I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 5-7.

    Every time I read it I am surprised that none of the males born while the people of Israel were in the wilderness were circumcised until they crossed the Jordan River. It is interesting to note the progression here. The people of Israel crossed the Jordan River. The males were circumcised (something which had not been done since they turned aside from the Promised Land, possibly since they had left Egypt). The people of Israel celebrated Passover in the Promised Land. The people of Israel began eating food grown in the Promised Land. Manna stops appearing each morning.
    I am not sure why the males were not circumcised while the people of Israel were in the wilderness. However, upon entering the Promised Land they resumed the practice which marked them as distinct from the other people living there. Now that they had entered the land which had been promised to their ancestors they needed to mark themselves as different from the people living there. So, they rededicated themselves to being God’s chosen people by circumcising all of the males. Then they acknowledged what God had done for them by celebrating the Passover as a kind of bookmark on the end of their time in the wilderness (which began with the first Passover). This was followed by eating food harvested in the land God had promised them, which meant they no longer needed the manna which God had provided to sustain them in the wilderness.