Joshua 05
5:1 When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites.
The Amorites and Canaanites were frightened. It would seem that this would be a good time for Israel to attack.
A New Generation is Circumcised
5:2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.”
Circumcision was a ritual of the Abrahamic Covenant which was to be enforced on every Jewish male. Israel had lived in the wilderness for 38 years and they had not circumcised their male children.
5:3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of the Foreskins.
This circumcision would place the Israelite army at great risk. Notice that God waited to call for this circumcision after the Israel soldiers crossed the Jordan. Jericho was only two miles away.
5:4 This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt.
The parents were circumcised in Egypt, but they all died out in the wilderness.
5:5 Now all the men who left were circumcised, but all the sons born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.
The children who were born in the wilderness were never circumcised. Their parents were indifferent and even rebellious to this divinely-given ritual.
5:6 Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, a land rich in milk and honey.
All of this parental generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness without circumcising their children.
5:7 He replaced them with their sons, whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way.
Joshua circumcised the sons, since their dead parents had refused to do so.
5:8 When all the men had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they had healed.
The soldiers were in a weakened condition at this time.
5:9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal even to this day.
While Israel was enslaved, Egypt mocked Israel and their God for not being able to sustain them in the land.
5:10 So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.
Israel arrived at Gilgal on the 14th day of the month, the exact day in which God chose for the Passover. God’s timing is sovereign.
5:11 They ate some of the produce of the land the day after the Passover, including unleavened bread and roasted grain. 5:12 The manna stopped appearing the day they ate some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again.
Israel was no longer to eat manna. They were now to eat from the fruit of the land.
Israel Conquers Jericho
5:13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?”
Joshua was ready to fight the stranger.
5:14 He answered, “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. Now I have arrived!” Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?”
The soldier was the pre-incarnate Christ. He was the commander of the angelic army. Joshua recognized Him and worshipped Him.
5:15 The commander of the Lord’s army answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.
The pre-incarnate Christ asked Joshua to remove his sandals, because he was standing on holy ground. It was King Jesus, not General Joshua, who was in charge of this campaign.