So we know that circumcision is symbolic of being clean even in your private parts, even to the extent of cutting off parts of yourself, if they are opposed to holiness and sanctification in the Lord.

If a “type” is involved, often there will be indicators.

I cannot say it is always that way, but it is often that way. If one thing in history is a type, a shadow, a pattern of something else; the clues that symbolism is involved will often come soon in history. Sometimes the tip-off will be little inconsistencies between the text and the example. In the present case, one tip off is in the clear statement made in Deut 10:16.

Israel was early very hard-hearted and stubborn.

She was not even open to what God Himself might command. She wanted to do everything her own way. She trusted not in God, but in herself, and in her ability to do and to perform. Moses commented on these things.

“For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death?”
Deut 31:27 WEB

Moses of course was right, and this true even to this day. Moses commented on their character.

“ They have dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, it is their blemish;
They are a perverse and crooked generation.”
Deut 32:5 WEB

What can you say but “Ouch!” This is a judgment of Israel that we hear repeated by both the prophets and the Christ Himself in passages like Mtt 17:7, and many others.

And an important prophecy was given about Israel.

One day God Himself will purify the hearts of Israel after the flesh.

“Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.”
Deut 30:6 WEB

There are many conditional promises in God’s Word.

“and he said, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, … I will …”
Ex 15:26 WEB

And so on. However, Deut 30:6 is NOT a conditional promise. It is rather a statement of what God WILL DO. God WILL perform heart surgery on the Jews.

“and he said, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.””
Ezek 36:26 WEB

And this is for the purpose “that you may live,” Deut 30:6.

Now the Jews have practiced physical
circumcision all along.

But that is not the circumcision that is necessary for life. Circumcision of the heart is the real essential, even in Moses Law. Circumcision was from the first symbolic of cleansing the most private parts of our being: our hearts.

But this circumcision of the hearts of the Jews is yet to happen. But it will. Both Jew and Gentile should look forward to those days.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901