Doesn't every Male senior citizen excitedly want to cut off some tender skin with a sharp knife?
What could possibly go wrong?
As believers in the Messiah of Israel, many of us have told God we're willing to be used by Him and do whatever He wants. However, how many times have we turned back when it gets painful?
You don't have to be male to Get the point (Jewish pun intended).
Being obedient to be pruned--and to prune yourself in areas God doesn't want you to have that actually contribute to a simple God-given pleasure of life--even when it is NOT a sin thing? Ouch.
That's tough, right?
About 4,000 years ago, 99-year-old Abraham circumcised himself. Being different was his thing, opening his tent to feed strangers and travelers of all sorts, and teaching them about God. When asked to cut he complied without question. Even his large household (think Estate + Cattle Ranch + Farmers, with many servents and Soldiers) who all willingly consented. What did they witness that none held back their immediate obedience to God's Word spoken through Abraham!?
We are children of Abraham by/through/with faith? Maybe the circumcision of Hearts should be more painful than the other kind of circumsizion?
God told Abraham's physical inheritors that He preferred obedience rather than sacrifice.
Sometimes obedience is the sacrifice.
How hard can it be if Abraham did it? He was obedient to go through BOTH forms of circumsizion: Circumcision of Heart (remember that Isaac incident?), AND circumcision of body.
Why did he do both? Obedience.
So he could be our Father of many nations of Faith in the One True God.
- Tov Rose
5am meditation on Psalm 19's perspective for a believer after a whole night of no sleep.
P. S.
This is a key important fact overlooked by most:
"For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’"
Jeremiah 7:22-23 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jer.7.22-23.ESV
This is an overarching theme thought the Hebrew Bible and addressed in the prayer of Jesus.
Example:
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/hos.6.6.ESV
From the prayer of Jesus:
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
John 17:6-10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.17.6-10.ESV
