such servants.
The sign was permanent. It even gave outsiders a seat at Israel's redemption meal:
The token of the covenant was to be in his flesh for an everlasting covenant, the sign of the lasting terms on which his descendants stood with God. How striking this is! Under the law the whole nation in the flesh had to carry the sign of circumcision. That sign was a seal of the righteousness Abraham had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Yet at any time, though the dividing wall still stood, any Gentile could freely take up the sign of that same righteousness. With his males circumcised, he could sit down to the Passover, the feast of redemption!
The outward mark was never meant to stand alone. In Israel it soon did:
The nation began to carry this out very carefully, but its true meaning was soon lost. It became just an outward rite with very little inward reality. It had no effect at all on how people lived. God never intended an outward rite to be kept without inward reality. That gives Him no pleasure.
- Covenant — the sign came after thirteen silent years. It pointed forward to Isaac, not back to Ishmael. It belongs to promise, not to human arrangement.
- Cutting — the cut marks the flesh as judged, under sentence of death. God's promise rests on nothing a person can produce.
- Eighth day — the day after the week ends stands for a new start and resurrection. The baby carries the mark of an inheritance long before he can understand it.
- Household — servants born in the house or bought with money entered the covenant too, though they were not natural descendants. Even a Gentile could take the sign and eat the Passover.
- Reality — a rite kept without inward truth gives God no pleasure. The mark was always meant to show in the way a person lives.
He who is born in thy house, and he who is bought with thy money, must be circumcised; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Genesis 17 is full of God's promises: again and again He says "I will." Then comes a sign in the flesh, and verse 13 puts it on every male in Abraham's house — sons and servants alike.
Abraham is ninety-nine here. One writer weighs what Abraham can still do at that age, and how often God says "I will" in this chapter.
The faith of Abram was tested further at this point. If his patience gave way at 86 years old, what now? He is now 99 years old. The whole matter has become impossible as far as man and the flesh are concerned. The power of God must come in if the promise is to be fulfilled. Yet notice how many times "I will" appears in Genesis 17. This is the statement of an unconditional covenant. All of it rests on God's unchangeable will and purpose.
The verse says the covenant will be "in your flesh." One writer explains what a mark in the flesh gives up.
Circumcision was the sign of this very covenant (see Gen. 17). It expressed the giving up of all confidence in the flesh. That giving up leaves a person to know, with a dead Abraham, the power of the Almighty. God insists that the token of the covenant must be in the flesh of all His people.
Later generations turned the mark into a matter of pride, which is the reverse of its meaning.
It is a sign that the flesh can have no recognition with God, and that the sentence of death must be passed on it. Faith in this way confessed that the flesh is utterly worthless, and took advantage of what God's grace provided… It is a solemn thing that such an ordinance should become a mere matter of boasting in the flesh. But that is what happened in Israel. The flesh boasted and took pride in the distinction. If they had understood its meaning, they would have seen that through it God was pouring contempt on the flesh and all its efforts.
Who counted as Abraham's household? One writer draws the line, and marks the first time Scripture ties a household to its head.
The sign was circumcision, and Abraham, his descendants and all his household were to keep it. That last term takes in everyone born in his house, and the slaves he bought. A servant who was only hired for a time was clearly left out. Here for the first time in Scripture we find a household recognised as identified with the man who is its head.
No one inside that circle could opt out.
The covenant of circumcision is now introduced. Every member of the household of faith must carry in his body the seal of that covenant. There must be no exception.
The mark did not create Abraham's standing with God; it stamped a standing he already had.
But what does the sign mean? Plainly, it is a symbolic witness that faith, not flesh, is the principle of relationship with God. In giving Abraham circumcision God says, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worthless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark which means that faith is the principle on which you stand in relationship with Me." But if circumcision is the sign of a covenant of grace, of relationship with God on the principle of faith, then it is a seal on the righteousness of faith. That righteousness was already Abraham's before he was circumcised.
The word "everlasting" reached the whole generation of Israel. One writer says what has since taken its place.
Circumcision is a sign in God's people that they truly belong to Him, set apart to Himself according to His purpose. To the father of the faithful it was a token of the covenant God had made with him (Gen. 17:11). The Lord's words, "So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant" (v. 13), took in the whole generation of His people of old. Circumcision showed that Israel were separated to Himself from the nations around them. The Christian is separated to God in Christ, who is risen from the dead and who lives in heaven, not on earth. The circumcision made without hands, the circumcision "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Rom. 2:29), has now taken the place of the outward rite.
- Source. The covenant runs on God's repeated "I will." At ninety-nine, Abraham could add nothing to it.
- Sign. God set the token in the flesh, because the flesh lies under a sentence of death and can claim no recognition from Him.
- Seal. The mark sealed a righteousness Abraham already had by faith. It never produced the blessing; it certified it.
- Scope. Born in the house or bought with money, the whole household stands with its head, and no male is left out.
- Succession. The outward rite has given way to the circumcision made without hands — a matter of the heart, by the Spirit.