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.
Every man-child ... circumcised. This was the sign in the Old Testament Church, as baptism is in the New Testament Church, and hence, the covenant is called "covenant of circumcision" (Acts 7:8; Romans 4:1:ll). The terms of the covenant were these-on the one hand, Abraham and his seed were to observe the rite of circumcision; and on the other, God promised, in the event of such observance, to give them Canaan for a perpetual possession, to be a God to him and his posterity, and that in him and his seed all nations should be blessed. It must be carefully observed, however, that when it is said, "This is my covenant, every man-child among you shall be circumcised," the observance of this prescribed rite did not constitute the keeping of God's covenant, although the modern Jews identify circumcision with the covenant and Christian writers sometimes imitate their phraseology ('Israel after the Flesh,' p. 15). It was only the "token" or sign "of the covenant." The possession of this token denoted that the Jews were a nation in covenant with God; but, on the other hand, a neglect of the terms-namely, the national acknowledgment of God-even although the people might be circumcised, implied a violation of the covenant. Circumcision was indispensably necessary, as has been well observed, 'to mark a person entitled to the privileges of the covenant:' it did not necessarily follow that every circumcised person made good his title, or received the blessings ('Israel after the Flesh').