Coin with the Image of Xerxes (520-465 BC), King of the Persian Empire
clipart.com
In Hispanic ESL on Thursday evenings, we are reading the Book of Esther to pick up vocabulary and grammar and to practice conversation skills by acting out scenes. When in Chapter 1, we got to King Xerxes sending his eunuchs to order Queen Vashti to appear before the drunken King and men of the city, my students didn't know what the term "eunuch" meant in English or in its counterpart in Spanish. So, I explained. They had barely grasped the shock of that idea, when one of the ladies asked, "What is circumcision?" I first described the medical procedure and its purposes. More shocked expressions! Apparently in many rural parts of Mexico, they've never practiced or heard much of circumcision. Then I got into the history of circumcision, which took us to Genesis. I explained that circumcision was a sign to continually remind God's people that God had a covenant with them and their offspring to be their God and to give them an eternal inheritance. Their part of the covenant was to keep the sign of the covenant, circumcision, according to God's instructions.
The requirements of circumcision were repeated in the law God gave to Moses, so we went to the Psalms to read of the sweetness of God's laws, and to Leviticus to see some of those laws. The law itself set the nation of Israel apart from the idolatrous nations around them, protecting them with great social justice and health practices, and brought God glory. God commanded his people to exercise faith by obeying his laws, including keeping themselves wholly unto him without worshiping other gods, loving him and obeying him, which try as they might, they were never able to do. We then considered an additional purpose of the law, to show people the sinfulness of their hearts and their utter helplessness to obey without God's supernatural intervention.
That took us to teachings of Deuteronomy, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians, which explain the futility and the pride-infused boastfulness that comes from trusting in works, such as circumcision of the flesh, without ever having had a "circumcision of the heart." It is through circumcision of the heart, through faith in the provisions of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, explains Paul, that we become true descendants of Abraham, confident of a covenant relationship with God who promises all who believe an eternal inheritance.
All this was in Spanish and although I had the truths in my head, I only had some of the references readily in mind, but I now have a listing of verses to give them for further reading together in the future. We ran out of time for ESL, but we did practice the "th" of many ordinal numbers, such as in "On the seventh day when the heart of the king was merry with wine..."—it's a really hard sound for most of them.
Want to share the Gospel with friends, family, or co-workers? Start a conversation about eunuchs and get to circumcision. It is a clear path to the Gospel from there!
