And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.
Comment:
This is the first commandment in the Torah which is designated a permanent regulation: “…you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations”.
We have given this commandment a status of both green and amber.
The green status reflects the fact that it is possible for any male to keep this commandment in our day and age, and also our recognition that the command has not been rescinded since it was given (being a permanent regulation). There are various examples in later scripture where adult circumcision was carried out (eg see Genesis 34, Joshua 5 and Acts 16), so it seems that missing the timing of the eighth day after birth is not per se a problem. (More likely to be problematic would be carrying it out before Day 8).
The amber status is due to a multi-aspect discussion on whether circumcision is still a requirement for YHWH’s people post-Yeshua. He himself was circumcised on the eighth day, which would appear to support a green status. On the other hand, Acts 15 could be used to bolster the argument that Christians don’t need to get circumcised in order to be saved, and we recognise that this will be the lens through which many Christians view the question. But the situation described in that chapter was, as indicated above, about access to salvation and we can see that when we look at this commandment simply as one given by YHWH in the Torah then it can still be considered to be green even while not being a prerequisite for becoming a true child of YHWH.
The discussions are ongoing…