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

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So, I recorded my first thoughts about this passage before I began writing this morning.  In the past I had written this blog before recording my thoughts.  What I am writing now will not be exactly what I recorded, but will include some of it.  In recording my thoughts I skipped over the reaction of the rulers west of the Jordan to the Israelites crossing the Jordan on dry ground.  That reaction explains why the Israelites had time to circumcise all of their men and take time for Passover before beginning their conquest of the land.  Which brings me to my first thought while recording.  Why were not of the men born while the Israelites in the wilderness circumcised until this point?  The passage tells us that all of those born in Egypt had been circumcised, but none of those born in the wilderness were circumcised.  The practice of circumcision was among the laws which God gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.  Yet, as we read this, it seems as if the writer thought that the  not circumcising the men until this point was approved by God.  In fact, God specifically told Joshua that He had “rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” on this day.  The implication being that by circumcising all of the men on this day rather than sooner was what removed that reproach.  In any case, all of the men were circumcised before the Passover, which they celebrated for the first time in Canaan after circumcising all of the men.

One of the more enigmatic passages in the Bible is when Joshua meets the commander of the army of the Lord.  Joshua meets a man outside of Jericho who has His sword drawn.  Joshua does not know who He is and asks Him if he is “for us, or for our adversaries?”  To which the man answers, “No.”  The man goes on to say that He is the commander of the army of the Lord.  So, I read this as the commander of the army of the Lord is not on the side of the Israelites, nor is He on the side of their adversaries.  I want to point out that the passage makes it clear that the commander of the army of the Lord IS God.  It tells us that Joshua worships Him, and that He tells Joshua to take off his sandals because the place where he was standing was holy.  The only other place where God tells someone to take off their sandals because they are on holy ground is when He speaks to Moses from the burning bush.  This is one of those places where God foreshadows His incarnation as Jesus.  However, the most important point here is that God is neither for Israel, nor is He for Israel’s adversaries.

I want to say that we need to remember this in the modern struggle in the Middle East.  God is neither for Israel, nor for Israel’s adversaries.  However, when I look at that conflict, it looks to me that Israel’s adversaries are choosing to oppose God.  Unfortunately, while I do not believe that Israel is choosing to oppose God, they are pursuing their own agenda rather than God’s agenda.  Now to apply this to us: God is neither for us, nor is He for our adversaries.  Or to put it another way, God is neither on our side, nor is He on the side of our enemies.  It is up to us to be on God’s side.  But, we must also remember that God is not against anyone either.  Anyone can choose to be on God’s side.  If we are pursuing our own agenda, whether that is in supporting something we think is a good thing, or in opposing something we think is a bad thing, we are likely to find ourselves in opposition to God.  Instead of pursuing our own agenda, we should strive to hear God tell us what we should do.

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