When God's Activity Requires an Unexpected Response...

Last week looked at the timeless truth that to restart requires monuments to remind us of God’s activity. In a story in our Bibles recorded for us in the book of Joshua, we saw that just like the twelve stones that were set up at by the Jewish nation to remind them of the evidence of God’s activity that enabled the nation to cross the Jordan River, monuments remind us of the evidence of God’s past activity and give us the opportunity to share the story of God’s activity with others.

We discovered that it is in the reminding and the sharing of the past evidences of God’s activity that can provide for us the confident trust and courage to do the right thing when it comes to restarting our lives, along with providing the opportunity for future generations to see and hear of God’s transformational power as being a real and tangible reality that can be experienced today.

And as the Jewish people finished crossing the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land where they would restart their lives as individuals and as a nation, we see something unexpected occur, beginning in Joshua 5:1:

Now it came about when 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 how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

As we enter back into the story of the efforts of the Jewish nation to restart their lives, we see the effect that God’s supernatural activity that enabled the Jewish nation to cross the Jordan River had on the nations who lived in the Promised Land. You see, the nations that lived across the Jordan River in the Promised Land viewed the Jordan River as a natural defense that would protect them and provide safety against an attack from an enemy.

So imagine their surprise when this line of defense was removed by God so that between 1.5 and 2 million people were able to cross into and invade their territory. I mean, as a king, how do you defend against something like that? We are told that when the kings heard about the evidence of God’s supernatural activity and the presence of the Jewish people in their land, their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer. The heart here refers to a person’s inner being or will. If we were writing this story today in the language of our culture, the phrase “had no spirit in them any longer” would be stated this way: the kings had their wind knocked out of them”.

As a result of God’s activity, the leaders of the Amorite nation’s inner will dissolved away. These leaders had lost the will to fight; there was no desire or wind left in them to strike out in order to defend their land. And in light of this response to God’s supernatural activity, it would seem that this would be the perfect time to launch an all-out assault on these nations.

These nations were ripe for the taking; this would be the time to take them out before they could rally any defenses. These nations were surprised as a result of God’s activity and were thus unprepared, either militarily or emotionally to fend off an aggressive attack by the Jewish nation. And it is at this point that we see God’s command to Joshua revealed for us in Joshua 5:2:

At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time." So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

Instead of taking advantage of their unexpectedly easy entrance into the Promised Land; instead of taking advantage of the fact that the enemies will to fight had dissolved away; God commands Joshua to remain where they were and to circumcise the males of the Jewish nation. Now, imagine yourself as Joshua. You have been given the responsibility to lead the Jewish people in battle to take the Promised Land. You have been given a tactical, strategic and emotional advantage as a result of crossing the Jordan River. And instead of commanding you to press forward with the advantage, God commands you to perform circumcisions.

What would you be thinking? “I’m not a doctor; I don’t even play one on T.V.” Seriously, what would be the first question on your mind? I know what mine would be if I were Joshua- Why? Why am I performing circumcisions instead of leading the nation into battle? We see God answer this question for us as the story continues in Joshua 5:4-7:

This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For 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. For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD, to whom the LORD had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Their children whom He raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way.

The reason that Joshua needed to circumcise every male under the age of 40 was because no one was circumcised during all the years that the nation wandered in the wilderness as a result of the rebellion and disobedience of the previous generation. Now maybe you are wondering “why was it such a big for the Jewish people to get circumcised? And could it not have waited until a later date? I mean, why circumcise now? Why not wait?”

Tomorrow, we will look at why God gave this command and why circumcision was so significant to the Jewish people.