Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. 5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not.
6 The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
7 So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.
9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.
10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Today, we come to a very interesting chapter. It is a short chapter. It is only fifteen verses. It is a chapter for men. There are weapons in this chapter. There are swords and knives.
There are soldiers in this chapter, military men and even some high-ranking generals. This chapter has surgery for men (circumcision), but we will see that there are some important lessons here that apply to everyone
There are two ceremonies in this chapter. One is a private ceremony – circumcision. One is a public ceremony – Passover. It is the first Passover the Jews celebrate in the Promise Land. A revival takes places, a covenant is reaffirmed. A miracle stops in this chapter. The manna stops falling and something else happens.
Joshua encounters a mysterious figure. He meets a high-ranking military figure with a drawn sword. He was more high ranking than Joshua was and he was the top man in the country. All leaders have a leader over them.
Joshua saw this man, fell facedown on the ground and worshipped Him. Joshua immediately recognized that this many was more superior than he was. He was higher in rank.
The earthly general encountered the Heavenly General. The earthly Joshua meets the heavenly Joshua. Joshua meets Jesus. In fact, they have the same name.
Joshua in Greek is Ἰησοῦς (which also happens to be the name of Jesus in Greek). If you read the Book of Joshua in Greek, his name is Ἰησοῦς. If you read it in Hebrew, Joshua is YehoSHUah which was often shorted to YeSHUah, just as Mike is short for Michael.
The Context
What is the context of this passage? The Jews just crossed the Promise Land by a miracle. It was a miracle crossing. The Jews are on the other side of the Jordan. They are now in the Promise Land. They are now in Israel.
They crossed the river of Jordan. Two million had entered the country and were getting ready for an invasion. They were now in the Promise Land and are headed to Jericho. They enter Jericho in the very next chapter and begin to take the land that God gave them and promised to Abraham.
They were right on the doorstep of their first major military target. They were right outside Jordan, a heavily fortified city. God worked a miracle to get them across the Jordan River.
Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. (Joshua 5:1 NIV)
The enemy is afraid. The Amorites are afraid. The Canaanites are afraid. They are demoralized. It seemed like the perfect time to strike. They have the momentum. From a purely human perspective, it seems like the perfect moment to attack but they were not ready yet.
There were a few things they needed to do before they attacked and before they could not get their inheritance. Joshua follows God, not the military experts.
Today, we are going to look at four things to do before doing something big and taking a major step in life. We need to obey. We need to remember. We need to trust and we need to submit. That is what we see in this chapter. Let’s look at all four.
1) We need to OBEY
We need to obey as well. We need to not just be hearers of the Word but doers. We need to put into practice what God’s Word says. We do not want to take any major step in life in disobedience to the revealed will of God for our lives.
What did the Jews need to obey? Israel as a nation had been backslidden for forty years. They had been wandering around in the wilderness for forty years in rebellion to God. They weren’t ready to conquer Jericho. They couldn’t do this until they got right with God.
They needed to obey the rite of circumcision. It seems a little strange to do this right before battle. It is counterintuitive, mass circumcision right before an invasion. That would just incapacitate every soldier in the army. It would make them weaker. It made them more vulnerable.
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. 5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not…
7 So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed. (Joshua 5:2-5, 7 NIV)
God commanded it for His people in the OT, and they had not been doing it. For the last thirty-eight years, no one had been circumcised. They were supposed to do it at eight days old. Now some of them were thirty-eight years old and they still were not circumcised but that all changed at Gilgal.
They probably wished they got circumcised earlier. The parents were at fault for not doing it, but the adult children still had to obey, even if the parents didn’t.
Are there some things that Christians are supposed to do but haven’t done? Some of the Jews put off circumcision. Some Christians today put off water baptism. Baptism is supposed to happen immediately after one believes in Jesus. Some Christians have never been baptized. Some have gone forty or fifty years and still have never been baptized.
Circumcision was an OT rite. Baptism is a NT rite. Both were commands. Baptism is a command for Christians, just like circumcision was a command for Jews. Circumcision was symbolic and so is baptism.
Of course, there are some differences. Circumcision is just for males. Baptism is for everyone, male or female. Circumcision is for infants, eight-day old babies. Baptism is for anyone who believes, old or young.
Step one is to obey even if it painful. These Jews were not circumcised in a doctor’s office without any anesthetic but sharp rocks, which do not seem very sanitary by today’s standards.
We may not think that circumcision is a big deal to today but it was a big deal to God for the Jews. God almost killed Moses because he did not circumcise his son.
Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. His descendants are now entering the Promise Land and they had to be circumcised.
Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: EVERY MALE among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
12 For the generations to come EVERY MALE among you who is eight days old MUST be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.
13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they MUST be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:9-14 NIV)
2) We need to REMEMBER
Anytime you need God to do something big in your life, you need to remember what He has already done for you in the past. The Jews needed God to do something big, but they needed to remember some things. They needed to remember what He had already done.
10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. (Joshua 5:10-11 NIV)
The Jews ate the Passover to remember how they were delivered form slavery in Egypt. They had all these piles of stones laying around to remember how they got over the Jordan River. We will not spend as much time on this because we dealt with it last week.
3) We need to TRUST
The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. (Joshua 5:12 NIV).
This is very interesting. God provided food for the Jews for forty years in the wilderness. He provided manna from heaven, but when they got into the Promise Land, the manna stopped.
Why? Had God stopped working? Had He abandoned His people? Had He stopped providing for them? Was the day of miracles over? No. There are many important lessons from this for us today. There are two lessons I want us to think about.
One, God does not always work in the same way.
His methods can change. He worked on way in the wilderness and one way in the Promise Land. He does not answer every prayer in exactly the same way.
God may change how He provides for us. We should not confuse God’s provision with the particular method He uses to provide. God did not stop providing; He changed HOW He did it.
In the wilderness, God provided food through manna. In Canaan, He provided food through the land. They had milk and honey. They no longer needed manna from heaven.
The manna stopped, but God’s faithfulness did not. This is the error of some charismatics. When we read the Bible, we sometimes see incredible miracles: manna falling from heaven, fire falling from heaven, the Sun standing still, the parting of the Red Sea, protection in the fiery furnace, protection in the lion’s den and many more.
These were all great miracles, but God works in many ways. He does not always do spectacular miracles. Just because God is not doing spectacular miracles it does not mean that he is not working. We can see God’s hand in ordinary circumstances of life.
Two, God’s provision does not eliminate our responsibility
God’s provision did not mean that the Israelites had do nothing. They now had to do some farming. They had to cultivate and harvest crops to get their food.
They had to do some work, but it did not mean that they no longer needed God. They still had to trust God for a good harvest. They were in a new season of life and had to trust God in a different way.
4) We need to SURRENDER
Before attacking Jericho, Joshua had to submit to the commander of the Lord’s army. He had to submit to Jesus’ authority. Joshua worships the man with the drawn sword.
Victory begins with surrender. It begins with worship. When you face giant walls in your life, the best thing to do is to fall on your knees like Joshua did.
Joshua doesn’t fight him or argue with this man. He bows down before him in total surrender, total worship and total obedience. The ten-million-dollar question is, who is this figure?
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15 NIV).
Joshua was head of the country. He thought he was the commander of the army. He meets this man and realizes that there is another commander of the Lord’s army.
He is inferior to him and bows down. Joshua realizes that he is second in command. He stood before a man of greater rank than he was. Who is this person?
Some say that he is an angel, a high-ranking angel. They say he is not the Lord because is the commander of the Lord’s army, so how could he be the Lord but someone who works for the Lord.
The Jewish rabbinic view is that this is a powerful angelic being. Rashi, the medieval Jewish scholar held this view. They believed that this is the angel, Michael.
Michael is the guardian angel of Israel (Daniel 10:21, 12:1). He has his own angels (Revelation 12:7). That is also the view of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They believe that the man Joshua met is just an angel.
There is another view. It is the view that this is not just an angel but greater than an angel. When Joshua sees this individual, what does he do?
He falls facedown on the ground. Some Bibles say in reverence (NIV, NLT) Most say in worship (KJV, ESV, GNB, RSV, ASV). Which was it? I know of no other place where people fall down before angels. Angels discourage that, because they do not want them worshipping them.
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!” (Revelation 22:8-9 NIV)
The other hint in the text is what this commander says to Joshua. Joshua asked the man another question. He did not answer it. He just said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” (Joshua 5:15 NIV)
That is what God told Moses when God appeared to Moses (Exodus 3:5). Now, He appears to Joshua and says the same thing. It is the sign that this is God, not an angel.
The view of some of the earliest Christians is that this was not just God but Jesus. This was not just a theophany, it is a Christophany.
It is an appearance of Jesus. It is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. It was the view of Justin Martyr[1] and Irenaeus[2] in the second century. It was the view of Origen in the second to third century.[3]
Jesus did not begin his ministry when he was born. He had a ministry before he was born. He appeared in the form of a man. Joshua meets Jesus here. This the personal appearance of Jesus to Joshua over a thousand years before He was born.
If this is Jesus, it is not the Jesus that many think of today. Many think Jesus was a pacifist. He went around and just told everyone to turn the other cheek. Here we see Jesus with a sword in his hand. If that surprises you, it shouldn’t. When He returns, He will have a sword coming out of His mouth and it is a sharp sword (Revelation 19:15).
The Wrong Question
Joshua asked this man a question. It was a question we would all ask but it was the wrong question. What did he ask? He asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” (Joshua 5:13 NIV). The commander said, “Neither” (Joshua 5:14)
That is strange. He does NOT say what all of the preachers say. All of the preachers say that God is for you. He does NOT say, “I am for you Joshua. I on your side.”
Everyone thinks God is on their side. The Muslim terrorists think that God is on their side. The Democrats think that God is a Democrat. The Republicans think that God is a Republican.
Branch Rickey who signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 said, “Jackie is a Methodist. I am a Methodist. God is a Methodist.” The Methodists think God is a Methodist.
The Baptists think that God is a Baptist. The Pentecostals think He is a Pentecostal. He couldn’t be a Baptist because Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine. He couldn’t be a Pentecostal because He never spoke in tongues
We all think God is on our side. In the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln was reportedly asked whether God was on the side of the Union. Lincoln said, “Our concern should not be whether God is on our side but whether we are on his side.”[4]
God does not join our plans and our agenda. We have to join His. So often we ask Him to bless our plans and agendas. Instead of claiming God for our agenda, we need to submit our agenda to His will.
[1] Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho, 62:5.
[2] Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 46.
[3] Origen, Homilies on Joshua, 6.
[4] This was an oral remark recorded by contemporaries and passed down through 19th-century memoirs and oral tradition.