JOSHUA 5
Read Joshua 5:1-12
In the last chapter we saw God’s people crossing into the Promised Land and they are poised to conquer it. Verse 1 tells us that the reputation of God had preceded them and their enemies had lost heart. So the time was right to strike while the iron was hot.
But they didn’t do that. Rather than take advantage of the situation, which in military terms was the right thing to do, they stopped. And they celebrated the sacraments. First of all they were circumcised then they celebrated the Passover.
Read Genesis 17 to see the institution of circumcision. It was all about being in the right relationship with God, an outward sign of inward commitment to belonging to God. The Passover, we saw last time, was about remembering what God had done, about his grace in saving his people. Circumcision and the Passover in the Old Testament are, in many ways, very similar to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper for the New Testament people of God.
For Joshua and his people it was more important to give God the honour and praise that was due to him, the enemy could wait. God had personally seen them across into the Promised Land and the right thing to do was to celebrate the sacraments, to make sure they are in the right relationship with him and to remember his mighty act of salvation in releasing them from bondage in Egypt. Similarly, our priorities are to be in the right relationship with our Lord and to remember his act of salvation on the cross releasing us from bondage to sin and death.
Read Joshua 5:13-15
This is a curious little section, isn’t it? What is going on here when Joshua meets either an angel or is it God himself?
I think the question and answer are telling. ‘Which side are you on?’ asks Joshua. But, it is not for us to ask if God is on our side or against us. God is God. The question is, are we on God’s side? There are some people who think that if there is a God, then he exists to do what we want. Remember Jesus’ words to his Father, ‘Yet not as I will, but as you will’. (Matthew 26:39). God is sovereign, we are his servants and, as we say in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven’.