The nation of Israel arrived safely on the other side of
the Jordan River. Their crossing was a great miracle, and it sent a great
message to the people of the land (5:1). The Canaanites were already afraid
(2:9-11), and now their fears totally demoralized them. You would have expected
Joshua to mobilize the army immediately and attack Jericho. After all, the
people of Israel were united in following the Lord; and the people of the land
were paralyzed by fear. From the human point of view, it was the perfect time
for Joshua to act.
But God's thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isa.
55:8-9); and Joshua was getting his orders from the Lord, not from the military
experts. The nation crossed the river on the tenth day of the first month
(Josh. 4:19). The events described in Joshua 5 took at least ten days, and then
the people marched around Jericho for six more days. God waited over two weeks
before giving His people their first victory in the land.
God's people must be prepared before they can be trusted
with victory. The triumphant conquest of the land was to be the victory of God,
not the victory of Israel or of Joshua. It was neither the expertise of the
Jewish army nor the emotions of the enemy that would give Israel the victory,
but the presence and blessing of the Lord. Here in Joshua 5, we see that there
were three steps of preparation necessary before God would give His people
victory over the nations in the land of Canaan.
First, in verses 1-9, they needed to renew the sign of the Lord's
covenant with Israel. After triumphantly crossing the Jordan River, the nation
had to pause at Gilgal while the men submitted to painful surgery. Why did God
command this ritual at this time? They needed to restore their covenant
relationship (Josh. 5:2-7). Israel is a covenant nation; a privilege God has
given to no other nation on earth (Rom. 9:4-5). God gave His covenant to
Abraham when He called him out of Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 12:1-3), and He
sealed that covenant with a sacrifice (Genesis 15). God gave circumcision as
the sign of the covenant to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:9-14,
23-27; note especially v. 11). Other nations in that day practiced
circumcision, but the ritual didn't carry with it the spiritual meaning that it
did for the Jews.
Through this ritual the Jews became a "marked
people" because they belonged to the true and living God. This meant that
they were under obligation to obey Him. The mark of the covenant reminded them
that their bodies belonged to the Lord and were not to be used for sinful
purposes. Israel was surrounded by nations that worshiped idols and included in
their worship rituals that were sensual and degrading. The mark of the covenant
reminded the Jews that they were a special people, a separated people, a holy nation
(Ex. 19:5-6), and that they were to maintain purity in their marriages, their
society, and their worship of God.
It only took one day for the people of Israel to cross the
Red Sea and get out of Egypt, but it took 40 years of trials and testing for
God to get Egypt out of them. If we are to enjoy and experience victory in our
battles with the Jericho’s and the giants we will face on our spiritual
journey, we also must go through the painful experience of cutting off the
fleshly, carnal things in our lives that will hinder our effectiveness in
serving the Lord!
What habit or sin is in your life today, that is keeping
you from enjoying God’s best?
God bless!
