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 8-9.

The first time the Israelites attacked the city of Ai they were defeated badly.  Yesterday’s passage blamed that on the fact that Achan had kept for himself loot from the sack of Jericho despite God’s command to destroy it all.  Yet, in today’s passage, Joshua set an ambush with a larger force than the force sent in the first attack while launching a frontal attack with the rest of the Israelite army.  Typically, we understand yesterday’s passage to mean that if Achan had not sinned the force sent against Ai the first time would have been sufficient.  However, today’s passage suggests another interpretation: God allowed the Israelites to originally underestimated the force necessary to defeat Ai because of Achan’s sin.

In a way, the defeat at Ai reflects the same mistake which Israel made when they allied with the Gibeonites, and the victory gives us guidance into what they should have done.  After spying out Ai, the Israelites relied entirely on their own judgement about the situation in deciding what to do, and sent an inadequate force to attack.  In making an agreement with the Gibeonites, the Israelites relied on their own ability to judge the situation as to where the Gibeonites came from.  In both cases they failed to seek God’s guidance before making a decision.  In the successful attack on Ai, Joshua sought God’s guidance as to how they should attack.  The important point about both stories, the failed attack on Ai and the deal with the Gibeonites is that we do not know what we do not know.  If we seek God’s guidance, even for a decision which we think looks obvious, He will reveal to us those things which we may not realize are important.

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.

This passage talks about something which has always puzzled me: none of the Israelite men born from the time they left Egypt until they crossed the Jordan River had been circumcised.  What makes it even more interesting is that when Moses’ son was not circumcised until Moses was returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  I spent some time looking for what other people thought about this and found nothing satisfactory.  However, I found that people who were concerned about why the Israelite boys born in the wilderness were not circumcised also wondered why they used flint knives rather than metal ones on this occasion.  The answer to that is actually pretty easy.  Flint knives would have been sharper than any metal knives which the Israelites would have had access to at that time.

Now, I have my own theory about why the Israelites did not practice circumcision in the wilderness.  The Egyptians of that time also practiced circumcision.  Further, I suspect that the Israelites were circumcised in Egypt as part of the Egyptian practice, not as a result of being descendants of Abraham.  In addition, the practice almost certainly had religious meaning for the Egyptians, meaning which would have been idolatrous.  So, circumcision would have had idolatrous meaning to those who left Egypt, but when that meaning was completely gone when the Israelites entered Canaan, as all of those who were adults when they left Egypt had died by then.  I don’t know if this explanation will stand up to thorough examination, but I wanted to throw it out there.