Joshua chapter 5 and reading
from verse 1. And it came to pass, when all
the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward,
and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard
that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before
the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their
heart melted, neither was their spirit in them any more, because
of the children of Israel. At that time the Lord said unto
Joshua, Make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children
of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives
and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the
Forskins. And this is the cause why Joshua
did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt, that
were males, even all the men of war. Let me read this verse
again, I'm sorry. And this is the cause why Joshua
did circumcise. All the people that came out
of Egypt that were males, even all the men of war, died in the
wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all
the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people
that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth
out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. For the children
of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the
people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were
consumed. because they obeyed not the voice
of the Lord, unto whom the Lord sware that he would not show
them the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers that
he would give us, a land that flowed with milk and honey. And
their children whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua
circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised
them by the way. And it came to pass when they
had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their
places in the camp till they were whole. And the Lord said
unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from
off you. Wherefore the name of the place
is called Gilgal unto this day. And the children of Israel encamped
in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
month at Even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of
the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened
cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased
on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the
land. Neither had the children of Israel
manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land
of Canaan that year. And it came to pass, when Joshua
was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and
behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn
in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, and
said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain
of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith
my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Well, having crossed the River
Jordan on dry ground, the children of Israel, we are told, camped
at Gilgal. And what a sight that must have
been. The people massed there together
in their tribes. And anyone who saw that from
either the city of Jericho or heard reports of it must indeed
have been afraid at what the Lord was doing in the land of
Canaan. We're told that this message
went through the land and the people of Canaan became fearful. It was only a short distance
from the walled city of Jericho that the people encamped. And
we're told that the city of Jericho, with its walls and its gates,
were at once closed up. No doubt the local people, the
people perhaps whose fields the children of Israel now camped
in, the people whose corn they now ate and whose animals they
were able to use for their Passover feast had all run and escaped
into the city and no one came out and then thereafter no one
else went in. And that miraculous crossing
of the River Jordan and the news of it went through all the land
and the Canaanites and the Amorites, we're told, were fearful because
the Lord was with his people. Two things then happened that
we read of in this chapter. Firstly, the Lord re-established
circumcision amongst all the males, amongst the children of
Israel, as a testimony that they as a people were set apart and
dedicated to the Lord. and we learn that circumcision
had not been practiced during the wilderness years. So that
none of the males born in the wilderness had been circumcised. That was one thing that happened.
The other thing that happened was that the people celebrated
a Passover feast. And this too had lapsed during
those wilderness years, with perhaps one exception in the
second year. But it seems during that period
of wandering in the wilderness that this Passover feast had
not been practised. And this Passover, of course,
reminded the people also about how the Lord had delivered them
out of Egypt and brought them through the desert to fulfil
his promise, the promise that he had given to their forefathers
to give them the land of Canaan. so that the ceremonies, circumcision
and Passover, and the timing were significant. These two things
were immediately instigated as soon as the children of Israel
had crossed the Jordan and were encamped in the land of Canaan. And these were acts of remembrance
and rededication. The Lord had brought the people
across the Jordan on dry ground and now he reminded them of his
claims upon them. And I wonder if you remember
just last week how we noted that Joshua had gathered stones from
the middle of the river bed when it had dried up and these were
carried to the camps of the children of Israel. And he had also built
a monument there in the river so that these would be remembered
for the things that the Lord had done. Memorials set up to
remind the people who they were and what the Lord had done for
them. Then there was a third thing
happened. We're told also that Joshua had
gone out by himself to survey Jericho, Perhaps he was there
to pray and to seek the Lord's will for the battle that lay
ahead. Perhaps he was looking for means by which they might
attack the city. But we're told that he bowed
his head. And then when his head was bowed,
he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man
over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And this must
have been a rather scary moment for Joshua. He was alone in the
presence of an armed man, sword already drawn to fight. And Joshua did not know if this
warrior was a friend or an enemy, a friend or a foe. Was he for
the children of Israel or was he against the children of Israel? And it showed great courage I
think on Joshua's part that he inquired of this man, this one,
as he did and it appears indeed that Joshua was prepared to fight
him if necessary. even if, perhaps like Goliath
in a future age, he was Jericho's champion fighter that had come
out to face the captain of the hosts of Israel. Joshua asked
this man, art thou for us or for our adversaries? And on asking
that question, he discovers from the answer that this is not a
mere man at all, but this one was a divine person. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
in the form of a man. Now this had happened before
that the Lord had made appearances like this. He had met, you may
remember, with Abraham, and he had met with Jacob, and he met
with Moses, and now Joshua too received one of these, what we
sometimes call a pre-incarnation visit from Christ. this time in the form of a man
of war. So the incarnation was when Christ
was born as a baby in the manger and this is a pre-incarnation
visitation where the Lord visits his people but before he came
as a baby, as the infant in the manger. And the Lord describes
himself to Joshua. He says, I come to you as the
captain of the Lord's host. However, we can deduce from a
number of things that are said here that this was indeed the
Lord, the second person of the Trinity, as we sometimes see. Because we discover that he accepted
worship from Joshua. And an angel, had it been a mere
angel, would not have allowed Joshua to worship him. And secondly,
it seems that Joshua's willingness to serve and to be obedient to
the word of the Lord, showed that he deduced that this was
indeed the Lord come to visit him. And just as the Lord had
commanded Moses at the burning bush, so here the captain of
the Lord's host told Joshua to remove his shoe, or his shoes,
because he was standing on holy ground. He was standing in the
presence of the Lord. And this Joshua did promptly
and willingly as a mark of respect and honour to the one in whose
presence he stood. Here's a couple of lessons that
I think we can draw from this very interesting passage. The
first one I want to leave with you is this. that here we see
that the Lord demanded first place from his people. He calls
us to give him first place in our hearts and in our thoughts. The children of Israel had come
across the River Jordan, but they were being taught to honour
and remember the Lord, firstly and foremost. Many of the people
perhaps wanted to get on with the job of fighting their enemies
and winning battles and possessing the land. After all, was that
not what the Lord had promised them? But the Lord reminded them that
first of all, worship was due to him. And the Lord Jesus Christ
taught his disciples this self-same lesson. He said to them, seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you. That's in Matthew chapter six.
And it's a good lesson for us all to learn. The first thing
that people did when they entered Canaan was to worship the Lord. It has been said, what begins
in prayer will end in praise. And we should remember, much
as we often like to be busy and often like to be active and doing
things, that the Lord doesn't need our strength and he doesn't
need our resources and he doesn't need our energy to accomplish
his will and to do his purpose. The Lord is well able to do these
things by another means other than us or to do it himself. And in fact, we're going to see
in the next chapter how the Lord demonstrates that very point
in the case of Jericho. What the Lord seeks from his
people first and foremost is honour and worship and praise. We should honour the Lord and
we should give him that first place in our lives. Sometimes
that's a hard lesson to learn but it is the lesson that the
Lord taught his people when they entered the Promised Land. Here's
another little application for us. that these ceremonies, this circumcision
of the males and the Passover celebration that the Lord called
the people to, they were more than just rituals. They were
more than just an act of worship. They were symbols in themselves
of spiritual significance as well. The Apostle Paul speaks
of circumcision of the heart, not just the outward body, but
of the heart and of the spirit. And he calls circumcision, in
fact, a seal of the righteousness of faith. It pictures to us that
righteousness that comes by faith and it shows us that there is
a relationship between the Lord and his people that is entered
into by faith and a righteousness that comes because there is a
separation takes place and there is a cleansing that happens.
And the Lord is also spoken to us by Paul as being our Passover. So that Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us, Paul tells us. So that these New Testament
references to these Old Testament activities show us that God always
looks for faith in Christ in all that we do. It's not just
a ceremony, it's not just a ritual, reading our Bibles and praying
or engaging in fellowship or being at church. These things
are important activities, but they have a significance that
must be founded on a personal relationship with the Lord God
through faith in Jesus Christ. We are to look to Christ in faith. The Old Testament Acts pointed
forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice
that he would make for sin. They looked forward to the cross
just as we look back to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
there for the salvation of his people. The Passover, in the memory of
the children of Israel spoke of the fact that the firstborn
who were under the blood in Egypt when the death angel passed over
the land were saved. So that all who are under the
covering of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they too are
saved. being cleansed from all sin and
we find peace with God and everlasting life because of the Saviour's
sacrifice for us, for his people. The people with circumcised hearts
and spirits who understood this by faith in the days of Joshua
looked forward in faith for God's coming Redeemer. And today we
look back at what our Redeemer has done. They're not just historical
events. We look back in faith believing
that our souls are safe because the Lord Jesus Christ died in
my place. And this leads us just to a final
thought about this meeting that Joshua had with the Lord. Joshua met the Lord personally. God had spoken to Joshua many
times, but this was different. This was a personal encounter. Just as Jacob had wrestled with
the Lord at Peniel, just as Moses had met the Lord at the burning
bush, just as Paul was converted on the Damascus road, So our
experience of the Lord has to be personal too. Now I'm not
saying that we need to really actually see the Lord Jesus Christ
in the way that Joshua did or personally and physically wrestle
with him But our faith, our trust, our belief in Him must come from
our own heart. No one can believe for us. It has to be a personal relationship
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can be saved for
us, no one can believe for us. Salvation is a personal experience. It is God at work in our life. It is God at work to change our
heart and to bring us life and the experience of grace in our
souls. David the psalmist wrote in Psalm
51 in verse 10, creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. May the Lord create in us a clean
heart and renew our spirits and give us faith personally to trust
the Saviour, Jesus Christ, in a real and in a personal way. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this little passage.