Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who have not been circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. (NIV)

Circumcision, wow, totally normal thing to talk and write about, right? Okay, let’s dive in.

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If you’re new to the faith you may not know that circumcision was a sign to the early Hebrews of what is called the Abrahamic covenant. In Genesis, God had revealed himself to Adam and Noah; now he makes a covenant with Abraham. Abraham was the beginning of the Jewish nation. The covenant was a sacred promise between God and Abraham that is recorded in Genesis 12, 15 and 17.  

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In this covenant God promises many things to Abraham and the generations of his family after him. These promises included land, descendants, and blessings to ALL people on Earth. As a sign of the covenant, God commanded Abraham, all his male descendants, and his male servants brought into his household, to be circumcised. This covenant was foundational in the Jewish faith and all true Jews were circumcised. You couldn’t be a good law-abiding male Jew without being circumcised, you were as surely cut off from God as your neighbor's ...well, foreskin!

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Years later when Jesus fulfilled the law, Christians from every walk of life, Jew and Gentile, debated about this law of circumcision. Some argued that to truly be pleasing to God a man must be circumcised; others said this law was representative of the burden of the whole law. If someone took it upon himself, he was also saddling himself with the Jewish law, with its rule keeping and sacrificial system. They argued about the best way to be obedient to God.

What does God want anyway? How do we please him? Thankfully, he’s not at all silent on the matter!

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Turns out, it has nothing to do with physical circumcision, but a circumcision of the heart! This is what God has wanted since the beginning.

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Back in Deuteronomy chapter 10 (The same chapter in which the 10 Commandments are given to God’s people through Moses), Moses speaks to the people saying, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (vs. 16, emphasis mine).

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Both God and Moses wanted the people to follow the commands being presented that day; circumcising their hearts was the vehicle to get them there. By removing anything between God and my tender heart, I become intimate and vulnerable with him, I want what he wants. When I “cut out” the junk, the barriers, I’m more receptive and connected to God’s heart. The Message translation puts the same verse like this: “So, cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being willfully hardheaded.”  

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He knows me so well.

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Later in Scripture, in the book of Jeremiah, we read: “’The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh - Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab’ (Jews were not the only people that practiced circumcision in ancient times.) ‘and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart’” (Jer. 9:25-26, emphasis mine).

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Remember, these are Old Testament scriptures, before Jesus came with his message of God’s love available to all people, not just the circumcised Jew. But there was already a problem: physical circumcision had failed to affect the heart, and so obedience was mechanical and legalistic. It didn’t flow from a soft heart that loved and longed to do the will of the Father. Instead, it came from a place of pride. God was already warning us back then of our condition, our inability to please him without the sacrifice of Jesus, the coming of the Spirit, and the transformation of a heart of stone to a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).  

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How about us? Are we doing things with the wrong motivations, from a heart of pride or a soft tender heart for his agenda? Do we miss our quiet time with God and feel guilty, or do we regret not being close to him and hearing his voice? Do we pray a list, words from rote memory or pour out our heart and soul, not wanting to pass up the chance to have an exchange with the One who made us, who knows us intimately and is available day and night? Do we pass the dirty crying woman on the street, not wanting to get caught up in the drama (It’s probably a scam anyway), or do we tenderly come beside her, ready to see what God has in store for us both?

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I know I have missed opportunities God meant for me to enter into. Hopefully, as I listen and my heart of flesh becomes more sensitive to his leading, I’ll miss opportunities less!  

El Roi, I know that you see my heart. I know that I am not a mystery to you. All things are laid bare before you. I thank you for taking my hard heart and exchanging it for a soft heart that is sensitive to your voice. I pray that I keep the sensitivity of a freshly circumcised heart. I ask you to give me strength and a faith that expresses itself through love (Gal. 5:3). Remind us, Lord, that there is no longer a divide; we are all one in Christ. He is in us all, by the Spirit (Col. 3:11, Rom. 29). We’re all called to bear with one another, forgive one another, love one another – in perfect unity from a circumcised heart.