Genesis 17

This is somewhat long, I realize, but after someone explained a few concepts to me, a lot of things started to make more sense in scripture. For that reason I'd like to share some of this with you, especially if you're reading through for the first time.

God said that circumcision was a token of the covenant between Abraham and his progeny and God. It was a physical token signifying a spiritual truth, and God was very serious, even saying that the soul of someone out of compliance would be 'cut off'. That sounds like 'perish', doesn't it? Not good.


Gen 17:10-14
(10) This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised.
(11) And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be a token of the covenant between Me and you.
(12) And a son of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male in your generation, he that is born in the house, or bought with silver from any son of a foreigner who is not of your seed.
(13) The child of your house and the purchase of your money circumcising must be circumcised. And My covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.
(14) And an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, his soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.

Gen 17:23
(23) And Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all the ones born of his house, and all that were bought with his silver, every male among the men of the house of Abraham. And he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins in that same day, even as God spoke to him.

So, also taking God's word seriously, Abraham takes control of everyone in his household. There was no free will regarding the subject. Even Ishmael, the son that was left out of the birthright, was forced to comply.

We might identify with a covenant token by looking at the one we are most familiar with: the wedding ring. The wedding ring is a token of our covenant with our spouse. If we take this token as seriously as God would, we would never take the ring off.

So what is the deal with circumcision, anyways? Why is it such a big deal? Why did God choose 'that', of all things, as a token of His covenant?

It has to do with seed. If we do a search of scripture for the word 'seed', it returns 243 verses. We all know where the seed of man comes from. It is undeniably MALE. The bloodline is passed through the genetics of the father, not the mother. Look at the promises God made to Abraham:

Gen 13:16
(16) And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your seed also will be counted.

Gen 15:5
(5) And He brought him outside and said, Look now at the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So shall your seed be.

Gen 15:18
(18) On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,


So we can begin to understand that God places a lot of importance on the bloodline. He also places tremendous importance on the purity of that bloodline. Why? Because redemption comes from that bloodline. The Messiah would come from a pure bloodline. That is why the enemy tried from the very beginning to start corrupting the 'seed' of men.

Gen 6:1-2
(1) And it came about that men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them.
(2) The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were good, and they took wives for themselves from all those whom they chose.

So the enemy starts in the beginning to corrupt the seed of men - the bloodline - from which came a race of giants:
Gen 6:4
(4) The giants were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore to them; they were heroes which existed from ancient time, the men of name.

Satan almost succeeded, because God shortly thereafter destroyed all on earth that had the breath of life. All except Noah. Why Noah? Just because he was righteous? Not 'only' because he was righteous, but because:
Gen 6:9
(9) These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

..he was perfect in his generations. That means... his 'seed' was still pure and uncompromised by angelic lineage. (That meaning is lost in many modern translations.)

God, then, takes purity of the seed VERY seriously, and He ordained that we live our lives to fit that pattern:

Deu 22:9
(9) You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seeds, that the fruit of your seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard not be defiled.

Lev 21:14-15
(14) He shall not take a widow, or one put away, or a polluted one, a harlot, but he shall take a virgin of his own people for a wife;
(15) and he shall not pollute his seed among his people; for I am Jehovah who sanctifies him.

Above, we see that a harlot is one that accepts 'any' seed. Brutally clear, now, why some things are abominations to God.

So... God says this to Satan:

Gen 3:15
(15) And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

It's a hint of the virgin birth (women don't have seed, do they?) and Seed is capitalized. Why? Because Messiah is the Seed that crushed the head of the enemy. From that point on, Satan declared war on the Seed of the woman, and the seed from which He would appear - Abraham's seed. Satan nearly succeeded with the flood, except for Noah. He nearly succeeded with Pharaoh drowning ever Hebrew boy-child, except Moses was miraculously spared. He nearly succeeded with Herod, killing every boy baby in Israel that he could find. But he totally failed, ultimately.

From the beginning, God has acted as a gardener. He planted a garden in 'Eden'. Jesus was mistaken for whom when Mary finds Him after the resurrection? A gardener.

He is the good seed. A seed must die, then it raises up and produces many times more that otherwise possible.

Joh 12:24
(24) Truly, truly, I say to you, If the grain of wheat that falls into the earth does not die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

This can only be divine - the mind of man cannot conceive such as this.

Blessings all!