A. The second work at Gilgal: Israel’s radical obedience.
1. (1) The fear of Israel’s enemies at the faith and obedience of Israel.
So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.
a. Their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel: The idea of a melted heart is a complete loss of strength and resistance. The Canaanites were stunned and terrified by the Israelites and the God who was with them.
i. “For the Canaanites, the events of the preceding days were a horror story. They had been terrified enough by seeing the Israelite hordes—some two million strong—spread out along the eastern bank of the Jordan. It was obvious that the Jews intended to invade the western lands. But the water was at flood stage. The people could not cross. There seemed to be time to get ready. Suddenly the waters ceased flowing, the people crossed over, and a battle was imminent. The suddenness of the crossing terrified everyone.” (Boice)
ii. “Worldly wisdom would have called for an immediate attack while the people of the land were disheartened and before they could make last-minute preparations. Instead, God called for a three-day delay while Israel observed the two sacraments.” (Boice)
iii. “‘Amorites’ and ‘Canaanites’ are terms used to describe the same peoples. Their locations refer to peoples living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. The descriptions, two parallel lines, identify all the areas of the land and emphasize the total number of the rulers in Canaan.” (Hess)
b. Heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel: The miraculous passage through the Jordan was not only a testimony to Israel, but also to the Canaanites. It was an additional warning to them that God’s judgment was on the way, coming through the armies of Israel.
i. Rahab had already reported to the Israelite spies that the Canaanites knew of, and were terrified by, the great things God had done for Israel (Joshua 2:9-11). The miraculous crossing of the Jordan added to their dread that judgment was coming from the LORD, Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel.
2. (2-3) The circumcision of Israel at Gilgal.
At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
a. Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time: Apparently, none of the sons born during the forty years of waiting in the wilderness had been circumcised. There is no biblical record of circumcision being practiced during the Exodus, and Exodus 4:24-26 suggests it was a neglected practice among the Jewish people. This was put right at Gilgal.
i. “In front of them lies Jericho and hundreds of other places like it that have to be captured. War is about to begin, for blessings and battles always go together in the Christian life. The greater the blessing, the greater the battle with the powers of darkness, and only the Christian who presses right in to God will secure His best. But before they engage in war, before they rush in to attack Jericho, the Israelites have to learn some vital lessons while they wait at Gilgal. To wait to receive instructions from God is what every Christian finds to be the hardest thing in life to do.” (Redpath)
ii. Here, flint knives were used even though the Israelites had use of metals. This may have been because of a tradition, connected to symbolic significance. “And as God commanded the people to make him an altar of unhewn stone, on which no tool of iron had been lifted up, because this would pollute it (see Exodus 20:25 and Deuteronomy 27:5), he might require that no instrument of iron should be used in a rite by which the body and soul of the person were in the most solemn and sacred manner dedicated to him to be his house and temple.” (Clarke)
iii. “The flint knives are best understood as obsidian…. The smooth and sharp surface of this sort of knife enjoyed popularity for ritual and non-ritual purposes long after the development of metal knives.” (Hess)
b. The hill of the foreskins: With an entire generation left uncircumcised in the wilderness years, virtually all the men of Israel needed to have their foreskins surgically removed with flint knives. They didn’t make a hill out of the foreskins; the place where the surgeries were performed came to be known as the hill of the foreskins.
i. “When God reaffirmed his covenant with Abraham, promising him the land of Canaan, he warned him that anyone who was not circumcised would be violating the covenant (Genesis 17:7–14). Consequently, Israel could not claim the covenant land until the sign of the covenant had been restored.” (Madvig)
3. (4-7) The reason why so many men of Israel were uncircumcised.
And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
a. For all the people who came out had been circumcised: The men of the generation that left Egypt had been circumcised, but that generation did not obey the voice of the LORD and they failed to take by faith the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey. Because of this failure to trust God, they died in the wilderness on the way.
i. It’s hard to explain why none of the male children born to the Israelites during the 40 years in the wilderness were circumcised. Circumcision was an important part of the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:9-14). It was affirmed by the law of God given at Mount Sinai (Leviticus 12:3). Yet there were apparently no circumcisions carried out on the males of Israel during the 40-year exodus.
ii. After the first Passover held when leaving Egypt (Exodus 12:1-28), Israel commemorated a second Passover at Mount Sinai one year later (Numbers 9:1-2). They probably circumcised all who had been born in the previous year before the celebration of Passover at Sinai. There is no record of Passover observance in the 38 years in the wilderness, and it is likely that no children were circumcised after the Sinai Passover until Israel crossed the Jordan and came into the Promised Land.
iii. “The generation of Joshua 5 took upon itself all the responsibilities of the covenant through the covenantal sign of circumcision. Through circumcision, it could lay claim to the promises of the land that God had given to Abraham and to his descendants.” (Hess)
b. Then Joshua circumcised their sons: In obedience to God under both the covenants God made with Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14) and the nation of Israel (Leviticus 12:3), the sons of the new generation were circumcised at Gilgal.
i. Circumcision was not unknown in the ancient world. It was a ritual practice among various peoples. Yet for the Israelite, “Circumcision was to every man a constant, evident sign of the covenant into which he had entered with God, and of the moral obligations under which he was thereby laid.” (Clarke)
ii. There were undoubtedly hygienic reasons for circumcision, especially making sense in the ancient world. But more importantly, circumcision is a cutting away of the flesh and an appropriate sign of the covenant for those who should put no trust in the flesh. Also, because circumcision deals with the organ of procreation, it was a reminder of the special seed of Abraham, which would ultimately bring the Messiah.
iii. In Colossians 2:11-12, the Apostle Paul connected the ideas of circumcision and Christian baptism. His idea was that in Jesus we are spiritually circumcised, and we are also buried with Jesus in baptism. Paul did not say that baptism is the sign of the covenant Christians receive and live under, the new covenant. Even if that connection is made, it is important to note that one was genetically born into the covenant described here and in Genesis 17. One is not genetically born into the new covenant; one is born again into it by God’s grace through faith. It is wrong and harmful to make the analogy, “babies were circumcised, so babies should be baptized.”
4. (8) The faith demonstrated by Israel’s obedience to the command to circumcise.
So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed.
a. They stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed: The surgical procedure carried at this time and place made all the men of fighting age completely vulnerable and unable to defend the nation for a period of several days, till they were healed.
i. Genesis 34:24-25 describes how Simeon and Levi killed all the men in a city after tricking them into becoming circumcised. While the men of Shechem were unable to fight and defend themselves properly, they were slaughtered in retaliation for the rape of Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi. This could have been the fate of Israel here in Joshua 5.
ii. “This circumcising was a strange thing for Joshua, a keen military commander, to do. He was incapacitating his whole fighting force, an absolutely unmilitary act. It is silly to march your men right into the teeth of the enemy and then disable your own people. Joshua did it, nevertheless, because God told him to.” (Schaeffer)
b. Till they were healed: Israel had camped for many months in the plains on the eastern side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho (Numbers 22:1). God could have commanded this mass circumcision then, when they were protected from the Canaanites by the barrier of the Jordan. Instead, God waited until they had crossed the Jordan, and were more vulnerable to the Canaanites, to make their army defenseless. In faith, Israel obeyed. They trusted God to protect them when their fighting men couldn’t. This faith would lead to the conquest of Canaan.
i. God only required this great trust from Israel after He showed His greatness by the Jordan River crossing (Joshua 3:14-17). God requires radical acts of trusting obedience from His people, but He also gives them many and great reasons to trust Him.
5. (9) God rolls away Israel’s disgrace.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
a. This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you: This disgrace or reproach was the disgrace Israel carried from Egypt, the shame of their degrading slavery.
i. The reproach was rolled away by their radical trust and obedience to God, by taking the specific action He told them to.
ii. It could be said of the generation that died in the wilderness, “they remind us of Egypt.” The new generation was to have no such connection; by their faith and obedience they were a Promised Land people, not a slave people.
iii. The people of God suited for His Promised Land:
· Have been set free from Egypt.
· Have left Egypt.
· Know God is real and put Him first.
· Observe God’s commands and His rules. They accept His Lordship.
· Make a true assessment of their present condition.
· Bring order and organization into their lives.
· Receive and practice God’s ordinances.
· Trust in God’s provision.
· Trust God’s provision through their hard work.
· Make memorials of the great things God has done.
· Live their lives on the principle of faith.
· See God work in their day as in previous days, but not in exactly the same way.
· Take risks for God.
· Don’t expect lives of ease and comfort.
· Deal with sin in their midst.
· Conquer as they follow their Joshua.
· Are in a process that takes patience.
b. Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal: The name Gilgal means “rolling.” When Israel came into Canaan through the miracle of the dry riverbed of the Jordan and by the radical obedience at Gilgal, these marked the final steps in their transition from being a slave people in Egypt to being a free people suited for God’s Promised Land. This completed a dramatic shift in their national identity.
i. By analogy, God does a similar work among His people today. God takes away the dishonor and shame of previous sin and rebellion and lifts His people into freedom and high standing in Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience on the part of God’s people play a significant role in this work.
B. The third work at Gilgal: Israel remembers God’s work of redemption.
1. (10-11) The Passover is celebrated: looking back to their redemption from Egypt.
Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day.
a. And kept the Passover: God brought Israel through the Jordan and into Canaan on the day when Passover preparations were to begin (Joshua 4:19, Exodus 12:2-3). Now as the fourteenth day of the month began at twilight (Exodus 12:6) they celebrated their first Passover in the Promised Land.
b. After the Passover: The feast of Passover commemorated the great work of redemption God did for Israel in freeing them from their slavery in Egypt. There was a sense of completion in this Passover, they were no longer in the wilderness but in the Promised Land.
2. (12) A new source of provision: God stops the manna.
Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.
a. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land: When Israel was able to provide for themselves from the rich produce of Canaan, God stopped the manna. He didn’t want Israel to get lazy but to live in a new partnership of trust with Him.
i. Israel had to trust God to bring the manna every day, but they also had to trust Him to provide through other means. This fulfilled what God had said in Exodus 16:35: And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
b. They ate the food of the land of Canaan that year: God always provides, but He is perfectly free to change the source of His provision as it pleases Him. God’s people should trust in Him, not in His manner of provision.
i. “They were now fed with the corn of the land, and their future supply would depend on their own labour. They would be as surely fed by God in the land as they had been in the wilderness; but they would now be responsible for co-operation with Him in the labour of their own hands. This is ever so. For the needs of His people God always provides…. When it is possible for them to act and to work, He provides for them through that activity. God never employs supernatural methods of supplying needs which can be met by natural means.” (Morgan)
ii. Gilgal was marked by three important things.
· A memorial of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan (Joshua 4:19-24).
· The radical, faith-filled obedience of Israel in carrying out circumcision when vulnerable to their enemies (Joshua 5:1-9).
· The remembrance of God’s work of redemption in Passover (Joshua 5:10-11).
Gilgal became a beachhead and camp for Israel in their conquest of Canaan. They returned to Gilgal after battle and remembered, finding strength in the remembrance of the memorial, of their obedience, and of their redemption.
iv. By analogy, it is good for the believer to have the things Gilgal represented to Israel. God’s people need memorials of His great works, events of radical, faith-filled obedience, and remembrance of their redemption.
3. (13-15) Joshua meets the Commander of the army of the LORD.
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
a. Behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand: Joshua boldly approached this mysterious Man with a drawn sword. As a shepherd over God’s people, Joshua had a responsibility to see if this armed Man was a friend or a foe.
i. His sword drawn in His hand: “This expression appears in two other places in the Bible, with reference to the angel who stops Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22:23) and to the angel who stands ready to execute punishment for David’s census (1 Chronicles 21:16). A figure with a drawn sword is one not to be toyed with. He is one who threatens divine judgment.” (Hess)
ii. “It is in His Hand, not in the minister’s hand, not even in an angel’s hand, but the sword drawn is in His hand. Oh, what power there is in the gospel when Jesus holds the hilt, and what gashes it makes into hearts that were hard as adamant, when Jesus cuts right and left at the hearts and consciences of men!” (Spurgeon)
b. Are you for us or for our adversaries? This was a logical question asked of this impressive Man. The response of the Man was curious, almost vague. No was not a proper answer to Joshua’s question.
i. In a sense, the Man refused to answer Joshua’s question because it was not the right question, and it was not the most important question to be asked at the time. The question really wasn’t if the LORD was on Joshua’s side. The proper question was if Joshua and the people of Israel that he led were on the LORD’s side.
c. Commander of the army of the LORD: Joshua was a great military leader, having led Israel to victory over Amalek (Exodus 17:9-13). Yet here was a Man of clearly higher rank, the Commander in Chief of God’s armies. Joshua worshiped this remarkable Man, falling on his face to the earth before Him and submissively awaiting His command.
i. The Man standing before Joshua was God.
· He held the title Commander of the army of the LORD, commanding angelic armies. Jesus said that God the Father has “fighting angels” at His command, more than twelve legions of them (Matthew 26:53). A Roman legion was normally 5,000 soldiers. This Man was the commander of those large, mighty, angelic armies, an unstoppable force.
· Joshua worshiped Him, and He received the worship. Mere angels refuse such worship (Revelation 22:8-9). Mere men are to refuse this kind of worship (Acts 14:8-20).
· Joshua submitted himself to this Man.
· The Man asked for the same submission and respect that Moses had shown to God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 3:4-6), shown by the removing of sandals.
ii. This was an appearance of God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, appearing as a Man to His people before the incarnation recorded by the New Testament Gospels. Jesus the Messiah existed before His human conception in Nazareth or birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The Old Testament records several significant occasions where God appears in a human form (Genesis 18:16-33, 32:24-30, Judges 13:1-23).
iii. “Commander-in-chief of all creatures, and captain also of his people’s salvation (Hebrews 2:10).” (Trapp)
iv. “The children of Israel may be likened to yonder gallant vessel, prepared for a long voyage. All the cargo is on board that is needed, all the stores are there, and every man in his place. In all respects, the good ship is fully equipped, but why does she linger? Why do not the sailors weigh the anchor? If you ask the man at the helm, he will tell you, ‘We are waiting for the captain.’ A good and sufficient reason indeed, for till the captain has come on board, it is idle for the vessel to put out to sea. So here Israel had been circumcised, and the blessed feast of the paschal lamb had been celebrated, but still they must not go to the conflict until the captain himself had arrived; and here, to Joshua’s joy, the angel of the presence of the Most High appeared to claim the presidency of the war, and lead forth the hosts of God to certain victory.” (Spurgeon)
v. “I feel it no small relief to my own mind to feel that though I have been at your head these fourteen years, leading you on in God’s name to Christian service, yet I am not your captain, but there is a greater one, the presence angel of the Most High, the Lord Jesus–He is in our midst as Commander-in-chief. Though my responsibilities are heavy, yet the leadership is not with me. He is a leader and commander for the people. Brethren, wherever Christ is, we must recollect that He is Commander-in-chief to us all. We must never tolerate in the church any great man to domineer over us; we must have no one to be Lord and Master save Jesus.” (Spurgeon)
d. And Joshua did so: Joshua’s total submission to the Commander – to Jesus Christ – shows that he knew this Man was of infinitely greater rank. This was also a virtual guarantee of victory for Israel. If Israel obediently carried out the orders of the Commander of the army of the LORD, they could not lose.
i. “The point of the exchange seems to be that it was not for Joshua to claim the allegiance of God for his cause, however right it was, but rather for God to claim Joshua. The two would fight together, but Joshua would be following the commander of the armies of the Lord in his cause and battles rather than it being the other way around.” (Boice)
ii. “Though he does not reappear in the story of the Conquest, the stranger was a heavenly being who fought behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. His presence was a sign that the Lord was the real military leader of the Conquest.” (Madvig)
iii. Jesus came to Israel at this strategic time for at least two reasons.
· Jesus came to instruct Joshua in the plan to capture Jericho. In the following chapter, Joshua will carry out a plan so improbable it could only have been initiated at the direct command of God.
· Jesus came to assert His authority over Israel. Before Israel could conquer anything else in Canaan, they had to be conquered by God. Joshua’s complete submission was a demonstration that at this time, Israel truly accepted God’s rule. This is a missing element in a life of victory for many believers; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God. They fail to accept His authoritative rule over every aspect of life.
© 2024 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – [email protected]