Circumcise the Foreskin of Your Heart

Yep, I just used the word "circumcise" and "foreskin" in my title... anyone else feel uncomfortable?  LOL!!  Are you crinkling your nose?  Well, me too!  My husband joked with me and said "hey, you should submit this song to the local Christian Music Station."  He found that way more funny than I care to admit.  Sigh.  But he's right.  This is tough putting some of God's words to song, because let's face it, it does not tickle the ears.  Maybe we've got foreskin on our ears, too then!  Let's just squirm in our chairs a little more at the notion, shall we?  Ok, ok... I'll quit pushing the envelope here.  I'm already asking a lot from you so God bless you for reading this far and sticking this out.

So why this verse put to song?

Too often I hear people say that the Old Testament (OT) is about the flesh and the New Testament NT) is about the Spiritual.  OT was about circumcising the flesh and the NT is about circumcising our hearts.  But a circumcised heart is what God has been asking of us from the beginning!  By no means is it a NT concept, it is only confirmed in the NT.

It is a call to repentance... shedding our old self and turning back to His ways.

Deuteronomy 30 is where YHWH lays out His standard of repentance and forgiveness.  This is where He explains a circumcised heart for the first time and that He alone is the one to perform the "surgery" when we return to Him...

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live... And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today.  (Deuteronomy 30:6 and 8)

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.  (Leviticus 26:40-43)

We are warned over and over again to return to the LORD and to stop being rebellious and stubborn towards His righteous Law.  Remember how Yeshua warned that as the world was judged by water the first time, so are the heavens and earth stored up with fire for the 2nd and final judgment?  Well, our heart's yucky foreskin is still an issue today!

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it.  (Jeremiah 4:4)

Did you notice in Deuteronomy 30 how a truly repentant heart returns to obedience?  Paul confirms that joyful obedience from the heart is what determines a true state of circumcision.  It's like a medical doctor is "cloaked" in his physician skill sets whether he's wearing a white lab coat or not.  Anyone can look the part outwardly by wearing a white lab coat and a stethoscope walking around a hospital, but which guy would you call upon for help if you started having a heart attack?  The one who looks the part or the one who IS the part?

So, if a man who is uncircumcised [not wearing his white lab coat] keeps the precepts of the law [practices his PhD], will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised [not wearing a lab coat] but keeps the law [practicing physician skill sets] will condemn you who have the written code [Physician manual] and circumcision [labcoat] but break the law [no PhD]. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly [wearing a lab coat doesn't make you a Dr], nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly [what you know, study, believe & do], and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [God gives the PhD, not man].  (Romans 2:26-29) - please note all words between [ and ] are my additions

And now watch how Stephen rebukes the Pharisees who were merely wearing white lab coats to boast in the "appearance" of righteousness while having none of it within their hearts:

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”  (Acts 7:51-53)

And that, my dear ones, is why you get to read the words "circumcised" and "foreskin" way too many times today in a single post!  You still with me?  Well, then you just rock!  So just to make you hear it a few more times before the end of the day, here's a song to get stuck in your head...