Joshua 5 The last Manna and Circumcision

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Joshua 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.(b)

4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. 5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. 6 The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal[c] to this day.

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. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after[d] they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.​

b. Joshua 5:3 Gibeath Haaraloth means the hill of foreskins.
c. Joshua 5:9 Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew for roll.
d. Joshua 5:12 Or the day

I didn't realize it was still raining Manna once a day six days a week.

I also didn't realize that these thousands of men hadn't been circumcised. Wait! They just invaded Canaan. Now I know the fact that God had dried the river [again] for them scared the Canaanites. That was in the story just a few verses ago.... But Wait! They are being circumcised.... we learned back in Genesis 34, circumcision makes a grown man useless for a while. Look at what happened to the men who raped Jacob's [Israel's] daughter.

Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where[c] their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.​

So these Israelite men were aware of the danger they would be putting themselves in being circumcised on what was essentially a battlefield.

They had a lot of faith in God watching over them.

This is from the easy English commentary.

The Israelites did not circumcise their sons when they were wandering in the desert.
There are several possible reasons why they did not do it.
· They could not do it in the desert. They did not have suitable tools.
· They did not want to do it in the desert. It would take a long time to recover.
· They knew that they themselves would not enter the *promised land. So there was no reason to do it.
· They knew that God’s promises were not for them. They had not obeyed God. They were no longer God’s people.​

This is from the blueletterbible.org site.

Circumcision was always a powerful act of consecration to God. In it, an Israelite said "I'm not like the other nations. I listen to God and do what He says I should do." It was stepping out in faithful obedience and identifying yourself as one of the LORD's people. It was renouncing the flesh and the world. It was dying to self and living to God.

Just so you get a feel for this circumcision.... here's a picture of a what a flint knife would have looked like back then.

flint.jpg

The idea of someone cutting on me with one of these.... gives me the willies. I can only imagine how a man would feel about this notion.

:coffee:
 
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