Sign of the Covenant

In earlier posts, we have seen that all the earth is the Lord’s, especially the land he chooses as his sanctuary, that place where he causes his name to dwell. God desired his chosen people to dwell together with him in his sanctuary, the land of Israel. Things carried on for centuries through national apostasy, then revival, unrighteous kings and righteous kings, similar results with priests, judges, and even a bad prophet or two. 

What went wrong? Before we get to the exile, I want to explore the root cause behind what went wrong, in a phrase – “the human heart.” 
Ready… deep breath. Ok, let’s go!

Covenant Signs

Before land rights, exile, and eventual return, we need to take a short detour into covenant and covenant signs. Allow me to explain.

If you are married, you probably shared the day with loved ones, exchanged vows, and gave each other rings.  Now, years later, the memories of that day may have faded, and it’s hard to remember the vows, but every time you look at your left hand, you see the ring your spouse gave you.  It is a visual reminder that you belong to another person, that you are loyal to that person, and that you made a promise before God as well as family and friends. That ring on your left hand is not the wedding or the marriage, but it is a sign of both, a sign of your fidelity to your spouse.

In the scripture, covenants are often accompanied by signs.  One of the first times this is seen is after the great flood.  God made a covenant that he would never again destroy the earth by water, which was wonderful news.  But that promise was not without a sign, for God stated:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Genesis 9:12-15

It is beyond the scope of this article to explain the details of the covenant. For our purposes, we should know that a covenant will normally have a sign(s) attached.  We looked at the rainbow above, but we may also consider communion or water baptism as signs related to the New Covenant. These, too, are covenant signs of what Jesus has done for us, not the covenant itself, but reminders of the deeper reality of sacrifice that purchased our freedom.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Let us return to our main topic: a land grant for the patriarchs.  As we will see shortly, the promised land covenant was given by God to three separate generations. Even in the New Testament, Jesus confirmed that those covenantal promises were still in effect.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs…
Romans 15:8

If we linger briefly on Paul’s comment above, doesn’t it seem a bit odd to our Western and modern understanding?  Why does he link circumcision to the promises given to the patriarchs?  Circumcision was the sign of the covenant that all three patriarchs shared. We will see this below.

The point is that the covenant was established, and the male Israelites were to carry the sign of the covenant in their bodies. The sign had no magical power to enforce the covenant. Enforcement could only be accomplished by God, but it was a reminder to the people of the hope and promise they carried.

We will now back up to establish where these promises were established. Below are several scriptures that will walk us through the details with the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Try to pick out the covenant and its sign; we’ll discuss them at the end.

First to Abraham

And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
…
This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
Genesis 17:4-8; 11-12

Second to Isaac

God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
Genesis 17:19

The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 
Genesis 21:1-4

Finally, the promise comes to rest on Jacob

And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 
Genesis 28:12-15

Jacob, carrying the covenant sign of circumcision, is not as easy to locate as with Abraham and Isaac, but it is implied on two points.

1. Obviously, Jacob was a male offspring of Abraham, and circumcision was required to carry the land covenant promise. And we saw earlier what God said to Abram,

“This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”

• The second point comes from the tragic story when Shechem raped Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Jacob’s sons were rightfully furious, and they deceitfully agreed to give their sister in marriage to Shechem on the condition that their men became circumcised as was the family of Jacob. That didn’t turn out so well for Shechem’s comrades, but it does let us know that Jacob carried the sign of the covenant.

Thank you for tracking the covenant sign through the patriarchs with me.  Here are my key takeaways. 

• The land grant covenant was established with three generations of patriarchs.
• The covenant was established with a sign – circumcision (Gen. 17:9-11; 21:4; 34:15).  Recall that circumcision is not the covenant, but the sign of the covenant which the people were required to “keep.”  The Hebrew word for “keep” | šāmar, means to guard, watch for, wait, observe, treasure up, preserve, or celebrate. They were told to keep the sign, not the covenant.  Only God could keep the covenant.

Circumcision Of A Different Sort

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 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.
Deuteronomy 10:12 – 16

Let’s revisit our rainbow and wedding examples from earlier.

If God decided to destroy the world again through a worldwide deluge, but he still kept the rainbow (sign of his promise) in the sky, could we not rightly charge him with breach of covenant? By the same token, when a husband commits adultery but continues to wear his ring (sign of fidelity), is he not in breach just the same? This is the very reason why God speaks of “circumcision of the heart.” The covenant sign must become internalized or written on our hearts. Consider the following two scriptures.

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 30:1 – 10

For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
Jeremiah 4:4

Can we see that it was never merely outward, external compliance or keeping of the law?  God always desired our love, our affection, and our longing for his nearness in our hearts and souls. 

This gets to the issue of why Israel had to be exiled from the land.  They were graciously provided with the promised land and carried in their bodies the “sign of the covenant,” but it was only a sign.  The love, loyalty, devotion, and passion for his glory had vanished, and the people worshipped and served other gods.

Oh, how tragic their condition was… this is the heart of Paul in Romans 9.

I am speaking the truth in Christ–I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit–that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.  They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Often, Biblical writers lament that the people’s hearts wander; they are far from God, and serve him with external compliance and lip service. This sentiment is echoed in both the Old and New Testaments. We do well to heed its advice lest we experience our own exile. 

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Mathew 15:8-9

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…
Isaiah 29:13

Conclusion

God always desired a people with whom he could dwell. People who would love him, desire his presence, and walk in his ways. These were never intended to be merely external observations but a lifestyle that flowed from a heart of devotion to the Creator. How we live as believers is an expression of what we believe, a circumcision of the heart. As we learned in this post, our behavior is the sign of the covenant, a sign of the new life we have in Christ, not the covenant itself, but the sign that we carry his finished work in our lives.    

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For Further Study

• Genesis 12:1; 12:7
• Genesis 13:13-16
• Genesis 15:5-6
• Genesis 17:21
• Genesis 22:14-18
• Genesis 26:1-4