Sacred Covenant Signs

Sacred Covenant Signs God not only uses praise and Scripture to reveal himself and his plan, he calls us to worship him with sacrifice (as we saw last week) and links our worship sacrifices to sacred covenant signs. These signs unite the individual to God and to his holy people—his family—just as a wedding ring or the marital embrace unites spouses, renewing and deepening their covenant of love in a holy exchange of grace and love. This is true worship. These signs are sacred because God establishes them.

God also gives us memorial sacrifices—like a wedding anniversary celebration—as sacred covenant signs to renew our covenant of love with him, reminding us of his eternal love shown in all that he has done for us, with all the corresponding responsibilities of that covenant.

Sacred Circumcision

When God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, because he was to be the father of many nations, God also made a covenant pact with him and with his future descendants: to be their God and to give them the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. As a sign that he and his descendants accepted this covenant, he had to make the sacrifice of being circumcised, with every male in his household. Every boy had to be circumcised on the eighth day. Then Abraham, Ishmael, and every male in his house were circumcised (Genesis 17). When God fulfilled his promise to give Sarah and Abraham a male child, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day (Gen. 21:1-7).

Later, before Moses could return to Egypt to lead the people to the Promise Land, he became deathly sick. His wife then circumcised their sons, healing Moses and making him her “Bridegroom of Blood” (Exodus 4:24-26). To leave Egypt God also commanded all the males be circumcised to participate in the Passover Sacrifice (Exodus 12:43-48).

After the people of God had crossed over the Jordan river but before they conquered Jericho to enter the Promised Land, all the boys and young men who had been born during the forty years in the desert had to be circumcised (Joshua 5:1-8). Then the people could offer the Passover Sacrifice to remember the great deed God had done for them. The manna then ceased and they ate unleavened bread and the fruit of the land (Joshua 5:9-12).

“The covenant of circumcision” (Acts 7:8) became the way that males entered the covenant people of God—he became their God and they, his people. This sacrificial ordinance was to be kept by all God’s people (Leviticus 12:3). While some Jewish converts to Christianity taught “the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’” (Acts 15:1)—causing divisions—the Holy Spirit led the apostles to declare that circumcision was fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Acts 15:6- 41), being circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21). While circumcision no longer meant anything for the Christian, Paul circumcised Timothy to facilitate their work of evangelization (Acts 16:1-3).

Ablutions and Washings

Washing with water was symbolic of spiritual cleansing, but also of Israel’s passing through the waters to leave Egypt through the Red Sea. To offer the first covenant sacrifices, God commanded Moses to purify Aaron and his sons with water before consecrating them priests with sacred oil:

“Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests… You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and wash them with water” (Exodus 29:1-4, etc.).

The Temple had a laver in it for the priests to wash their hands and feet prior to the sacrifice “least they die” (Exodus 30:17-21; 40:12,30-32). The Levites who were to minister to the Lord also needed to be washed (Num. 8:1- 7). A Jew also needed to be cleansed after any unclean discharges (Lev. 15:1- 28), or after eating or touching something unclean (Lev. 17:15, etc.).

Through the prophets God foretold the importance of ablution with water: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1).

John the Baptist came to prepare the people for mission and the coming of the Messiah by baptizing all who came to the river Jordan, confessing their sins:

John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mark 4-5).

Jesus Christ too fulfilled this Old Testament ritual by being baptized himself by John.

Father John Waiss is the pastor of St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a member of Opus Dei, the prelature founded by St. Josemaria Escriva.