A Lot & A Little - Joshua 5

Chapter 5 is very short, only 15 verses, but there is a lot that happens and when reading it, it seems like it occurs over several months, but I think the chronology is not what imagine that it is. The IM reminds us that the land of Canaan that the Israelites were now in after crossing the Jordan, was not uninhabited land that no one had ever been to before. The land had been peopled for thousands of years at that point, so several civilizations had been established. Now just how established that land was, I’m not sure. Where they able to just walk to up plants and pluck the food right off? Was it flowing with milk and honey that could just be taken and used to feed all the millions of people? I’m not sure, but it plays into it later.

When the scouts went to Jericho previously, Rahab had already told them that all the people were terrified of the Israelites because they knew that they had been blessed by God, both by the miracles used to free the from Egypt and also the parting of the Red Sea. It’s unclear if the people knew that the Israelites were being miraculously fed by manna from heaven and water from rocks, but I think that would have been a significant convincing factor as well, at least for me, that’s a big one. But now that they “heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their hearts melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.” This newest miracle was the nail in the coffin for them, and really, the Israelites crossing the Jordan river shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise because of how TB described is as being easily crossed most of the year, so the Canaanites wouldn’t have seen the Jordan river as being their last hold out hope for safety or anything like that, they knew the river wasn’t going to stop them.

They probably assumed that the Israelites were just going to wait a few months until the conditions were better and then walk through. They might have even been planning on having that extra time so that they could prepare more. They might have even been hoping that they got bogged down in the muddiness of the river and might have used their vulnerable state as a time to attack. But that’s not what happened at all. God Himself stopped the water at its highest point and the people crossed through on dry ground. I mean, if that’s not enough to convince someone that God is the most powerful being in the universe then I don’t know what it would take. Literally commanded the natural elements and they obeyed Him. So needless to say, when the kings and the people that lived in the land the Israelites were coming for found out about it, they lost whatever morale or resolve for victory that they had. How can you fight against God? It’s interesting to consider that these pagan peoples recognized God’s power and authority and didn’t even bother trying to fight him, yet Israel, the recipient of all those miracles, did fight God. Like the demons recognize and obey Christ but we don’t. Interesting to think about.

Now that the people were through the Jordan River, which the IM likened to their baptism, God tells Joshua that it’s time to circumcise all the men. I was confused about this because I thought that they had been commanded to do it way back when and just had been doing it this whole time, but apparently not. Interestingly TB suggested that this was more of a “circumcision of the heart” type of thing, and not literal flesh extraction, but the IM suggests otherwise. The IM says, “Israel had wandered forty years in the wilderness because they were not faithful in their covenant with God. It is not surprising, then, that during that period they had failed to continue the practice of circumcision, which was the symbol of their covenant.” This makes more sense to me. So all the men are circumcised, and this renews their covenant and also makes it the standard going forward, and they wait until they are all healed.

The next thing mentioned is that Israel observes the Passover, but yesterday the IM said that Israel passed through the Jordan ON Passover, so my guess it that my understanding of the chronology is skewed. Remembering that the Passover meal was held at the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, so if Israel passed through the Jordan on the day of Passover, then verse 11 would make sense in the timeline “and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched cord in the selfsame day.” They cross over the Jordan on Passover day, then spend the next week eating corn that they find in the land in the feast of unleavened bread, and then “the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna anymore but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” So all these people show up, eat what the land naturally produces and then their miraculous food supply that most of them have depended on for their entire lives just stops. I wonder if God gave them a heads up, or if was sudden and unexpected? What I find interesting though is that Israel renews their covenant with God through circumcision and coming through the Jordan, and then their manna stops.

Obviously they weren’t being punished because they just renewed their covenant and they were trying to be obedient, but their manna stopped and I’m sure that that complicated the lives of the people significantly, and probably many people did feel like they were being punished. This is something that I’ve been reflecting on recently, especially after the family thing I have, not all adverse action is punishment, in fact I think that in a lot of cases, it usually isn’t. In my life, rarely have negative, heartbreaking, or traumatic events been punishment, but it just keeps happening. I’ve never been one to ask why, I’ve always accepted that the horror was for a bigger purpose and “why not?” and all that, except for the most recent thing, I’ve spent so much time asking why, and while God hasn’t told me why, I’ve had to go back to what I’ve always accepted, it’s for a greater purpose, there is no other way, God is enacting a plan for our good, and I just have to roll with it. I’m sure that many Israelites considered the loss of manna to be a step backward blessings wise, and honestly I would have as well. But sometimes when you move forward spiritually, more trials and tribulations come to build a stronger foundation, and that is a painful lesson to learn. The question is how do you build a stronger spiritual foundation through hardship? That’s a long and complex answer, and maybe one for another day, but I know that this concept is one that I’ve been newly reflecting on.

Finally, the last thing that happens in chapter 5 is that Joshua sees a man “over against him with his sword drawn in his hand,” and Joshua asks who’s side the man is on. The man answers, “Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” I don’t really understand what that means, but Joshua apparently did because he fell down on the ground and worshipped him and said, “What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose they shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.” I, again, did not understand what this meant, but the IM had a good explanation which was that the man appearing to Joshua was probably Jesus Christ Himself in spirit form. The IM cited two reasons why they came to this conclusion. The first was that when Joshua fell down to worship this man, the man did not stop him, unlike all the other times when non-God entities appear to people, they are quick to tell people to not worship them, citing both John the Revelator and Samson’s parents who’s recorded angelic visitations demonstrate the angel saying not to worship him. But this man did not tell Joshua not to worship him (that we know of) and the only one allowed to be worshipped is Christ. The second reason was because Joshua was commanded to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground which was a call back to Moses and Christ appearing to him in the burning bush on Mount Sinai. There are very few details in this account but by those two factors, the IM suggests that this was most likely Christ appearing to Joshua in spirit form, and that makes sense to me.

Before I read the IM’s expounding of that event, I saw that the word “host” was cross referenced with Exodus 23:20-23, and it was a long time ago that we discussed this so I went back to see what I had written about it, and the title of the post was even “The Angel” so I know that I at least addressed it. The thing that was interesting about that post and that is relevant here, was something I quoted President Russell M. Nelson as saying something to the effect of, “in coming days god’s power will be displayed more than ever before.” In reflecting on all the miracles that God did for the first Israelites, and really all throughout human history, but lets just consider the events discussed with these specific Israelites discussed recently. God cursed Egypt with the ten plagues to free His people, then he parted the Red Sea for them, then he fed them manna from heaven and water from rocks, then he gave them easy military victory repeatedly without losing a single soldier, then he parted the Jordan River, then he gave them easy military victory again, and beyond that I’m not sure. But just considering that group of events, that only addresses miracles and works of God that happened to a very small number of people over a very short and specific period of time, and we are STILL going to see more miracles than that in the coming time? That’s wild to think about. It begs the question, what type of people will we need to be to recognize and accept those miracles. He will need leadership that can do what He wants them to do to bring these miracles to pass. Look at all the effort God put into the getting Moses ready, and he’s just the one we know a little bit about. What about the preparation put into Aaron and Miriam, Jethro, all the other leaders that we don’t know anything about. What kind of work did He have to put into the preparing the people who would actually go and be those soldiers who executed His commands? Is he preparing, even at this moment, the people who He needs to do the work to make his miracles have His desired effect? How is He preparing His leadership? I bet it’s not easy for them, I bet their lives are hard. If God truly is going to work miracles on a scale never seen before, the question is, for what purpose? Surely, as least some of it is to bless and teach others outside of the gospel and to bring them to Him? What leaders does He need to accomplish that work? I bet the learning curve is steep for them. I bet their lives are hard.