HIGHLIGHTS IN JOSHUA
Number 5
GOD'S FAITHFULNESS
Joshua 5:1-12
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THIS SHORT passage tells us the experiences of the Israelites in the period between the crossing of the Jordan river into the promised land, and the beginning of the campaign of taking the land. As we read these twelve verses we realise it is a time when God builds up their confidence in himself and the faithfulness of his covenant with them. There are four events which are recorded here, all of which confirm to the people that God is with them; that he is their God; and that he is always faithful to his covenant with them which he first made with Abraham.

This is an experience which is common in the spiritual life. It is an experience when the child of God, or a particular fellowship, has a period of rest before some new advance in the spiritual pilgrimage, in which God renews to his people the assurance of his love, his salvation, and his working for good in their lives. In fact we can see something of a parallel in the events experienced by the Israelites and the experiences in the spiritual life of the believer. All this can be summed up under the heading of God's faithfulness to his people.

WEAKENING OF THE OPPOSITION

This passage opens with the first event in verse 1 where God in his faithfulness seals his covenant of grace to the people. They are given information of the profound effect God had wrought in the hearts of the nations which occupied Palestine at that time, by the intelligence of what God had done in bringing the Israelites safely over the river Jordan. We are told that their hearts sank and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

This is most certainly the work of God in the minds and hearts of these kings and their nations. It can not be predicted what effect a powerful event like the crossing of the Jordan in the dry would have on others. It could have stiffened the resolve of the opposition, cause them to strengthen their defences, form an alliance against the common enemy, and decide to come out and attack before Israel could reorganise themselves for their advance. Certainly this would have been the strategic thing to do, and was a way forward which for them had great possibilities of success. Instead they all cowered individually in their own kingdoms and cities, and waited for the Israelites to come to them. Because of this the Israelites could bring all their strength against each one individually.

Why did these nations become so demoralised? There can be no doubt that God sowed this demoralisation in their minds and communities. It was God who applied the terror of his might and the assurance of his might being engaged for Israel, in the minds of these nations. What a marvellous strengthening and assurance this must have given to all Israel, that the opposition was weakening, but much more that God was with them, and so how could their campaign fail, and the promised land be finally theirs according to the promise of God.

The child of God has often a parallel experience. There has been a long period, analogous to the wanderings of the people of Israel in the wilderness, when they are conscious of the power of their sinful flesh, brought home to the conscience by much failure and sin, causing deep repentance and much grief of heart at failing the God of love who has saved them. Then there is a period when the Spirit of God comes down in power, or rather works with supernatural power in the life, bringing home to the believer a much deeper assurance of God's saving love in Christ, and the perfection of this, and by this experience of the love and grace of God, the saint finds the desires of the flesh are weaken and mortified and expelled by this powerful new affection for God and the Lord Jesus. There is a deep sense that God is faithful to his electing love, and that having begun a good work in the soul will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. The believer is strengthened for whatever God may have in the future.

REAFFIRMING THE COVENANT OF GRACE

God had made a covenant of grace with Abraham in which he pledged that in the seed of Abraham, that seed or progeny being Christ, all the nations of the world would be blessed. This promise meant that the Saviour of the world was to come from the Jewish race, and for this reason it was essential that Israel should be blessed and preserved as a nation until Christ was born. Thus God made promises concerning Israel, that he would be their God, and give them the promised land in which they would be able to flourish. The sign and seal of this covenant God made with Abraham, which was thus extended to Israel, was the act of circumcision. This assured the people that they were in the covenant of God, and all the gracious workings of God under the covenant would be theirs.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt all the males had been circumcised, and had received this sign and seal of God's covenant of grace. During the years of the wilderness wanderings the continuing of this covenant sign and seal had lapsed. By the time of Joshua all who had come out of Egypt had died, and so this sign and seal of circumcision was missing amongst the people. Now God commands Joshua to see that all the males in Israel were circumcised. This was a very important command. By it God was saying that he was renewing and reaffirming his covenant of grace with his people, and restoring to them all the assurances and blessings of the covenant. It assured them, as far as they were able to understand in the period before the promised seed (Christ) had come, that for all who believed there was free justification from all their sins, and that they were counted righteous in God's sight. It also was God's assurance that God would preserve Israel and give them the promised land, so that the nation may be kept safe until the seed of the covenant had been born.

In the parallel for the Christian, circumcision is analogous to the purpose of the sacraments. The sacraments are given by God, that is Baptism and Holy Communion, as visual and active sermons of the truth of his gracious love in Christ, and the teaching of how in Christ, God has atoned for all our sins, wholly justified us before his law and accounted us righteous in his sight. How he has made us his children by new birth and given us his Spirit. How he has caused us to die in Christ, and to rise with Christ as a new person created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. We are being taught the truth of the Gospel, just as the Israelites were taught the truth of the Gospel by circumcision. We are strengthened in the truth and built up in the truth. It is a reaffirming of understanding what we have in Christ and it is an enlarging of our understanding so that we enter more deeply into all the truth of Christ and what he has done for us.

This is a blessed gracious work of God in strengthening and renewing us. Before we leave this point, let us notice the situation. God commanded this action to circumcise at a most inopportune moment as far as the campaign to conquer the promised land was concerned. All the army of Israel were incapacitated and made totally vulnerable to attack. Human wisdom would dictate that circumcision needed to wait until the campaign was over. There is a valuable lesson here. In spite of what human wisdom dictates, we should always be obedient to commands of God. This is true wisdom, for as the Israelites found, God sees that his people do not lose by their obedience. In the case of Israel God had already arranged things, through the terror he had created in the enemy, that Israel would be quite safe even though they were incapacitated by being circumcised. This will always be found to be the experience when obedience to God seems to clash with human wisdom.

ASSURANCE OF GOD'S FAVOUR

There is an outward and inward assurance for the believer. The renewing of the covenant by commanding the Israelites to be circumcised is in way of being an outward assurance. God outside them gives them a practical expression of his covenant promise, to assure them his word is true and he will hold to his word. This word and promise is believed with the mind, and there is assurance from the fact God cannot lie and he will never let his word and promise fail.

But our feelings and emotions are very powerful within us, and however sure the promise is to the mind, experiences in the past and present can often make the believing soul doubt the truth known and believed in the mind. Because of this God gives an inner assurance which effects the emotions and feelings, and deep in the soul the believer knows the love of God shed abroad in the heart.

The case in point as far as the Israelites were concerned, was the constant remembrance of the painful time of slavery in Egypt, when for so long God seemed to have forgotten his word and promise. It was well that God had reaffirmed his covenant in circumcision. It was a moving fact that God had brought them through the river Jordan in such a powerful and miraculous way, but could it not happen again, that the experience of the forsaking in Egypt could be repeated. It had been and still was a powerful reproach, that they who had claim Jehovah to be their God, seemed to be entirely forsaken. God says to them in verse 9 that "Today, I have rolled the reproach of Egypt from you".

These words refer to the fact that God had reaffirmed his covenant to them in commanding them to be circumcised. Circumcision was not a work by which the people merited God's favour, but rather a sign from God that he was reaffirming his covenant of grace and love to them. By this command to circumcise God had taken away all the reproach of Egypt where God seemed to have forgotten his covenant, and proved that he had never forgotten it. But there is something further here. Together with the outward sign, it is apparent that God was giving the people an inner conviction and peace that he was their God forever and his grace was poured out to save them from their sins, and account them righteous in his sight forever. So God gave, both the outward sign to be believed, and in the inner conviction of the experience of his eternal love.

This is the experience of the saint in Christ. We are brought to believe the word of God that Christ is our righteousness and in him we are justified from all things, and are in the acceptance and favour of God as his dear children, but together with this is the inner conviction of heart given by the Holy Ghost which brings the sense of peace with God, and that we stand in this grace whereby we are God's children forever. We truly know we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is not simply because of the word outwardly believed, but an inner certainty wrought by God's Spirit in our souls.

This inner experience of assurance of our standing before God and our possession of eternal life, is an ever deepening experience given by God throughout our earthly pilgrimage, as by the word and God's Spirit, ever deeper convictions of all that God has done for us in Christ is impressed upon us.

FIRST FRUITS OF GOD'S PROMISES

The fourth and last point in this passage which illustrates God's faithfulness is found in the last three verses where we read how the people began to enjoy the plenty of the promised land, and where the provision of the 'manna', which had fed them through the wilderness, then ceased. They began to taste something of the fruits of the promises of grace which God had given them.

The people first celebrated the Passover. This was the remembrance of the great deliverance of God from the slavery in Egypt. It is entirely appropriate that this should have followed the assurance of God, strengthened by the experimental conviction in their hearts, that God had rolled away the reproach of that time in Egypt. The Passover was essentially a spiritual statement by God. The avenging angel that brought the judgement of God on the Egyptians in the killing of every first born child in every family amongst the Egyptians, was the means that eventually caused the Egyptians to let Israel go. However the judgement was only passed over the Israelites, not because they were not worthy of that judgement, for they were sinners before God as are all human beings, but because they were hiding behind the blood of the sacrificial lamb. This was a statement that through the sacrifice of a substitute bearing the sins of the people and taking the judgement in the place of the sinner, full forgiveness could be experienced. The Passover meal was a reiteration of the grace of God to Israel by which they were saved and were being saved. It was from this statement that the enjoyment of the firstfruits of the blessings of this grace began to be enjoyed. This was the realisation of the promise that the land being given to them was rich in plenty, and would safely give them all a good and plentiful living.

There is an exact parallel in the spiritual life of the believer. We are saved only by the blood shedding of our substitute, the lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Having been thus saved we are fed on spiritual food which enriches the soul. We know the joy of feeding on Christ by faith. Firstly we experience peace with God. We know the joy and peace that we have passed from condemnation into life. We know the joy of the new life that has been created within us by being raised together with Christ, and being born again of the Spirit. We experience the joy within us of this new life which causes us to live in the spiritual heavenly realm, in fellowship with God, and with new and holy desires which hate all sin, and with a new nature that can never again be defiled by sin. This brings with it conflict with the flesh, and much grieving because of the sin in the flesh, which still desires to do wrong, but we still live in the joy of heaven. Then there is the ever increasing joy of the spirit of adoption within us, caused by the Spirit of God, so that we know God is our Father, and we are his children, and we can come in Jesus' name to God as our Father in confidence of his love and welcome. We have the joy that heaven is our home, and a place has been reserved in heaven by Christ for us, which can never be taken from us.

We begin to enjoy these fruits of redemption, just as the Israelites began to enjoy the plenty of the promised land immediately they set foot on that land. Just as this plenty increased as they gained more of the land and entered more deeply into it, so the believer in the spiritual realm grows in the joy of these spiritual blessings, both in the depth of understanding of them, and in the depth of the experience of them. This deepening of joy will continue until they become full in the heavenly glory, where they will deepen in fullness for eternity.

CONCLUSION

Let us rejoice in the faithfulness of God to his people in Christ. There has been nothing left undone, or left out, in the provision of God in the redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus. The faithfulness of God is that he will never withdraw these blessings from true believers, who have renounced their own merit, and rest only on the merits of the Saviour. His faithfulness will continue to deepen the sense of this perfect salvation, and the entering into the experience of it, all the way to heaven and beyond. So rejoice in the Lord, always, and again I say rejoice.