Timing
This is part two of a three-part series on the covenant sign of circumcision. I hope you can see that though these are very different types of articles for Everyday Emmaus, the connection lies in how Jesus interpreted the familiar passages of Scriptures to His disciples on that road to Emmaus and what I usually do in these posts regarding the common things of everyday life. God is never wasteful. Just as every fiber of creation testifies to Him, so each aspect of His covenants reveal rich textures of the glorious Gospel He would fulfill through the Incarnate Son. In the first part, we looked at the location of the sign, in other words, where on the body the sign was commanded to be placed. We saw how placing it on the male organ of reproduction was a clear sign that God’s promises lay in the ending of Adam’s natural line and yet somehow in its continuation too. We now turn to the timing that was commanded for the administration of this sign, the eighth day.
Eighth is the New First
A curious thing to observe about circumcision is the commanded timing of it. It was to be done on the eighth day after birth (Gen. 17:12). Unlike other covenant rituals tied to a particular day of the month or a specific number of years, this one is relative only to the date of birth. Regardless of the day on which a Hebrew boy was born, eight days later would be the day of his circumcision. Why eight? Seven seems to be more closely associated with God, or perhaps multiples of 3 or 12. Why eight days from birth for this most fundamental sign? This too, I’m convinced, points again to what Christ would accomplish through His redemptive work.
Towards the end of Christ’s ministry on earth, he repeatedly told His disciples that He would rise on the third day after His death. And His resurrection occurred exactly as promised, on Sunday, following His Friday execution. Okay, so what does this have to do with the eighth day? Remember, circumcision was to occur on the eighth day from birth. The first creation took 6 days to complete and the 7th became the Sabbath Day, a day of rest. And just as every week since the beginning of time pointed back to that first week of creation, with its day of rest at the end, so Christ’s passion week wrote its final chapter, with His body lying cold in the tomb on that 7th day. But on the first day or the eighth day from the beginning of the previous week, a new creation in Christ – warm and wonderful – stepped out of the grave. It was no longer the first day of yet another week of that cursed creation. The old had passed away, it was cut off, circumcised for good. “Behold all things have become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17) It’s no wonder Sunday quickly became the Lord’s Day and our new Sabbath. Our rest starts at the beginning of each week, and in Christ, never ends. The day of every Hebrew boy’s circumcision was pointing to this glorious day of resurrection. (See illustration below)
The Sign Received
Another aspect of the timing of this sign was that the recipient would have been utterly passive in its reception. It was to be placed on babies. Much is made of Abraham’s faith and circumcision being a sign of his faith, but that is not what the Scripture teaches. Notice what it says, “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised….” (Romans 4:11) Circumcision was not a sign and seal of his faith per se, but of a certain kind of faith. Genuine faith is itself a repudiation of the flesh, a severing of one’s hope in one’s self. It’s saying, “Your promises won’t be fulfilled by my strength, my abilities, and yet I believe that You will bring them to pass.” That is the type of faith that circumcision was a seal of. And Abraham surely had this kind of faith by God’s grace, which is the only way such faith ever comes.
But because it was a type of faith that the seal pointed to and not a sign of his personal faith, it was commanded to be placed on every male child eight days after birth. This means that his entire life God’s actions toward him would always be before any faithful response from him. His personal faith – should it come – would always be a response to God’s previous signs toward him and not what God was responding to in him. Circumcision, then, would be the first proclamation of the gospel to him, placed on his body before he could even understand its meaning. Thus, it was a gracious gift received not an outward sign of an inward reality. This is why Paul could answer the question, “What is the profit of circumcision?” (Rom. 3:1) by saying, “Much in every way!” (Rom. 3:2) Because in it the promises of God in Christ were foretold. In other words, circumcision was constantly preaching to the Hebrew boy, “Trust Him, believe in Him who has made such great promises to you! Don’t look to anything in yourself, Look to Me and be saved.” (Isa. 45:22) This also means, by the way, that the first boy circumcised was Ishmael, now 13 years old, and one through whom Abraham knew the promised blessing would not come. Ponder that a moment.
Abraham was also commanded to circumcise every male in his house, whether “born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant” (Gen.17:12). Here we can see the future Gospel expansiveness foreshadowed in the sign, which the Jews missed, as Paul’s struggles with the Judaizers clearly shows. From the beginning, God’s people were covenantal, not ethnic. And no mention is made as to whether the men of his household were presently on board with this new rite Abraham had received, simply that Abraham obeyed the command and immediately administered it to them. (Gen. 17:26-27) Again, such a command made it clear that the sign didn’t point to anything within the recipient – be it personal faith or ethnicity – but to the faithfulness of the One who made the promises and gave the sign.
Can you see how the timing of this sign expresses the freedom of the Gospel proclamation? We don’t look to anything in those to whom we bring the Gospel. No wondering if they’re “ready to believe.” We recognize that faith is always a miraculous work of God and say, “Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:1b) We don’t look for signs in the hearer, but to the sign of the finished work of Him who speaks into dead hearts and brings about living faith, “…who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (2 Cor. 4:6b) and whom we trust to quicken those who hear the promises He gave us to give.
Next, we’ll look at the sex of the recipient to whom the sign was given and how this points to God’s only begotten Son and our only Savior, Jesus Christ.
