Circumcision made one a physical Jew and member of Israel. No circumcision = no physical Israel.
Deuteronomy 4:30-31 "When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
Hi Dave,
When would these latter days be?
And wouldn't they be following a time when Israel had turned away?
Isn't it interesting how Moses says that God will not forget the covenant that God made with their fathers, not with them, not meaning the Siniatic covenant, but a previous covenant.
So what then is the context here? What covenant?
Deut 4
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.
28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Read on . . .
37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;
38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
And will God ever take that back?
Genesis 17:7-8
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
It just seems to me that God knew full well that Israel would disobey, and end up scattered, but that God still means for them to possess the land He gave to their fathers, even for an everlasting possession.
And one say, they will return.
Much love!
mark