Hagar: Part II
Disclaimer: What you are about to read has absolutely NOTHING to do with Hagar except that her son Ishmael is mentioned. It deals with a very adult topic, circumcision, if you can't handle a discussion that involves names of private body parts, do not read any further! If however you can appreciate this for the intelligent, clean, hopefully enlightening thought process that it is intended to be, please, read on!
I read through this chapter, thought, I don't have a penis, this doesn't apply to me, let's continue to chapter 18 when I remembered that everything in the Bible is for us to learn from. Then I tried to rationalize that Hagar wasn't even mentioned in this chapter... but that I had decided yesterday to take this one chapter at a time and learn what I could from each one... And once again back to the "I don't have the body parts in question" argument when I remembered a time just before a friend's wedding when I was studying with my small group what it meant to be the bride of Christ and how preparing for that is to look to us when I realized... I asked a few of my guy friends to seriously try to imagine what being a bride is like... I wanted them to think outside the box and put them on the other side and try to get something from it to apply to their relationships with Christ... while none of them did it (or at least none of them told me about it... still waiting guys!) I realized how hypocritical it would be for me not to examine circumcision and it's application to my life if I expect the men in my life to examine what it is to be a bride... so that is the approach I am taking with this, it's a stretch, it's not going to be easy, and in order to try to make sense of things there is going to be mention of male and female equivalent body parts because I am funny that way and try to make things as accurate as possible when trying to visualize them... just please keep in mind this is really not just an excuse to list off genitalia or talk about things of that nature! Don't believe me, read Genesis 17! I DO want to ask any of you guys to please feel free to correct me if I make any incorrect assumptions... like I said, this is not something I usually think about in terms of myself!
I'm going to tell the story as though I am Abram, put myself in his sandals...
I am 99 years old, and God just changed my name to "father of nations". I have one child, Ishmael who is 13, a 90 year old wife, well past her prime, and I'm starting to feel my age. First thing that comes to my mind is that after 99 years, I think I'd be pretty well attached to my name, wouldn't you? But as far as requests God makes of a person, this one is, well, reasonable, so I go along with it... Then God tells me it's time to renew the covenant, that I will be father of nations... okay fine, I suppose this is going to happen through Ishmael right? WRONG, you're gonna get your 90 year old wife pregnant! First things first, even though people lived longer back then, women were pretty much done with the baby making by the mid 5o's... Sarai... what, you're changing her name too? Okay, Sarah is WAY to old to be thinking about kids! It's a humorous thought, I laugh, God tells me to name my son Isaac meaning he laughs.
This is where my conversation with God starts to take a turn I don't like so much... as a sign of my acceptance of this gift, I have to circumcise myself, all my offspring, every worker in my charge, every male in my household. Any male born into my family must be circumcised... but what is this circumcision, certainly not something you would instantly know of! So I look it up (okay this is a little off the story but it's what happened) The word circumcise comes from the Hebrew word mûl (mool) which means "to cut short" the bâśâr (baw-sawr') which means "flesh" of the ‛orlâh (or-law') which is the feminine form of ‛ârêl (aw-rale') which means the loose exposed skin. YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT? I don't know why Abram... excuse me, Abraham didn't ask that very question to be honest... after 99 years, I think I'd be pretty well accustomed to having that particular feature of my anatomy intact, dont' you? No, he thought it more unreasonable for God to say he was going to get Sarai... Sarah pregnant at the age of 90 than that God wanted him to cut off the skin at the end of his penis! I personally don't get this guys... I've always thought that this is a particularly sensitive area of the anatomy for a man, and to draw a parallel for my own reference since I don't have one, it would be like removing the protective hood from around my clitoris... which would make things even MORE sensitive wouldn't it? I don't know about you gents, but if a lady gets rubbed the wrong way by clothing in that area it can be downright painful, without that protective skin around it I can imagine it being even worse... yes I would like thoughts on this, if you want to keep them private you can feel free to email me.
Okay, back to the story, Abraham finishes up the chat with God and goes home, takes Ishmael, a boy Abraham had to ask God to show favor on as well since Isaac was to be the heir, and he just goes right ahead and cuts off his foreskin at age 99, turns to the 13 year old boy who is staring at him wondering what herbs he put in his coffee that morning when Abraham says to him, pull up your robes... again, this story doesn't have enough reality in it, while I can see Abraham having the willpower to circumcise himself, I do not see Ishmael, a 13 year old boy who is starting puberty and just learning what this part of his body can do willingly pulling up his tunic and saying "please daddy, cut it off" what is more realistic is that although willing to follow the "master's" wishes, these men had to have some help with this process... they probably had 4 men, one on each of Ishmael's limbs, and possibly someone else across his stomach to prevent serious harm, not to mention running away which I think in this case I would DEFINITELY do... they didn't have anesthesia back then and wine doesn't numb you that much! This was, without a doubt, a test of loyalty and devotion to God... thankfully little jewish boys undergo this process on day 8 of their lives and never remember it, but those who had to endure this as a teenager or adult? This is not a pretty thing!
Now we have Abraham who has been circumcised, presumably by his own hand, which I couldnt' do and not just because I'm female either, and he's been told he's going to have a son within a year. Let's think about this shall we? If I remember correctly, the calendar they used at that time was not quite as long as the current calendar year (someone help me out here, am I remembering the right calendar or was that the one used before our current one?) anyway, realistically to be before a year is up it would be about 11 months... you need 10 for a pregnancy... yes guys, 10, 40 weeks... but because of our current calendar it appears to be 9 instead of the 28 day month which doctors use for this purpose. That means he needs to get Sarah pregnant immediately... but wait, he just cut his foreskin off of his penis! If you don't know how a child is conceived see me after class and I'll explain the significance of this for you. Assuming a 4 week recovery based upon how long my son's circumcision took to heal (about 3 weeks) and the fact that adults heal more slowly than children and 99 year old men even slower than a 30-40 year old man would and we're talking about some rather precise timing on God's part here. He knew Abraham would obey, would instantly circumcise the household, and from there would recover, lie with his wife, and Isaac would have to be conceived immediately to give birth in a one year time frame... this is rather impressive! It also brings up a lot of questions for me that probably are not appropriate in this context, but I have to wonder,... was it painful for him to have intercourse with Sarah after this? This is a serious question. After the birth of each of my children, the last thing I wanted to think about while healing was having sex, when I was healed and it was time to fulfill my marital obligations again... and after having a baby it is often done as an obligation... it hurt almost as badly as having the baby did! So here is Abraham, he knows he has to get Sarah pregnant to work within God's timeframe, but was he still tender and in pain during the child's conception? I think I'm going to ask him that when I get to Heaven if he seems like he won't be offended at least... I don't really know him yet.
So that's the story told in Genesis 17... what have I taken from this other than a lot of cringing and bewilderment? Abraham was a faithful child of God. I'm not sure I would have been able to follow God's instruction if He asked me to do the same. That really makes me sad. Jesus was willing to DIE for me, yet I can't even conceive of removing an unnecessary part of my body for Him as a sign of devotion... I think I'm going to have to pray about my attitude with such things.
Hugs & Love
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6 comments:
"president ahmedinajad" has copied/pasted this post to my blog from his? own. I have looked over a handful of topics on there and have discovered that the majority of them seem to be of an inflammatory variety although saying the intent is ultimately peace.
Bible passages are taken out of context, presented in random order, and the Quran is presented as written, presumably to "prove" the Quran correct. This includes the order in which words are stated in the verses "quoted" by saying the boy was put on her shoulder rather than the water was put on her should... looking up the Hebrew for this verse shows that "on the shoulder" actually refered to "giving a person a burden" and "child" is literally translated as "young man"... so essentially, Abraham was giving Hagar the physical burden of the water and food and the emotional burden of single motherhood and isolation. All with the intent to fulfill God's will that Isaac be the heir from which Abraham would become the father of nations.
I went to this person's site, read another person's response, and agreed with what was typed and left a message there saying as much. So my question to my faithful readers is should I leave this post here or should I delete it? Your opinion matters!
A really good and very complete analysis of this whole issue is at the following web-link:
http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/sacrifice.htm
Thanks Rob... I'll point that answer out on his blog also (unless you already have)
Removal of the foreskin takes away nerves, if I'm not mistaken. It desensitizes the area.
yes, it does take away nerves, in the skin removed! hehe... seriously if it desensitized the area so effectively why is it that every circumcized guy I've had a discussion about this with has told me that it's the most sensitive part of his body? I do know a guy who had a circumcision as an adult and he was not a happy camper for quite some time. He even said things were more sensitive afterwards, but felt "different". I almost feel bad for him though, he did it for a woman and the marriage didn't last a year!
If the penis isn't the most sensitive part of your body, something is wrong.
That aside, I'm sure things would "feel different" if I had foreskin removed after having it for so long.
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