Circumcision — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll be continuing our look at the institution of the covenant of circumcision, as we pick up in Genesis 17, verse 9. So let's follow along as Pastor Chuck Smith begins today's lesson.

The Covenant of Circumcision and Abraham's Descendants

God said to Abraham, and God now changes and no longer calls him Abram, but now to Abraham. And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

And this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from the stranger who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who was bought with your money must be circumcised.

My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.

So God established then this covenant with Abraham. And the covenant was to be marked by circumcision, which again signified not to live or walk after the flesh, the cutting off of the life of the flesh in order that you might live the life of the spirit.

And God said that if they would not have the right of circumcision, then they were to be cut off from being the people of God. In other words, you cannot be a man of God and walk after the flesh. If you are to be a man of God, it is only as you walk after the spirit that you are truly a man of God.

God's Promise to Sarah and the Birth of Isaac

So God established the covenant and God continued to talk to Abraham in verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah, the insertion of the H shall be her name.

And I will bless her and also, notice now, give you a son by her. Ninety-nine years old, his body now dead. And Sarah, having passed through the time of childbearing, and she shall be a mother of nations.

Actually from Sarah, of course, Isaac was born, from Isaac, Jacob and Esau. Esau became a nation, the Edomites, and also, of course, Israel from Jacob. Kings of peoples shall be from her. Then Abram fell on his face and laughed.

So Abram said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. Ishmael is now 13 years old. Abram is attached to him. He is Abraham's son. And God is now promising another heir through Sarah, but his attachment for Ishmael, he asked God that Ishmael might also live before the Lord.

And so God said, no, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac, which is laughter. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.

And as for Ishmael, the name means God hears and God said, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him. I will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget 12 princes and I will make him a great nation.

And so in a little ways about the 25th chapter, we'll read the descendants of Ishmael and out of them there are 12 princes. And so there are 12 tribes of Ishmael, even as there are 12 tribes of Israel.

But my covenant, yeah, all right, I'll go ahead and bless Ishmael too, but my covenant, I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. So now God is finally giving him a date this set time next year.

Then he finished talking with him and God went up from Abraham. So Abraham took Ishmael, his son and all who were born in his house, those who were bought with money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, they circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.

And Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael, his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised. And that very same day, Abraham was circumcised his son, Ishmael, and all of the men of the house born in the house bought with money.

They were circumcised with him. So they established then this covenant with God. We will be people who will live after the spirit. God, we will walk after the spirit. We will deny ourselves to follow you.

Abraham Welcomes the Three Visitors

Deny the flesh. Then the Lord appeared to him by the tabernacle trees of Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted up his eyes and he looked and behold, three men were standing by him.

Now, it doesn't say that they walked up or whatever. It probably is that they just suddenly appeared there. As he was sitting under the tree there in the heat of the day, probably in meditation, all suddenly there were three men standing there.

And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them. He evidently realized, hey, these are, you know, some special kind of guest. And he bowed himself to the ground. The word bowed there is actually worshipped in Hebrew.

And he said, my Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.

And after that you may pass by in as much as you have come to your servant. And they said, do as you have said. So he is showing to them unusual courtesy and hospitality. It is the Eastern custom, of course, to show hospitality as Abraham did to his guests.

So Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and he said, quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal. Knead it and make some cakes. And Abram ran out to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man and he hastened to prepare it.

So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared set it before them and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Now these are angels. Interestingly enough, they are eating, in case you wonder if angels eat.

They are able to take on the form of humans. They appeared to Abram as three men, but it would appear that they suddenly appeared. In the New Testament we are told that we should entertain strangers. You might be entertaining angels unawares and it probably comes back to this scripture.

Sarah's Laughter and the Question of God's Power

Then they said to him, where is Sarah your wife? And he said, here in the tent. And of course in those tents there was the compartment for the women and they had to stay in their side. There was the living room where the man would entertain the guest.

Where is Sarah your wife? He said, here in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.

So here she's eavesdropping on the whole thing. Now Abram and Sarah were old, well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Literally the manner of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So the menopause, she'd gone through it. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. Not out loud because she doesn't want to know she's standing right behind the flap there. But she laughed within herself saying, after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also?

And the Lord said to Abram, why did Sarah laugh saying, shall I surely bear a child since I am old? And now this tremendous question. Is anything too hard for God? You see, our problems usually stem from our limited concepts of God.

Because I'm prone to think of God in terms of myself, my concept of God is limited. It is not a right concept of God. And thus it is reflected even in my attitude of prayer and how I pray for certain things.

There are some things I have no problem praying for. You have a headache? Fine, pray for you, be glad too. You've got leukemia. Oh, wait a minute. Man, brother, I feel sorry for you. That's terrible. Well now, is it hard for God to heal of leukemia?

Is that a tough one for God? What am I doing? I'm carrying man's limitations over to God. Hey, he said, is there anything too hard for God? Here's Sarah laughing. And he says, why did Sarah laugh? Oh, I didn't laugh.

Yes, you did. But is there anything too hard for God? Ponder on that question. And as you really ponder on it, you will have to come to the conclusion, no, there is nothing too hard for God. Now, we need to remember that when we pray.

We need to pray with that consciousness. There is nothing too hard for God. You could even go one step further. There is nothing hard for God. Take out that word too. There's just nothing hard for God.

Paul, when he was praying, had asked God to do some pretty far out miraculous things for the Ephesians. And having concluded his prayer, when he had finished his prayer, he said, now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you may ask or even think.

Is anything too hard for God? Hey, he's able to do exceeding abundantly above anything you could ask or think. No, there is nothing too hard for God. That's the kind of God that we worship. That's the kind of God we serve.

That's the kind of God who reaches out to you. That he might have fellowship with you. That you through that fellowship might be enhanced and blessed. At the appointed time, he said, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it saying, I didn't laugh. For she was afraid. And he said, oh, but you did laugh. Then the men rose from there and they looked towards Sodom and Abraham went with it to send them on the way.

The Lord's Justice and the Judgment of Sodom

And the Lord, and interesting here, you have the name Yahweh or this tetragrammaton, the vowel or the consonants rather, the YHVH. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me.

And if not, I will know. So the Lord going down to Sodom to see the conditions that exist, the outcry that has come to God because of the unrighteousness, you know, there is an outcry to God made in unrighteousness.

There's something that cries out to God when horrible actions are committed. You remember God said to Cain, your brother's blood cried to me out of the ground. The outcry against that horrible deed of Cain.

Now the horrible deeds of unrighteousness in Sodom crying out to God, God going down. Of course, he knew exactly what was going on there, but he is now dealing with Abraham so that Abraham knows that God is just and righteous and going down, checking things out.

Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom. Now there were three men, but two of them were angels and one was the Lord himself. And so it was none other than Jesus Christ, the Yahweh of the Old Testament who was here talking to Abraham.

And that's the only conclusion you can come to. It is the word Yahweh is used and Abraham is talking to him as a man face to face. And we read in the New Testament, no man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten son who was in the bosom of the father, he hath begotten him.

So Jesus Christ is the Yahweh of the Old Testament. And the Lord is talking to Abraham and the men turned the two angels and they went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Let them go.

Abraham's Intercession for the Righteous

But hey, I'm going to deal with you on this thing. And Abraham is now standing before the Lord. And Abraham came near and he said, would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were 50 righteous within the city.

Would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked.

Far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Interesting, isn't it? This intercession of Abraham and the position from which he comes. You're the judge of all the earth, God. Would it be right?

Would it be fair that you would destroy the righteous people in the city along with the wicked? This is a extremely interesting proposition that Abraham is making to the Lord. And it has a lot to do with us today.

God is soon going to come and destroy the earth. We are fast approaching what is known as the scriptures as the great tribulation period, when God is going to judge the wicked. Now there are many Christians today who are taking the position that the church is going to be in the great tribulation.

But you are denying the justice of God, the righteousness of God. This very premise that Abraham was pressing, shall not the Lord of the earth do right? If there are 50 righteous people, will you spare it for the 50 righteous?

It wouldn't be fair that you would judge them with the wicked. Shouldn't the Lord of the earth be right? Shouldn't he be fair? And so the same is true in the consideration of God's judgment that's going to come in the great tribulation.

The Lord of the earth will be fair, and what will he do? Even as he removed righteous lot out of Sodom before he judged it, so will he remove the righteous ones in his church out of the earth before he judges it.

That's just in keeping with the very principle of the righteousness of the just God. So the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, I will spare all of the place for their sakes. You know, the sinners around you today are having a free ride.

It's because of you that God's judgment hasn't already come. Sinners are blessed because Christians are there. For 50 righteous, God would have spared Sodom. That's probably a very small percentage of the people if you looked at the total population.

And for 50, God would have spared it. How many times God's judgment would have fallen if it had not been for God's people being there? So Abram answered and said, indeed no. I who am but dust and ashes.

Look at Abram's opinion of himself. That's great. I like it. I'm but dust and ashes. I've taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose there were five less than the 50 righteous. Would you destroy it because of the lack of five?

I mean, you're just five short. Would you wipe it out just because you're five short? Abram, Abraham. This is really intercession for the city of Sodom. I've taken it upon myself to speak before the Lord.

And he begins now this dickering with God in a sense until he brings God down to ten. And when he finally gets down to ten, he said, but now look, Lord, what if there's just ten righteous? Wouldn't you spare it even for the ten?

And he's come down five at a time. So they've been through a process here. And so finally the Lord said to him, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. So the Lord went his way as soon as.

He had finished speaking with Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Genesis in our next lesson as we follow the two angels that went on to Sodom.

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That's right here on the edition of The Word for Today. Once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

May the Lord be with you now. May you experience the love and the power of God's Spirit upon your life in a beautiful way as you walk before Him, as you walk with Him, as you walk after the Lord, and as you walk in Christ, experiencing the power of God, enabling you to become all that God desires you to be.

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