Circumcision: A New Life, A New Name, and A New Identity

At the ripe old age of 99, YHWH again appears to Abram in Genesis 17.  As mentioned in previous blogs - I doubt Abram was actually 99 years of age at this point in his journey, just as I do not believe he actually lived to the age of 175.  But what is clear is that Abram is a very old man when he encounters the Lord.  God exhorts him to walk before him and to be blameless (whole, complete, mature, sound, healthy).  YHWH then reminds him that his family will be exceedingly large and that the other covenant promises will be fulfilled.  God then gives Abram a new name.  Abraham.  

A New Name - A New Identity

A friend of mine, originally from Iran, told me that when he was baptized into the Christian faith he took on a new name - Davood (or David).  In many cultures it is common to adopt a new name when one's outlook or situation in life is altered.  It's as if Abraham is becoming a new person, so it's fitting that he is given a new name and a new identity.  Later in the chapter, God gives Sarai a new name.  Sarah.  She too is given a new beginning - a new lease on life.  Together this old couple will be the father and mother of a large nation.

Circumcision - The Marks of the Covenant

In the slapstick comedy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Mel Brooks plays a rabbi traveling around medieval England, selling ceremonial wine and offering circumcisions.  When asked by Robin Hood about the nature of circumcision, Rabbi Tuckman says, "It's the latest rage - the ladies love it!"  Robin Hood's merry men respond that they'll each have one.  One guy even requests two!  Then they ask how it works.  The rabbi responds, while pulling out a miniature guillotine,  "I take my little machine, I put your little thing in it (he demonstrates with a carrot) and I nip the tip.  Who's first?"  Robin Hood and his merry men immediately decline the invitation and Tuckman says, "I got a work on a younger crowd."

I can only imagine that the elderly Abraham, the adolescent Ishmael, and the rest of Abraham's men must have felt like Robin Hood and company when they learned that the sign of YHWH's covenant with them would be this very physical and delicate marker!  Talk about a sacrifice!  I don't even want to imagine the immediate pain and several days worth of discomfort.

The Significance of the Marker 

Circumcision was widely practiced in the ancient near east, so this request is not novel.  And certainly there are hygienic benefits to the practice.  But the real significance lies in what the symbol will represent to God's people.  In the future this rite will be completed on the eighth day of a boy's life.  Going back to the seven days of creation, circumcision on the eighth day must point to the hope of new creation and new beginnings.  And the act of removing the foreskin of the male sexual organ also reminds the people of YHWH that he alone is ultimately the guarantor of fertility and life.  Though Abraham had taken his and Sarah's lack of fertility into his own hands just a chapter before, the rite of circumcision will be an ever-present reminder in the future that the gift of life is only in God's hands.  Later a phrase will develop describing an act of God as being "a circumcision made without hands."

In fact, the apostle Paul, likened baptism to a circumcision made without hands, whereby instead of the flesh of the male's body being removed, it is the fleshly (sinful) nature of any believer, whether male or female that is eliminated.  "In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead." Colossians 2:11-12.  Just as circumcision represents new life to the people of Abraham in the Hebrew scriptures, so baptism represents new life to the people of Christ today, whether Jew or Gentile. - Shay