“Circumcision was not peculiar to Israel. It was practiced in Egypt and also by nations with whom Israel had not come in contact. The significance of circumcision was that it was the manifest token of the covenant that the Lord had made with Abraham and his seed. It does not matter that other nations also practiced circumcision for to them it did not have the same meaning or purpose” (LDS Bible Dictionary ‘Circumcision’).

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Study Questions to ask yourself and God

• Does circumcision itself matter? Or does it matter more what the Lord was teaching?

• If so, what was the Lord teaching?

• Does the Lord ever appropriate symbols or language from another culture to teach his people? Or was circumcision wholly divine and pre-planned?

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Next read about the institution of circumcision in the Old Testament