Reflection for Lekh-Lekha
“Faith Righteousness and Circumcision Status”
Acts 7:1-8
Romans 3:19-5:6
Galatians 3:15-18; 5:1-6
Colossians 2:11-15
Hebrews 7:1-19, 11:8-12
excerpted from TorahScope Apostolic Scriptures Reflections
By the time many people reach Lekh-Lekha (Genesis 12:1-17:27), there is a natural tendency to focus on how the blessings bestowed upon those who bless Abraham, and by extension the Jewish people, affect us today. Genesis 12:1-3 are verses commonly quoted by Christians who encourage support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and how God will show favor to those who help His chosen people:
“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you’” (Genesis 12:1-3, WMB).
Certainly, we as a Messianic ministry encourage support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and would by no means suggest that Genesis 12:1-3 does not imply this. Yet, we should not consider Genesis 12:1-3 as only encouraging support of the Jewish people and standing against anti-Semitism—because these words were originally and primarily given to bless Abraham himself, and then how his descendants would bless the entire world. Lekh-Lekha gives us some important background information about the faith of Abraham reckoning him in a righteous, covenantal relationship with God—which is significantly appealed to in the Apostolic Scriptures. Abraham had to place his total trust in the unseen God, that His promises to make him great would come to pass:
“Behold, the LORD’s word came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.’ The LORD brought him outside, and said, ‘Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ He said to Abram, ‘So your offspring will be.’ He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:4-6, WMB).
Here, as Abraham dialogued with God about the future of his physical heirs, he was told about the multitude of descendants who would come forth from his own body. Abraham’s servant Eliezer (Genesis 15:2), at that time, was positioned to be heir to his wealth—although it was going to change. In this awesome moment, after surveying the night sky and trying to count the stars as representing his future progeny, Abram believed what was communicated, and consequently his faith in the words of God to him was regarded as righteousness. Abraham’s example of total trust and confidence in the Creator, has been widely considered to be the model of faith every person since should strive to follow. Only by such belief in God can our sins be forgiven, and can we be considered a part of His people.
Additionally in our Torah reading this week, the sign of circumcision is described. As the parashah comes to a close in Genesis 17, after the circumstances of the birth of Ishmael by the handmaiden Hagar, the renaming of Abram to Abraham, and the announcement of the birth of Isaac through the renamed Sarah are all detailed—the males in Abraham’s company were circumcised:
“God said, ‘No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.’ When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money: every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised. All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him” (Genesis 17:19-27, WMB).
In the First Century C.E., the Apostle Paul made some serious references to the life example of Abraham, detailing how he was considered righteous before God prior to his circumcision. Understanding the faithful trust of Abraham in God, and how he was considered righteous, is imperative for anyone who now partakes of salvation in Messiah Yeshua. In Romans 4, Paul stated how the Patriarch Abraham was considered righteous while uncircumcised, and that circumcision undertaken later, simply served as a physical reminder of his covenant relationship with God. Similarly, for any of the Jewish Believers in Rome to think that circumcision status was primary to belief/faith status, perhaps looking down on their non-Jewish brothers and sisters in Messiah, would be going against ancient Biblical precedents:
“What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness [Genesis 15:6].’ Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin [Psalm 32:1-2].’ Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness [Genesis 15:6]. How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:1-16, WMB).
It should be forever understood that belief in God, and now in His Messiah, precedes any form of outward works. The non-Jewish Believers in the First Century were not to be reckoned “righteous” on the basis of their circumcision status—but on the basis of their faith status in the Son of God. In his previous writing to the Galatians, Paul had to remind his audience that if human agreements cannot be easily modified or changed, how then could those disturbing them change God’s original promises made to Abraham? The formal giving of the Torah to Israel, later on at Mount Sinai, was not in contradiction to the Abrahamic promise—but the God-promised inheritance to His people was incumbent upon how the Abrahamic promise had now manifested itself in the arrival of the Messiah. This was something completely unconditional:
“Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void or adds to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, ‘To descendants’, as of many, but as of one, ‘To your offspring’, which is Messiah. Now I say this: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Messiah, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise” (Galatians 3:15-18, WMB).
In the Galatians’ case, they were being improperly influenced that in order to be reckoned as members of God’s covenant people, they had to immediately undergo ritual proselyte circumcision, which would in turn probably lead to them relying on the Torah as a means for salvation rather than Yeshua. Faith in God and His Messiah were placed secondary to circumcision and being a good proselyte:
“Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Messiah will profit you nothing. Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Messiah, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Messiah Yeshua neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:2-6, WMB).
These were not words which were anti-Torah, but they did place the Torah as secondary to the salvation one is to possess in the Messiah Yeshua. Faith in Yeshua manifesting itself through love, is to be the motivation to obey its commandments (Matthew 5:16ff)! The Galatians, on the contrary, had been led astray so as to think that one’s circumcision status was superior to faith status.
Of course, the Biblical concept of being circumcised in the flesh, is to symbolically represent what the transformation of a circumcised heart entails. In his later letter to the Colossians, Paul used circumcision to describe details of how belief in the sacrificial work of Yeshua actually brought one a circumcised heart—and nullified the condemnation of the Torah pronounced upon sinners. In the Colossians’ unique case, Yeshua’s work also vindicated His total superiority over any of the angelic or cosmic powers they may have thought to entreat (cf. Colossians 2:18ff). Paul taught,
“In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Messiah, having been buried with him in immersion, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:11-15, WMB).
While the Apostolic Scriptures tend to emphasize the necessity of faith in Yeshua before having works, only a selective reading of verses could cause one to think that Believers are not to have works! The author of Hebrews considered Abraham one of the most important examples of faith to consider, as he clearly had to believe in God, to then respond in appropriate obedience to Him via his deeds. Not only was Abraham lauded, but the partnership he had with his wife Sarah was also emphasized:
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore [Genesis 15:5], were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead” (Hebrews 11:8-12, WMB).
These kinds of faith lessons are critical for us to understand God’s revelation to us in the Scriptures! The words of the Apostles bring clarity to our lives, as we seek to properly balance the role of faith in God, and how all things are secondary to the completed work of Yeshua at Golgotha.
I pray that our faith in the Lord may grow even greater—as we each embrace Yeshua’s prophecy delivered to the Disciples gathered at the Last Supper:
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father” (John 14:10-12, WMB).
The required works, which the Father asks of us, can only be performed by the inauguration of the New Covenant in our lives (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 36:26-27), as the Holy Spirit writes His commandments on our hearts. But first, as has been the case since Abraham—we must have faith!
