Gen. 21:4, which says,4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. The act of circumcision signifies the cutting away of “the flesh,” our great enemy, so that we might walk by the Spirit of God. Gal. 5:17 says, 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Romans 8:6-8 says, 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. The sign of the Old Covenant is fleshly circumcision, as instituted first by Abraham in Gen. 17:11. The sign of the New Covenant is the circumcision of the heart. This heart circumcision was first mentioned as far back as Moses, who said in Deut. 30:6, 6 Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live [have immortality]. Moses viewed this heart circumcision as being something that God Himself would have to do in us. No man can circumcise his own heart. For this reason, it is associated with the New Covenant, because it is something that God does in us, rather than something that man does by his own works or self-discipline. And so we see that the Bible sets forth Ishmael and Isaac as allegories of two covenants, two different ways of attaining righteousness, with two different inheritances. Those who follow the path of Ishmael--regardless of who they are or what race they are--are of the Old Covenant. Those who follow the path of Isaac are of the New Covenant. Although this is not a racial statement as such, history shows that the physical descendants of Ishmael have come into a religion called Islam, which by its very name signifies obedience and thus perfectly describes the Old Covenant. But in Galatians 4, Paul also identifies the earthly city of Jerusalem with Hagar, and her "children" with the adherents of Judaism. Judaism has bound itself to the Old Covenant and refuses to accept the New Covenant. Thus, in that legal sense, the Jews are "Ishmael," because they consider their "mother" to be Jerusalem (Hagar). The Old Covenant is incapable of bringing forth the sons of God, and so neither Islam nor Judaism is able to obtain the inheritance of the sons of God. Their inheritances are earthly and have more to do with physical land (real estate), rather than the glorified body, which is the greatest "land" inheritance. Logabe