Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Part in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is Part #12 of Genesis, chapter 17 and we are continuing to read Genesis 17:10-14:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

I will stop reading there. We have been spending some time looking at the word “covenant” and then we looked at the word “circumcise.” We saw that circumcision is a sign of the covenant, as the covenant is the Word of God, the Bible. The sign of circumcision was placed upon the people of Israel, historically, so it did have a physical application, but the sign itself points to salvation, the “cutting away of the flesh.”

We are going to continue to look at “circumcision” and the Hebrew words that God used here, which are translated as “circumcise” or “circumcised” and we are going to see how it fits with God’s overall salvation program. We know it has to do with salvation of the soul because the Bible speaks of circumcising the heart and that would involve the cutting away of the sins of the heart of an individual. It would involve being born again in the soul.

Let us start with the last Part of verse 10, where it says in Genesis 17:10:

… Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

The word “circumcised” is Strong’s #4135. It is a word found 31 times in the Old Testament and 30 times out of the 31 times it is translated as some variation of “circumcise.” One time it was translated differently. This is one way God is emphasizing a specific truth as He overwhelmingly translates a word in one way and then in an isolated instance it is translated another way. Therefore, we know when we look at that isolated instance where it is translated another way, the other 30 times that are translated consistently as the same word are to remain in our minds. It is very interesting how God does this as He worked in the King James translators to translate the words a certain way – He operated to conceal truth, but He also operated to emphasize a specific meaning. Again, there was a heavy emphasis upon the translation as “circumcision,” as opposed to the one place it is not translated that way.

Where is the exception? It is in Psalm 90, a Psalm of Moses. It says in Psalm 90:3-4:

Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

I am going to stop here, even though we did not get to our word yet. Here, God speaks of the destruction of His judgment and He also says, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past,” and it reminds us of 2Peter 3:8: “…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” And it says this in the midst of speaking of the destruction of the flood and then the destruction at the end of the world by fire. So, too, destruction is in view here in Psalm 90. Verse 3 mentions a “flood” and verse 4 mentions that they are as a “sleep” and in the morning, they are like grass that groweth up.

I stopped here because I want to remind us that this is the Bible and you may say, “I am aware of that,” but it is always good to be reminded that Christ spoke in parables, so when we read of “grass,” we read in 1Peter 1:24:

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

So, “flesh” is like grass that withers. God is giving us a spiritual definition for the word, so when we read of “grass” in the Bible we have to consider that it may represent “flesh.” In Psalm 90, it is talking about people and they are “asleep” and in verse 5 they are “carried away with a flood.” They are people. Again, it said in Psalm 90:5:

… they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

God is likening people to grass and, yet, it is more specific to people – it is “all flesh,” as we read in 1Peter, that is “as grass.” Then it says in Psalm 90:6-7:

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

This reminds us that this has to do with the wrath of God, just as verse 3 is framed by destruction and God’s wrath. And the “thousand years” being likened to a day and the flood are in view and then we read of a “morning” in which man flourishes in the day and groweth up. That is how it is with grass. In the day it is flourishing and, yet, in the evening God says it is “cut down, and withereth.” We have seen this kind of language, contrasting the “day” and the “night.” Remember, in John, chapter 9 the Lord Jesus spoke of His Gospel program and He said in John 9:4:

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

The work of Christ is defined in John 6:29, where it says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent,” so Christ must work that work of salvation while it is day. That is why the “grass” is said to flourish and grow up – all is well in the “day of salvation.” There is hope in the world for mankind, as they have the possibility (from their perspective) of being saved because the Light of the Gospel is shining in the world. Again, Christ does the work He was sent to do during the day of salvation, but the night or evening comes “when no man can work.” The “man” in view is the Lord Jesus Christ. The night comes and the work of salvation (“that ye believe”) can no longer be performed, and that is what God is saying in Psalm 90:6:

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

What is really interesting about this verse is the word translated here as “cut down” is the word that was translated 30 times in the Old Testament as “circumcised.” It is translated as “circumcised” everywhere else, except here, because the translators had a problem. Remember, the King James was translated back in 1611 and even prior to that they were working on the translation, so it was over 400 years ago. Again, it is speaking of “grass,” and they translated it, “In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down,” because, obviously, literal grass would not be “circumcised.” That did not make sense to them – you do not circumcise grass, but you do cut it down. However, it does make sense when you substitute the Biblical definition of “grass,” which is “flesh.” Let us make that substitution and it would read: “In the morning the flesh flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening the flesh is circumcised, and withereth.”

The flesh is “circumcised” and that fits because that is what God is speaking of when He says in Genesis 17:10:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin…

It is the “flesh” that is “cut off” in circumcision and by using this word to describe the cutting down of grass, God selected the word for “circumcision” that relates to the “thousand years as yesterday,” the flood and Judgment Day and the wrath of God, as it says in Psalm 90:7:

For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

We already know that circumcision has to do with the salvation of the soul, as God gave the commandment to circumcise our hearts or be born again. But now it also has something to do with the end of the world or evening (night) when all mankind or all flesh is destroyed. This is something we need to note.

However, there is more to this, if we go back to Genesis 17 and read the next verse, in Genesis 17:11:

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

We cannot see this in the English translation of the King James Bible. We are privileged to have a concordance and interlinear to help us with this, but the word “circumcise” here is a different Hebrew word. This word is Strong’s #5243. The word “circumcise” in verse 10 was Strong’s #4135. They are totally different words. So, we are also going to look at this word for “circumcise” and, amazingly, we are going to be lead to the same place the other word led us.

But before we do that, let us look at the word translated as “foreskin.” It is Strong’s #6190.

By the way, I hope anyone following along in our studies is making notes about these words and checking them out. From time to time, I may make a mistake in the Strong’s numbers, so please check me out. It is really helpful for anyone Parting along to make notes of these numbers, so you can check it out. It is one thing to listen to me say that a word is used 31 times, like the word “circumcise,” and it is translated differently only one time in Psalm 90. You can go to the concordance and see it for yourself and to check these things out, especially if you look at all 30 of the examples. It will really make a far greater impression upon you than just listening to me. Then when you get to the 31st place this word is used, it would really help you to retain these things in your mind. It would be a good Part habit to check out the Strong’s numbers I give you.

Again, this word translated as “foreskin” is Strong’s #6190. It is also translated as “uncircumcised” in at least a couple of places. Of course, that makes sense because if you still have the foreskin of your flesh, you are “uncircumcised.” It is the feminine form of Strong’s #6189, which is always translated as “uncircumcised” or “uncircumcision.” So, it says, “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your uncircumcision,” or of your uncircumcised condition. This is basically what it is saying. It says in Deuteronomy 10:16:

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

This is not referring to a physical foreskin, is it? It refers to the “foreskin” of the heart and there is not such a thing physically upon the heart. This must be understood spiritually and it provides us with a definition for the word “foreskin.” Again, the spiritual definition has to be a spiritual reference to the sinful nature of man and his spiritually dead condition. The “heart” is synonymous with “mind” and “soul” in the Bible and that heart is dead in sin, so to circumcise the foreskin is to “cut off” the dead condition of a heart, which only God can do. God says later in Deuteronomy that He will circumcise the heart (in salvation); God saves by removing the spiritual deadness from the soul of a man. Therefore, to have “foreskin” would point to being in one’s sin. We can also look at Jeremiah 6:10:

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of JEHOVAH is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

Again, we see something impossible. The “ear is uncircumcised.” And what Part of a body can be circumcised? It is the reproductive organ. Is there a “foreskin” on the ear? No – there is nothing to circumcise of someone’s ear, just like there is nothing to circumcise from the heart. Therefore, God is again speaking of an individual’s spiritually dead condition that impacts their hearing, not their physical hearing but their spiritual hearing: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Christ said in John 10 that His sheep hear His voice and only His sheep can hear Him and those that are not truly saved cannot hear Him because they have “uncircumcised” ears and heart. You could say every other Part of them is uncircumcised, too, because they are “dead in sin.” That is what “circumcision” points to, spiritually.

You can find references in the New Testament where God refers to the “uncircumcised” and it can sometimes simply point to a “Gentile” to distinguish between a Gentile and a Jew. But we also have to look at “uncircumcision” as applying to someone that is “dead in sin.” It says in Jeremiah 9:25:

Behold, the days come, saith JEHOVAH, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Here, the “circumcised” identify with the Jews, the outward representation of the kingdom of God on earth. It also can picture the churches. So, here, God is saying He will punish the “church” or the “circumcised,” along with the world or the “uncircumcised,” as it goes on to say in Jeremiah 9:26:

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

The nations that are “uncircumcised” represent the unsaved of the world. And the house of Israel is “uncircumcised” in the heart, even though verse 25 Israel was said they were “circumcised,” but they were also “uncircumcised” in their heart or in their spiritual condition.

Lord willing, we will pick up these ideas in our next Part, as we look at Genesis 17:11:

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin…

Again, “foreskin” is the same word as “uncircumcised;” that is, being circumcised identifies with salvation, but it is a different Hebrew word here and we will look at this Hebrew word, Strong’s #5243, in our next Bible study.