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shall be thine heir" (verse 4). This somewhat strange term is used of both parents, as may
be seen by referring to Gen. 25: 23 and Ruth 1: 11. The words were repeated by the
Lord when He made His covenant with David: "And when thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out
of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom" (II Sam. 7: 12).
The more the fact is faced that Isaac, the promised seed was to be in reality the son of
Abraham, the more we shall realize the meaning of circumcision. In Gen. 17: the
covenant of circumcision is introduced (verses 10-14), and this is followed immediately
by the promise that Sarah should bear Abraham a son:--
"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 God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his
name Isaac (that is, laughter)" (Gen. 17: 17-19).
This was the laugh of faith, for Rom. 4: says of Abraham that,
"Without being weakened in faith (for he considered not his own body, now as good
as dead--he being about an hundred years old--and the deadness of Sarah's womb)
looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief" (Rom. 4: 19, 20).
Abraham's age--"being about an hundred years old"--fixes this passage in relation to
Gen. 17:, where Abraham went through the rite of circumcision. He was not only very
conscious that his own body was "as good as dead", but we realize that circumcision set
that fact forth. If Isaac was to be born, he must be a child of promise and not of the
flesh--and this he was.
Rightly understood, therefore, circumcision to the Israelite should have been a witness
to the deadness and repudiation of the flesh, and the necessity for complete trust in the
Lord. Instead, the very rite that symbolized this was distorted into meaning the very
opposite, and became a ground of false boasting and of "a fair shew in the flesh".
We cannot speak more plainly here. We believe all will see the lesson intended by
this close association of circumcision, birth, resurrection, and promise, as over against the
power and will of the flesh, law and works.
When Jacob's name was changed to Israel, it was accompanied by the shrinking of the
sinew of his thigh. Triumphant Israel ever afterwards halted upon his thigh, and his
descendants always avoided "the sinew that shrank" in their diet (Gen. 32: 32). Just as
Israel's spiritual triumph was accompanied by the touching of the hollow of his thigh, so
the changing of Abraham's name took place at the very time that circumcision--the
repudiation of the flesh--was introduced (Gen. 17:).
Moreover, there is a parallel between Gen. 15: and 17: After God had made the
promise to Abraham, and Abraham had believed, the Lord confirmed the promise by
passing between the divided carcasses of the sacrifices. During this time Abraham was
in a deep sleep, plainly indicating that he had nothing to do or promise for himself. So,