What do we learn about God from the Sign of the Convenant with Abraham?

[Sir_Knight]

Can someone please answer that in a sentence or two on a elementary school level? Thank you in advance.

 

[Robbinson]

Can someone please answer that in a sentence or two on a elementary school level? Thank you in advance.

That God wants us to be part of his family - that is what “covenant” means - that he loves us as children and we are his. Circumcision for the Jews was a sign/symbol of this covenant relationship, just a Baptism is a symbol of the new Covenant after the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

Blessings,

Brian

 

[stbruno]

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000223_abraham_en.html

Here’s a whole homily from Pope JP II

on the covenant.

 

[Sam_Maloney]

I think we learn mostly that God was interested in protecting the health of His chosen people. Given the hygene of the day, circumcision-- like Jewish dietary law-- was a good thing.

But bear in mind that circumcision as originally practiced was far less radical than what is done today.

And that it has been forbidden for Catholic men since the early 1400s-- see here:
fisheaters.com/circumcision.html

 

[Sir_Knight]

That God wants us to be part of his family - that is what “covenant” means - that he loves us as children and we are his. Circumcision for the Jews was a sign/symbol of this covenant relationship, just a Baptism is a symbol of the new Covenant after the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

Blessings,

Brian

I think we learn mostly that God was interested in protecting the health of His chosen people. Given the hygene of the day, circumcision-- like Jewish dietary law-- was a good thing.

But bear in mind that circumcision as originally practiced was far less radical than what is done today.

And that it has been forbidden for Catholic men since the early 1400s-- see here:
fisheaters.com/circumcision.html

That would true for the Convenant with Moses but I was asking about the Convenant with Abraham.

 

[Robbinson]

That would true for the Convenant with Moses but I was asking about the Convenant with Abraham.

Sir Knight, I believe you are mistaken. Circumcision is part of the covenant with Abraham (not Moses). It was Abraham who was commanded by God to circumize himself and his descendants as a sign of the “covenant” with God. This predates the mosaic law.

Blessings,

Brian

 

[Among_Strangers]

I liked this article on this topic.

God’s Covenant with Abraham by David Brewer

Some snippetts:

What promises were included in the covenant God made with Abraham? Here is a list:

1. 
   *]A great nation was to come out of Abraham, namely, the nation of Israel (Genesis 12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 17:1-2, 7; 22:17b)

1. 
   

   *]Abraham was promised a land – specifically, the Land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1, 7; 13:14-15, 17; 15:17-21; 17:8). Later we learn that the privilege of Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people, for living in their land under God’s blessing is conditioned upon their obedience (see, for example, Deuteronomy 28-29). But whether the Jews are physically residing inside or outside of the land, or whether anyone else may control it by conquest or any other means, the land belongs to the Jewish people by divine right.

   *]Abraham himself was to be greatly blessed (12:2b; 15:6; 22:15-17a)

   *]Abraham’s name would be great (12:2c)

   *]Abraham will be a blessing to others (12:2d)

   *]Those who bless will be blessed (12:3a)

   *]The one who curses will be cursed (12:3b) – again and again this principle is operative in the prophets as they pronounce judgment on the nations surrounding Israel for the treatment of His chosen people.

   *]In Abraham all the earth will ultimately be blessed, a promise of Gentile blessing (12:3c; 22:18)

   *]Abraham would receive a son through his wife Sarah (15:1-4; 17:16-21)

   *]His descendants would undergo the Egyptian bondage (15:13-14)

   *]Other nations as well as Israel would come forth from Abraham (17:3-4, 6; the Arab states are some of these nations)

   *]His name was to be changed from Abram to Abraham (17:5)

   *]Sarai’s name was to be changed to Sarah (17:15)

   *]There was to be a token/sign of the covenant – circumcision (17:9-14).

   and on the Promises of God to Abraham:
   

   Individual – Abraham is promised that he would be the father of a great nation including kings and nations other than the “seed itself” (Genesis17:6). God promises His personal blessing on Abraham. His name will be great and he himself will be a blessing.

   National – The nation itself should be great (Genesis 12:2) and innumerable (Genesis 13:16; 15:5). The nation is promised possession of the land . . . the Abrahamic Covenant itself is expressly called “everlasting” (Genesis 17:7) and the possession of the land is defined as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8).

   Universal – “all families of the earth” are promised blessing (Genesis 12:3).

   Circumcision is not the covenant but a sign to show that one is in covenant. I find that rather theologically interesting.

 

[DianJo]

Something else to consider as well…speaking of Covenants

When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, this was a prefigurment of Passover (the next covenant that God would make with His people) - God’s people being set free from bondage in Egypt. God would command them to sacrifice a perfect Lamb (Abraham was given a ram to sacrifice in Issac’s place) and to put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintels so the angel of death would “passover” them - they would not die.
Abraham sacrificing Issac took place on Mt. Moriah which is the same mountian that the Temple of Jerusalem would built on.
Interesting…

This, in turn, would prefigure Christ’s sacrifice - God sending His only Son to be sacrificed so His people would not die (from their sins. The angel of death would “passover” them). Jesus’ blood, the blood of the perfect Lamb would be on the wood of the cross (doorposts and lintle) which is given to us in the Eucharist - the New (and final) Covenant.

It was all a teaching lesson from the very beginning with Abraham. He brought us step by step to the final, perfect Covenant.

 

[Valke2]

I think we learn mostly that God was interested in protecting the health of His chosen people. Given the hygene of the day, circumcision-- like Jewish dietary law-- was a good thing.

But bear in mind that circumcision as originally practiced was far less radical than what is done today.

And that it has been forbidden for Catholic men since the early 1400s-- see here:
fisheaters.com/circumcision.html

I would think that circumcision was far more dangerous in the time of Abraham. There’s nothing biblical to support the belief that it was a health issue.

 

[Sam_Maloney]

I would think that circumcision was far more dangerous in the time of Abraham. There’s nothing biblical to support the belief that it was a health issue.

Ann Landers once got in hot water for pointing out that the OT injunction against pork and shellfish was probably a positive thing from a health perspective.

A reader pointed out that this was [at most] a secondary consideration; the Law was followed because God requested it, period.

Same is true of circumcision: God asked it, and that was enough. While there is no recognized health benefit today, given the lack of soap and water in that desert country, it could have been a net positive then.

Yes, it would have been more dangerous then, but-- at the beginning-- it wasn’t such a radical surgery as it has become.

 

[Nita]

This isn’t really an answer to your question, but I found it interesting. It’s from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

newadvent.org/cathen/03777a.htm

St. Thomas holds that circumcision was a figure of baptism: this retrenches and restrains the animal man as that removed a part of his body – which physical act indicated the spiritual effect of the sacrament (De Sac., Summa, III, Q. lxx, a. 1). He gives three reasons why the organ of generation rather than any other was to be circumcised:
· Abraham was to be blessed in his seed;
· The rite was to take away original sin, which comes by generation;
· It was to restrain concupiscence, which is found especially in the generative
organs (III, Q. lxx, a. 3).