As the sign of the covenant, circumcision was a symbolic reminder of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants. As Stephen Wellum notes, the primary purpose of the rite was to mark out a physical seed in preparation for the coming of Messiah. It did so in two complementary ways. First, it marked out Israel as a national entity and distinguished the individuals in that nation as a part of God’s covenant people. Second, it marked out a male line of descent from Abraham to David to Christ so that