On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and…every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. (Genesis 17:23, NIV)
Ouch! Sometimes obedience hurts.
Even a golf lesson can hurt, when your instructor puts one hand on your leading arm and one hand on your shoulder and helps you make that full turn, the one your body is in no shape to do! But if you’re going to obey your swing coach and move to the next level in your game, you’re going to have to stretch yourself, both literally and figuratively.
Our walk of faith often requires the same kind of painful development. This doesn’t mean that God is out to hurt us, not any more than our golf instructor. But he will stretch us spiritually in big and little ways.
I’m not sure how Abraham sized up the act of circumcision (though I’m guessing he realized it was a bigger deal after the fact than before it!). But it’s likely his perspective included more than the physical act in order for him to go ahead in following God’s command on this one. And here’s what that perspective may have included:
– A desire to honor God. Abraham lived in a time where the relationship between servant and master was well-known. And if a servant, or slave, wanted to honor his master, he did so quite simply: he obeyed him. As a wealthy man with a large household of servants, Abraham understood this thoroughly. Before God, Abraham was the servant, and he would honor God in obeying him.- A willingness to be set apart. The regard or even the fear of others can cause any of us to back down from being different. Circumcision would make Abraham’s descendants unusual in their culture. They would bear this physical mark that identified them as God’s.
The biblical idea of sanctification emerged chiefly in the New Testament, when the apostolic writers advanced the teaching that those in Christ have been chosen by him and “set apart” (or sanctified) for holiness will pursue a life that honors him. God had called Abraham, whose faith was credited to him as righteousness, to “walk before me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1).
It is God’s plan that his people of faith look different than those around them. They do this principally in their obedience to God. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:22).
Faith leads to holiness, and those who are truly holy are recognized as having “something different.” That “something” is not God on them in external religious acts, but God in them changing their hearts and making them new, so that the measure of one’s sanctification is genuine change.
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Jeff Hopper
July 25, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.