Ep 541 – Joshua 5:2-9

It doesn’t pay to disobey God. That was a lesson the Israelites should have learned by now. And in Joshua 5:2-9, God is going to command His people to take care of a problem that was a glaring representation of their corporate disobedience to His will. They have just crossed over the Jordan River, in a miraculous show of God’s power. They are now standing in the very land God had promised to give Abraham, but there was one glaring issue that God could not overlook. He had kept His part of the covenant, but they were in violation. Not a single male who had crossed over the Jordan bore the sign of the covenant: Circumcision. During the 40 years the Israelites had been forced to wander in the wilderness due to their refusal to enter the land of promise the first time, they had stopped circumcising their male sons. And God was not going to let them take one more step until they rectified the problem. So, Joshua was commanded by God to have every male Israelite circumcised – immediately. This rather bizarre story shows us that God takes obedience to His commands seriously. The people of Israel were in the land, but they would not be allowed to possess it until they had set themselves apart through the God-ordained rite of circumcision.