Be circumcised? But I’m a girl! I’m not Jewish! Why? I don’t understand.
Often, in the Bible, God uses natural things to teach spiritual matters. Circumcision was one of these. It started with God making a covenant with Abraham and his descendents (Gen. 17:7) and the sign of the people’s side of the covenant would be the circumcision of the males (v.10-12) at 8 days old. (Obviously, this was the adults making the commitment to covenant.) This was supposed to mean they were agreeing to keep the covenant with God, but as history proves, it became more of a prideful ritual than a sign of actual following.
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Dt. 30:6 ESV
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. Rom. 2:28 ,29 ESV
It was always God’s intention for us to be circumcised in the heart by His Spirit and not by the hand of man; not to pleased man, but God. We are circumcised when we truly repent and become born again, and daily turn to God to renew that covenant. If it didn’t work for the Jewish people to make the covenant once and never renew it but live life as they pleased (Jud. 17:6), then why do we expect God will be okay with us making the commitment and then living as we please?
It is much the same with the sacrifices: the Jews were more faithful in than their reliance and trust in God, yet God said, “For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Hos. 6:6) So their actions had become ritualistic rather than from the heart, and God was not pleased. We do the same things today. We perform all kinds of ‘spiritual’ acts because we think it will please God, but what He really wants is our hearts, totally and completely His. Then our acts will be pleasing.
That is why we need the Lord to circumcise us, because He always does things the right way (not man’s way) and He knows best how it needs to be done. We do not need to be Christians in appearance only, but followers of Christ on the inside- in our spirit and our heart. God knows the true state of our hearts, “And Jehovah saw … every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5) God does not look at the spiritual appearance of man, but at the heart (1Sm. 16:7). We need to know Him- intimately, and then perhaps we would stop thinking it’s our outward works that make us His.
Let us all decide to have our hearts circumcised by the Lord in rededication daily so that we are not just drawing near with what we say, only honouring Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him (Is. 29:13), but loving Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Lk 10:27) because He first loved us (1Jh. 4:19).
Lord, circumcise my heart, that it might be pure and true before You…