Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study #26 of Romans 2, and we are going to read Romans 2:25-29:

For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

We are going to take some time to look at the Bible’s teaching on “circumcision.” It is obvious why we would want to do that, as God makes so many reference to “circumcision” and “uncircumcision.” With this passage, it would be helpful for us to retrace our steps and go back to the Scriptures to see what God says about circumcision.

When looking at circumcision, it begins to be mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 17, so let us turn to Genesis 17:1-2:

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, JEHOVAH appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

Abraham was 99 years old, and because of the biblical calendar of history that the Lord has opened up to the understanding of His people, we know exactly what year this was. It was the year 2068 B. C. The next year Abraham would be 100 years old, and Isaac would be born, but this was the prior year. It is very interesting that when we take the year 2068 B. C. and we project it into the future to the year 1988 A. D., it comes to a total number of calendar years of 4,056 years. The number “4,056” breaks down to “2 x 12 x 13 x 13,” so there is an emphasis on the number “2” as the caretakers of the Word of God; the number “12,” points to fulness; and the number “13” points to the end of the world. And that number is doubled, pointing to the end and to “super fulness,” which does occur at the end of the world. The year 1988 was the exact 13,000^th year of earth’s history from the creation. From the circumcision of Abraham when he was 99, God presents this time path which takes us to the 13,000^th year and some very significant numbers.

We will also see that at this time Ishmael was 13 years old. Abraham had him when he was 86, and when Abraham was 99, then Ishmael was 13.

Let us read Genesis 17:4-8:

As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Again, it is not coincidental that when we come to the 13,000^th year of earth’s history, it was when the end stage of this world began, and we have been in this time for three decades. But it is coming quickly to a close, and then God’s people will inherit the Promised Land. In the promise given to Abraham, God used the figure of the physical land of Canaan to represent the new heaven and new earth. And we are about to inherit that new heaven and new earth that will fulfill this promise given to Abraham and his seed. We have talked about this many times, but Galatians 3 makes it clear that Christ is the seed (singular), and then we are told that all those, both Jew and Gentile, that are in Christ whom the Lord has saved, are counted for the seed. So it is a promise to the elect of God. Again, it is significant, given the timeline of Abraham and Ishmael and how that fits with 1988. And now, here we are, about to fulfill what that promise spiritually represented.

Going on in Genesis 17, it says in Genesis 17:9-14:

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 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.

God was stipulating that every male child from that point forward was to be circumcised on the eighth day. When he was eight days old, he must be circumcised. And the Lord is also making an allowance for those that were “strangers.” Of course, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, and Ishmael was 13 years old, but this was a Law of Moses that on the eighth day every male child should be circumcised. Then it says in Genesis 17:23-27:

And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

This is the sign of the covenant God instituted and gave to Abraham and his seed. So Israel was given this sign, and it was to be a physical circumcision. Abraham, Ishmael and all the males in Abraham’s house were physically circumcised in their reproductive organ, and that was a sign. Later, we will look at the things this was pointing to, spiritually, but it was a Law of God that was to be obeyed. They were to circumcise their male children on the eighth day.

I want to mention one other thing regarding the fact that Ishmael was 13. Remember that Abraham had pleaded to God regarding his son Ishmael, back in
Genesis 17:15-20:

And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee…

That is significant because Abraham’s prayer was that Ishmael might live before God. Again, it says in Genesis 17:20:

And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

This is one of the evidences that points to God’s plan to save a great many of the sons of Ishmael, and you can read more about that in Isaiah 60. But, again, look at the time in relationship to Ishmael’s age. He was 13 when he was circumcised, and the time path from that year 2068 B. C. to the year 1988 is the 13,000^th year of earth’s history. The sons of Ishmael were not saved in that precise year because in May 1988 there began a famine (no salvation) of 2,300 evening mornings, but when we are given time paths, we go the fulness of the major year, or the 13,000^th year (in fulness of thousands), but when using someone’s age, we cannot pinpoint six years and four months after that time to the Latter Rain period (when salvation would commence), but God was indicating that Ishmael would be made a great nation. God had heard the prayer of Abraham that Ishmael might live. So we see that many sons (descendants) of Ishmael are in view and would be circumcised spiritually in the end stage of earth’s history as God sent forth the Gospel to the nations outside of the churches during the Latter Rain period and saved the great multitude. Included in that number are many sons of Ishmael.

So we see that this was the initial laying out of the Law of circumcision, where God specified that it should be done on the eighth day. Then we see that after Isaac was born in the next year, it says in Genesis 21:4-5:

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

Abraham had heard the Word of God instructing him to circumcise every male child when he was eight days old, and that is exactly what he did. It was the Law for Israel.

Then God said in Leviticus 12:1-3:

And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

There is the Law. A woman who had born a man child was unclean for seven days, and then on the eighth day the baby was to be circumcised, just as Isaac was, and just as the Apostle Paul was, which tells us that the Jews continued to carefully obey this command. Paul was living in the first century A. D., almost 2,000 years after Abraham and almost 1,500 years after Moses. We read in Philippians 3:3-5:

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

The beginning of a Jew’s life in keeping the Law of God started with that eighth-day circumcision. That was the point that a Jew began, as the Apostle Paul was saying that when he was Saul of Tarsus, he was trusting in the flesh. It was an outward, physical sign, but it meant much more to the Israelites, and they thought it was part of their righteousness before God.

It says in Luke 1:57-60:

Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.

John the Baptist was circumcised on the eighth day.

In the next chapter, we read of the Lord Jesus, in Luke 2:21:

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The Lord Jesus “fulfilled all righteousness.” It was a Law of Moses and, therefore, his parents had him circumcised on the proper day, the eighth day.

Now if we go to John 7, we are going to read something curious concerning circumcision and the eighth day. John 7 is a chapter when it was the time of the feast of tabernacles, and there is some mysterious language here regarding that feast. Here, the Jews were having a lot of conversation about Christ, and then we read in John 7:19-24:

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?

The Lord is bringing this up because He had healed a man on the seventh day Sabbath, and the Law of God said that on the Sabbath, no work was to be done, and the leaders of Israel were accusing Him of violating the Sabbath by doing the work of healing. So Christ is pointing out that Moses gave them the Law of circumcision, “and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.” So they kept the Law of Moses on the Sabbath day, but to circumcise someone is as much a work as the Lord Jesus healing a man. Christ’s point was that they do a deed on the Sabbath, and should He not make a man every whit whole? That is, it is a picture of salvation. Of course they had no answer for this when the Lord said that Moses gave them “circumcision,” and that they on the Sabbath Day circumcise a man, but what is curious is whether that means that the eighth day had to be the Sabbath Day. Do you see the problem with the language, “Ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man,”? Well, that was fine if a child were born on a Friday, for example, and then the eighth day would be the Sabbbath, but what if a child were born on a Monday or a Wednesday, and then the eighth day would not be the Sabbath Day? How are we to understand this?

It is important as we look at the language, “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision,” and the Law of circumcision, which we read a few times, said that the child was to be circumcised on the eighth day. It does not say the Sabbath Day, but it only said on the eighth day of the child’s life, so that means the eighth day could fall on any of the seven days of the week, as children are born every day of the week. For some, it would work out very nicely that when they were born on a certain day that eight days later would be the Sabbath when they would do this “work.” It is not that every child that was born was circumcised on the Sabbath, but a number of them would be. I guess we could say it would be one (child) in seven (children), as it would work out over time, so on average one out of seven births would result in the eighth day falling on a Sabbath, so would they wait until the ninth day, a Sunday? No – they did not wait, because it was very clear language, as God spelled it out in 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.

They were deathly afraid of that last verse applying to their children, so when the eighth day came, whether it was a Sabbath or any other day of the week, and they would perform the rite of circumcision. So they circumcised a good number of male babies on the Sabbath, and that is what Jesus was referring to, “You circumcise your children to keep the Law of Moses, and should I not do this miracle of healing on the Sabbath?” He healed the man physically, which is a picture of salvation. Should He not have made a man every wit whole? And, of course, there could not be a response, as they would have to recognize the correctness of the thing He had done.