It Shall Be a Token of the Covenant

When the Lord established His covenant with Abraham, He said this: “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant” (Genesis 17:11-14). Circumcision was to be the token or sign of the covenant that the Lord had made with Abraham, and every son of his posterity was to be circumcised. The scripture help says this, “As a reminder of His covenant with Abraham, God commanded all male members of Abraham’s household to be circumcised. For Abraham and his family, this act was a symbol of the Abrahamic covenant. It represented dedication to God and separation from the world and sin. Circumcision as a token of the Abrahamic covenant was no longer required after Jesus Christ’s mortal ministry.” We see that Abraham did as the Lord commanded him when Isaac was born: “And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him” (Genesis 21:4). This act did not mean, though, that children were unholy without circumcision, for as the Lord explained in our dispensation, after the law of Moses was fulfilled, Paul encouraged Christians to marry one another and “that their children might remain without circumcision; and that the tradition might be done away, which saith that little children are unholy.” For, as the Lord declared, “Little children are holy, being sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ; and this is what the scriptures mean” (Doctrine and Covenants 74:6-7).      

               Paul said this of circumcision to the Saints at Corinth: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God” (1 Corinthians 7:19). In other words, what mattered for the ancient prophets was not circumcision particularly but obedience to the commands of the Lord. And in our day, this is not a commandment and what the Lord cares about is obedience to His commandments. Instead of circumcision at the age of 8 days, we baptize children at the age of 8 years, with the same focus: keeping the commandments and the covenants of the Lord. This token of His covenant was still in force when Moses had his child, and we have a strange account related to circumcision in the story of him returning to Egypt. Moses had been with Jethro, married his daughter Zipporah, and they had had a son: “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom” (Exodus 2:22). Sometime later they left to return to Egypt. We read this that happened sometime on their journey back: “And it came to pass, that the Lord appeared unto him as he was in the way, by the inn. The Lord was angry with Moses, and his hand was about to fall upon him, to kill him; for he had not circumcised his son. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and circumcised her son, and cast the stone at his feet, and said, Surely thou art a bloody husband unto me. And the Lord spared Moses and let him go, because Zipporah, his wife, circumcised the child. And she said, Thou art a bloody husband. And Moses was ashamed, and hid his face from the Lord, and said, I have sinned before the Lord” (JST Exodus 4:24-27). It is a rather uncomfortable story, and perhaps one lesson from it is that the Lord cares deeply about His covenant. Clearly Moses knew that he was supposed to circumcise his son, which was to be a token of the covenant God had with Abraham and him, and yet he didn’t do it. Perhaps the Lord was telling him that if the covenant was not important to him, there was no use in him going to Egypt to deliver His people. For the very reason He was delivering Egypt was to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant as He explained to Moses: “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant” (Exodus 6:3-5). So, if the covenant was not of utmost importance to Moses—i.e. if he wasn’t willing to circumcise his son as a part of that covenant—then he was not fit to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and take them to the land the Lord promised to Abraham. The story invites us to consider how important our covenants are to us and whether we are willing to live by the promises we have made with Him.