Devotional: Happy B’rit Day!

With the New Year here, I like to remember 1999’s New Year’s Eve celebration as it unfolded worldwide. Paris, London, New York – every city’s celebration was spectacular. Just viewing the excitement on television thrilled me. Since that year, New Year’s Eve for me has become just another night, to bed by 10:00pm. Anticipation for the first day in January is better than looking back, in my humble opinion.

The actual date of Messiah Yeshua Jesus’ birth is debated. Scholars are divided on the date. We will know the answer when we arrive in heaven. Yet for us who celebrate His birthday on December 25, New Year’s Day takes on a special importance. “And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was {then} called Yeshua, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” Luke 2:21

And in Lev. 12:3, we read: On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

If you count eight days from Christmas Day, you get New Year’s Day. What a different spin that gives to celebrating New Year’s, doesn’t it? New Year’s day can now be called Happy Circumcision day!

The ceremony of circumcision, also called the B’rit, continues to this day. I have been privileged to attend a couple of B’rits, although the actual procedure was not done in our presence.

The Hebrew word B’rit means covenant. The covenant of circumcision is described in Genesis 17:10-12:
“This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your
descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.”

“And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

“And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a {servant} who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants.”

God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It was a God-made covenant and not a man-made covenant. God invoked penalty if this procedure was not carried out. God required circumcision of the secret part of the body. God desires that all secret parts of our lives, including our hearts, be circumcised. True circumcision is of the heart.

God has made a covenant with us, one that is eternal, an eternal covenant for those of us who are the true circumcision. This covenant was made by the Blood of His son, Yeshua Jesus. Jesus’ blood was shed at eight days after His birth to enter into covenant with God the Father; His blood was shed at death to bring us into covenant with God the Father.

Our circumcision is one that is made without hands (Col. 2:11); it is made by the power of the Spirit. Ceremonial law never keeps us in right standing with God. Only by accepting the vicarious Blood atonement of Yeshua are we able to be in right standing with God. New Year’s day reminds me that there is absolutely nothing I can do to gain right standing with God. I can’t make any resolutions or promises that can be any better than the Blood covenant God gave to us through the death of His son.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold new things have come.” 2 Corin 5:17

Devotional by: Dr. Barri Cae Seif. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.