Circumcising the people at Gilgal
5
📚And it came about, 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 near 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 longer any spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.2 📚At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make sharp knives for yourself, and circumcise the children of Israel the second time”. 3 📚And Joshua made sharp knives for himself, and circumcised the children of Israel at the Hill of the Foreskins.
5:2-3 See note on Gen 17:9-14. Circumcision was a sign first given to Abraham (Rom 4:11). The law to circumcise each male child on the eighth day from his birth was incorporated in the Law of Moses (Lev 13:3), but it was neglected during the years of wilderness wandering (vs 5,7). No reason is given for this failure. According to the New Testament, circumcision is symbolic of putting off the flesh, the sinful nature (Phil 3:3; Col 2:11). It means that in an ungodly world we are willing to follow the Lord in godliness and righteousness.⚜
4 📚And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males among the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, died in the desert on the way, after they came out of Egypt. 5 📚Now all the people who came out were circumcised, but they had not circumcised all the people who were born in the desert on the way after they came out of Egypt. 6 📚For the children of Israel walked about forty years in the desert until all the men of war among the people who came out of Egypt had perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD. The LORD swore that he would not show them the land which the LORD swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
5:4-6 The men who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised, but that did not automatically mean God’s blessing. The outward sign was useless if the heart and life were wrong. Though they were circumcised, they were unbelieving and disobedient (Num 14:21-23; Heb 3:19). No outward rite or ceremony is of any use to us if our hearts are not right with God – Rom 2:28-29; Gal 6:15; Isa 1:11-17.⚜
7 📚Their children are the ones he raised up in their place; Joshua circumcised them, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way.
5:7 God did not overlook the neglect of the sign of His covenant. He calls His people to obedience. In spite of their neglect of His law He showed grace and mercy to the nation during the long years of wandering (Deut 2:7), but they had to show obedience before they could enter their inheritance. Believers now cannot expect to overcome in the life of faith and enjoy their inheritance in Christ if they deliberately go on disobeying Him.⚜
8 📚And it came about when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed 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”. Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
5:9 The “reproach of Egypt” possibly refers to the reproach the Egyptians would have brought against Israel as they wandered in the desert uncircumcised and thus disobeying God’s covenant and seemingly forsaken by God. In Gilgal they became obedient to God’s covenant and ready to move forward with God. There was no longer any reason to reproach them. Gilgal became the base for Israel’s military operations in Canaan. Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew word for “roll”.⚜
Keeping the Passover, ceasing of the manna
10 📚And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho.
5:10 See notes on Exodus chapter 12; Lev 23:5. No uncircumcised person was allowed to eat the Passover (Ex 12:48), so those who had grown up in the wilderness had been debarred from taking part in this remembrance. Their obedience in being circumcised now enabled them to remember the grace of God, and opened up a whole new pathway of blessing. A first step of obedience to God can mean the same for anyone.⚜
11 📚And they ate the old grain of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened 📖 cakes and parched grain 📖 on the same day. 12 📚And the manna ceased 📖 on the day after they ate the old grain of the land, and the children of Israel did not have manna any more; but they ate the produce of the land of Canaan that year.
The “Commander” of the army of the LORD
13 📚And this occurred when Joshua was near Jericho: he raised his eyes and looked, and a man 📖 appeared standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 📚And he said, “No, but I have now come as captain of the army of the LORD”.
And Joshua prostrated himself to the ground and worshipped, and said to him, “What does my Lord say to his servant?”
5:14 The Lord did not come to join one side or the other. He came as the supreme commander of God’s army. This army was the nation of Israel, and any angelic forces which might be engaged in the conflict. Israel would not conquer and claim their inheritance with God merely on their side while they fought in their own way. They would conquer only in full obedience to God as their leader and commander. He would tell them where to go and what to do. So with believers now in their spiritual warfare.⚜
15 📚And the captain of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Remove your sandal from your foot, for the place you are standing on is holy”. And Joshua did so.
5:15 The message is this: Joshua is in the presence of the supremely Holy One (compare Ex 3:5), and he must behave accordingly.⚜