Joshua 5:1-9
Turn in your copy of God’s word
to the book of Joshua. We move tonight to chapter five
and we’ll look at verses one through nine. One through 12,
I believe it is, is a whole section that goes together. We’re gonna
break it apart into three sections. But this is Israel preparing
to go into the promised land. Tonight, we’ll look at the circumcision
of the new wilderness generation. In two weeks, I’ll be gone next
week, so be sure to come hear Darren Stone. Two weeks from
tonight, we’ll look at the Passover, and then three weeks from tonight,
we’ll look at the Christophany, the appearance of Christ, the
commander of God’s army, before they fight the Battle of Jericho.
So hear God’s word. This is Joshua chapter 5 and
verses 1 through 9. It would help if I would turn there.
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. At that time, the
Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons
of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and
circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath Haralof. 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. 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. For the people of Israel walked
40 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 us. a land flowing with milk and
honey. So it was their children whom he raised up in their place
that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised for
they had not been circumcised on the way. When the circumcising
of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places
in the camp until they were healed. 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 to this day. Amen. This is God’s word for
us, his children. If you talk to folks who are
interested in the art of war, they will tell you the best way
to avoid the best way to win a war is to avoid it. The best
way to win a war is to avoid it at all costs. We’ve seen that
in our political news reporting in the last couple of years.
We went from a President probably with maybe loose lips, but he
kept us out of war. We’ve gone now to a president
who we don’t know what we’re going to get one day to the next.
And it looks like Russia doesn’t believe him. It looks like China
probably is not going to believe him. And other scenarios may
arise. Now, the goal here is not to
be political. Those are just facts, right? Anybody that sees
black and white will admit those things to be true. The best way
to win a war is to avoid it. And so you create deterrents. You put your ships at sea. You
patrol the waters of the world. You have strategic provisions
in certain strategic places so that people will realize you’re
capable of doing what is necessary. Maybe some of you grew up and
your mother kept a wooden spoon handy. That wooden spoon was
a deterrent. She didn’t only stir the spaghetti
with it, but it was a way for her to win a war and it kept
you out of it. You avoided it. You get the idea. The best way to win a war is
to avoid it. And so you prove yourself to
be big and mighty. You prove yourself to your enemies
that they cannot win against you. Some of you remember back
in Desert Storm. The American army went in to
liberate Kuwait, and we saw the Iraqi surrender. They held their
guns up over their heads en masse, and it was one of those infamous
pictures that will go into the history books, the Iraqi surrender. Well, the fame of Yahweh has
made its way into the Promised Land, and nobody wants to fight
Israel. Now remember when the spies,
the two spies went into Jericho, they hid under the grain at Rahab’s
house. She said, look, when you come
back here, remember me, remember my family. And so there was the
whole scarlet cord business. She said, we have heard about
how your God dried up the Red Sea. And that had been 40 years
ago, about 38 years ago. We remember how God dried up the sea and
we’re scared of you. Now this scenario is a little
bit different. This was the people she spoke
of kind of near the Jordan, near the land. Now the word has gotten
on the street that God dried up the Jordan. Last week, the
Jordan River was dried up during the flood stage. They walked
across on dry land. The priest in the river with
the ark walked across, and as soon as they stepped out, the
waters receded and returned to their spring flood flow. And so that word has gotten around
in the promised land, and now the Canaanites, the Amorites,
all the way into the west to the sea are chickens. They are scared of Israel. They
fear the fame of Yahweh for he is with these 2 million plus
people and they are a mighty horde and they fear. And so the fear of the Kings
gives great pause to Israel’s enemies. And so the best way
to win a war is to avoid it at all costs. Show yourself to be
big and mighty. There’s another best way to win
a war. And this is particular to the nation of Israel. The
best way for Israel to win a war is to have God on their side. And we’re gonna see in a couple
of chapters what happens when Israel goes out against enemies
and God is not with them. That will be because Achan will
have stolen something from the devoted things in Jericho and
he hid them under the rug in his tent. And so the army goes
out to fight against Ai, I believe it is, and they are destroyed. And they come back and repent
and Achan has to confess his sin. He and his whole family
are not only stoned, but their possessions are destroyed because
he sinned against God and therefore sinned against Israel. So the
best way to win a war is to have God on your side. Well, how do
you have God on your side? How do you win his favor? Well,
you don’t. He gives you his favor. He gives
you his favor and it’s often found in the context of covenant.
I will be your God. You will be my people. I will
bless you and I will give you this promised land. I will let
your offspring live in this land. They’ll outnumber the sand on
the seashores. You’ll have grapes and you’ll have grandkids. Well,
the first generation of people out of Egypt died in the wilderness
because they did not believe God’s covenant promise. Back
in the book of Numbers, they sent 12 spies into the promised
land. 12 spies went in, 10 came back
and said, nope, not gonna happen. Two came back and said, we can
take this place. Those two were Joshua and Caleb.
Now Joshua and Caleb are now leading the second generation
of Israel into the promised land. The other 10 spies and all that
generation are dead in the wilderness. They’re vulture food. buried
in the wilderness. But Joshua and Caleb are now
leading the second generation in the wilderness, and they are
not circumcised. And so in order to be in covenant
fellowship with Almighty God, every male must be circumcised.
This generation not circumcised, not in possession of the sign
of the reality of God’s covenant. So it says Joshua, does so, Joshua
circumcises this whole generation. Now you’re thinking to yourself,
we’re talking about best ways to win a war. Well, the worst
way to win a war is to circumcise your whole army of fighting men
on the cusp of battle. But God knows best, the fear
of Yahweh is going to remain on the kings of the land and
God is gonna give them time to cross the Jordan, fulfill the
covenant with circumcision and next time they’ll have Passover
together. And then they’ll take the city
of Jericho. But it is very important for
the people of God here for the second generation whose parents
were unbelievers and who were disobedient. It’s very important
for this next generation to believe God and obey his word and to
become circumcised with the sign of the reality of the covenant.
This is the same sign God gave to Abraham in Genesis chapter
17. Some of you Wednesday night folks,
you remember several months back, we looked at Abraham doing basically
this very same thing as Joshua. He circumcises every male in
his entire village, probably into the thousands. He circumcises
them, every male, whether born or bought or a slave, and he
cuts the covenant between them and God. And we remember that
the sign of circumcision is a sign of entrance into the covenant
community. It is not a sign of salvation. Remember Ishmael was
circumcised, but Ishmael was not a Christian. He did not have
faith in Yahweh, in the faith of his father, Abraham. But Isaac,
on the other hand, who also was circumcised, did so. And so just
the same as infant baptism, the sign is not signifying the faith
of the recipient. It’s a sign of God’s covenant. It’s a sign of entrance into
the covenant community. God says, I will be your God,
you will be my people. And so this generation recognizes
that they must covenant with almighty God. Here’s a question for you. Are
you circumcised in the heart? Has Jesus entered into your heart
and cut off the foreskin of a hard heart of sin, a hard heart of
disobedience, a hard heart of idolatry, a hard heart of rebellion
against him. That’s how we are to view baptism. That’s how we’re to view the
Lord’s sign of circumcision, the sign of baptism in our day
and age under the new covenant. Paul says to the Colossian church
who are stuck in some of the old covenant signs and rituals. He says, of course, you can be
circumcised. That’s wonderful. But have you
been circumcised with a circumcision not done with human hands? Has
God cut your heart? Has God removed from you the
hard heart of a sin filled life? We get the idea of living the
Christian life, the putting off of the flesh, You begin to see
the imagery here. Without too much explanation,
I hope, we put off the flesh, we put off our evil deeds, and
we put on obedience to Almighty God. And so if we are indeed
God’s children, if we are the children of Israel marching to
the promised land, we’re the church militant fighting for
Jesus in this world, we must be circumcised in heart. Our
hearts must be in tune with the voice of Almighty God. Live for
Him. But you know, sometimes, I think
a lot of the times, we go to church and we check the boxes.
Was the dress right? Did I put my offering in the
plate? Did I carry my Bible under the correct arm? Did I take the
sacraments? Did I say hello to people? And
all those are things we should do. But if we’re just going through
the motions and checking the boxes, what does circumcision
mean to us? What does baptism mean to us?
What does God’s Word mean to us? You know, God is not to be
messed with. The Canaanites knew that. The
Amorites knew that. The Philistines are going to
learn that. And on and on throughout the history of God’s people,
people are going to realize God is to be taken at His Word. You
can try Him. but it won’t go well. When I
was a kid in the sixth grade, we had a fellow that everybody
messed with, and he threatened to smack you. He was gonna smack
whoever messed with him, and he’d say, say I won’t. Say I
won’t, that’s what he said. And so people would taunt him
and say, I won’t, I won’t. That was kind of the sixth grade
mentality. But there’s a sense where God
says over and over in his word, try me, say I won’t. And he always
will. He always will curse disobedience
and he will always bless obedience. I think of another way to think
of it. I had an uncle, my mom’s oldest sister’s husband, Uncle
JC. He was, he was tough. And if
you were messing around at his house and he made a promise,
if you do X, then I’ll do Y. He did it. And I remember one
time as kids, we were tearing up his Monopoly game. And he
said, if y’all don’t quit, I will throw it in the garbage. And
we didn’t quit. And he threw it in the garbage,
kept his word. Friends, God keeps his word.
We may live in a day and age where capital punishment has
fallen on hard times. And so there’s no deterrent for
murder and other heinous crimes. We live in a day and age of permissive
parenting. where children do what they want,
when they want, how they want, and you better not cross little
princess or little prince because they rule the house, not mom
and dad. But it’s not that way with God almighty. What he says
he will do, what he threatens he will fulfill. And another
thing for us to consider from this passage, is to be careful, especially
under the new covenant, not to harden our hearts against the
voice of God and forfeit his blessings because of unbelief. I think we heard of it in Sunday
school this morning from Psalm 95 and We talked about it, I
believe, on Wednesday night. God, in Psalm 95, calls his people
to worship. They’ll come, let us worship,
let us bow down, let us kneel before our maker. A wonderful
passage, and then it just stops and says, today if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts as they did at Meribah. and they
put God to the test. And he basically said, I’m not
gonna put up with you anymore. You first generation out of Egypt,
you’re dead. You’ll die in the wilderness.
Your children will go into the promised land. Well, Psalm 95
paired with the book of Hebrews chapters three and four says
to us under the new covenant who haven’t yet gone to the eternal
promised land. If you fail to hear God’s voice,
If you harden your hearts against Almighty God, the promised curse
of Yahweh is you will not enter heaven. More at risk this time. It’s one thing to miss the promised
land here on earth, but to miss eternal rest. What a threat. And remember, God keeps his word.
What God threatens, he sees through. And so we want to remember God
as a God who fulfills all his promises. He is a God who comes
good on his threats. So are you willing to forfeit
because of unbelief, because of convenience, wanting to live
your own life? One last thought to think of
We’ve asked the question how to win a war while you avoid
it. The best way to win a war if you’re Israel is to have God
on your side. And here he puts a halt to their
action. You would think after being encamped
across the Jordan, spending three days making provisions for the
journey, the euphoria and the military momentum that they gained
by crossing a raging flood stage spring river, you would think,
let’s just keep on going. The adrenaline’s pumping. Let’s
just march right on into Jericho and knock those walls down and
put all those people to death. Let’s steal all their spoil and
let’s just keep on going until all 12 tribes have inherited
their place and their space in the promised land. But that’s
not how God works. And what we’re seeing tonight
through circumcision, we’ll see next time through Passover, and
we’ll see the third time through this passage, we’ll see with
the appearance of Christ. God has a wiser way. And he says, you know, you need
to stop and have the means of grace. This would be like getting
to the edge of the battlefield on Saturday night. And it would
be on Saturday night, the leader saying, okay, tomorrow, Sunday,
we’re going to have church, no battle. There’s going to be preaching
tomorrow. There’s going to be the Lord’s
supper tomorrow. And we’re probably going to baptize some people
if they get saved during preaching. And maybe the smart Alex in the
room would say, is that such a smart idea? You never questioned
your superiors, right? Is that such a good idea? I want
the enemy come beat us back while we were at worship. And what’s
the logic in that? What’s the logic in this Old
Testament passage of Joshua? You do it God’s way. You know,
we don’t have time for the Sabbath anymore. Sunday is a Saturday
number two. We busied up Saturday with soccer
and groceries and whatever else. So that by the time Sunday comes
around, we need a break. And so Sunday is a day to sleep
in. It’s a day to eat brunch. It’s
a day to maybe watch sports and catch the last round of the PGA
tournament, those sorts of things. It’s not a day for people. to
experience the means of grace. It’s not a day any longer for
people to go see a baptism or to take the Lord’s supper or
to hear preaching. It’s definitely no longer the
Lord’s day and it’s hardly the Lord’s hour any longer. And worse than that, we’ve given
up on Sunday as a day of worship. We’ve quit the Wednesday prayer
meeting. We’ve laid aside the weapons
God has given us to make war in this world And so we failed
to keep Sabbath, we failed to keep the means of grace, we failed
to have prayer. Now I realize I’m saying this
to a group of people on Sunday night. I know that’s strange,
y’all are an odd bunch. But the church is continually
failing to hear God. The church is continually failing
to not take him at his word and to obey him and to say your ordinances,
your timing, your way of waging war is best. And then we scratch
our heads and wonder why America is quickly becoming a pagan nation.
It’s because the church has given up being the church. And so I
hope this passage from the book of Joshua shows us we wage war
the way God wants war waged. And when we have God on our side
and the fear of him is across our enemies, we will have great
success. So let me end with a warning
from Psalm 95. Today, if you hear God’s voice,
do not harden your heart and put him to the test, but believe
his word, take him at his word, and he will fulfill all his promises
to you. Let’s pray together. Our Lord
and God, we thank you and bless you for your promises, which
are all true. They’re yes and amen in Jesus
Christ. And we thank you that your word does not fail, it does
not return void. Lord, it is we who are weak and
full of unbelief. And so help us in our unbelief,
unstop our ears, soften our hearts. In fact, circumcise our hearts,
Lord, that we might be in tune with who you are and what you
have done, and that you might fulfill all your promises before
our eyes, those strange in the sight of the world, precious
to us. We ask all this in the name of
Jesus, our great savior. Amen.