為以色列時事禱告August 27, 2012（割禮議題）
禁止割禮和以撒產業之上正興起的風暴
『凡遵守祂的約和祂法度的人，耶和華都以慈愛誠實待他。』 (詩篇 25:10)
上週一位在德國巴伐利亞北部的拉比，成為第一位執行希伯來人割禮之約而被控告的人。這是根據今年六月26日德國科隆法院裁定，因著宗教理由而施行的割禮對嬰孩身體有害。反對割禮人士說割禮侵犯孩子身體的完整性，不應允許，直到男孩十四歲，他可以自己選擇是否要受割禮（此為聖經的命令，要希伯來男童於出生後第八日行割禮）。
雖然這是第一次如此的律法被控告，但類似的立法已經開始提出，甚至在歐洲其他國家通過。美國也無法免除，去年在舊金山有一萬二千人在秋季大選中請願禁止割禮，任何為十八歲以下男性行割禮的人要處一千美元罰款或坐監一年。在舊金山有此行動後一週，聖地牙哥有一團體提出在聖莫尼卡也要投票禁止割禮。在此事件中，舊金山猶太社區關係協會為此進行一項訴訟，來取消11月選舉對禁止割禮的提案（參考：JPOST.COM 05/25/2011『聖莫尼卡提議禁止割禮』；以及耶路撒冷郵報08/24/12『以色列面對憤世嫉俗的世界』）。
上週的案件在德國猶太圈子、在以色列和世界各地已興起抗議的風暴，也對法律制度帶來許多混亂的影響。這週以色列首席拉比梅子格（Yona Metzger）拜會德國官員，欲協助他們制訂出一些合法保障猶太人和穆斯林在德國對男嬰行割禮的方案。有一些人建議一些取代方案，例如發展出『象徵性』的儀式來取代真正切除嬰兒的包皮。梅子格拉比回應如此的建議一定要找到四千年祖先的共鳴，他說：『這是我們的信仰，是猶太精神的根源，是在猶太人身體上的標記和印記』（紐約時報08/21/12『在德國割禮議題上尋求一致』）。
緊要的是要瞭解到，開始浮出表面的割禮議題，遠比宗教團體或嬰孩的人權來得嚴重。我們在談論的是人類在干涉賜一切生命之神所立的約，以『人道主義』的面具為幌子，一個極為邪惡的勢力正開始運行，此邪惡憎恨神，鄙視所有以祂形象造成的人。一個憎恨神的約的靈界體制，尤其憎惡與希伯來父老所立的約。
讓我們檢視一些與割禮之約相關的經文，以及為何此約至今仍如此重要
創世記12:6-7: 神將亞伯蘭帶到應許之地，當他一到示劍，耶和華向亞伯蘭顯現，並應許『要把這地賜給他的後裔』。亞伯蘭就在那裡為『向他顯現的耶和華築了一座壇』，作為回應，神先在吾珥向他顯現，現在則在迦南向他顯現。
創世記13:14-15: 在靠近伯特利附近的一處，耶和華要亞伯蘭舉目向東西南北觀看；應許凡他所看見的一切地，都要賜給他和他的後裔，直到永遠。
創世記15:9-21: 割禮成為亞伯蘭子孫得這地為業的記號 (15:8)，亞伯蘭現在已經知道這位天地的主是至高的神（14:22），與亞伯蘭立約，顯明他的後裔會在埃及四百年，如今已將應許之地的所有權賜給他們。
創世記17: 9-14: 神告訴亞伯拉罕，他和他的後裔必世世代代遵守祂的約。他們要遵守的方式是所有新生男嬰生下來第八日，都要受割禮割除包皮。神與亞伯拉罕所立的約是與賜給他和他後裔的土地有關，亞伯拉罕和他的後裔藉由『割禮』來遵守並捍衛此約。凡肉身不受割禮的男子必從民中『剪除』，因他背了神的約。這裡提到的產業在危急中，神與亞伯拉罕肉身後裔所立下的永恆之約，永遠與那約中的應許之地緊緊相連。
以撒的重要性
創世記17:19-22: 神清楚說到祂與亞伯拉罕後裔和應許之地的約必須從以撒而來。雖然神也賜福給以實瑪利（身為亞伯拉罕的一家子，他也受割禮），此割禮之約的祝福不會繼續臨到以實瑪利的後裔，一定得從以撒而來。
註：十月二十六日，穆斯林會慶祝宰牲節，藉此他們堅稱並慶祝亞伯拉罕順服神獻以實瑪利，而不是獻以撒，事實上以撒的出生，是作為以實瑪利忠心獻上自己為祭的禮物。他們讓自己的兒子行割禮，卻被蒙蔽來遵守沒有生命的約。神的約帶來生命，祂的彌賽亞耶穌就是全世界的道路、真理與生命，一定要經由以撒而來。
請為全世界十幾億的穆斯林禱告：他們能領受超自然的啟示並認識那位就是道路、真理與生命的主，祂是由立約的子民來而，經由亞伯拉罕、以撒和雅各而來，祂為亞當各地的兒女受死、被埋，並且復活！
*割禮並不是公義的工具，而是神分別出來特定地方之子民一致性的標記，祂的工作和祝福藉由他們呈現並釋放到全世界。割禮並不是摩西律法妥拉的一部份，它早在律法之前。妥拉讓我們一瞥神的本質，祂的公義，以及祂的公義臨到祂渴望相交之人的條件。妥拉也提供（暫時性）潔淨祭物的方式，在摩西律法中這些條件無法完全達成，這些律法像學校老師一樣，將我們引至彌賽亞。
*耶穌在第八日行割禮，藉此祂與以色列百姓和應許之地相認同（有一天祂將在那地掌權）（路加福音2:21）。
*在新約之下，列國信主的人不需要受割禮。既然割禮絕不是得到公義的工具，其最初的目的與他們並沒有關係（使徒行傳21:17-25；加拉太書），信主的猶太人持續遵守（使徒行傳21:17-25）。在使徒行傳16:1-5 記錄了保羅覺得提摩太行割禮的必要性，因他母親是猶太人。
當人們抵擋神對以色列應許之地的目的時，一定也會抵擋祂揀選來管理那地之百姓的目的。
*迫使猶太人放棄割禮，或說服他們如此行，便是讓他們與他們的產業分離，惟有割禮才能確保此產業，割禮是他們對以色列應許之地的資格。
*極具啟發性來瞭解的是，神與亞伯拉罕應許給他後裔（藉由以撒而來）與立約之地（示劍、伯特利、希伯崙），這些土地都位於目前世界要求給穆斯林建國之處，不准猶太人住進來。
*要求根絕割禮背後的理由反映出『古希臘』的思考模式（偏向世俗人文主義），這很像西元前164年所發生的事，那時敘利亞王安提阿古四世伊彼凡尼，他大發熱心消滅猶太教，以希臘的生活、敬拜與思想方式來取代，也禁止割禮。撒迦利亞書9:13提到，猶太和希臘兩種意識型態在末世的衝突。
一場風暴很快興起
當一位猶太人遵從他古老祖先亞伯拉罕為兒子以撒行割禮而被告的同一週，在大西洋興起一個原本預測為熱帶風暴，現在卻增強為颶風，目前正席捲佛羅里達和墨西哥灣，此颶風的名字就叫以撒/艾薩克（Isaac），難道這只是一個巧合而已？
『誰能明白雲彩如何鋪張，和神行宮的雷聲呢？ 祂將亮光普照在自己的四圍；祂又遮覆海底。 祂用這些審判眾民。祂使密雲盛滿水氣，布散電光之雲；這雲是藉祂的指引游行旋轉，得以在全地面上行祂一切所吩咐的，或為責罰，或為潤地，或為施行慈愛。（約伯記36:29-31a； 37:11-13）。
願神賜給我們耳朵聆聽聖靈所說的話。
請禱告：
*在猶太人行割禮遭到威脅的國家裡，公義之士會興起抵抗此禁令；禱告他們的立法機關所執行的法律可以保障猶太人的權利，好使他們能施行神賜給他們的古老之約。
*禱告神保護祂應許給亞伯拉罕後裔的心臟地區，是透過以撒而來的。這些地區目前正受到威脅，要成為另一個約跟隨者的永久政權。（今年9月25日到10月1日，聯合國193個會員國將聚集在年度大會中，他們預期會面對一個單方面宣稱為巴勒斯坦國，並以猶大、撒馬利亞和迦薩地區作為他們的土地。）
*用以西結書36章為『以色列山』禱告（就是聖經中所謂的猶大和撒馬利亞等西岸地區）在這一章中，以色列的神應許這地『必發枝條，為我的民以色列結果子，因為他們快要來到。』 (8節)。
*禱告在列國中因懼怕或瑪門而不回到立約之地的猶太人，將意識到他們在列國中『能將以色列帶到那地』的自由，不會一直都在那裡。禱告那些神在此時呼喚他們回來的人，就像上週先知書最後幾句話說：『你們離開吧！離開吧！從那裡出來。不要沾不潔淨的物；要從其中出來，務要自潔。因為，耶和華必在你們前頭行；以色列的神必作你們的後盾』（以賽亞書52:11-12）。
馬汀和娜瑪‧賽維士（Martin & Norma Sarvis）
於耶路撒冷
Prayer Update From Israel (August 27, 2012)
1. THE CIRCUMCISION BAN AND A RISING STORM OVER THE INHERITANCE OF ISAAC.
"All the LORD's paths are lovingkindness and truth to those who guard His covenant and His testimony" (Psalm 25:10).
Last week a rabbi in northern Bavaria became the first mohel (a Jewish person trained in the procedure) to have criminal charges brought against him for administering brit milah-the Hebrew Covenant of Circumcision. This followed the June 26 ruling of a Cologne court that circumcision for religious reasons constitutes illegal bodily harm to infants. Opponents say that it violates bodily integrity of the child and should not be allowed until the boy is 14 and can choose for himself whether he wants to go through with it (the Biblical directive for male Hebrew children is the eighth day after birth). Although this is the first time such a law has resulted in charges being filed, similar legislations have begun to be proposed and in some cases passed in other parts of Europe. Nor is the US exempt-only last year a petition in San Francisco raised 12,000 signatures to have a ban placed on the fall ballot reportedly calling for $1000 fine and/or a year in prison for circumcising males beneath the age of 18. A week following the San Francisco action, a San Diego group proposed to ballot a circumcision ban in Santa Monica as well. In the event, a lawsuit brought by San Francisco's Jewish Community Relations Council was required to strike the measure from the November ballot (See: "Male circumcision ban proposed in Santa Monica"; JPOST.COM Staff, 05/25/2011 13:32; and "Israel faces a cynical world", by Caroline B. Glick, Column One, The Jerusalem Post 24 Aug 2012, p.24).
The case last week has raised a storm of protest in Jewish circles in Germany, in Israel and around the world. It has also wrought much confusion in legal systems affected. German officials this week brought in Israeli Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger to assist them in attempting to work out some manner of legal protection for Jews and Muslims in that nation who circumcise their children. Activists have suggested a number of alternatives, such as that a sort of "symbolic" ritual be developed to replace the actual cutting of the infant. Rabbi Metzger's response to such suggestions rings in a way which must find resonance back through four millennia of his ancestors, "This is our belief, and this is the root of the Jewish soul. It is a stamp, a seal on the body of a Jew." ("Accord Sought in Germany Over Circumcision Issue": New York Times, 21 Aug 2012).
It is critical to realize that the issue beginning to surface is something far more serious than the civil rights of children or even of religious groups. We are talking about human interference with Covenant-covenant initiated and cut by and with Elohim-Chaim-the "God of all Life". Cloaking itself in a 'humanitarian' mask, a great and evil power is beginning to make its move, and evil which hates God and despises all humankind made in His image. A covenant-hating spiritual system, it abhors especially those covenants cut with the Hebrew Fathers, covenants still in effect whose validation issues forth in life for all humanity.
LET US EXAMINE BRIEFLY SOME SCRIPTURES WHICH RELATE TO THE COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION AND WHY IT REMAINS OF ESSENTIAL IMPORTANCE TODAY
Genesis 12:6-7: The LORD (YHVH) brings Abram into a promised Land. When he first arrives at Shechem (site of modern-day Nablus), YHVH appears to Abram and promises that He will give this land to his seed. Abram responds by building an altar there to the God "who had appeared to him", first in Ur, now in Canaan.
Genesis 13:14: From a point near Bethel the LORD has Abram look in all four directions and promises all the land which he can see, to give it to him and to his seed forever.
Genesis 15:9-21: As a sign that Abram's seed will inherit the land (15:8), the Lord YHVH, whom Abram has now come to know as God Most High (14:22), cuts covenant with Abram, revealing that his descendants (seed) who will not return from Egypt for four hundred years, have nevertheless, now already been given title to the land.
Genesis 17: 8-14: Elohim (God) tells Abraham that he and all his seed after him throughout their generations are to keep his Covenant. Their part in doing this is that the foreskin of all new-born males must to be physically cut off on the 8th day-they are to be circumcised. God cuts covenant with Abraham in relation to giving him and his descendants the land-Abraham and his descendants adhere to and guard that covenant by the 'cutting' of circumcision. Those whose flesh is not cut off in this way will themselves be 'cut off' from God's covenant with the people of the land. It is inheritance that is at stake here. God's eternal Covenant with the physical seed of Abraham is forever integrally connected with the Land promised in that covenant.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ISAAC
Genesis 17:19-22: Elohim clarifies that His Covenant with the seed of Abraham and the Land will and must come through Isaac. Although there will be blessings for Ishmael (who was also circumcised as part of Abraham's house), the blessing of this Covenant will not continue through his seed (or that of anyone else). It must come through Isaac.
Note: on the 26th of October, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Adhai ("Greater Solemn Festival") in which they affirm and celebrate that Abraham obeyed God by the offering of Ishmael, not Isaac.that Isaac was in fact born as a gift for Ishmael's faithfulness in yielding himself to be sacrificed (just before a goat was revealed as a substitute). They circumcise their own sons-but they have been deluded into following a covenant void of Life. God's covenant brings LIFE. His Messiah Yeshua/Jesus/Yasuah, the Way, the Truth and the Life for the whole world, must come, through Isaac. Please pray for the billions of Muslims around the world-that they receive supernatural revelation and understanding about the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life-who came forth through the Covenant people, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-who died, was buried, and was raised again on behalf of all the sons and daughters of Adam everywhere!
*Circumcision is not a means of righteousness, it is a sign related to the unification in a particular place of a people God set apart and through whom His workings and blessings would be displayed and released to all the world. It was not introduced as part of the Torah (Law) of Moses, it is before the Law. The Torah grants a glimpse of the nature of God, of his righteousness, and the requirements of that righteousness upon mankind with whom He desires fellowship. It also provided a (temporary) means of sacrifices for cleansing where those requirements were not perfectly met. It served as a "schoolmaster to lead us all to Messiah."
*Yeshua (Jesus) was Himself identified with the people Israel and the Land (where He will one day physically reign) when He was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21).
*Under the New Covenant, non-Jews in the nations who came to faith were not required to be circumcised. Since it in no way was to be considered a means towards obtaining righteousness, its original purpose did not pertain to them (Acts 20:17-25; Epistle to the Galatians) - but Messianic Jews continued to observe it (also Acts 20:17-25). In Acts 16:1-5 it is recorded that Paul felt it imperative that Timothy, whose mother was Jewish, be circumcised.
It is impossible to come against God's purposes for the Land of Israel without at some point crossing with His purposes for the people He chose to steward that Land.
*Forcing Jews to abandon circumcision, or convincing them so to do would succeed in divorcing them from the inheritance which circumcision insures-their title to the Land of Israel.
*It should be instructive to realize that the initial places (Shechem, Bethel, Hebron) of God's promises and covenant with Abraham regarding his seed (through Isaac) and the Land all lie within the boundaries presently demanded by the world within which to form a Muslim State in which NO Jews would be allowed to live.
*The rationale behind demands for eradicating circumcision mirrors an ancient "Greek" (i.e. Secular Humanist) way of thinking. Such was the case in 164 BC when the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, in his zeal to eradicate Judaism and replace it with a Greek way of life, worship and thought also forbade circumcision. Zechariah 9:13 refers to a coming conflict between these two ideologies in the last days.
A STORM IS QUICKLY RISING
Is it mere coincidence that the very week in which criminal charges are brought against a Jewish man for following in the obedience of his ancient father Abraham when he circumcised Isaac-a tropical storm predicted to become a hurricane has arisen in the Atlantic and is presently roaring towards Florida and the Gulf of Mexico-the name of which storm is Isaac?
"Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of His pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples.He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightening. They turn around and around by His guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, He causes it to happen" (Job 36:29-31a; 37:11-13 ESV; Emphases ours).
May the Lord grant us ears to hear what His Spirit is speaking.
PLEASE PRAY:
*That the righteous within nations in which the Jewish covenant of circumcision is being threatened would rise up and take a stand against this prohibition; that their legislatures will implement laws protecting the rights of Jews to perform this ancient covenant practice given them by God.
*God's protection over the heartland specifically promised by covenant to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac. It is this area which is now being threatened to come under permanent sovereignty of adherers to a different covenant. (Later this week, Sept 25-Oct 1, all 193 members states of the UN will be gathered for the Annual Debate of the General Assembly, in which they are expected to be faced with a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.)
*Pray Ezekiel 36 over "the mountains of Israel" (an early Biblical name for the so-called "West Bank" of Judea and Samaria). It is here that the Lord GOD of Israel has promised the land will "shoot forth its branches and yield fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come" (vs. 8).
*That Jews in the nations being held back from realigning with their Covenant homeland by fear or mammon will realize that the freedoms they have been granted in the nations to "bring Israel there" may not always be there. Pray that those God is calling to return to Israel at this time will, in the closing words of last weeks Haftarah: "Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch nothing unclean.go out from the midst of her, be clean.For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard" (Isaiah 52:11-12).
