“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.”
Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised will be cut off from his people — he has broken the covenant. The consequence of refusing the covenant sign is exclusion from the covenant community. The sign is not optional; it is the means of belonging. The language of 'cut off' (Hebrew: karet) is a standard formula for covenant exclusion in Leviticus and Numbers — the person who refuses the sign refuses the covenant itself. Hebrews 10:29 speaks of those who trample the Son of God underfoot, treating the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing — the New Testament has its own equivalent of karet for those who refuse the covenant's terms. The application: belonging to the covenant community has always required active participation in its signs and practices. Passive proximity to the covenant without covenant response is not covenant membership.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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