GETTING STARTED
Have you ever been promised something, and it fell through? People with the best of intentions can let us down in our time of need. Without proper perspective and wrestling, we can even start to believe that God doesn’t care about us, or that he won’t follow through on his promises. Our text today shows how God continued to uphold the Abrahamic Covenant for the Israelites. Not only did God have good intentions for this group of former slaves-turned-wanderers, he also had a faithfulness that always followed through on those loving intentions.
- Who in your life has modeled faithfulness to you?
READ THE WORD: JOSHUA 5:2-9 (ESV)
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- Who had not yet been circumcised in the Israelite group and why?
- What was the reason listed in the text for why Israel walked the wilderness for forty years?
- What was promised to the Israelites? How would seeing this promise fulfilled have been an encouragement to the Israelites?
- What do you think the Lord meant by “the reproach of Egypt” in verse 9?
- How is God working in your life right now? If you don’t know, what does it look like to trust that he is doing something behind the scenes?
RESPOND TO GOD
The desert time was truly over. But, after living in the wilderness for forty years, it must have been a massive shift going from enslavement to independent wandering for the Israelites. It was during this time that the Lord was turning over the older, disobedient generation to the younger generation who would lead them into the land promised to them. This text gives us a good picture of God’s faithfulness to his people, both in the discipline and in the land he promised. God is at work in the lives of his people, even when they are doing figure eights in the wilderness. Whether we are in the wilderness or on a mountaintop, may we know the abiding love of God in our lives today.
- Ask God to enable you to see and know and understand his faithfulness to you.
- By faith, thank him that he is at work in your life.
