Ep. 9. Genesis 16-17 | Hagar and Ishmael
EPISODE 9
HAGAR AND ISHMAEL/ CIRCUMCISION: Genesis 16-17
It should not come as a surprise that this next section of Scripture is foundational for many of the things we will come to understand in the New Testament. If we don't view these stories in light of the NT's profound spiritual truths, we will miss their depth and beauty. God promised Abraham a son, and though Abraham believed God, he thought he should help a little. After all, Abraham and Sarah were apparently unable to bear children. So Abraham slept with his wife's servant and bore a son through her. Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years old. Ishmael was not the son God promised but was the result of Abraham's work and effort. Later in the Scripture, Ishmael will be called the "son of flesh." In this context, the "son of flesh" is set as a juxtaposition to the "son of promise" (or the work of God). So then we will see that the "flesh" is analogous to our work, and "promise" is analogous to God's work. There is much more to say on this matter, and we will do so soon.
One of the more essential things in this section is the discussion on circumcision. Again, this is prior to the Law of Moses by more than 500 years. God establishes his covenant with Abraham through the sign of circumcision. However, in a similar fashion to what we found, not everyone who descended from Abraham was counted as a child of Abraham, so here we see that being circumcised, in the body only, did not actually make you a member of the covenant of God. Some people argue that what circumcision was in the Old Testament, baptism is in the New. The Scripture never makes such a claim, and furthermore, I think the emphasis is once again put on the physical and tangible rather than the spiritual. Even in the Old Testament, God was less concerned with physical circumcision than he was with spiritual circumcision. When Moses was giving final instructions to the Israelites, he said to them, "Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples as you are this day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." Or later, "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Jeremiah speaks of God's judgment falling on those who are only circumcised in their bodies. Colossians 2 and Romans 4 clarify that God has always been interested in the heart. It wasn't ever about the body but about the heart. If circumcision in the OT is analogous to baptism in the NT, it can't be simply the outward practice, for God is clear that he takes no delight in that. True circumcision and true baptism must then be issues of the heart if we are to associate the two practices together. Circumcision, as a sign, is the removal of those things that do not belong to God, and perhaps baptism is the washing away of those things that do not align themselves with the work of Jesus. We Western Christians are usually more enamored with the signs than we are with the life changes the signs are meant to indicate. I hope we will become more intentional readers of the Scripture and find ourselves more captivated by the spiritual work of God in our lives and in the world around us than we are by the physical practices of signs and wonders.
ADDITIONAL READING: Deuteronomy 10:15-16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 9:25-26; Colossians 2 (especially 11); Romans 4:10-12; Galatians 4
