The People Who Were Circumcised at Gilgal

1When all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel. 2At that time, Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make flint knives, and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.” 3Joshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 4This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way, after they came out of Egypt. 5For all the people who came out were circumcised; but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, even the men of war who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice. Yahweh swore to them that he wouldn’t let them see the land which Yahweh swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7Their children, whom he raised up in their place, were circumcised by Joshua; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way. 8When they were done circumcising the whole nation, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day. 10The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. 11They ate unleavened cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, in the same day. 12The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

5. Stephen Held in the Arms of the Lord

Every human being is born a slave of Satan. Because Adam and Eve sinned against God, their descendants are born as sinners into a world ruled by Satan. When people created in the image of God marred that image, they came to live by instinct. The end of sinners who live by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life was eternal death.

Ephesians 1:7 records that in Christ we have our redemption through his blood, according to the riches of his grace. To save people racing toward death, Jesus offered himself as the atoning sacrifice, and he gave eternal life to all who believe in his precious blood. God atoned for our sins in order to save sinners. What astonishing grace that is!

But Satan, to block salvation, exploits our lust so that we cannot break free from sin, and because he does, we must crucify our flesh with Jesus. When our hearts are bound to the flesh, greed begins to work alongside it. So if we nail our lust for the world to the cross, Satan will have nothing to work with. Those who have taken up the cross no longer have a flesh that craves the riches and glory of the world. However hard Satan tempts them, they can fix their eyes on the eternal world and walk in the way of Christ alone.

Once people come to faith, they will look back on the years they lived without Jesus and realize how dangerous it was to live without knowing the eternal world, because through the light of Christ they have come to see that they were walking a dark road where they could not see a step ahead. After receiving Jesus Christ, they will feel ashamed of the years they spent boasting of their own righteousness and their worldly possessions. That shame will deepen as their faith grows, and they will come to feel sorry before God. To cast off that foolish, shameful, sinful past, we must live by a faith ready to perish if need be, just as the Israelites did when they were circumcised. That is the circumcision of the heart required of every believer.

Joshua 5:2

2At that time, Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make flint knives, and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.”

God commanded Israel to be circumcised once they had entered Canaan. Because their circumcision was vital to the work God was about to do, he commanded it before anything else. To be circumcised in such danger, not knowing what Canaan was like or what situation they were in, was reckless. Yet they obeyed, because God had commanded it and they knew he would protect them.

By now the Canaanites, having watched the Israelites cross the Jordan, would have been searching for a way to attack them. To command circumcision with such an enemy close at hand is a strategy no one could understand.

Why, then, did God command circumcision the moment they entered Canaan? After circumcision the soldiers could not move at all for three days, and if the Canaanites attacked, they would be utterly helpless and die. What reason could God have had for commanding it anyway? It was because circumcision was the only way Israel’s reproach could be taken away. Unless they cut off their own righteousness, which they had held right up until they entered Canaan, they could not endure a war in which they had to fight for their lives. Nor would they be able to enter the holy land God had granted them.

Without the conviction that it is good to die obeying the word, they could neither wage war against the Canaanites nor take their land, so God made them trust him with their very lives. God knows that the world is stronger than we are. Yet he tells us to cast off our own righteousness, greed, and lust before we confront it, because only then can he help us in his own way.

Neither the sons of Anak in Canaan nor the world in which we live is an opponent God’s people can take on. Satan has armed them with power and strength, so unless we depend on God, we can never win. That is why God first disarms his people. Once disarmed, they will be kept safe in the Holy Spirit. If we hold on to hot temper, lust, and greed as our weapons, they will become blades that wound us, so we must throw them away.

Having sheltered his people in his arms, God will deal with Satan himself and give them nothing but the joy of victory. So we must believe that God’s arms are a safe place and look to him. Of course, the people themselves will fight the sons of Anak. But if they go into battle believing it is a war God has already won, they can win a great victory. Joshua and Caleb knew this astonishing grace, and it was this knowledge that made them bold to rebuke the grumbling people. Just as Israel obeyed the word and received circumcision in the flesh, if we receive circumcision of the heart and confess that our very lives and all our days belong to God, we will live safely within his grace.

The children of Israel born in the wilderness had not yet been circumcised, so they had all the more reason to be circumcised now. Circumcised and writhing in pain, Israel has no one to rely on but God. Unable to fight even if an enemy came, Israel stands dead to the world and alive to God. In a situation where they could never survive unless God helped them, they were born again as God’s people, who live only by dying. This is the faith God wants from you. The weakness that knows it cannot live unless God is its protector is itself the fullness of faith, and because it is, God shields them with his strength.

In Genesis 17:12, God commanded that every male, whatever his station, be circumcised when he was eight days old. Moses wrote down Genesis around BC 1450. In those days no one would have known how firmly grounded in science God’s command of circumcision was.

It is said that not until 1935 was the role of vitamin K discovered. Researchers found that a lack of vitamin K leaves the body short of prothrombin, which blood needs to clot, so that the blood cannot clot and the person can die. Prothrombin, essential for clotting, reaches 30 percent of the adult level three days after birth and keeps rising until, on the eighth day, it stands at 110 percent of the adult level. The eighth day is when it reaches its peak. In other words, if a baby were circumcised right after birth in the belief that it would hurt less, the blood would have difficulty clotting and the child could be put in danger. I once read an account by a creation science society saying that in this way science proves the Bible to be the word of God. Scientists who hold to evolution work hard to show that the Bible is false, but the harder they work, the more they end up proving that it is the word of God. God knew that the Israelites would have no access to medical care, and for that reason he commanded circumcision on the eighth day after birth.

When the Israelites arrived at Gilgal and were circumcised as commanded, God said, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” It had taken four hundred years to make one people into a nation, and now that they had been circumcised in Canaan, all the reproach of the past was gone. The shame of their life as slaves rolled away, and so did those dark years when they cried out in tears and sighing that they had no future. The reproach of having wandered in the wilderness for forty years for disobeying God rolled away as well.

What reproach from your past do you long to see rolled away? If you are ashamed of the times you kept God at a distance and grumbled, or of the years you lived for yourself even after he gave you grace, I hope you will pray that he will make that reproach roll away. You will recognize that the times you kept God at a distance were themselves a reproach only as you mature in Christ, because only then do you see yourself clearly.

Joshua 5:11-12

11They ate unleavened cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, in the same day. 12The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Before Israel escaped from Egypt, the last plague came, the death of the firstborn. The only way for the angel of death to pass over them was to kill the Passover lamb and put its blood on the doorposts. This was Israel’s first Passover. They kept the second in the Wilderness of Sinai, just before setting out from Mount Sinai. Then came the episode of the twelve spies at Kadesh Barnea, and God, angered by Israel’s unbelief, made those who had sinned live forty years in the wilderness. And now, at Gilgal, after forty years, they are keeping their third Passover.

For Israel, the Passover is a day of very special meaning, because it stands for their life and their salvation. To become Israel’s king, God called Abraham and granted twelve sons through Jacob, and Joseph had to endure the pain of prison in Egypt. When God’s time came, he put Moses through the fire and raised him into a man of wisdom who could take solid food. Then, with the last plague, the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn, he saved Israel by the blood of the lamb.

In keeping with God’s word to remember this precious Passover all their lives, they kept it in the land of Canaan. We do not keep the Passover today, since Jesus Christ has accomplished the whole work of salvation. Yet we should still understand what it means.

Deuteronomy 1:2

2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

Israel took forty years to reach a place only eleven days’ journey away. On a road they could have traveled in a matter of days had they only shown their faith, they spent forty years being tried in the wilderness. Had the people listened to Joshua and Caleb and set out for Canaan in faith, they could have enjoyed far more. This is exactly why you must obey the word of God.

If, every time God gives us grace, we repent, obey, and beat our bodies into submission, we can spend more of our time giving ourselves to him in grace. But if we are tried for forty years as they were, our opportunities to serve will dwindle, and we will not enter Canaan. God does not command you because you are able. He is saying that if you have faith that you can do anything when God is with you, he will help you.

But if we keep doubting, taking one step forward and then retreating again, we will spend our whole lives going around and around the way of truth, just as they did. When we share the gospel, whether people receive God or doubt and reject him is their own matter. Because heaven is real, and because those who do not receive Jesus Christ go to hell, we must share the gospel and give them that chance. This is the work that we, the true Israel, must do.

God has already given Israel and his people the land called Canaan, and he gave them the Passover so that they would live in that land. Israel met the living God, saw miracles, and experienced for themselves the fulfillment of his promises. So we must boldly stand firm in our faith, be faithful to death, and obey the word.

How long have you been going to church? Has your faith grown to the point where you can eat solid food? Has your life changed since you received God?

I would like you to see exactly what lies behind my question. I am asking whether you are at peace in the Lord, and whether your faith has grown to the point that Satan flees in fear of the blood upon you. For that, the wilderness life has to end. You have to cross the Jordan, where the waters of sin flow, and enter Canaan. In other words, you need to receive circumcision of the heart and break with the old. Like the Israelites who kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, you must have your relationship with God established anew. And you need to know clearly where you stand right now: in Egypt, in the wilderness, or in Canaan.

On the day after the Passover, the people, having entered Canaan, ate the grain of the land. That was because from that day on, the manna they had eaten from the Exodus until the day they entered Canaan ceased. Israel would never again see manna or eat it. Manna was the bread of heaven that God himself sent down while the people lived in the wilderness for forty years. But now that they could eat the grain grown in Canaan, the manna ceased. We too are able to hold fast to our faith while we live in this world, because God is feeding us with spiritual manna. The moment we put off the flesh and enter Canaan, the Kingdom of God, the manna will cease.

For Israel, who had not yet taken possession of the land, the end of the manna was perhaps a crisis, since feeding all the people and their livestock every day is no simple matter. When God gave them manna in the past, the people grumbled and asked for other food, but once it stopped, they understood how precious it had been. They also came to see the grace of God, who had granted them their daily bread. People seldom give thanks for what comes easily. Only after they lose water or air, or someone who was always kind to them, or their possessions, will they realize that all of it was a great blessing.

If you always have money to spend, a place to work, a happy home, and good health, you will assume these things are yours forever. But the wise know that all they have is God’s grace, which is why they always give thanks in everything. Because they treasure even a small gift and take care of it, such people are always happy, with a faith that knows contentment and a heart that gives thanks in all things.

Manna was food that was always meant to end someday. Once the Israelites entered Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, the land on which God’s eyes and heart rested, they no longer needed manna. Everything you eat and drink in this world now is manna.

God gives his people manna every day so that they lack nothing they need to live. Yet they are not happy, because they grumble, asking for other food and for a richer life. At times God gives quail to those who grumble, and he gives it in anger. If someone fails to grasp God’s heart in giving the quail and rejoices that they received quail instead of manna, God’s rebuke will come upon them.

We need to examine ourselves: what have I received now, and for what am I giving thanks? When we miss that small thanksgiving, we cannot eat the food sown and grown in the land of Canaan, and we become fools who receive blessings and do not know how to be thankful.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10,12

9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

When we meet Jesus Christ, we will know for certain all that we understood and knew only in part. Now our understanding is partial, because we grasp things only as the Holy Spirit makes them known to us; but on the last day we will know everything as if we saw it with our own eyes. When we meet Christ at his return, we will know in full, as one sees face to face, and all the grace he has shown us, and God’s plans, promises, and fulfillments, will be believed all at once. When we see God’s grace for ourselves, the wonder and joy of it will be beyond words. So until the day we meet the Lord, we must give thanks for the manna God sends down and work for the Kingdom of God.

When God first sent down manna, the Israelites were glad and full of wonder, but as time went on they forgot to be thankful for it. In the same way, as we enjoy heaven’s grace day after day, we forget our first love and stop giving thanks. We betray God several times a day, and yet, because we cannot live without his grace, God gladly keeps sending down manna. Like the people of Israel, who saw the miracle of the angel of death passing over at the Passover, we who have been forgiven by the blood of Christ must have a faith that is content and a heart that gives thanks in everything.

Today, too, you will have gathered the manna God gives. As you thank God for his love in giving you the manna of heaven every day, may you not be afraid to circumcise your heart. Just as the Israelites depended on God alone and were circumcised, I hope you too will rely on God and cut away your greed and lust for the world. The more of the world’s possessions we have, the greater the greed they stir up. But the more of God’s grace we have, the more peace we find and the more satisfying our life becomes.

May you always live with thanksgiving wherever God leads you, like the Israelites who ate the grain and fruit of the land of Canaan. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.