MEMORY VERSE: But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. —Numbers 14:31 DAILY READINGS: Israel's Enemies Bound With Fear Joshua 5:1 The Israelites had crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and made a camp in Canaan. Enemies were everywhere. These heard of the miraculous crossing. God used the news to bind them with fear. Hearts melted, spirits fainted. All resistance was gone. The camp of Israel was unmolested. A New Generation Circumcised Joshua 5:2-12 The Lord commanded Joshua to circumcise ... the children of Israel the second time. They were not circumcised twice, but the ones who had come out of Egypt were all dead now. Those born in the wilderness were not circumcised, so must be now. Circumcision was the token God had given Abraham to bind the covenant between them (Genesis 17). It was a symbol of purity, the sign of citizenship among the people of God. These must be circumcised to dwell in their homeland of Canaan. Because of the Circumcision, God said He rolled away ... from off Israel the reproach of Egypt, which was sin. To commemorate the rolling away, they named their camp Gilgal. A city grew up there, about a mile from Jericho. PHYSICAL CIRCUMCISION—This was a sign of separation from other peoples and of citizenship in Israel, the people of God. It is a type of spiritual purity and of membership in the spiritual family of God. Read Romans 2:28-29 and Deuteronomy 30:6. To be a citizen of Israel in the Promised Land, they must be circumcised. To be among the redeemed— spiritual Israel, the Church of God—we must be holy, separate from sin, circumcised in heart. This state is reached by faith in Jesus Christ and His promises. THE PASSOVER—They kept the passover on the fourteenth day ... as commanded. When the Lord shall bring thee into the land ... thou shalt keep this service in this month (Exodus 13:4-5). It commemorated the miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The Passover Feast looked back on the killing of the lamb, sprinkling of its blood on the doorpost for the sparing from death of the firstborn, and the freeing of Israel from Egyptian bondage. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:42). The lamb is a type of Christ, its blood a type of His blood. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). By celebrating it after entering Canaan, the Israelites showed that one offering of the blood of Christ was effective to keep every generation free from sin forever. EATING THE FRUIT OF THE LAND—The people were now where they could obtain or raise food freely. Manna given by measure was no longer needed. They had something better. The food of the soul is the Word of God, both the written Word, the Bible, and the living Word, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:41). Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. They did not have to wait, all was made ready for them. When we come into God's Kingdom, we will find spiritual food ready and plentiful. The newly saved one is ignorant of much of God's ways and of His Word. God protects and leads him in spite of his ignorance, keeping him spiritually healthy through faith and obedience. As he freely feeds upon Christ and the Bible, greater understanding is his. Thus he grows strong in the Lord. The food is there for us. Are we strong and healthy in soul or weak and undernourished? The blessings of God and sin cannot abide in a life at the same time.
JUST A THOUGHT By yielding to temptation, one may lose in a moment Click
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