This week, we discussed the last step in God’s process
before we are ready to begin seizing the promises of the “Promised Land.” After
crossing over the Jordan river and before Jericho
Does God realize that the odds are already stacked
against them since they are not a trained army? Then they will be expected to
go to battle after being circumcised?!? But, as He always does, God has a
reason for His instruction. You see, the
Israelites had been in the wilderness for 40 years. Very few of them had been
circumcised – and it was time to get things in order before the action begins.
But why was circumcision so important to God?
In
Genesis 15:18, God made a covenant with Abraham that promised him descendants
as well as this land
of Canaan
There
are a few reasons for this. One is that blood is always tied to covenant--Abraham
with an animal sacrifice and circumcision, Moses the same (as well as animal
sacrifices in the tabernacle), and even Jesus who, as our perfect high priest,
not only made a sacrifice for us but BECAME the sacrifice for us. His blood
seals the New Covenant. So blood seals
covenant. But why did God want blood from that particular place? Well, He also
says that circumcision is a mark or a sign. But why put that mark in a place
that no one else is going to see (except for the one person in a covenant
relationship with you, your spouse)? The sign is for you – not others.
But
this still does not answer why this mark needed to be on the reproductive
organ. It was a sign and reminder to man that we are in partnership with God.
We create and produce together – not apart and not with other gods. Just as
when a married couple joins together, and (if the woman has not been with any
other man) there is a blood exchange. That exchange seals the covenant
relationship, and it says that this womb and this seed are one. No one else
will sow into this womb, and this seed will not be sown in any other womb.
God
wants us to be in that kind of relationship with Him. Before we go and seize
all of the promises, we need to be reminded that we are in partnership. We
create together. God is going to give us some seemingly strange methods to
obtaining victory. We must trust Him and stay in partnership with Him if we are
to experience success.
Now,
for us, physical circumcision is not the sign or mark. Now, it is a
circumcision of the heart. God said in Deuteronomy 30:6 that the time was coming
when He would move the location of the circumcision to the heart of man. Then
in Romans 2:29, Paul states that we are not children of God not by an outward
mark, but a circumcision of the heart.
Our
heart is the core of our being. It is where the things we create begin. We must
remember that our heart is circumcised for God and that we should only allow
His seed into it. If there is seed that is in conflict with His Word in there,
it needs to be washed away in the blood of Jesus. If the wrong things have been
sown in our hearts, we need to stop watering them and pray for “crop failure.”
Make the commitment to be much more careful about what gets sown in your heart ,
and you will see that you begin to create a much better life in partnership
with Him.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
