Now, about that circumcision thing...

Yeah, that's right.  It's a little uncomfortable, but, hey, it's a biblical topic!  Why in the world would God ask Abraham and all subsequent Israelites to do that?  I mean, couldn't he have just skipped to the New Testament's covenant sign of baptism?  What was God thinking?  Couldn't He have just made all the Jews wear colored sashes or something?

As it turns out, circumcision, though not uncommon in the ancient world (the Egyptians even did it), was a very suitable symbol of their covenant with God.  The English word means "to cut around", while the Hebrew word means, "to cut off."  As Gen. 17:11 says, "You are to cut off the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you."  So among the reasons for this rite is that it is a symbol or sign of being in Abraham's (and God's) family.

Abraham's following was likely growing following his war victory and rescue of Lot.  He certainly was wealthy, and even had his own army.  God then gave this covenant sign as a requirement to be part of Abraham's people.  No sloppy agape here.  If you were in, it was off; you had to deny yourself, and wear the sacrificial mark on your body. Talk about a stumbling block for conversion.  

It is ironic that one who is circumcised is "cut off" from the world, while one who refuses to be circumcised gets "cut off" from God's people (Gen. 17:14).  Abraham's faith and works went hand-in-hand.  Circumcision of the flesh is a work to be followed by faith. While circumcision of the heart is a faith to be demonstrated by works.

The New Testament would later explain that while Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation, he is also the father of many nations.  Those of us who demonstrate faith follow as children of Abraham, not necessarily circumcised in the flesh, but still circumcised in the heart.  Moses would later instruct the Israelites in this manner, saying, "Circumcise your hearts" (Deut. 10:16).  Just as Israel is to be separate from the nations, the New Covenant calls us to be separate from the world, grafted into Israel, circumcised in our hearts, and demonstrating our faith through works. 

This is why the apostle John would say, "Do not love the world or anything in the world" (1 Jn. 2:15).  We love what we are passionate about.  Our heart is the instrument of which we speak when discussing one kind of passion.  It figuratively needs to be cut off from the world.  But likewise is circumcision related to another intrument of passion.  In that sense, circumcision is the perfect picture that all of our desires must be yielded to God's glory.


 

The Crown of My Collection

In my collection of old Bibles and religious books is a very rare piece.  While I'm proud of such items as my 1850 Josephus, 1815 KJV NT, 1865 German NT, 1892 Hebrew Prayerbook, and 1804 Church history book, there's one very rare piece that I've learned is much older than I would have thought. 

About a year ago a friend was cleaning out his house and gave me what I thought was a page from an old King James Bible.  I have several 19th century pieces and assumed that it was about the same age.  As I inspected the type and the text, I noticed that it used the f instead of s, and I instead of J.  Then I realized that the translation didn't match the King James Version.  After a while of searching other translations, I discovered that it matched the Geneva Bible, also called the Breeches Bible (16th century).  Again, I assumed that it was a 19th century reproduction, until I discovered that until recently the last year it was printed was 1644.  In fact, it was only produced from 1560 to 1644.  After a call to a dealer in rare Bibles, it was confirmed that I had an original page from a Geneva Bible.

This is a great piece due to its historical significance.  The Geneva Bible was the first English study Bible, first to have numbered verses, first Bible brought to America, favorite Bible of the Pilgrims and Puritans, the Bible used by William Shakeseare, and the Bible of the Protestant Reformation.  It was the product of the Reformer community living in Geneva, as they had fled England due to persecution by Queen "Bloody" Mary.  The Geneva community was led by such men as John Calvin, John Knox, Myles Coverdale, and John Foxe.  It was a historic time and they produced a historic Bible.  Although it was a major effort, they kept about 90% of William Tyndale's version.  Tyndale fought for years to translate the Bible into English, and after doing so he was rewarded by being burned at the stake.  Tyndale's dying words in 1536 were, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."  Three years later, King Henry VIII finally allowed the Bible to be translated into English. 

So by 1560, the reformers did not just try to publish a Bible for people to read.  They wanted a Bible that a person could study.  This Bible introduced numbered verses, reference notes and commentary in the side margin.  It was printed in both Latin and Gothic font.  After a thousand years of only having the Bible read in Latin, this was truly a breath of fresh air to the English readers of that day.

I don't know how many were printed, but the dealer I spoke to said he had complete Geneva Bibles that looked like they just came off the printing press.  In comparison, my 400 year old page isn't that hot.  So how much do you think this rare piece of history is worth?  Would you guess thousands of dollars?  Hundreds?  No.  when I asked the dealer, he told me that it was only worth about $25.00.  But to me, when I think of the history of the item, what it took to get to that point in history, and the mystery of whose hands it had been in over its 400 year journey, I consider it priceless.
       

Fall Newsletter

The latest newsletter is now available online with updates on our ministry.  Simply click on the following link to view this quarterly update.  If you wish to receive this in regular mail, simply let me know.  God bless!

http://www.hadavar.net/Verbum09c.pdf

Going Through the Motions

There's a song on the radio that has meant alot to me lately, once I took the time to crank up the radio and listen to the words.  Here's something to think about:

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna last one more day
Without your all-consuming
Passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions.

My early years of following Christ were started with a bang in which three men discipled me.  I felt the call to revolutionary living and saw these men regularly living that way.  Through them I learned to pray, read my Bible, discuss and debate Scripture, worship passionately, share Jesus openly, serve people who can't return the favor, and much more.  Eventually they moved away but a great youth pastor came into my life.  During these times I was new to church and new to serving Christ.  Sometimes it seemed like I stood out among my peers as a bit more radical in my faith than even the other kids in church.  Eventually though, like everyone else, I learned how to "play church" and go through the motions too.

I wish I could say that I grew out of that, but the truth is, once you learn how to go through the motions (like riding a bike) you don't forget.  Whereas we usually think of playing church as consciously pretending to be something we know we are not, I think the more common drama is deceiving ourselves into believing that we're genuine when we are in reality just a shadow of what we were called to be.

With apologies to Shakespeare [bracketed text mine], we could say it this way

[Church] life is but a walking shadow that struts and frets it's hour upon the stage.

I for one don't want to be a "religious functionary" as my friend Asher calls it.  I want substance instead of shadow, reality instead of reflection.  I know how to strut and fret and to make the "sound and fury" of ecclesiastical performance, but what I really want is to know Jesus passionately and to give everything to Him.

Returning to a simplistic Christian church model is one step in our journey.  Another is rediscovering the power of basic spiritual disciplines.  Awakening to the idea that the church is intended to be a living organism, an organic movement, not a business or a social club, is another vital step.

There are, however, motions that we should go through, which I will discuss another time...
 

FREE Torah Reading Plan Available for Download

This coming Sunday night, synagogues around the world will be celebrating the post-biblical holiday of Simchat Torah (joy of the law).  The Torah (also known as the Pentateuch, the Law, the books of Moses) is the first five books of the Bible and is divided into weekly portions that are read publicly.  On Simchat Torah the last portion is read and the scroll is rolled back to Genesis to begin again.  It is a festive time of celebrating God's gift of Scripture to Man.

I've produced a reading guide for the Torah which can be downloaded for free (CLICK HERE).  This is a great way to focus your reading this year on a section of Scripture that you might have otherwise failed to read through.

Idolatry of the Mouth?

As the old saying goes, "there are sins of commission, and sins of ommission."  Oftentimes we do wrong intentionally, or become tempted and fall, but perhaps more often we err in what we do not do.  Would you agree?

In teaching high school English grammar I came upon an interesting observation.  I always thought that an expletive was the same as profanity.  While profanity (or "cussin" as we call it in the South) is typically an expletive, not all expletives are profane.  For example,

There are twelve men on the council = twelve men are on the council

The word there is a filler word, simply there to introduce the sentence.  The sentence already has all the necessary ingredients grammatically to make sense.  But we add it to "fill out" the sentence.  That is exactly what the Latin meaning of "expletive" is.

Though I don't think this is what Paul had in mind when he spoke of "empty words" (Eph. 5:6), I think perhaps it can stimulate us to ask another question.

How much of our daily speaking is just a waste of time, bearing little or no fruit?  In a country that values free speech and has a large talk radio following, the idea of controlling our tongue may seem ridiculous.  Yet Scripture says that "the power of life and death are in the tongue" (Pr. 18:21), and to "let your words be few" (Eccl. 5:2).

With that note, I'll shut up for now...