March 12

March 12

Joshua 5–8

Scripture Text: Joshua 5:1–8:35

Series: Read the Bible in a Year

The ancient sign of God’s covenant with Abraham is renewed in another generation of the people. Those who had been born on the wilderness journey had yet to be circumcised. So, Joshua circumcised the whole nation. This appears to have been neglected in the wilderness, for there is nothing about the journey that might have prohibited the ceremony. This is curious since the point of circumcision was to show the people as being separate from the surrounding nations, particularly Egypt. Circumcision could be understood as the defining symbol that God had brought them out of that house of slavery (Exodus 20:3). So, why had they seemingly neglected the practice? Perhaps it was because they lacked the faith to believe they had been delivered from Egypt until they actually set foot in the promised land. Can we suspect the same lack of faith in ourselves?

We too have been circumcised. We have been set apart, separated from the world. This happens in baptism (Colossians 2:11–12). When we are baptized into Christ’s death, the shame of sin is rolled away like the reproach of Egypt was rolled away in today’s reading. Our old, sin nature is buried with Christ Jesus in the water of baptism. Our old flesh is cut away in this circumcision of Christ. The reproach is taken away; dead people cannot be shamed. Raised to new life by the dead person being cut off, we are now alive together with Christ who has forgiven us our sins and with them, our shame and reproach which he bore on the cross, leaving it nailed there (Colossians 2:13–15). But do we believe this enough to “circumcise” our children? 

Have we, like the wilderness Hebrews, neglected that which separates our children from the world and removes the reproach of sin and death? Is it that we have yet to set foot in the promised land, and so, do not quite believe the promise? 

The people do set foot in the land God promised, coming first to Jericho where God has them do something as seemingly absurd as circumcision or baptism. After all, what can the removal of a little foreskin really accomplish? What can the addition of a bit of water achieve? What can marching around a city day after day do to defeat a fortified population? The answer to all these questions is: nothing. Knives, water, and parading do not accomplish anything without the word of God. When we believe God’s promise, then even marching around a city has purpose and consequence. 

But be careful to not break this faith as Achan did at Ai (Joshua 7:1–26). Take God at his word and you need not fear sin and death, let alone the reproach of God. Nor should you covet what you left behind in Jericho, it having been devoted to the Lord. There is no reason to desire of Jericho what the Lord will give you in Ai.

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