Joshua and Judges: Circumcision of the heart, Jos 5:2-3; Deu 10:16; Rom 2:28-29; Php 3:2-3; Col 2:8-11.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Circumcision of the heart, JOS 5:2-3; DEU 10:16; ROM 2:28-29; Php 3:2-3; COL 2:8-11.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

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."

 

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

 

Circumcision is the token of the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant and the marriage contract was the conditional Mosaic covenant.

 

God's grace and mercy shown in the unconditional AC places an obligation on the heart of the OT Jew to follow the conditional MC. Hence, there is a circumcision of the heart.

 

ROM 3:3-4

What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar

 

What would have kept the judgments of God away from His people? The answer is found in the true meaning of circumcision.

 

What would bring certain blessings from God in time, which we might call secondary to the blessings of the unconditional aspects of God's plan?

 

Moses himself, shortly before his death, gave the spiritual meaning of circumcision that is necessary in the lives of men if they are to turn from their own ways and follow the ways of God.

 

Reminding them that they had been chosen by God as a special people [unconditional], he presented to them their obligation as the people of God [conditional]:

 

DEU 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

 

DEU 10:13 and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

 

The fear of the Lord, which springs from the knowledge of one's own unholiness in the presence of the holy God. You are nothing before Him.

 

It's an awakening to the very real fact that you are a sinner to the core and unable to stand before God in any other way then under the weight of His judgment. God looms infinitely large and you wane to the miniscule. Unfortunately, many people think themselves as somewhat equal to God, who can, so they think, at least stand toe to toe with God. They think if there is a day of judgment that they can reason with Him, man to man. Many of the pagan religions taught some form of human trickery that could get a mortal into the presence of the immortals. What they fail to see, and therefore fail to fear Him, is that they are nothing before Him and are fully worthy of judgment from an infinite, all powerful, perfectly righteous and holy God.

 

God describes all men - under sin.

 

ROM 3:10

"There is none righteous, not even one;

 

ROM 3:18

"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

 

At God consciousness, the time within a young person's heart when this truth can be realized, God the Holy Spirit convicts the heart and brings the gospel.

 

This truth brings a reverent fear of God within the heart and for some, so it seems, they run from God as the reverent fear turns to the sinful fear of being afraid, which is misplaced and a terribly wrong conclusion. The reverent fear of the one and only holy God enables the believer to learn of God, and when he does he learns and eventually comprehends the mercy of God.

 

I've seen damage done in a life that learns of the grace and mercy of God without reverent fear. These interpret grace and mercy as a pass given by God to live any lifestyle they choose while believing there is a guarantee of experiencing all the blessings of the plan of God. When life, health, and relationships fall apart in misery through carnal, cosmic living, these stand shocked.

 

This fear, which first enables us to comprehend the mercy of God, awakens love, the fruit of which is manifested in serving God with all the heart and all the soul.

 

The fear grows from the comprehension of the mercy of God into love of God and mankind which prompts the heart to desire to always walk in the ways of the Lord, in other words, to be holy as He is holy.

 

DEU 6:5

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

 

DEU 10:14 "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

 

DEU 10:15 Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.

 

The Lord chose the patriarchs and their seed when he could have chosen any nation or all nations since to Him alone belongs all the heavens and the earth.

 

This obligation the Lord had laid upon Israel by the love with which He, to whom all the heavens and the earth, with everything upon it, belong, had chosen the patriarchs and their seed out of all nations.

 

By "the heavens of the heavens," the idea of heaven is perfectly exhausted. This God, who might have chosen any other nation as well as Israel, or in fact all nations together, had directed His special love to Israel alone. As a perfectly just God with all power and all possessions, without limit, His decision in this matter as well as all matters is perfectly Just.

 

DEU 10:16 Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.

 

The circumcision of heart is contrasted with being stiff necked, which is to harden the heart away from God and stay transfixed upon the falsehood or false gods who portray that falsehood. It can be likened to cutting off sin, but it is much more specific to a heart that should easily and desirously turn towards God in order to behold Him and to honor and follow Him in all His ways.

 

The Hebrew word for "neck" can mean the back of the neck, as in a back has been turned towards God. And this is coupled with the Hebrew verb qashah which means to harden or to harden oneself. The best Hebrew Lexicon defines the word: to have difficulty, harden oneself, to make heavy, to raise objections, to make hard, or to be pigheaded. We see the imagery of the neck turned away from God and hardened into place with the eyes fixed on something or someone away from Him.

 

The circumcision of heart is to soften the neck of the heart so that it turns to God easily and joyously in order to observe and follow His ways.

 

Finishing with the adverb, "anymore," reveals that they had already done this, as we noted so often in our study of the exodus generation and even the children who reacted against their long march through the desert on the eastern side of the Jordan when the fiery serpent were sent in discipline.

 

The true fear of God and the true love of God cannot occur without circumcision of the heart or a loosening of the stiff neck of the heart so that it turns  to God in ease and in joy.

 

DEU 10:17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.

 

So Moses emphasizes that God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, God will bring swift discipline on all who are stiff necked, whether Jew or Gentile, whether to God or to their fellow man. He can't be paid off or convinced by persuading speech. The false gods can be bought off by sacrifices, but not the God of gods.

 

The circumcision of the heart is reiterated in the NT.

 

ROM 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

 

ROM 2:29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

 

The argument of the foregoing verses assumes what is stated here, and what no one will dispute, that what constitutes the Jew in the true sense of the term, and gives the name Jew its proper content and dignity, is not anything outward and visible, but something inward and spiritual. The same is true of the child of God in the church age.

 

This inward or inside Jew who lives up to his covenant relation to God is the high standard that Paul puts before the merely professional Jew.

 

The believer is not to conform to overt signs of Christianity, but he is to be following Christ within, in the sphere of his soul, spirit, and heart.

 

Php 3:2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

 

Php 3:3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

 

The word "beware" means to be constantly looking. Dogs is a term of reproach. Using the word dog is a great insult, especially in the east. They normally did not keep them as house pets but rather they roamed the streets, mangy, flea-bitten, vicious, starved scavengers of the oriental streets.

 

"false circumcision" - katatomh, [katatome; only here] = literally a cutting off. A concision or mutilation. A pun on circumcision in which Paul contrasts them to the true circumcision. They are mutilated.

 

They are so mutilated because they fought against the gospel of grace and touted their overt Judaism as an authority for truth. A lot of this goes on today as men and women look the part of Christian and maybe are popular as Christians and they use this recognition as authority for truth when the only authority for truth is the scripture, and you don't have to be popular or "look like a Christian" to know it and comprehend it.  

 

Their circumcision, by the rite instructed by God to Abraham, was only a mutilation. A further note is the fact that pagan worshippers of the time would often mutilate themselves in their religious rites. Heathen priests mutilated their own bodies and these Judiazers mutilated the gospel of Christ.   

 

Php 3:3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

 

The word "glory" can also mean to rejoice. It is the exultation within that comes from living the spiritual life. Here, glory is joy.