When God gave the the promises contained in the Abrahamic covenant in Gen 15, 17, 18:9-15, 22:15-18, several things were made very clear:
- God was to fulfill the promises miraculously, WITHOUT assistance of Abraham or any other human
- The Abrahamic covenant essentially contained two promises: (a) the promise of the land of Canaan, and, (b) the promise of a son to create the promised descendants as numerous as the sand on the sea shore.
The covenant word in Hebrew is "berith" meaning "to cut" and thus, the covenant was solemnized by cutting several animals in half (Gen 15) and God's presence passed between the halved animals essentially saying that God promises to fulfill these promises.
The symbol/sign/token (Heb: "oth") of this Abrahamic covenant, the "badge of honor" was designated as circumcision (Gen 17:10, 11, 13, Rom 4:11).
Now, when the Israelites heard the report of the spies (Num 13) three things occurred:
- They effectively rejected God's ability to miraculously fulfill His promises to Abraham to take the land of Caanan
- Following this, they then decided to try and take the land by human effort alone without the blessing and direction of God (Num 14) and were soundly defeated. They were thus doomed to wander 40 years in the desert while all the people over 20 years old died.
- because the people had rejected the Abrahamic covenant, circumcision ceased.
$040 yeas later, when the Israelites were prepared to accept God's miraculous workings and leading, they were allowed to re-institute the Abrahamic covenant by re-instituting circumcision, Josh 5:2-8. Then they proceeded to conquer the land.
Thus, the Abrahamic covenant appears to have been suspended during the 40 years of wilderness wandering.