9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
As God dictates the terms of His covenant, His contract with His people, He began telling what He would do to fulfill His portion of the covenant. This was the normal procedure at that time in history. The greater power would dictate the terms of the relationship between the two parties. Usually this took place when the stronger was conquering the weaker. The weaker was in no position to question the terms. If they did, they were killed. So God tells the things He is going to do and then we come to this verse. The Lord begins to spell out Abraham’s responsibilities. The first is an obligation, a demand that he and his descendants keep the rules set out in the covenant. There is no negotiation here. There is no, “I would like to take Fridays off, if you don’t mind.” It is simply, “These are the terms.” What is amazing is that the Lord knows that they will not be able to keep the terms. The Lord builds into the terms of the agreement a way to make up for breaking the terms. The Lord builds a sacrificial system that constantly reminds the people of their failures in order to remind them of God’s provision. God has known from the beginning that man would continue to fail. The powerful symbol of Adam and Eve’s animal skin clothes was there from the start of the sin journey. The bruising of Adam’s descendant and the crushing of the serpent’s head pointed forward to the death of Jesus on the Cross. Each sacrifice that the people participated in pointed forward to the one sacrifice of Jesus, the God-Man. So the terms of the covenant God puts in place demanded absolute obedience knowing that they would fail. But God did not leave them without hope. The sacrifices pointed to the ultimate provision of a death that would remove their sin and guilt. God demanded and demands obedience. The sign of the covenant demanded blood, the blood drawn during the circumcision of every male who participated in the covenant. That outward sign was a powerful symbol of the cost of being in relationship to God. It was not easy for the adults present to go through circumcision. It was painful. It was debilitating. They had to surrender their will to the will of the Lord. To be a Jesus-follower means surrender of your will and obedience to the voice of the Spirit. Are you being obedient?
The Arnold Journey 