This transcript was auto-generated. 

The covenant of circumcision disclosed by God in the last episode is probably the first time in recorded history that humanity established the idea that sacrificed was necessary to move ahead to a new place in life. The principle of moving through loss and sacrifice in order to obtain something better is established here. These days it’s all too easy to think we are moving ahead in life without making a sacrifice or thinking that we always progress through life without in some way dealing with the mistakes of the past. But the idea that you have to give up something in the present to move forward can't be overstated. The idea being taught here is that God requires from us a degree of sacrifice necessary to ensure the future is safe and secure and productive and positive. Not just here for Abraham, but for the future generations that will follow on right up to and including us.

However, two questions immediately rise from this position. 

1             What is the proper type of sacrifice we should make?

We saw previously with Cain and Abel that there could be a right type of sacrificed and a wrong type of sacrifice. So, there is something about a sacrifice that can be correct, and there's something about a type of sacrifice that can be seen as not proper. If we are going to sacrifice then how can we be sure we do it in a way that is respectful and correct before God? A sacrifice meaningful enough to deal with the past and good enough that it acknowledges the future. That’s question 1 

2             How good might life become if we make the appropriate sacrifices along the way? 

If Abrahams future could be better because of his sacrifice, and sacrifices can vary in quality, then how much better could our future be if our sacrifices was of the highest quality possible. How good could our life be if we really got your perspective right. How good might things be if you could sacrifice the things that are impeding you in your movement forward. If only there was some way your sacrificed could marked and perfected by God himself. 

Well, it has been friends. Christ's passion and death on the cross is what some called an archetypical sacrifice. Because the events are not just true in history, but because it's demonstrating a kind of example of the limits of sacrifice, and it demonstrates perfection. Because it's the worst possible set of things that can happen to the best possible person who ever lived.The Book of Hebrews teaches us; 

“Since this is true, how much more is accomplished by the blood of Christ! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God”.

(Heb 9:14)

It's a story that lays before us the plumb line, the representation of Christ as the perfect sacrifice. So that's the territory this 17th chapter of Genesis covers, that is the foundation stones that these Genesis stories are laying, and as we work through them, we can use these stories as anchor in life. We will continue to lay those foundations together in the next episode.