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1. Read verses 1-3. How did the event of the Israelites’ crossing the Jordan influence all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast? At this time what did the LORD command Joshua to do? Why such a seemingly irrelevant command? How did Joshua respond to it? 2. Read verses 4-9. Why did Joshua do so? What was the point of the long description of the reason? After the whole nation’s circumcision, what was done? What was God’s comment on this event? What does it mean? 3. Read verses 10-12. On the fourteenth day of the month, what did the Israelites celebrate? The day after the celebration, what did they eat? What was the meaning of the manna stopping? 4. Read verses 13-15. Who was the man whom Joshua saw as he was near Jericho? What did Joshua ask? How did the man reply? What did the man command Joshua? What was Joshua’s response?

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Message

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Thank God for teaching us the significance of a sense of history through the event of taking up and setting up the twelve stones of Jordan. Based on the word of God we imagined a beautiful conversation between a father and a child in a home. May we know that our home is the best and the most important education centre and raise our children in the words of God and prayer with a sense of God’s history so that all our children may grow up to be very influential men and women of God in this country and in this generation. In today’s passage we see another striking event in the book of Joshua, and in the Bible. It is not the story of another miracle or victory; it is the story about a whole nation’s circumcision, the circumcision of God’s chosen people right before an important battle. It reveals God’s heart’s desire for them to be circumcised holy people and live accordingly in this world. Victory is there in it. May we listen to his word in Joshua 5. First, circumcision of the Israelites (1-9). Look at verse 1. “Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.” This was exactly what God and the Israelites had aimed in crossing the Jordan. Things happened as they had expected. What a chance to attack and swallow up the enemies! They were bread [ready to be devoured by the Israelites. They must have been waiting for God’s imminent command, “Now go and fight; kill and eat!” But what was God’s direction at this most opportune time? Look at verse 2. “At that time the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” Who on earth can expect such a command before the enemies? Humanly speaking, it would be like a suicidal act, national suicide. Why did they have to have such an operation, causing much pain on their body at such an urgent time for war? If cancer was spreading, this kind of command was understandable. However, this was not the situation. Yet, God’s command to Joshua was unambiguous, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites.” Again, Joshua’s obedient response surprises us: “So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.” The God who gave the command of circumcision to his people before the very eyes of the enemies is truly a holy God. He was more interested in his people Israelites themselves than their victory or success. He wants them to be his people, circumcised and made holy. Then, let’s think about circumcision. The literal meaning is to cut off the foreskin of the child-producing organ. It is a painful operation, more painful, when done by the flint knives. Its origin is written in Genesis 17 concerning Abraham. God had called Abraham with his great purpose to make him a blessing. Abraham obeyed God’s calling and began his life of faith. When he believed in God in an impossible situation against all hope, his faith was credited as righteousness. But there was a certain period of his life when he became complacent after getting a son Ishmael through human compromise by a maid servant in his house. The time of complacency lasted 13 long years. In the spiritual world complacency makes a person insensitive to various kinds of spiritual diseases until deadened in spirit. At the time of spiritual emergency God appeared to Abraham as God Almighty to wake him up from his terrible spiritual condition. Abraham fell facedown and was repentant. Abram’s desire was just to be a noble father for a son. But God revealed his great desire again to raise him as a father of many nations. So at this time God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. And then God let him undergo the painful operation of circumcision along with the son Ishmael and all the men, born in his household or bought with money from a foreigner. Abraham obeyed this direction: on that day Abraham, his son Ishmael and every male were circumcised as God told him. Since then, circumcision would be the sign of being God’s chosen people. Those who had not been circumcised would be cut off from the people of God. As for Abraham, circumcision involved cutting off his petty human desire to live just as a good father of a compromised son and accepting God’s great desire for him to be a father of many nations. It was his heart commitment to God. So circumcision was more than just physical circumcision. Moses said Deuteronomy 10:16-17, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome…” And Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 4:4, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem...” St. Paul also said, “…circumcision is circumcision of the heart…” (Ro 2:29) Always, man’s fundamental problem is heart problem: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jer 17:9) and it is the hotbed of all corruption (Mk 7:21). It is the very heart that circumcision has to be done. St. Paul explained further the spiritual meaning of circumcision in Colossians 2:11-12, “In him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” It is to cut off our sinful nature and sinful way of living, believing that our old self was crucified and buried with Christ, and our new self was raised with him. Circumcision is equivalent to baptism in the New Testament, and this is the spiritual meaning of baptism. When we believe in Christ, we are baptized into Christ, into his death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may life a new life” (Ro 6:2-4). How painful it must have been to be circumcised by the flint knives in the field! The whole nation was circumcised at Gibeath Haaraloth, meaning “hill of foreskins.” The foreskins were piled up into a hill. We can imagine that the smell of the blood spread in the sky and the groaning voice out of pain, constrained before the enemies, silently echoed in the air on that day. God knew that the physical circumcision would not make them clean and holy. But he revealed his heart desire to have a holy nation of his people even through physical circumcision. It is interesting that Moses was called “bridegroom of blood” by his wife Zipporah on account of circumcision (Ex 4:25-26). In truth our Lord Jesus is our bridegroom, the bridegroom of blood, for his whole body, not a part, was torn on the cross, shedding his holy blood for our cleansing. He became a scapegoat that carried on itself all our sins and the sins of the world and was sent into a desert (Lev 16:8,10,22). He was cut off from the land of living (Isa 53:8) and killed on the hill of Golgoda (Jn 19:17), removing our sins and piling them up there outside the city. Thus God separated us from sin. For this, the Lamb of God groaned on the tree out of physical, mental and spiritual pain and suffering. In this grace St. Paul said in Colossians 3:5-10, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed…now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self…and have put on the new self…” May we live as his circumcised people, as pure brides to our Lord Jesus Christ. In verses 4-7 is written the reason why Joshua did as God commanded him. It starts with the words, “Now this is why he did so,” and ends, “these were the ones Joshua circumcised.” Here is a clear description of who were circumcised and who were not circumcised. All the circumcised men of military age died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt. For they had not obeyed the LORD. And it took forty years for the death of all those people. Also, it was the time for their sons to be born in the desert and grow to be of military age. God waited until this time of transition. Our God is the God of patience, enormous patience, and the God of no compromise. At the right time he had the new generations of military age be circumcised. Even if it took time, God wanted his holy and obedient people. And God made it sure that they were circumcised before fighting: verse 7b says, “They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.” Look at verse 8. “And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.” When they were circumcised and lying in camp, there was no human defence at all. But God protected them until they were healed. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. It was God’s shame that his people lived with the slave mentality that was formed in Egypt. He did not want the trace of Egypt to remain in his redeemed people. It shows how God wants his people to live. He does not want his people to live in this world with the spirit of slaves, the Egyptian spirit, in complaints and self-pity, dispirited, dejected and defeated. He wants his people with clear new identity and health pride. Nowadays identity problem is serious. Many want to have their identities in their appearance or possessions. But God’s people should be different. The identity of God’s circumcised people is well shown in David. 1 Samuel 17, David was a mere 17 year-old boy with no war experience when he had to fight Goliath the Philistine champion, 3m tall and fully armed. As David heard of Goliath’s insulting God’s people, he said to the Israelites, “…Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (Sa 17:26) And he said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (Sa 17:45). While all the men of Israel were melted in fear, David was not. Rather, he was full of sense of victory before fighting because of his confiding in the living God. His identity as a circumcised one was truly great with his healthy pride soaring sky high. St. Peter said to the early suffering Christians, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, belonging to God…” (2 Peter 2:9). God wants his people to live with their heads lifted high circumcised in heart through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants the place we live to be Gilgal, the place of God’s grace and our fighting camp (5:10; 9:6; 10:6,7,9,15,43; 12:23; 14:6; 15:7). Second, the celebration of the Passover (10-12). Look at verse 10. “On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.” It was the third time they celebrated the Passover. The first Passover was when they were in Egypt. The Israelites killed their lambs and put the blood of the lambs on their door posts according to God’s instruction given through Moses. The angel of death passed over the houses with the blood, while the angel killed all the firstborn of Egypt. That night they ate unleavened bread and hurried to leave Egypt. Then, the next year on the fourteenth day of the first month, they celebrated it on the Mount Sinai. For the past 38 years, they hadn’t been able to celebrate this great Passover in the desert. Now the new people of the circumcised celebrated the Passover, remembering God’s grace of marvelous deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. The place of this celebration was Gilgal with no reproach of Egypt, on the plains of Jericho. What a meaningful celebration! In our Christian life remembering the grace of salvation is most important. After this celebration the manna stopped. It stopped raining from heaven after they ate the produce of the land. What accurate provision! After making sure that they ate the food from the land, it stopped. The manna had been God’s provision for their survival for the past 40 years. From now on God’s provision would be different. It would be through the produce of Canaan, the promised land. God would give them strong health to work hard on the land God cared for with proper rain from heaven (Dt 11:11-12). God would make their hand of work fruitful. Third, the holy ground (13-15). Look at verse 13. “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.” General Joshua was surprised with the sudden appearance of this armed man. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Show me your ID. Are you for us or for our enemies?” How did the man reply? “Neither,” he said, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?” The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” The command sounded strange. In our understanding, the commander should have said, “Tighten your army shoes, for the place you are standing is a battle ground. Cheer up.” Contrarily, however, the commander said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” This could be the final preparation of General Joshua for the battle into Jericho. He had to recognize the holy presence of the LORD and surrender himself fully to the LORD. The place where we are standing, whether in church, campus, company, home etc. is a holy ground. God wants us to recognize his presence and rely on him, surrendering ourselves to him. Before exams or any task, this can be our final preparation. God wants us to learn to surrender ourselves fully to him even right before a battle. Today we thought about the circumcision of the Israelites, their celebration of the Passover, and the holy ground. We thank God for his grace of redemption and circumcision in Christ. May we circumcise our hearts time and again and live as his circumcised people with a divine identity so that we can be true victors in the holy ground of our spiritual battle.

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