Old Testament Reading – Psalm 111:1-10
New Testament Reading – Hebrews 10:19-25
Victorious Christian Living
“A Call to Holiness”
Joshua 5:1-15
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
After the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River, they camped at Gilgal, which was only eight miles from Jericho.
- Even though Rahab had told the Israelites that the people of Jericho were filled with fear at what God had done for them in drying up the Red Sea and in holding back the Jordan River, and even though Israel’s military leaders wanted to press on into Jericho while the spirit of the people was so high, God said Israel was not ready to fight on Canaan’s soil.
- God called His people to take time to review and renew their level of holiness before they went any further into the Promised Land, for He wanted them to know that their conquest of Canaan was predicated upon their consecration to Him.
- Joshua 5:1-9 – God told Joshua to have all the men circumcised.
- Joshua 5:10 – God told the people to observe the Passover.
- Joshua 5:11-12 – God stopped the daily manna, but He provided food for them from the Promised Land.
- Joshua 5:13-15 – Joshua had an encounter with the pre-incarnate Son of God, who instructed him as to how he was to achieve victory over Jericho.
How the book of Joshua illustrates the Victorious Christian Life.
- As the Israelites were in slavery to the Egyptians, every sinner is enslaved to the world, with no way to set themselves free.
- As the Israelites were delivered from their slavery and from the plague of death through the shed blood of an innocent lamb, those who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord are set free from their bondage to sin and the penalty of eternal death by the shed blood of the Lamb of God.
- As the Israelites walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, Christians are baptized in water, indicating our death to the world. When believers are raised from the waters, they are dedicating themselves to live in obedience to God’s will and God’s ways.
- As Moses led the Israelites to Mt. Sinai, where God gave them the laws by which they were to live, Christians have the Word of God, which not only documents the law of God but it also reveals the blessing of obedience, and the consequence of disobedience.
- Even though that generation of Israelites had seen the power of God like no other nation on earth, they refused to take the step of faith into the Promised Land, and God sent them to the wilderness for 40 years. Likewise, many people make a profession of their faith in Jesus Christ and follow Him as long as He provides the easy way. However, when called to take a giant step of faith, they refuse and, therefore, forfeit God’s blessings.
- Just as the second generation of Israelites crossed the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, so every Christian who fully surrenders their life unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ can live the Victorious Christian Life. This is where the Christian decides to trust in the Lord with all of their heart, and lean not upon their understanding, but in all their ways, acknowledge Him.
- So, the Book of Joshua is an account of how God lead His people from the bondage in Egypt into the Promised Land. However, the parallel is how God the Father sent His Son to set us free from our bondage to sin, and sent the Holy Spirit to enable us to live a life of victory over this evil world.
- In 1 John 5:4, the Apostle wrote: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
- The Secret to living the Victorious Christian Life is not to recruit God to serve as our Champion, but to submit ourselves unto Him as the Captain of our souls
1. Remembrance – Joshua 4:1-24 – Vs. 21-24 – “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what are these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God”
- Salvation is where Jesus died for us.
- Submission is where we die to ourselves and live for Christ.
- Gilgal is the place where we fully surrendered our lives unto the Lord.
2. Resurrection – Joshua 4:19 – “Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.”
- In trusting God by walking through the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, God removed the “reproach” of their forefathers who failed to take that step of faith at the Red Sea.
- The same Holy Spirit who regenerated us to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior will also empower us to submit our lives unto His Lordship. When we repent of our sins, God will remove that reproach, and we can walk in the newness of life, as we could have and should have since the day of our salvation.
3. The Renunciation – Joshua 5:1-9 – VS. 2 – “At that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So, Joshua made knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel.”
- For the Israelites, Circumcision was an outward sign of their inward obedience to God; it marked them as God’s chosen people. Throughout scripture, circumcision is a metaphor for holiness, i.e., cutting away the flesh.
- While circumcision is no longer a sign of our covenant relationship with God, God still calls His people to a life of holiness.
- When Jesus died on the cross, the sign of circumcision was replaced with the presence of the Holy Spirit, which fulfilled the promise of Ezekiel 36:26, where God said: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
4. The Restoration – Joshua 5:10 – “Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.”
- God established the Feast of Passover as a memorial of the Israelites rescue from Egyptian slavery by the sacrifice of an innocent lamb. That event established a covenant between God and those He had chosen to serve as His people.
- Therefore, having renounced their sins through circumcision, the next thing to do was to restore their covenant with God.
- In God’s sovereignty, it was the 14th day of the month of Nisan.
5. The Realization – Joshua 5:11-12 – “And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.”
- While the mana was sufficient for them in the wilderness, it was the food of disobedience and defeat. Now God would provide the food of obedience and victory, for they would be nourished from the produce of the Promised Land!
- On the same day of the year the Israelites began to eat of the fruit of the Promised Land, the Lord Jesus rose from the grave, giving us the bread of the Victorious Christian Life.
6. The Revelation – Joshua 5:13-15 – “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, are You for us or for our adversaries? So, He said, no, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and said to Him, what does my Lord say to his servant. Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy, and Joshua did so.”
- This “Man” was the Lord Jesus in His pre-incarnate appearance.
- This was Joshua’s “burning bush,” experience, during which he was assured of God’s power and God’s presence in the future.
- While God was not fighting for them, they were fighting for Him, and while Joshua would serve as the Captain, the Lord Jesus would serve as the Commander of the Lord’s army.
