Joshua and Judges: A recall to the Abrahamic Covenant by the token of circumcision. Jos 5:1-3.

Title: Joshua and Judges: A recall to the Abrahamic Covenant by the token of circumcision. JOS 5:1-3.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

JOS 5:1 Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer [frozen with fear], because of the sons of Israel.

 

JOS 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time."

 

This does not mean that circumcision was performed twice upon the men, but that this circumcision was as it had first been done.

 

"Again" - as it was first done. No one coming out of Egypt was uncircumcised. No one born in the wilderness was.

 

JOS 5:3 So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

 

 Gibeath-haaraloth = the hill of the foreskins. The place where they were buried.

 

Circumcision was a sign or token of the Abrahamic Covenant, which the adults in the wilderness rejected when they believed the 10 spies.

 

Circumcision was a mark on the body of the Jewish nation ordered by God on the day that He made His covenant of grace with Abraham. Like a gold wedding ring on the finger of a bride which permits an observer to know from a distance that she belongs to someone else, so circumcision was a physical mark that could identify the people of God immediately. Pre-war Germany Nazi raiding bands who went out to pillage the Jews made their identification by this mark. They killed the victims who possessed the mark and spared as doubtful cases those who were uncircumcised. The mark was a physical one upon Abraham and his sons, but it had a deeply spiritual meaning which will be understood as we discuss the teaching of the whole of the Scriptures on the subject.

 

Abram - father of many.

Abraham - father of a multitude.

 

Abram's name was changed to Abraham. He probably disliked his name which meant "father of many," since he had only one son at the age of 86 and even this one child was not by his wife Sarai, and here he was at 99 without any improvement. And as we know, he longed for a son from Sarai we also know that God promised him one and that from that one would come a multitude, as the stars of the heavens or as the sand of the seashore. And yet with circumcision came a name change to Abraham - from "father of many" to "father of a multitude." Can you imagine when he told his family that at 99 he was changing his name. Maybe they thought he was sick of the old name and would change it to father of one or something to that effect. But at 99 he changes it to father of a multitude and I'm sure some of them had thought that he finally cracked and had gone nuts.

 

It was certain that a heart that disobeyed in the outward conformity would never obey in the inward conformity.

 

For the real meaning of circumcision is of course the spiritual meaning - the Abrahamic Covenant, which includes both physical and spiritual promises.

 

GEN 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram,

"Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father's house,

To the land which I will show you;

 

GEN 12:2 And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

 

GEN 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

 

GEN 13:14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

 

GEN 13:15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.

 

GEN 13:16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.

 

GEN 13:17 Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you."

 

GEN 15:4 "This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir."

 

GEN 15:5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

 

GEN 15:18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land,

From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

 

GEN 17:1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

"I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.

 

GEN 17:2 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly."

 

GEN 17:3 And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,

 

GEN 17:4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

 

GEN 17:5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.

 

GEN 17:6 "And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.

 

GEN 17:7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

 

GEN 17:8 And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

 

GEN 17:9 God said further to Abraham, "Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

 

GEN 17:10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.

 

GEN 17:11 And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.

 

GEN 17:12 And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants.

 

GEN 17:13 A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

 

GEN 17:14 But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

 

GEN 17:15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

 

GEN 17:16 And I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."

 

GEN 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"

 

GEN 17:18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!"

 

Abraham's faith from Gen 15 falters here, but the covenant is unconditional, and so the son is still given.

 

GEN 17:19 But God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

 

GEN 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

 

As far as we can tell, Ishmael's twelve sons dispersed as Bedouins who moved throughout the Arabian peninsula as well as to the east across the Jordan as they are associated with the Midianites in Gen 37. Esau married his daughter and Esau became the father of the Edomites who lived east of the Jordan, south of the Dead Sea. And so his reputation as being the father of the Arab race is only partly true, since there were plenty of other people living in the peninsula at the time. What "great nation" he became is impossible to tell for sure, although some theories are better than others.

 

GEN 17:21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year."

 

GEN 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

 

GEN 22:18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

 

Amillennialists do not believe in the literal thousand year reign of Christ after His second coming. They are generally covenant believers who see the whole Bible under the covenant of grace.

 

While it is true that God deals with man in terms of grace through the finished work of Christ, the covenant theologian builds everything upon this and so rejects that the Israel is different from the church. He also rejects the physical promises of the Abrahamic covenant as important and so he easily passes this covenant on to the church. And so, according to their theology, Abraham began the institutional church.

 

The covenant Amillennialist sees Abraham as a new epoch in the Old Testament revelation of the covenant of grace rather than the beginning of a new people and nation.

 

Simply read, what God is promising Abraham is a physical seed and a nation, not to become the father of the "institutional church."

 

Circumcision was a sign and a seal of the covenant and a badge of membership in Israel as a Jew. It was not intended to be a seal of the righteousness of faith.

 

The covenant Amillennialist determines that the Abrahamic covenant was conditional - that its conditions were faith, obedience, and circumcision.

 

Abraham believed the promises of God, but the context of what he believed is in GEN 15:1-5.

 

GEN 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,

"Do not fear, Abram,

I am a shield to you;

Your reward shall be very great."

 

GEN 15:2 And Abram said, "O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"

 

GEN 15:3 And Abram said, "Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir."

 

GEN 15:4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir."

 

GEN 15:5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

 

GEN 15:6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

 

It is obvious that his faith refers to his future son Isaac. Yes Abraham was saved by grace through faith. Yes, the content of Abraham's faith is the promise of God. The issue becomes: What was the content of the promises?

 

God' s promises to Abraham were both physical and spiritual. The spiritual (salvation) could not happen without the physical (seed). The covenant theologian does away with the physical.

 

He doesn't ignore the physical blessings promised to Abraham, but he makes the spiritual ones to be so important as to almost nullify the significance of Abraham's descendents, the nation, and the land, and especially, the literal thousand year reign of Christ over that kingdom after His second coming. By this error they apply the blessings that are for Israel only to the church.

 

The physical promises were limited to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The spiritual promises concerning salvation and blessing were to extend to all believers, both Jew and Gentile.

 

A very important part of dispensational theology is the unconditionality of the Abrahamic Covenant. This does not mean that the content of the covenant has no rules to be obeyed or conditions God may expect the people to meet.

 

Unconditional - God's promises in the covenant will be fulfilled in spite of man's success or failure to keep whatever conditions or commandment may be contained in it.