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

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

I find it interesting that none of the children born while the Israelites were in the wilderness were circumcised.  No real explanation is given for why this was the case.  We are just told that all of the men were circumcised after they crossed the Jordan because they had not been while they were in the wilderness.  Perhaps it is unrelated, but Moses’ sons were also not circumcised until he was returning to Egypt.  I do not know why the Israelites did not practice circumcision while they wondered in the wilderness, nor why they resumed when they crossed the Jordan.  The only clue we have is that while the men were recovering from being circumcised they celebrated Passover and the Feast on Unleavened Bread in the Promised Land for the first time.  The last time it was mentioned that they celebrated the Passover was before the 12 spies went out.  Perhaps, they had not celebrated the Passover in the meantime?  That seems like a stretch, since the Passover mentioned here was significant because it was the first in the Promised Land.

The story of the Israelite loss at Ai and Achan’s sin always troubles me because the punishment seems so severe.  It was Achan’s sin, why were his family killed and all of his possessions destroyed as well?  There are two aspects to the answer.  First, his family was aware of his sin, and complicit in it because they did not report it.  When we read the way in which Achan concealed the loot he kept from Jericho in violation of God’s command, a little thought reveals that his family would have had to know about it.  He could not have dug the hole beneath his tent each time they moved camp without his immediate family knowing what he was doing and why.  As for destroying his possessions, by doing this no one can claim that anyone profited from his punishment.  We learn from the story of Ai and Achan’s sin that one person’s sin can undermine the efforts of an entire group.  Our sins may seem to be a private matter between ourselves and God and thus no one else’s business but our own.  However, they may impact the group of which we are part and undermine the efforts of others to do God’s will.  Therefore we must allow ourselves to be held accountable by those with whom we strive to serve God.