Last week we continued to look at the transition of the nation of Israel into the promised land, as they finished crossing the Jordan River into Canaan in chapter 4. We noted the significance of this transition within the Old Testament, while also noting the way that the New Testament picks up the themes of this crossing and applies them in spiritual terms.
Israel coming into the promised land is not merely a change of mailing address for them. It was meant by the Lord to be a picture of multiple deeper realities. Their entrance into the land was the initial fulfillment of the Lord’s promise made to Abraham all the way back Genesis 15.
It was also the completion of his work of redemption that he had begun with Moses and the Exodus out of Egypt. Even though that was 40 years earlier, the Old Testament sees the Red Sea crossing and the Jordan crossing really as two different moments within a single work of God.
And in as much as we noted that the New Testament sees the Exodus and Jordan crossings as pointing to deeper spiritual truths, like conversion and baptism, then we can see in the history of Israel some very encouraging reminders for our own spiritual journey.
We who have been saved have been liberated from slavery also: not slavery to Egyptian taskmasters, but slavery to sin. We are strangers and sojourners, as it were, wandering like the Hebrews in the desert of this world, awaiting entrance into our final homeland, a heavenly homeland in the presence of our savior.
We will, if the Lord delays, cross over into that land, not through the Jordan river, but through the grave, into the presence of Christ who is our forerunner, gone ahead to prepare a place for us, we might even say, to scout out the land.
In is Resurrection, He has returned from the other side and brought a good report, an assurance of victory. And even now, as we will see tonight, serves as our leader, to guide us home.
Let’s read our text in Joshua 5, and we will walk through it:
As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.[a] 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal[b] to this day.
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped[c] and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
My first point tonight begins with the first six verses, where we will see a Sobering example. A sobering example.
We see in verse 1 that news of the Jordan crossing was spreading throughout the land and terrifying the pagan rulers, which itself is a fulfillment of what God had promised. We noted in previous sermons that God had already told His people that the nations would melt away before them. You can see chapter 2 verse 9, as an example.
But for this first point, we should notice that as soon as the nation of Israel made it across the Jordan, they were called by the Lord to circumcise the males of the nation, verse 2. The reason why is given in verse 4.
All the men who were in Egypt at the time of the Passover before the Exodus from Egypt had already been circumcised. Circumcision was necessary for participation in the Passover meal in Egypt, Exodus 12:48. But all the males born after the Exodus, along the way in the wilderness, none of them had been circumcised yet.
Circumcision was a sacramental ceremony that had first been given to Abraham in Genesis 17. It was a physical sign. It was a mark of separation. It visibly separated the people of God apart from the rest of the world.
It’s as if God is reminding his people that they were to be different. Set apart. They were to be holy, sanctified from the rest of the world. They were to be different. Not following after the pagan gods and their unholy ways.
But that picture deepens as we move from Abraham to Moses. With the giving of the Mosaic Covenant, the significance of circumcision deepens. For example, the Covenant made through Moses certainly included the command to circumcise the males, but it also spoke of a deeper circumcision, a spiritual one.
Listen to Deuteronomy 10:
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
The people were called to circumcise, not merely their flesh, but also their hearts. Spiritual, heart-level change was what was required.
Indeed, Paul picks up this theme in the book of Romans. In Romans 2:28-29 he says, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”
It is not enough to have mere outward circumcision. If you want to be a child of God, if you want to be a true child of Abraham and a son of the promise, then outward conformity and obedience to the law is not enough.
A true Jew is one who is inwardly so, circumcised of heart.
And that’s why back in Joshua 5, we see a terrible warning. All the men who were circumcised in Egypt, who witnessed the terrifying judgment of God that first Passover night, who witnessed the splitting of the Red Sea and walked on Dry ground, who witnessed the judgment of God come down on the Egyptian army, who witnessed manna and quail be provided by God in the wilderness and water flowing from the rock…
All of those men were circumcised in the flesh, but not in heart. And that’s why God judged them. Verse 6: For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord
And therein is our sober warning. They had the outward sign, circumcision, without the inward substance, a change of heart.
Outward conformity, without the inward reality, is damnable hypocrisy.
Outward conformity, without the inward reality, is damnable hypocrisy.
We all know that God’s harshest rebukes in scripture are usually reserved for the hypocrites.
For example: in Amos 5 God condems the hypocritical worship of Israel:
““I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.”
They have all the outward signs of religion, like ceremonial feasts and sacrifices, but their hearts are far from God. Outward conformity to the law, without the inward reality of faith, is damnable hypocrisy that the Lord despises.
That’s why Paul would write things like 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.””
Ask yourselves tonight, “am I believing in the Lord? Do I trust his promises? Am I walking with him, separated from the world with its lusts and passions? Or am I acting like a pagan, like a Canaanite?”
If you’re not growing in holiness, year by year, if you’re not seeking the Lord and his ways, if you’re simply trusting in your baptism, or your past confession, or your church membership declaration from the past or your church service now, if that is the sum and substance of your faith, then you need to examine yourself.
Your faith is supposed to be living and active, day by day trusting in the Lord, not resting on something you did or something you said long ago.
Listen to the words of Paul commenting on this exact issue in 1 Corinthians 10:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the [Red] sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
The warning is clear: not all who went through the Red sea made it to the promised land. Not all who were baptized made it to the end. And the same warning should sober us.
Examine yourself. Check your heart. Don’t simply rest in your baptism, or your past confession, or your good works. Test yourself. Test yourself for the genuineness of your faith, and be careful to ensure the absence of damnable hypocrisy.
But how do we do that? Let’s move on to the second point and see that. My second point is for us to see some sweet reminders of grace. Some sweet reminders of grace.
Look again at the second part of verse 6, and we can note the first of several sweet reminders of God’s grace in this passage.
We can see a reminder of The Lord’s Promise. The Lord’s Promise.
As is often found in scripture, judgement is mingled with grace. Look at verse 6 again:
the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Two times the swearing of the lord is mentioned. God had promised he would do something, he would sustain them and carry them into the land. He swore to Abraham to give him an offspring and give him an inheritance in the land.
And the swearing of the Lord is the root of all true saving faith. The promise of God. That’s the foundation of all genuine hope. We all fail, we are weak. On our own, we have no more hope of success than those people that fell in the wilderness. In ourselves, we are no better than the faithless generation that fell.
You know this is true. You’ve not lived up to the standard of what you know to be good and right.
You get sinfully angry with family, or coworkers, or other people on the road.
You get jealous of other people receiving blessings that you think you deserve.
You grow so quickly discontent with your situation and covet something else.
You too often doubt the goodness and provision of the Lord, and are tempted to go back to your sin, like the grumblers who wanted to go back to Egypt.
Whatever it is, we’ve all failed. And regardless of how much will-power we commit, how many times we resolve to do better, we’re not able to completely fix ourselves. Year after year, week after week, day after day, we still fall short.
And that should teach us that what we need is something outside of ourselves. And that’s exactly what the Lord promises in scripture. Forgiveness from outside of us. Salvation, secured by his sovereign power, not our feeble effort.
We’re called to circumcise our hearts, but we can’t do it. And God knows that.
Even within the Mosaic covenant there was the promise of future divine action: Deuteronomy 30:6: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
That promise is finally found in the New Covenant, in Christ. Jeremiah 31, for example, speaks specifically of God granting his people new hearts that have his law written on them. You can see the same in Ezekiel 36.
What’s the antidote to hypocrisy? Recognizing your inability to keep the law, and the Lord’s sweet promise of salvation through grace. Trusting in that grace is our only hope.
That’s the first sweet reminder. A second sweet reminder of grace is the removal of their reproach. The removal of their reproach.
We see in verse 7 and 8 of our text that the males were all circumcised. And then in verse 9, “And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.””
What is the reproach of Egypt?
Do you remember the golden calf incident at Sinai? Moses went up the mountain and while he was up there, right after the Exodus and them being saved out of Egypt, the people of God decide to create a golden calf and bow down to it. God says he’s going to wipe out the nation, but Moses intercedes as a mediator on the people’s behalf.
Listen to what Moses says in Deuteronomy 9 as he is recounting his pleading to the lord on behalf of the sinful people. He says to the Lord:
“Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.””
We might say that the Lord bringing to completion his promise of them entering into the land is simultaneously disarming his enemies.
God bringing his people into the Land is silencing the pagans. Nobody would be able to look at the failure of Israel to enter the land and conclude that the Lord is too weak. Or the Lord is not good to bring about that which he promised.
They have no means of impugning the Lord’s character. There is no accusation that could be made against him.
And likewise, for believers today, there is no stain that can be found on the Lord’s character. No weakness, no deficiency. No accusation can be leveled against God and his work.
I won’t re-preach it because Shawn did it well a sermon or two ago, but Colossians 2 does something very similar. Christ has “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
And how did he disarm his enemies? How did he take away our reproach? He didn’t simply DECLARE our reproach to be gone.
He removed it by bearing our reproach in our place. He took on the shame of sin. He bore the curse. He took it all and nailed it to the cross, cancelling the record of debt that stood against us, Paul says.
That’s a sweet reminder. And it perfectly transitions to a third sweet reminder of grace is the Passover celebration itself. The Passover celebration itself. Verse 10:
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
I’ll be brief, but the Passover celebration here is a backward pointing ceremony reminding them of God’s provision of a substitute in their place. The blood of the animal that was slain was painted over their door, securing their safety from the angel of judgment that passed through the land of Egypt.
God’s special, miraculous provision of safety from and the provision of a meal to feed the nation, all of this was tied up in the Passover. And as I have preached several times already, Christ is seen in the New Testament as our great Passover lamb.
He was slain, so that his blood might secure our safety from judgment. He even says of himself “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” But he doesn’t stop there.
In John 6 he says: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread[c] the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Miraculous provision of a substitute and savior. By faith we receive him, being spiritually nourished by the lamb of God slain in our place. That’s a sweet reminder. But before we leave this point, we should briefly note a final sweet reminder of grace: the Lord’s ordinary provision. The Lord’s ordinary provision.
Verse 12 says: 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
The manna stopped coming down. Heaven stopped feeding the people, because they began to eat the fruit of the land. God’s miraculous provision of manna was ceasing, and his ordinary provision through regular agricultural means was taking over.
And yet, we should note that the ordinary provision is no less gracious than the miraculous provision of manna. God’s hands are just as much behind the trees and the fruit in the land, as he was behind the miraculous provision of quail and manna in the wilderness.
Too often we long to see the hand of the lord work in mighty and miraculous ways, while failing to recognize the millions of ordinary ways that God is providing for you in the here and now.
We want the heavens to open up and God to provide in dazzling ways or for God to speak in miraculous ways…
but we fail to recognize the hand of the Lord in the ordinary rain, in the mundane groceries from the store, or in the normal reading of God’s word.
One author puts it this way: “We must beware of thinking that God is only in the earthquake, wind, or fire; of thinking that manna, but not grain, [is food from God]. Most of God’s gifts to his people are not dazzling and gaudy, but wrapped in simple brown paper. Quiet provisions of safety on the [road], [the] health of children, [the] picking up a paycheck, supper with the family—all [of these graces are] in an ordinary day’s work for our God.”[1]
Let us be diligent to seek out the hand of the Lord in every mundane gift, and simple blessing. Seeing God’s gracious hand behind the ordinary is really a key to maturity and contentment in this life. It really changes our perspective on everything.
And that serves as a great segue to my final point: a shift in perspective. A shift in perspective.
Verses 13-15 close out this section with a truly remarkable event.
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped[c] and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
The significance of this little encounter is remarkable. I’ll just make a few observations and comments, knowing that I intend to come back to these themes in the coming sermons.
This episode of the encounter between Joshua and the captain of the Lord’s army serves the reader in several ways. First, it confirms what was said to Joshua in his installation in chapter 1, that he is the new Moses. If you remember back to chapter one, God promises that he will be with him just like he was with his servant Moses.
This encounter confirms that Joshua really is filling the same kind of role that Moses did. Just like Moses met the Lord in the burning bush, so too is Joshua having a similar encounter here.
Just like Moses was told to take of his sandals because the ground was made holy by the Lord’s presence, Joshua is given the same kind of command here.
And, for those that are wondering, I personally to think that this is a visit to Joshua by the pre-incarnate Son, the Second person of the trinity. The technical theological word is a Christophany, which is just a big word that means an appearance of Christ.
I will note that there is some debate among theologians on that point. Some people think this is simply an angel visiting Joshua, and not the Son.
But, I don’t think so for two reasons. First, the text clearly says that Joshua falls on his face and worships the commander of the Lord’s Army, and the commander doesn’t tell him to stop and get up, which is what other angels do in scripture.
For example, in Revelation 22, the Apostle John falls down and worships at an angel’s feet, and the angel tells him: don’t do that, I am just a fellow servant. Get up and worship God, not me.
But the commander here doesn’t tell him to get up and stop worshipping. In fact, he tells him the opposite. He tells him how to worship: by taking off his shoes on holy ground.
And that’s the second reason why I think this is a pre-incarnate appearance by the Son of God. He makes the ground Holy by his presence. No angels do that. God does that, like in the burning bush.
So, I think this is a visit from the Son of God. You might disagree, and that’s ok. It’s not a hill to die on. But I do think this encounter is significant.
And that significance points to a second reality as they begin their military campaign into the promised land: and that is that Joshua isn’t the one really in charge. Joshua is, humanly speaking, running the show. But Joshua isn’t the one finally calling the shots, and ensuring victory. The Lord is. The Lord is the one doing the fighting.
Just like the Lord was the one leading his people through the Jordan, as pictured the by Ark of the Covenant leading the way into the water, so too is the Lord the one who is really behind the fighting.
And this point, of the Lord actually being the one in control, is further emphasized by what we saw at the beginning of the chapter. Humanly speaking, the events at the beginning of this chapter are ridiculously foolish.
Think about it. Why would you cross the river, invading hostile, enemy territory, and immediately circumcise all your males, thereby making your entire fighting force defenseless while they heal? Why would you render your whole army out of commission? It makes no sense, from a worldly, human perspective.
I’ve never been in the military, but I doubt this is a war-time tactic that they teach at West Point.
But it makes all the sense in the world if you are trying to emphasize that it is the Lord who provides the military victory, and the people. It is the Lord who fights the battle, not the men. It’s the Lord who ensures victory, not their own strength.
And all that helps us have another important perspective shift, that guides us as we read through this book. Some people have real struggle with the narratives in this book because it details the people of God being commanded by God to go into the land and slaughter the Canaanite nations.
How can a good and loving God command the annihilation of entire peoples? And how can the nation of Israel under Joshua be righteous in obeying such a command?
Those are very good questions that need to be answered, and one of the things that helps us as we seek to answer those questions is remembering who is doing the work here. Who is in charge, and what is going on.
We need to remember back to prior statements that God has made, that help us to remember the big picture.[2]
This campaign into the land isn’t some greedy or blood-thirsty nation of Israel seeking to wipe out their enemies.
The invasion of God’s people into Canaan is God’s righteous work of judging the unrighteous. Let me defend that from scripture.
For example, in Genesis 15, when God initially promised the land to Abram, God promised that Abram’s offspring would live in a land as sojourners for 400 years (that’s what happened in Egypt), but then it says in verse 16: “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.””
The implication of that statement is that God is being longsuffering with the current inhabitants of the land. But although he was patient, his patience wouldn’t last forever. There would be a limit to their sinfulness. He wouldn’t let their wickedness go unchecked forever.
He would use Abraham’s children to be the sword of judgment against the Amorites in the land. This understanding is later confirmed by the Lord in Leviticus 18:24 where he warns the Israelites against making themselves unclean like the Canaanites had done by their sin:
“ “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these [unclean things] the nations [that] I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.”
God says that the sinfulness of the pagans had made them unclean and made the land unclean, so that they earned divine punishment and they were expelled from the land.
Likewise, in Deuteronomy 9, starting in verse 4, God is speaking to his people about after they take possession of the land from the Canaanites:
4 “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust [the inhabitants Canaan] out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
The expulsion and extermination of the wicked inhabitants of the land was God’s work of purifying the land and judging for sin.
That changes how we view the people of God going into the land. It changes how we view the violence.
In fact, contrary to the claims of modern sensibilities, and those who think that the conquest of the land is evidence of blatant injustice, the cleansing of the evil in the land by the armies of the Lord is actually an evidence of God’s justice, rather than His injustice.
Even within the view of the Old Testament, the Canaanite genocide is the righteous judgment of the Lord against rebellious and wicked sinners.
To go even further, Biblically speaking, the question should not be at all whether the Canaanites deserve to die, the harder question is rather “why the Israelites deserve to live.” If sin is wicked and worthy of death, “Why do the clearly sinful Israelites get to live at all?”
That’s the real injustice. And if you only read the Old Testament, you’re left with that conclusion. The children of Abraham are no more upright and moral than the wicked nations that they slaughter. So why does God let them live?
How can God be just, while also showing mercy to some?
And the answer is found in the New Testament. The spiritual children of Abraham are spared because of the true offspring of Abraham who comes. Jesus Christ. But this time, he’s not spared from death like Abraham’s son Isaac was on Mount Moriah. The hand of the Lord would not stop the sacrifice of this son of Abraham.
Christ was the one killed, the lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.
He was circumcised, not merely in part, but in the fulness of his flesh on the tree, fulfilling all righteousness.
He was the Passover sacrifice, the one to whom the Passover meal pointed, slain so that we might avoid judgment by his blood.
He’s the righteous one, the lamb without blemish. He’s the pure of heart, the one on whom no accusation of sin can succeed.
He’s the sinless savior and captain of the Lord’s armies, who makes holy the very ground where he walks, and that same holy savior now treads the ground of our hearts, making his people holy by his very presence.
Think about the image of the Holy Spirit who was sent down at Pentecost in Acts 2. The sanctifying presence of the Lord is no longer in a burning bush, but found as a flame of fire over every believer.
It’s not merely the ground around some bush that the Lord makes holy, but everywhere his people go, He goes with them, making them holy, sanctifying them with his presence. The captain of the Lord’s army now indwells His people as His new spiritual temple.
But note, only those united to him by faith can experience the reality of all these pictures that we’ve discussed.
He is the captain of our salvation, the commander of the Lord’s army, who judges even now with his sword of the spirit, the Word of God, and will one day return and judge the rest of the world in the last day.
Like the Amorites whose iniquity was not complete, the Lord even now is longsuffering, not willing that any would perish but that all would come to saving knowledge in him.
Trust in Christ tonight, and be saved from the wrath to come. The fate of the Amorites need not be yours.
Trust in Jesus, and you can be saved.
[1] Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2010), 49.
[2] For more on this point about perspective: Davis, 50.
