Lev. 12:2-3 ESV revised

Who are the children of Israel?

The children of Israel have the obligation of circumcising their male children on their eighth day. Those who aren't children of Israel don't have this obligation. The children of Noach aren't children of Israel and therefore they can't circumcise their children (except for medical reasons). They are not in the covenant of the circumcision of the flesh. The children of Noach who've received salvation through the Messiah have been made children of the Eternal, but they still are not children of Israel and therefore they are not obliged and not allowed to introduce their children in the covenant of the circumcision. There is no such thing as a new Israel made up of gentiles. That idea is a violation of the Torah and of the teachings of the prophets of Israel.

If a child of Noach wants to partake in the covenant of the circumcision, he has to circumcise all his sons who are not adult, as it is written in Exodus 12:48: "If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it." (ESV)

This teaches us that the gentiles' co-citizenship with the children of Israel in the Messiah, the one Paul mentions in Ephesians 2:19, is not on earth but in heaven, in the heavenly Yerushalayim, as it is written in Hebrews 12:22: "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly." (NIVUK)

In Ephesians 2:19-22 it is written: "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." (NIVUK revised)

This text doesn't speak of citizenship with the people of Israel on earth, but of fellow citizenship in the Eternal's house in heaven, the heavenly temple and the heavenly city. They are two different dimensions that cannot be mixed.

No born-again child of Noach who has thus received fellow citizenship in the heavenly city can use that citizenship on earth to claim rights to live in the land of Israel and be a citizen of the state of Israel, nor can he claim to be a member of the Jewish people.

The work of the Messiah among the gentiles lifts them to become children of the Eternal and members of His heavenly family together with all the Jews that are in the Messiah. However not even because of that, can they be called children of Israel, unless they enter the covenant of circumcision and submit to the Heaven-established rabbinical authorities that establish Jewish laws.

So when the Torah pronounces laws for the children of Israel, as in the text we've highlighted today, the ones redeemed from among the nations are not included in those laws; therefore, the law of circumcising of all male children does not apply to them.

Shavua tov,

Ketriel