Title Genesis 17:1-16
And 13 years later, God appeared to Abraham again. Even at this time, God repeated the promises he had made earlier. As you can see in verse 16, God clearly said that a son would be born from the body of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Abraham had already given up seeing a son from his wife, and he regarded Ishmael, the son of an Egyptian maidservant, as the promised son. So, in verses 17-18 that follow today's text, Abraham said, "How can a wife who is already ninety years of age have children?" Thinking about it, he chuckled to himself and answered God, "I want to live before Ishmael or God."
However, in today's text, we can see that God's promises are very different from those of the past. This time, God not only gives more concrete promises, but also begins to fulfill them in earnest. First, to Abraham, who said, “I wish to live before Ishmael, or God,” God said in verse 19, “No, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. It will be a covenant.” He reaffirmed the promise by giving the name of the child to be born in advance: "You shall call his name Isaac, and I will make my covenant with him, and it will be an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him."
What is the symbolic meaning of circumcision for Abraham and his descendants?
First, circumcision has meaning as an external sign that seals that the people belong to God. Contrary to the practice of the Near East for boys who have reached the age of majority, the Israeli law for babies born on the 8th day shows that they have religious significance as a ceremony to seal that they are God's people from the time of circumcision.
Second, circumcision has the meaning of making a decision to cut off from this world and its way of life. What did God say to Joshua when all Israelite men were circumcised by Joshua before the battle of Jericho after the Israelites who had been liberated from Egypt under the leadership of Moses had forgotten all circumcision during the years they had spent in the wilderness? Wasn't he saying, "I have brought the shame of Egypt away from you today"? In this way, circumcision has the meaning of breaking with the shame of the people of the world who do not know God.
Third, circumcision has the meaning of expressing the will to practice the devotion of life for God. Circumcision involves some suffering. Accepting that pain as a body symbolizes a life of real devotion to God.
Fourth, circumcision is a sign that God's covenant is eternal, immutable, and irreversible. Verse 13 says, “Whoever is born of your house or whoever bought it with your money must be circumcised, and my covenant will be an everlasting covenant in your flesh.”
After God first appeared to Abraham and made a covenant, the covenant actually started to come true when Abraham was given a new name and was circumcised the next year, when he was 100 years old and, surprisingly, had a son Isaac from his 91-year-old wife Sarah. is. 25 years have passed. We can ask the question, why did God begin to carry out His covenant 25 years later? Although the exact answer may not be known, at least two facts are certain to us.
First, no matter how many years pass, God's covenant and his faithfulness do not change. Just as God does not change no matter how many years have passed, God's people, the subjects of his covenant, also want the trust and obedience of God, his covenant, and his faithfulness to remain constant, so I think that he is watching their faith for a long time. .
The second is that no matter how humanly it seems absolutely impossible, God will surely fulfill His covenant. God, who appeared to Abraham when he was 75 years old, and promised that he would make him into a great nation, did not give him an heir immediately the following year, but waited 25 years to give him, until he reached a situation that seemed more certain to be impossible. You may have been waiting to show off your abilities. So, I think it is to make us not only have to turn everything entirely to God's grace and power, but also to give us absolute confidence that God will fulfill His covenant under any circumstances.
Let's summarize the religious meaning of today's text for us in the following two ways.
First, those whom God has called to be the covenant people are required to live a sanctified life from the world as a sign of that covenant.
Second, God's covenant is eternal for those whom God has called to be His covenant people, and absolute trust and obedience are required that God faithfully keeps His covenant.
We are called to be God's people. Then we should examine whether we really have the sign of the covenant with God. We should examine whether or not we have circumcision of the heart as a sign of that circumcision, not of the circumcision of the body. And as long as we keep the sign of that covenant well, we should have a firm belief that God will surely fulfill all the covenants He has made to us in Jesus Christ. Even if none of the things that we prayed and vowed and waited for God's answer during this year have not yet been fulfilled, we must believe that God will surely do it if it is worthy of His good will, and that He will do it more wonderfully than our wishes and expectations. .