5:1
The crossing of the Jordan had been dramatic and miraculous, and word of how the Lord had dried up the Jordan got around. THis put fear into the hearts of the Canaanite kings. With the failed attempt to enter Canaan under Moses fear had been in the heart of the Israelites. This was because they did not trust the Lord. Now they were trusting the Lord and the outcome was very different, fear went into the heart of the enemy.
5:2,3
We now come to a section that may seem totally irrelevant to us. The Israelites who had come out of Egypt had all been circumcised. These men had all, with one or two honourable exceptions, died, and the current generation of men were not, at this point, circumcised. So we now read of them being circumcised, so Israel was a circumcised nation again. In the early church circumcision was a big issue, see Acts 15, Romans, Galatians, Philippians. In the Old Testament it was so important, it was a sign that Israel was a covenant people.
No comments:
Post a Comment