“Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart; and don’t be stiff-necked any longer!”-Deuteronomy 10:16
In verse 16, of Deuteronomy 10, we encounter a strange statement that will make regular appearances throughout the remainder of the “Old” Testament and in several important places in the New Testament.
What phrase am I talking about?
I’m talking about the phrase “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” or “circumcise your heart” for short.
The Lord is telling us He prefers circumcised hearts MORE THAN He wants circumcised foreskins.
What does this really mean?
Well, before we get into an explanation, we have to first cross out the word “heart” and in its place insert the word “mind” so that the phrase reflects in our modern English what it really meant in the Biblical era.
In our modern English, we should say “circumcise the foreskin of your mind“.
Remember, in those days, the heart was considered the organ that was the seat of our intellectual thinking processes and NOT the organ responsible for our emotions.
Therefore, what God is saying is that we must circumcise our “will“, “thoughts” or “mental thinking processes“.
We must turn over our selfish desires of always wanting to do things our way over to Him.
The “foreskin” is the covering that represents the protective and at times impenetrable barrier that prevents God from entering into our minds.
God is essentially telling us to stop being so thick-headed or we’ll end up blocking the Word of Hashem from entering and taking root in our thoughts.
However, there is also a dual meaning to this.
The Circumcision of the Flesh was the physical or earthly sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, a surgical operation that was to be performed on all Hebrew males.
On the other hand, the Circumcision of the Heart (really “mind”) was the spiritual or heavenly sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, a spiritual operation that was performed on the minds of men.
Truthfully, the fleshly operation was to be a visible reflection of the spiritual transformation that had occurred inwardly.
I’m sure many of you recalled the Apostle Paul saying precisely the same thing about 1400 years after Moses mentioned this.
Paul’s big thing was what good is having your flesh circumcised if your heart hasn’t changed?
Paul even went so far as to say that if one’s heart has been properly circumcised, then in the current advent of Messiah we’re living in, it isn’t even necessary to be physically circumcised.
Next, immediately after the instruction to circumcise our hearts, we are then told “and don’t be a stiff-necked people”.
This goes hand-in-hand with the meaning of “to circumcise our hearts” because being “stiff-necked” simply means to be stubborn and resistant to God’s Word.
Moses is basically telling the people to allow their minds to be circumcised (yielded over to) the Spirit of God so that they will no longer be unresponsive to the Lord.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Is this blessedness only for the circumcised,
or also for the uncircumcised?
We have been saying that Abraham’s faith
was credited to him as righteousness.
Under what circumstances was it credited?
Was it after he was circumcised, or before?
It was not after, but before!
And he received circumcision as a sign,
a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith
while he was still uncircumcised.
So then, he is the father of all who believe
but have not been circumcised,
in order that righteousness
might be credited to them.
And he is then also the father of the circumcised
who not only are circumcised but who also follow
in the footsteps of the faith that
our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”
-Romans 4:9-12
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