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

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.

We have been discussing “circumcision” in the last couple of studies and we saw in verse 12 that God selected a certain number of days by His design: “And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you.” We saw the word translated as “circumcised” in verse 11 was translated as “cut down” in Psalm 90 in a Psalm relating to the final judgment of mankind. So, we know that circumcision has to do with the end of the world and it is at the end of the world that the elect of God will have their flesh “cut away” or “circumcised.” Our fleshly bodies will be removed from us and we will be equipped with new resurrected spiritual bodies that will be suited for the new heaven and new earth and those bodies will last forever. But the flesh is removed and that is the emphasis regarding circumcision, even though they physically only cut away a tiny bit of flesh of the reproductive organ, but, nevertheless, it points to the cutting away of the flesh.

Circumcision also points to salvation when God speaks of “circumcising” the heart, which is the salvation of the soul. When He ties circumcision to the time of the end, like God did in Psalm 90, it has to do with the salvation of the body. This is why the Israelites were circumcised a “second time,” in Joshua 5:2-3:

At that time JEHOVAH said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

Joshua is a clear type of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is Christ that is “making knives” to circumcise the people of Israel a second time, because they had come out of the land of Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and they were now about to enter into the Promised Land of Canaan.

The first time they were circumcised when they came out of Egypt, pointing to the salvation of the soul. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and just prior to entering the Promised Land promised to Abraham and all of God’s people, the circumcision points to the cutting away of the flesh at the end of the world when God’s people will be equipped to enter the Promised Land of the new heaven and new earth.

So, there is a definite tie-in of circumcision and the end of the world and that is why being circumcised the “eighth day” is so important because we can tie eight days into the timeline for the end of the world. Prior to the flood, God said, “And yet seven days,” and He would bring the flood and we know that those “seven days” spiritually figured 7,000 (actual) years from the date of the flood in 4990 B.C. to May 21, 2011 and we had exactly 7,000 years (or a full seven days or a full week) to become saved. And what happens after you reach the full seventh day of the week? It starts a new week and we can look at the first day of the week, Sunday, as the “eighth day.” So, from 2011 and all the days thereafter until the last day (when God completes things for this earth and brings about the last day and the resurrection of the dead and the rapture of the living), we are living in the “eighth day,” and the 1000-year period will extend into the future because we will live and reign with Him a “thousand years” or for eternity. Let us say that 2033 A.D. is the date that this earth will be destroyed and when the elect will enter into that figurative “thousand-year” reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. This has been misunderstood by numerous churches because they do not understand how God uses the language of “a thousand years” in Revelation 20. Living and reigning with Christ for “a thousand years” will be the completeness of eternity. That will be the 8,000th year, so if Christ comes in 2033 He will come on the “eighth day” which identifies with the Sunday Sabbath Day, which was a day of resurrection. He will also come early in the “day,” like a dawning of the eighth millennium. If the world were to continue (which it will not) to 3011 A.D. and if Christ comes in 2033 A.D., it would be, as it were, very “early” in the day. Just as Christ rose early that Sunday morning in the resurrection, the elect people will rise early Sunday morning of the millennial Sabbath to be resurrected into the new heaven and new earth. The circumcision is the point of the removal of the flesh and then we will have been circumcised a “second time” and we can proceed into that land that God has promised for so long.

Let us go back to Genesis 17:12-13:

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.

In these verses, the Lord is focused on who is to be circumcised and it is the man child that is “born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.” As far as being “born in the house,” we could understand this to have to do with the “house of God” and the outward representation of the house of God in the Old Testament was the nation of Israel. Those born into that house would take upon themselves the sign of the covenant, circumcision. The spiritual meaning would be that the “elect” that were born Israelites would be born into the spiritual house of God.

By the way, the true Jews “born in the house” would typify the New Testament churches and would identify with the 144,000 saved during the church age. That is one group. But there is another group that is said to be “bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.” The Jews would buy servants that were not Israelites. They were from another nation. We saw that with Abraham and others in the Old Testament. There were people in the house that were servants and they were bought with money to be a servant and, therefore, they were non-Jews. Historically, they were not of the seed of Abraham. They were Gentiles. So, God is making allowance even in the Old Testament for non-Jews to receive the token of the sign of circumcision and He is also making allowance that they could have become saved. We read of a few people in the Old Testament that were not Jews, but they did become saved: Rahab the harlot, Ruth the Moabitess, Naaman the Syrian and the Ninevites. God made this allowance for the Gentiles, even though His primary focus was on the people of Israel and He was not sending the Gospel to the nations of the world, except for the rare instance when He sent Jonah the prophet to the city of Nineveh.

In the New Testament era, this would not identify with the Gentiles of the church age because they were all Gentiles, but it would identify with the great multitude God saved during the second Part of the Great Tribulation after God ended the church age. They were not of the house of God. They were not of that seed, but they were people that the Lord reserved to salvation for the time of the end and the completion of His salvation program. We see this, for instance, in Revelation 20:4:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Since I mentioned “a thousand years” earlier, this “thousand years” has to do with all those saved during the church age. If they were saved in the first century, it stands for the completeness of the New Testament era and into eternity future, because when someone becomes truly saved they are always saved. Then it says in Revelation 20:5:

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

This reference to the “thousand years” has to do with the thousand years of Satan’s binding, a figure of him being bound throughout the church age. The rest of the dead that lived not again until the thousand years were finished refers to when the church age ended and the Great Tribulation began and these were the great multitude that also experienced the salvation of their souls. This is what God is pointing to with this language that is applied to the New Testament era or those “born in the house” (saved during the church age) and those “bought with money, not of thy seed” is applicable to the great multitude that was saved out of Great Tribulation.

Then it says in Genesis 17:13:

He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised…

This is a necessity or you will not enter into heaven. You will not live forever unless God circumcised your heart and circumcises the flesh of your body on the last day. It goes on to say in Genesis 17:13:

…: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

This is an interesting statement because the token of the covenant was circumcision which was done to the literal flesh of the males of Israel and, certainly, it could not be for an everlasting token of the covenant because many of those men perished. Even if some were elect, their flesh would need to be transformed and removed because no flesh will inherit the kingdom of God or enter into the kingdom of God. So, how can the covenant be “in your flesh for an everlasting covenant”? You see, the sign of the covenant, circumcision, was due to the flesh that was “cut off,” not to the flesh that remained. The sign was that this child had a portion of his flesh cut off and that is how it can be evidence of an everlasting covenant, because as God cuts off the flesh of all the elect on the last day, the absence of flesh is the sign or token of the covenant for all eternity and for the everlasting covenant. God will look upon His redeemed people and each one will have an eternal spiritual body and eternal soul and no flesh will be in evidence. That is the covenant in the flesh – the removal of the flesh for an everlasting covenant.

Then it says in Genesis 17:14:

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.

This is the language of the wrath of God. This is the language of damnation and judgment. The individual has not been saved. They have not been circumcised in heart. They have not been circumcised in body. They have not experienced the first resurrection or the second resurrection. Of course, it is necessary to have experienced the first, in order to obtain the second and, therefore, the individual is “cut off” from the kingdom of heaven and cut off from eternal life and cut off from existence forever and ever. They will be annihilated and destroyed and they will cease to exist because they have broken God’s covenant.

And what is God’s covenant? It is the Word of God, the Bible. Remember, we read this a few studies ago in Exodus 34:28:

And he was there with JEHOVAH forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

There were “ten” commandments, pointing to the completeness of the Word of God. The covenant is the complete Word of God, the Bible. And this is why the (unsaved) individual is cut off – he has broken the law of God. That is what is says in Isaiah 24, a chapter which details the final judgment of the world. It says in Isaiah 24:5:

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

They have sinned. This is really what is in view. If you break one law, you are guilty of all and you are a law breaker. You are a covenant breaker. Of course, mankind breaks multitudes of laws. We commit thousands upon thousands of sins and we continually break the law and covenant in thought, word and deed. We are naturally law breakers and we stand guilty before God and the only hope for the covenant breaker is “circumcision,” and that is why it says that we “must needs be circumcised.” As Jesus said, “Ye must be born again,” and if you are not born again, you will die. That is the bottom line.

Sorrowfully, we are living in a time when God is no longer performing that tremendous miracle of saving people and making them born again. He has ended His salvation program. At this point in history, the question is, “Did God save you before the date of May 21, 2011?” That was when God ended His salvation program, according to His sovereign decree. He did end it on that day. Did God save you by causing you to become spiritually circumcised prior to the end of His salvation program? If not, then you have entered into the “eighth day,” which is any time after May 21, 2011, and there is no more circumcision of the soul taking place. And that first circumcision was a requirement to experiencing the second circumcision (of the body) and, therefore, the eternal fate of man is sealed. The time limit has elapsed. It is the “eighth day” and God’s elect have already been circumcised in heart and we are ready for what is to come next.