Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
It is a dangerous thing to make light of the sacred rituals God has ordained for the different dispensations.
Friday, May 17, 2002
“In the flesh” = bi + sar - bibsarkem = in the flesh of the foreskin, it is to be a memorial sign, a training aid pointing to the grace of God and adjustment to the justice of God.
owlaam = always, eternally, forever, everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity.
Circumcision is a reminder of the ultimate expression of adjustment to the justice of God through salvation, rebound, and spiritual growth.
person - nephesh = a soul, self, life; something physical but related to a spiritual concept with regard to a persons soul, or the inner man.
This man shall be cut off (karath) from his people because his refusal or his rejection of circumcision is a rejection of a grace ritual.
Being cut off - a sudden temporal death; or they should have no right to share in the blessings of the covenant, which were both temporal and spiritual.
Defiance of circumcision was disrespect for the covenant. If the parents did not circumcise their children, it was at their very own danger, as in the case of Moses, EXO 4:24-25.
This hostile attitude on the part of God was occasioned by his neglect to circumcise his son; for as soon as Zipporah cut off or circumcised the foreskin of her son with a stone, the Lord let him go.
The Lord did not kill him yet; for his sin had sprung from weakness of the flesh, from a sinful yielding to his wife, which could both be explained and excused on account of his position in the Midianites house.
That Zipporahs dislike to circumcision had been the cause of the omission, is inferred because in the Lords attack upon Moses, she proceeded at once to perform what had been neglected, but with inward repugnance and disgust.
to throw - naga` = to throw violently, to strike, to punish, to defeat, to destroy - she threw it at Moses feet and said “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.”
It is a dangerous thing to make light of the sacred rituals God has ordained for the different dispensations and to live in the neglect of them.
It was so important for people to understand this ritual and to enter into its true meaning, that any rejection of it was a rejection of authority that could not be tolerated.
In the founding of the new nation, Israel, the Levitical offerings, the tabernacle, and the holy days were permanent training aids.
One day a week you were to do nothing and reflect on the principle of grace and the contrast between grace and works, as you work six days a week, and rest on the seventh.
GEN 17:14 - cut off - karath = a connotation of death.
Failure to observe grace illustrations, circumcision or the Sabbath, was punishable by death, not simply for the failure itself, but because it indicated a very deep seated rejection of authority.
In the bringing forth of the new spiritual species, the Church, a permanent training aid was set up - the Lords supper instituted as a momentous occasion of the body of Christ.
It means to be out of fellowship or not being filled with the Spirit during the communion celebration.
1. Are you a believer in TLJC? 2. Are you going to obey participating in the ritual? 3. Are you filled with the Spirit or out of fellowship?
Let him eat = pres-act-imp. Let him drink = pres-act-imp.
Weak - astheneo = to be feeble, to have loss of energy or loss of strength.
sick - arrhostos = a definite type of illness or sickness.
“a number sleep” - koimesis = they have been laid to rest; the sin unto death.
In all three rituals, circumcision, the Sabbath, the Lords supper, the believer has rejected the grace of God and the principle of adjustment to the justice of God.
He has also rejected the principle of authority.
If you do not adjust to the justice of God through grace, then the justice of God will adjust to you through discipline.
Beginning at the cross where God the Father judged our sins in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no excuse for any member of the human race rejecting or ignoring the justice of God.
Even if you did not agree with the grace meaning of circumcision, and did not understand the grace principles behind keeping the Sabbath in the O.T. or the importance of the Lords supper.
Sarai = contentious or quarrelsome, rejection of authority, troublesome.
Sarah = princess, noblewoman with character, integrity, and virtue.
1CO 11:7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory or the reflection of man.
glory - doxa = what takes place when a man possesses his right woman or someone who reflects perfectly what he is.
As the moon represents a satellite of the sun and a reflector of light, it is analogous to a man possessing his right woman or someone who reflects perfectly what he is.
JER 31:22 “The LORD will create a new thing on earth -- a woman will surround a man.”
Having cracked the maturity barrier, she is no longer contentious, she is now princess.
People cannot change people.
Only Bible doctrine inside the soul of an individual can change him.
One other thing that changes people is evil.
Sarah has the capacity from her own spiritual maturity, and blessing by association with ultra supergrace Abraham is merely something even greater.
Piel perfect - barak = blessing; piel stem means intensive, perfect tense means - I have blessed her intensively.
“And I have blessed her intensively” = she is being blessed because of her spiritual growth.
GEN 17:16 and indeed I will give you a son by her - she is being blessed because she is associated with an ultra supergrace believer Abraham and she is about to have her womb open and some sexual prosperity.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights Reserved 2002