Daily Devotion

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.


For the Foreseeable Future
God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, induding the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant"

God said to Abraham, "As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" - Genesis 17:9—17 NRSV

The symbol of God's relationship with Abraham and his descendants was a secret that only they could see. And only half his people carried it. Women were not circumcised. Were they not part of God's covenant? For them, the symbol of their connection to circumcision was secondary, made real in the marriage relationship when they became "one flesh." Their connection to the symbol also came from the fact that they were born of their fathers, related to their brothers, and mothers to their sons. The circumcised man would know he was circumcised. His father and mother and wife would know he was circumcised. No one else would ever see the circumcision. But it represented the connection between that person and his God. His life reflected the hidden symbol.

The symbol of our relationship with God is likewise hidden. More important than the symbol was the reality of a relationship with God, what God referred to as "circumcision of the heart," something that was true for both men and women. No one can see the interior circumcision either, except in the way it transforms a person. The evidence of a changed heart is demonstrated by how a life is lived.

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