# 147 One Messy and Painful Day

The Book of Genesis Day 147 Ge 17:22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; 27 and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him. One can picture Abraham getting up off of his knees after his prayer time with God and coming back to his house and gathering Ishmael, and all of Abraham’s servants, and their children for a little meeting. Abraham: “Got some good news and some bad news for you fellas. The good news is, I just heard from God, the bad news is you are all going to get circumcised right now!” I am having a hard time imagining the whole scenario! What were Hagar, Sarah, and all the other wives and mothers thinking? Sounds like Abraham was the one who performed the procedure, but we aren’t told who performed the procedure on him. At any rate, this was one messy and painful day for the men and boys in Abraham’s camp. But you know, it was one messy and painful day on Calvary when Jesus paid the price for our sins and opened the door to the new PAINLESS (for us) covenant of baptism! The thing I really wants us to glean from this account is the immediacy of Abraham’s obedience! We are told that the circumcisions took place, “that very same day!” I am reminded of the Ethiopian eunuch , who, upon hearing the full gospel, as explained to him by Phillip, ordered the chariot to stop as soon as they came upon some water! Acts 8:36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" That’s immediacy! Abraham, immediately circumcised every male in his household who was at least 8 days old, The 8 day old infant certainly couldn’t understand what was happening to him in this God-ordained procedure, but the adults certainly could. In subjecting themselves to this procedure they were entering into a covenanted relationship with God, and in submitting their infants to the procedure, they were doing the same for them. Sometimes, I think we spend too much time trying to teach about baptism, rather than just doing it as Jesus commanded. I don’t read anything in the New Testament about baptism classes. People who heard the gospel rightly preached (as Philip preached it) knew that they needed to be baptized, and so there was always an immediacy to baptism in the New Testament ! Not only for adult believers, but just as in Abraham’s case, all of those (including infants) in their households. Baptism and the proclamation of the Gospel are inseparable. That’s why Jesus said in Mr 16:15,16, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. Pray: Lord, help us to get a sense of the importance of the immediacy of baptism. Remind us often of the benefits promised to us in this rite as found in Your Word.