…and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of the harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. (Joshua 3:15-16)
At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time…For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised… So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their place in the camp till they were healed.” (Joshua 5:2, 5, 8)
But it came to pass on the seventh day that when they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!” (Joshua 6:16)
…and the walls came a-tumbling down.
I’m sure I’ve written about at least part of this before. First, the
Israelites who first set foot back in the promised land were uncircumcised. God
had Joshua circumcise them after they crossed the Jordan,
on the tenth day of the first month.[1]
Joshua didn’t perform this task personally. If he had, it would have taken
months.
Looking back to Genesis 34:25, two of Jacob’s sons killed all the men
of a city ruled by Hamor while they were in pain from having been circumcised
three days earlier. While the men were recovering for three days, their
families were also preparing to celebrate the Passover, including the
observation and slaughtering of the lambs. This took place on the fourteenth
day of the month. On the fifteenth day, there was no manna.
The text doesn’t make it clear (at least on a quick reading) whether
Joshua met the commander of the army of the Lord on Passover on Passover or
sometime after that. After the meeting, he returned to the camp and issued
instructions about marching around Jericho. It makes sense that the marching
would have commenced no earlier than the day after Passover, which means five
days after they were circumcised. For six days, they dressed for battle, lined
up, circled the city, and returned to camp in silence.
They got into formation and walked, as they’d been lining up and
walking all their lives because all the warriors except Joshua and Caleb were
under forty. They formed up and walked, and when the battle took place, it was
around ten days after they’d been circumcised. And they had six days of easy
training.
What does all that mean? There are lots of things it could mean. Perfection
(circumcision) is not required to enter the promised land, but it is necessary
to take and to possess it. God brings painful and difficult times into our
lives at the “wrong” moment because that’s when we tend to trust Him. Delays
may be a time of preparation, or a time of healing, or even a time in which
your enemies discover that God is with you.
Considering this passage wasn’t so much about the applications of it.
It was just the facts and timing of the situation. We tend to deal with these
incidents as separate things, but they’re not. Just like situations in our
lives might not be as separate as we think they are.
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