Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “The Covenant with Abraham”. All through-out the Bible (and the writings of EGW) symbolism is used to explain spiritual things… using what is seen to explain the unseen. Not a bad approach. But not a fool-proof approach, either. God the Son does speak to us “in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language but I will tell you plainly about the Father” (John 16:25), says Jesus to the eleven disciples in the upper room. Symbolism, figurative language, dark sayings, parables and metaphors are not ideal. “If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord, make myself known to Him in a vision; I speak to Him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face-to-face even plainly with no dark sayings” (Numbers 12:6-8). “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Face-to-face is the ideal. Dark sayings and parables serve a purpose, though. They are used for those who, “seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13) so that they will “see” that they don’t see nor understand… in order to lead those who “hear” to question and probe and search in order to “see” and “understand”.
Matthew tells us that, “all these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them” (Matthew 13:34). If God the Son spoke in symbols in the New Testament, would not the same God do the same in the Old Testament? I believe that the reason God does this is because the true meaning of all God did and does would be lost on us incorrigible sinners. And even before we understand, if we follow the dark sayings and lessons, they will help us.
I bring-up dark sayings, lessons, parables and symbolism because of Tuesday’s lesson on circumcision. Circumcision… an Old Testament notable symbol or “sign” (see Genesis 17: 1-19 as Tuesday’s lesson states). “The meaning of circumcision has been long discussed by scholars… “(Tuesday’s lesson) because it is such a symbol. So good that we are discussing it still. But what did it mean to Abraham? Because, like Moses, Abraham “was called the friend of God” (James 2:23). Therefore, the meaning of the circumcision symbolism must have been quite clear to Abraham, even as it is recorded with no real explanation.
For Abraham, the rite of circumcision is tied to the covenant promise of a deliverer son. A promise Abraham had tried to fulfill in various and sundry ways rather than rely on the faith that God “accounted to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Rather than rely on “the flesh (which) profits nothing” (John 6:63), Abraham needed a sign showing him that “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us” (2 Peter 3:9). That God fulfills His promises.
And so the rite was established as a sign for “you and your descendants after you throughout their generations” (Genesis 17:9). A sign in Abraham’s offending “member” that reminded him and everyone else that God is “the Lord who sanctifies you” (Leviticus 20:8). I cannot do it myself (like with Hagar). It was a perpetual sign in every male’s penis that God alone can bring-about what God promises. We are not to trust our “arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us…” (2 Chronicles 32:8).
God use symbols for our good, and to lead us to search and dig to understand. We are His thinking creatures. He made us to think. He made us to understand. But sin has warped our minds. Warped our understanding. We approach the things of God from a selfish perspective… from a perverted understanding. So God must use symbols to teach us and lead us. Let us never be content with the symbols but dig to understand them and more especially, understand Him. For “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
With brotherly love,
Jim