Tag Archives: Joshua 5-7

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2024 Bible Study — Why Weren’t Israelite Baby Boys Circumcised During the Wilderness Journey?

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

I am not sure if I have written on this before, but one of the things which hits me when I read this passage is the length of time between the Israelites crossing the Jordan and the beginning of the siege of Jericho.  I am used to thinking that the Israelites crossed the Jordan and promptly besieged Jericho, but that is not what happened.  Or, maybe the siege did begin as soon as they crossed over, but if so that makes the passage even stranger.  So, the Israelites had spied out Jericho before crossing the Jordan.  Then they crossed the Jordan and camped on the plains of Jericho.  Once they were camped there, Joshua had all of the men circumcised.  That is strange in and of itself, why weren’t they circumcised shortly after they were born, while the Israelites were in the wilderness.  It is one of those details which leaves me wondering how anyone can perceive the Book of Joshua as just a “compilation of bedtime stories” rather than a record of events which actually happened.  If the Book of Joshua was made up in order to justify the control of the land by a particular group of people (usually postulated to be the “Returned Exiles”).

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

Daily Bible Study

March 12. 2023 Bible Study — The Israelites Enter The Promised Land

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

Some things in this passage struck me as curious, and others as something to think about.  I will write about them in the order they appear in the passage until  I feel like this is getting too long (or I have covered all of them).  At the beginning of the passage we learn that none of the Israelite males born after they left Egypt had been circumcised up until this point.  So, God tells Joshua to have them all circumcised.  I wondered why none of the Israelites were circumcised in the wilderness, so I did an Internet search to see what others had to say on the subject.  The best explanation I found suggested that the Israelites did not circumcise their children in the wilderness because the covenant God had made with Abraham had been broken when they initially refused to go into the Promised Land.  Now that they were going into the Promised Land, it was time to renew their side of the bargain.  There are some other aspects of that which are less than clear, but I had not noticed them before I read this answer, so I will leave them in the back of my mind for now.

Next I want to write about how they are their first produce from the Promised Land the day after their first Passover in the Promised Land and they stopped receiving manna.  So, God did not stop supplying them with manna when they crossed the Jordan River.  He did not stop doing so until they began to eat food produced in the land which He had promised them.  I find this significant because I have heard manna explained as a naturally occurring substance in the Sinai Peninsula (the person I heard making that explanation even identified the substance which they thought it was, but I forget what they suggested).  Now, while there is some chance that manna was the substance so identified, the fact that the Israelites continued to receive it each day as they traveled around the Dead Sea, up to the eastern bank of the Jordan River, and even after they initially crossed the Jordan, indicates that they were being fed by something more than just a naturally occurring substance which they happened to find along their way.

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

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2022 Bible Study — The Fall Of Jericho Foreshadows The Events Described In The Book Of Revelation

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

I noticed in today’s passage something I have never noticed before, nor have I heard or seen anyone comment upon it.   When the Israelites marched around Jericho they had seven priests blowing seven trumpets.  That isn’t the part I just noticed.  What I realized today was that the symbolism of these seven trumpets was similar to the symbolism of the seven trumpets referred to in the Book of Revelation.  I am sure that someone else has noted this, but I have never come across a reference to that.  I was going to stop there, because I was not sure how that symbolism tied together.  Bot now that I have written that I realized more about the symbolism which will really help us understand the Book of Revelation.  So, at Jericho all seven trumpets were sounded at once, but they were blown on seven consecutive days.  In the Book of Revelation, the seven trumpets are sounded successively rather than all together.  At Jericho, for six days the trumpets were sounded and life went on as before, on the seventh day the trumpets were sounded seven times.  On the seventh time on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho fell and life ended for everyone living there, except Rahab and those who “belonged to her” (everyone sheltering in her house).  In Revelation, the first six trumpets are sounded, and things pretty much go on as before (not entirely, but bear with me here).  When the seventh trumpet is sounded, the earth will be destroyed and the everyone living there will die, except for those who belong to Christ (simplifying again). So, we see that the destruction of Jericho foreshadows the end of the earth.

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

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2021 Bible Study The Mystery Of The Battle Of Jericho

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

The beginning of this passage describes an event which I have trouble understanding: Joshua had all of the men who had been born since the Israelites left Egypt circumcised because none of them had been circumcised while the Israelites were in the wilderness.  When I first read and comprehended this I went “Huh, what?” I still do not understand what to make of that.

Then we come to the story of the Battle of Jericho.  I was hoping that having spotted in the story of Rahab and the spies that there was something more than we normally talk about in that story that I would see something today that completed the thought.  Unfortunately, I did not.  Actually, that is not quite true.  The account tells us that the wall of Jericho collapsed so that the Israelite army could just rush straight in from wherever they were.  BUT, we were also told that Rahab’s house was part of the wall of Jericho.  And Rahab and her family were sheltering in her house, along with possibly others, the passage tells us that the spies went in and brought Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters, and everyone who belonged to her (we don’t really know what was meant by “everyone who belonged to her”).  Yet, I still do not have a clear understanding of what happened here.  I think there is another clue in what happened with Achan keeping some of the plunder for himself.  Not enough that we can really figure it out, but a clue nonetheless.  There is really some other important lessons to be taken from these stories, but this mystery caught my attention.

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

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2020 Bible Study

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.

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2019 Bible Study — The Importance Of Being Accountable To Others

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.

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.

 

 

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2018 Bible Study — Corporate Accountability, Individual Responsibility

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.

    I am not sure I have written about this in the past, but every time I read this passage it strikes me that none of the males had been circumcised during the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. We are given no explanation as to why they were not circumcised. We are just told that they were not. So, after crossing the Jordan, but before launching the attack on Jericho, Joshua had all of the males circumcised using flint knives. I believe that flint knives were used because they are inherently sharper than metal knives. While metal knives can be made as sharp as flint knives it requires careful forging of the metal of the blade and then continuous effort to keep them sharp.

    I am going to skip over the attack on Jericho, although I find the strategy used fascinating, and discuss the attack on Ai. More precisely, I am going to discuss the sin of Achan. Achan surely thought that his sin would have no impact on any one other than himself. How could it hurt anyone else? How would they even know? Certainly, I can come up with no explanation, other than an act of God, for why his sin would have caused the Israelite defeat when they attacked the city of Ai. The lesson we learn from this is that our private sins can have an impact far beyond what we can imagine. We are not the only ones who suffer as a consequence of our sins, even if we cannot imagine how our sin might effect anyone else.

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2016 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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

    I am struck by the fact that Joshua had to have all of the Israelite males circumcised after they crossed the Jordan River. I do not know what it means, but I find it worth noting that none of the males born between when they left Egypt and when they crossed the Jordan had been circumcised. The account of the attack on Jericho is striking. For six days, the Israelites marched around the city once a day. While marching around the city, they spoke not a word. There was just seven priests blowing rams horns while they marched. On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times, with only the horns making a sound. This must have been very unsettling for the people living in Jericho. This passage reminds me that there are times when we should keep silent when facing those who oppose us.