Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
Circumcise the foreskin of the heart means purify the inner life by removing hardness of heart and ending all stubbornness and resistance in turning toward faithful obedience. That inward circumcision is to fear the Lord, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and serve Him with all the heart and with all the soul, and to keep His commandments and His statutes for good. It belongs to what the Lord required of Israel as the expression of His will, given for their good and to be remembered. It was spoken by Christ to Moses to distinguish between right and wrong, to be brought into actual life in education as a savor of life unto life that reforms character.
It was given where Israel renewed its covenant with the Lord. The demand is grounded in who God is and what He does, for He owns the heaven and the heaven of heavens and the earth with all that is in it, chose Israel above all people, regards not persons nor takes reward, executes judgment for the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger in giving him food and raiment. The setting further recalls His delight in the fathers and choice of their seed above all people, His greatness as God of gods and Lord of lords, His claim to fear and service and cleaving and praise for great and terrible things seen, and His multiplication of Israel from seventy persons who went down into Egypt to a multitude as the stars of heaven.
The call belongs to God's chosen people and applies to all who seek to serve Him, including those carrying sacred responsibilities. On these same terms it is the privilege of Christian churches today to receive every spiritual advantage in accordance with God's promises. The same covenant renewal is required now, by being truly converted every day as vessels unto honor in the last days when the earth is filled with violence as in Noah's day, because the Lord is in earnest.
Circumcise the foreskin of the heart means purify the inner life by removing hardness of heart and ending all stubbornness and resistance in turning toward faithful obedience. That inward circumcision is to fear the Lord, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and serve Him with all the heart and with all the soul, and to keep His commandments and His statutes for good. It belongs to what the Lord required of Israel as the expression of His will, given for their good and to be remembered. It was spoken by Christ to Moses to distinguish between right and wrong, to be brought into actual life in education as a savor of life unto life that reforms character.
It was given where Israel renewed its covenant with the Lord. The demand is grounded in who God is and what He does, for He owns the heaven and the heaven of heavens and the earth with all that is in it, chose Israel above all people, regards not persons nor takes reward, executes judgment for the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger in giving him food and raiment. The setting further recalls His delight in the fathers and choice of their seed above all people, His greatness as God of gods and Lord of lords, His claim to fear and service and cleaving and praise for great and terrible things seen, and His multiplication of Israel from seventy persons who went down into Egypt to a multitude as the stars of heaven.
The call belongs to God's chosen people and applies to all who seek to serve Him, including those carrying sacred responsibilities. On these same terms it is the privilege of Christian churches today to receive every spiritual advantage in accordance with God's promises. The same covenant renewal is required now, by being truly converted every day as vessels unto honor in the last days when the earth is filled with violence as in Noah's day, because the Lord is in earnest.