Pruned Without Hands

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you,

And I will multiply you exceedingly.

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you,

And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

“No longer shall your name be called Abram,

But your name shall be Abraham (“father of a multitude”),

For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful,

— Genesis 17:2, 4-6

This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.

— Genesis 17:10

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“And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

— Colossians 2:11

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”

— John 12:24-25

“Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”

— John 15:2

Reflection:

Abram was 99 years old. He already sinned against the promise of the Lord by “listening to the voice” of his wife Sarah - in which she counseled Abe to father a child for Sarah THROUGH her maidservant Hagar - instead of waiting on the Lord’s promise to come to fruition in His time. This sin of Abe recaps the sin of Adam in the Garden when he too “listened to the voice of his wife” rather than to the voice of God. It is the sin of taking matters into our own hands when God’s commands and promises seem too distant and too difficult. Ultimately, this sin amounts to the subjugation of God under OUR rule. This is a big deal even though on the surface it seems like “common sense”.

But God had mercy on Abe and Abe’s new offspring Ismael “according to the flesh.” However, Abe’s sin did have repercussions right down to our day. Hence the ongoing battle in the Middle East for land and seed. As the Scripture’s say:

“God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

— Galatians 6:7

Abe reaped “emotional pain” after his sin when He had to “drive out” the maidservant and Ismael from his presence, and the new family which the Lord had established for him with Sarah and Isaac.

“The matter distressed Abraham greatly.”

— Genesis 21:11

Moving on….

God’s promises came to fruition as He said they would. He brought Life from the “dead womb” of Sarah and “old seed” of Abe. After this amazing event, Abe would no longer doubt the voice of God in matters above him. (Hence his willingness to sacrifice the son of promise when God told him to do so.) God made a promise that Abe’s seed - through Isaac - would become as numerous as the stars of the heavens and as the dust of the earth (i.e. become a kingdom). So, if Abe sacrificed Isaac and offered him up to the Lord God as a whole burnt offering, then in order for God’s promise to be fulfilled, He would have to resurrect Isaac from the dead, because Abe knew, When God promises something, it WILL come to pass, as he clearly saw happen when Isaac was miraculously born. Abe WILL have seed that will go on into the future.

And this brings us to God’s covenant of circumcision which He established with Abe. Connected to this “sign” of the Covenant is the promise that Abe’s seed will “multiply exceedingly” and be “exceedingly fruitful”.

The first thing to notice in the context is how “cutting the flesh” refers to “fruitfulness.” In this way, circumcision is like pruning a branch so it will become MORE fruitful. Abe’s “branch” will be “cut” in order to bear fruit; “some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” (Matthew 13:8)

We see this connection with circumcision and fruitfulness in the Lord’s prohibition concerning the eating of “uncircumcised” fruit from the trees they plant after they enter the promised land:

‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as “uncircumcised” (forbidden.) Three years it shall be “uncircumcised” (forbidden) to you; it shall not be eaten.”

— Leviticus 19:23

To be uncircumcised then, is to be wild, undomesticated and un-pruned by the hand of God - - like the pagans.

An interesting aside here is that when circumcision was practiced among pagan nations, it was a puberty rite which marked the “virility and strength” of the flesh. It NEVER involved the “pruning” of the flesh of a weak, helpless and vulnerable 8 day old infant.

Peter Leithart observes:

“Circumcision is a sign of “descent” (to Israel) only when we think of descent in a paradoxical way: the children of Abraham were marked by a sign of distrust in flesh, a signifier of flesh’s impotence. At the same time the circumcised renounce flesh, they are entrusted to the life-giving God. The mark in the flesh is an absence—an absence of the normal power of procreation. From Abraham on, the most productive, the most fertile, are those without powers of flesh, those who cut off whatever powers of flesh they might possess, and are fruitful by the power of the Spirit, who gives fruit. To drive home the point, this mark of flesh’s impotence was imposed on the already-impotent, on eight-day-old boys. Jesus was repeating something his Father taught him when he pointed to little children as model disciples.” - Delivered From The Elements Of The World)

In other words….

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

— Zechariah 4:6

Circumcising an infant pointed to a distrust in the “powers” of mankind to work out deliverance and salvation.

“Thus says the LORD,

“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes flesh his strength,

And whose heart turns away from the LORD.”

— Jeremiah 17:5

Salvation is of the Lord.

“You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the LORD is with you.”

— 2 Chronicles 20:17

“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

— Matthew 18:3

This is what the “sign” of the Covenant - performed on 8 day old infants - meant when the Lord God gave it to Abe. The “father of a multitude” will increase NOT by his own procreative or technological powers, but by the Word of the Living God.

“For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants…., to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”

— Romans 4:16-17

The God who calls into being that which does not exist….

“Let there be Light!”

Is the same God who calls into being the “justified” who believe in His Son Jesus who was “cut off” in the flesh for our sins, and was resurrected to bear fruit into eternity;

“for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”

— 1 Peter 1:23

In Christ, through His Gospel, we “die” as grains of wheat planted in the ground, “pruned” to bear fruit on “the Vine”, “hating” our lives so that we may gain them in Him - - through in the “circumcision made without hands.”