{"id":12896,"date":"2020-11-30T20:47:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T03:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_4_11-24-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-11-29T20:56:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T03:56:13","slug":"joshua_5_1-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_5_1-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Circumcised by Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 5:1-8 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 5:1-8.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 5:1 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 1:\u00a0\u00a0Upon hearing about the past miracles God had performed for the Israelites, Israel’s enemies were very much intimidated.\u00a0\u00a0Nevertheless, as we will see in the verses that follow, God would lead the Israelites through an important process internally before they would be ready to enter and conquer the promised land.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God has a promised land for you to conquer.\u00a0\u00a0That promised land is the dream God has placed in your heart, the destiny God made you for, the calling on your life.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0before you can take over your promised land successfully, God has an internal, private preparation process that He wants you to go through, one which people who know you from a distance will not be aware of.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Promotion in public is preceded by preparation in private.<\/p>\n

Joshua 5:2-8 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt–all the men of military age–died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the\u00a0LORD. For the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 2-8:\u00a0\u00a0The Jewish law required boys to be circumcised on their eighth day of life (Leviticus 12:3).\u00a0\u00a0However, during the 40 years that Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert after escaping Egypt, the children born to them during their desert wanderings were not circumcised.\u00a0\u00a0Circumcision was a sign of the covenant God made with the Israelites (Genesis 17:11).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet ironically, the circumcised Israelites died in the desert while their uncircumcised children \u2013 the next generation \u2013 were making their way to the promised land.\u00a0\u00a0Now here we see God requiring this next generation of Israelites to be circumcised before entering the promised land.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Physical circumcision is not a requirement in order to follow Jesus or to receive salvation.\u00a0\u00a0However, the New Testament compares the process by which a person receives salvation through faith in Christ to circumcision.\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s how the apostle Paul puts it in Colossians 2:11-13:<\/p>\n

\u201c11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.\u00a0<\/em>13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, when we placed our faith in Jesus, God removed from us our sinful nature and gave us a new nature.\u00a0 Instead of sinners, we became children of God, holy, righteous and acceptable to Him.\u00a0Paul likens this salvation process to circumcision.\u00a0\u00a0Though you may not have been physically circumcised,\u00a0through faith in Christ we have been spiritually circumcised and made acceptable to God by what Christ has done for us.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Through what Christ did for us, we can enter the promised land that is God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, thank You for the private preparation process You take me through to prepare me for the greater things that lay ahead.\u00a0\u00a0Even more, thank You for what You did on the cross for me, how You set me apart and made me acceptable in God\u2019s sight by shedding Your precious blood.\u00a0\u00a0Now I live to serve You in this world.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 5:1-8.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 5:1 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.<\/p>\n

On verse 1:\u00a0\u00a0Upon hearing about the past miracles God had performed for the Israelites, Israel’s enemies were very much intimidated.\u00a0\u00a0Nevertheless, as we will see in the verses that follow, God would lead the Israelites through an important process internally before they would be ready to enter and conquer the promised land.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God has a promised land for you to conquer.\u00a0\u00a0That promised land is the dream God has placed in your heart, the destiny God made you for, the calling on your life.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0before you can take over your promised land successfully, God has an internal, private preparation process that He wants you to go through, one which people who know you from a distance will not be aware of.\u00a0\u00a0Promotion in public is preceded by preparation in private.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12897,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896\/revisions\/12897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}