Set For Restoration-1 Series

SET For RESTORATION-I—Joshua 5:2-12

Attention:

Ben worked at the Tropicana Orange Juice processing plant in Bradenton for 3 months.

Demand being what it is, Ben had to be switched from bottling fresh juice to making OJ Concentrate.

Shortly thereafter Ben’s boss calls him in & tersely tells him that he would have to fire him.

“Why am I being fired?” Ben asks—The boss bluntly tells him & gives him his walking papers.

Some buddies from the plant approach Ben asking the reason he had been fired.

Ben answers, “Well, guys it comes down to the fact that I just can’t concentrate!”

Ben needed to restore his work incentive/environment.

God restored/renewed/rededicated Israel as His covenant people.

God’s people must be restored.

How can God’s people be restored?

What can bring restoration to God’s people?

4 settings for spiritual restoration.

Ps. 147:3— “He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.”

1—A Setting for spiritual restoration is...

A RENEWED FLESH(:2-8)

Explanation:(2-8)

:2—“At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, & circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”

:3—“So Joshua made flint knives for himself, & circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.”

:4—“And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt.”

:5—“For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.”

:6—“For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD--to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk & honey.”

:7—“Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.”

:8—“So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed.”

:2a—“At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, & circumcise the sons of Israel...”

What follows took place at the same time that the heathen kings currently living in—soon to be Israel— had lost their spirit of defense, offense, & purpose(5:1).

YHWH spoke to Joshua commanding that he make “flint knives.” The knives were for the particular purpose of “circumcising” the sons of Israel.

?Why flint versus iron or some other malleable material?

“the Targum[Aramaic interpretation of the OT] calls them sharp razors”—J. Gill

“sharp knives. or, knives of flints. Before the use of iron was common, all the nations of the earth had their edge tools made of stones, flints, etc. Our ancestors had their arrows & spearheads made of flint; which are frequently turned up by the plough. And even when iron became more common, stone knives seem to have been preferred for making incisions in the human body. The Egyptians used such to open the bodies for embalming; & the tribe of Alnajab in Ethiopia, who follow the Mosaic institution, perform the rite of “circumcision”...“with knives made of stone.”—TSK

This practicality & tradition of flint-knives for “circumcision” is also related in Ex. 4:24-26.

Ex. 4:24-26—“And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the LORD met him & sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone & cut off the foreskin of her son & cast it at Moses’ feet, & said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”--because of the circumcision.”

“Joshua”—ewvwhy Yeh-ho-shoo'-ah -OR- evwhy Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah—Joshua or Jehoshua = “Jehovah is salvation”—Noun Proper Masc.—1) Son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim & successor to Moses as the leader of the children of Israel; led the conquest of Canaan; 2) A resident of Beth-shemesh on whose land the Ark of the Covenant came to a stop after the Philistines returned it; 3) Son of Jehozadak & high priest after the restoration; 4) Governor of Jerusalem under king Josiah who gave his name to a gate of the city of Jerusalem. Strong—“Jehovah-saved”; Jehoshua(i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader.

“Make”(See :3)—hse aw-saw’—Qal Imperative—1) To do, fashion, accomplish, make—1a) (Qal)—1a1) To do, work, make, produce—1a1a) To do, 1a1b) To work, 1a1c) To deal(with), 1a1d) To act, act with effect, effect, 1a2) To make—1a2a) To make, 1a2b) To produce, 1a2c) To prepare, 1a2d) To make(an offering), 1a2e) To attend to, put in order, 1a2f) To observe, celebrate, 1a2g) To acquire(property), 1a2h) To appoint, ordain, institute, 1a2i) To bring about, 1a2j) To use, 1a2k) To spend, pass. Strong—a primitive root; To do or make, in the broadest sense & widest application.