TUESDAY Reflections
The question might be asked as to why the
children of Israel didn't circumcise their children in the wilderness. The pain
of waiting definitely made it more painful, but this is a subject I'm going to
let you think about. However, whatever the reason the time has now come to deal
with their disobedience because without obedience they will not have God's help
in taking the promised land.
What caught my attention more in this chapter
we the end of God's provision. Once they had supplies they could live on the
manna ceased. This wasn't even new corn but old corn and what they could get
from the land. At this point, the children of Israel didn't need God's
provision of manna so God quit providing it.
This reminds me that just because God gave
you a blessing in the past doesn't mean you will get it forever. Parents of
healthy children expect that they will begin feeding themselves and quit
feeding them. Children don't always like it when parents expect them to grow up
and we don't always like it when God does the same for us.
We would like the feeling of God's presence
to be like it was at the beginning or at some special place or meeting, but God
knows we can survive without it. God expects us like he did Israel to survive
without the miracle. On the other hand, when the miracle of manna ended, the
miracle of victory began. Once a child begins feeding themselves, then come
greater challenges, greater freedom, and greater (if I can use this word)
blessings.
Jos 5:1-15
(1) And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.
(2) At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
(3) And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
(4) And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
(5) Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
(6) For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
(7) And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.
(8) And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.
(9) And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
(10) And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
(11) And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
(12) And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
(13) And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
(14) And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
(15) And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
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