Spiritual Preparation Series

What do you expect to see after a great victory? In winning a war you expect to see a whole nation in jubilant celebration. There will be parades maybe even a ticker-tape parade and much fanfare. When a team wins a championship football game you expect to see the team dump Gatorade on the winning coach. In other sports they might carry the game hero on their shoulders. There are a lot of different ways to celebrate a victorious moment.

After the miracle at the parting of the Red Sea the people of God wrote songs and with tambourine and dancing were in jubilant celebration. It seems like in Exodus 15 the men and women had a sort of dueling celebration where the men would sing and then the women would answer with their celebration song and dance.

Joshua Chapter 5 finds Israel on the heels of one of the greatest miracles of all time. They experienced something very similar to the parting of the Red Sea. In so many ways there are parallels to the parting of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan described in Joshua Chapter 3. But following the Jordan crossing miracle we see something very different.

This time the miracle was the parting or stopping of the Jordan River at flood stage. The Jordan stopped flowing as soon as the priests stuck their foot in the water and the water piled up like a giant wall as the people cross on dry ground. This time the post victory is much more serious. This time the focus is on spiritual preparation for what lies ahead.

This is a new generation of Israelites who only heard about the parting of the Red Sea. The whole nation crosses the Jordan River at flood stage on dry ground. They prepared themselves (Joshua 3:5) to cross the river. Chapter 4 is their post miracle response. This time they are making a memorial to remember the miracle.

But there is much more preparation before God’s people undertake a battle with Jericho. What does God call his people to do after this great miracle? Now at this crucial juncture God calls His people to deeper spiritual preparation in trust and obedience.

In the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 17) God promised to give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. The sign of the Abrahamic covenant between God and His people is circumcision. For thirty-eight years in the wilderness no one has ever been circumcised except Joshua and Caleb (of the total wilderness wandering 40 years) These are the only two who had lived before the parting of the Red Sea.

God led His people to cross the Jordan at flood stage without this outward sign, but not any longer. Not before the battles for possessing the promised land. Before the battle of Jericho God set His people apart with His sign as His covenant people. They made themselves useable unto God.

Ever since Joshua was leading God’s people had responded by faith and now, they are ready for what God will do next. The river at flood stage is behind them and the fortified city before them. No turning back.

There are some very interesting thoughts about this circumcision. Why do we know that to be uncircumcised is to be cut off from their people? Because Moses recorded it. He wrote Genesis and we find this in Genesis 17:14. Then there is Exodus 5:21-25 when Moses was warning Pharaoh of the plagues. Only families whose males were circumcised could take the Passover. Moses’ children could be facing death over this but Moses’ wife Zipporah circumcises their children.

Joshua was an incredible leader. After forty years of wondering in the wilderness uncircumcised never taking the Passover he leads the people into the promise land and spiritually prepares them after they became so unprepared ignoring the command to circumcise males on the eight day and having not taken the Passover in 40 years.

This is a transitional point in the history of Israel. God’s people were unprepared spiritually for the battle of Jericho and Joshua got them prepared. To mark this transition no longer would manna fall from heaven (Josh 5:12), but now God’s people would work the land of milk and honey for their food. It was a new call to obedience in a new chapter in their lives.

The New Testament covenant sign is not circumcision but baptism. Baptism is commanded for the new believer. It may be that God uses a new Christian mightily without the outward sign of baptism, but then at some point He convicts the believer to obedience in this command. The New Testament pattern* is immediate baptism after believing in Christ. To go on as a believer in Jesus Christ with God’s blessing is to be obedient in baptism.