Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 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 foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.”
(Genesis 17:22-23)

Abraham did not delay. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and Abraham was obedient. There is no reported time gap. The Lord left the conversation and Abraham immediately moved to obey. He took his whole household and circumcised all of them that day. The same day the Lord told him to do it. When God gives us a command, we need to obey as soon as we can. We must decide to do it and follow through.

Based on hints in other passages (such as Genesis 14:14), Abraham could have had as many as a thousand servants. We know at least three hundred and eighteen of them were TRAINED men. All of them submitted to this procedure. This was the respect Abraham commanded in his people. This was also the reverence of God’s commands that Abraham had passed onto his entire household (Genesis 18:19). It must have helped that he was undergoing the procedure as well. This was NOT a do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do situation.

Rabbeinu Bayha writes: ‘ויעל אלוקים מעל אברהם, “G-d ascended from above Avraham.” The patriarchs on earth are considered as occupying positions parallel to that of the cherubs in the celestial regions. This is why the Torah describes G-d’s departure as “from above Avraham.” We find a parallel expression in Ezekiel 9,3 וכבוד ישראל נעלה מעל הכרוב, “The Presence of the G-d of Israel rose from above the cherub.” Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 47,6 are even more explicit when they stated: “the patriarchs are the real carriers of G-d’s entourage (מרכבה), i.e. “they are the real cherubs.’

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויקח, as soon as G’d had withdrawn Avraham proceeded to make all the preparations necessary to perform the circumcision on all the members of his household who qualified for this, followed by his circumcising himself. He waited with circumcising himself, realizing that if he would circumcise himself first, he would be too weak to perform this operation on all the male member of his household immediately afterwards. כל זכר באנשי בית אברהם, both adults and minors. וימול בשר ערלתם, both the removal of the foreskin and the removal of the membrane underneath it. (פריעה). Some of our sages (Yevamot 71) claim that Avraham had not been commanded to perform פריעה also. The majority opinion is that he had been commanded concerning both these stages of circumcision. This is also the opinion expressed in Bereshit Rabbah (compare Torah Shleymah 157) בעצם היום הזה, on the very day G’d had issued these instructions.’

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘ADOPTION OF THE SIGN OF CIRCUMCISION (17:23–27) The parashah concludes with membership in the group defined in terms of male circumcision. This should be read in light of the just-stated promise that the covenant will be bestowed only on Sarah’s child, which makes clear how significant she is in God’s plan.’