June 5, 2019: Day 39 – Joshua 5

There really is a lot in this chapter to look at.  First of all, I love the detail of what happened in the wilderness while they were wandering.  The people who were born in Egypt were circumcised by their parents because while they were slaves in Egypt there was still a pseudo-institutionalized religious reality in which the male children were circumcised.  So all those who made it out of Egypt, but were banished from entering the promise land, had been circumcised.  But while they were wandering for 40 years wives and husbands continued to have children.  While these children were born Israelites, there was not set up any type of institutionalized religion and so the rite of circumcision had been circumvented (see what I did there).  

In this chapter, before the Israelites go into battle, before they go to capture what was their land according to the commandments of the Lord, they have to be made pure and right before the Lord.  They had to be circumcised.  So when you are 8 days old and circumcised, that is one thing.  But when you are an adult and are circumcised, that is totally another thing.  You can look at Genesis 34 and a fun story about that and see how Hamor and Shechem did after they had been circumcised.  Not very well.

But here we see the Israelites are circumcised and give themselves enough time to heal before the battle of Jericho.  We then find that Joshua has his own burning bush experience, but without the fire and without the bush.  An angel appears and tell him to take off his shoes because he is standing on holy ground.  That is all that we hear, Joshua sees an angel with a sword, removes his shoes, and the rest is history.  Speaking of an angel with a sword…a prize for the first person who can identify this image.