[5:1] So. The Canaanites, their melted hearts melt again. They were already melted [Rahab told us as much]. Now hearts are doubly melted. Why? Cuz the God of Israel, the God of promise, the wondrous God of wonders, just brought His people across a flooded raging mile-wide [river]. Dried it up like that. Not to mention - He has brought them across a barren wilderness. AND out of bondage in Egypt. The God of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob has finally brought His people full circle. They’ve crossed over the Jordan, and are finally back in the land they left some 400 years earlier. The land which He promised to give them. The promise of God.
God promised this land to Abraham 700 years ago. [Gen. 12:6-7 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of [Shechem] Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD.]. He repeated the promise to Isaac, and to Jacob. Yes, they were in Egypt for a while, but that had a purpose. The small clan that went down there, the Lord was with them, and actually prospered them in Egypt. And at the right time, He brought them out, a huge nation. An army of 600k soldiers (that's the size of China's army). He renews the promise to Moses [Ex. 6:8 “I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.”]. And WHY is the Lord doing all this? Ex. 6:7 “Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” [4:24] The Lord is gathering a people for Himself. A family. And now the promise comes full circle. Back to the promised land.
Of course the Lord had them right on the edge of the land of promise 40yrs prior. Multiple wonders backing it all up. BUT, instead of focusing on Him, God's people looked away. They fleshed it - looked down, looked around at their circumstances, at their own inadequacies, and they unbelieved. By now, they could have been living in the land of promise for the past two generations. But they were unwilling to trust in God’s Promise, in His provision. And that’s what we all do. We unbelieve. The sons of Israel saw God’s land of Promise, but when they saw those giant [sons of Anak], they unbelieved. The giants became the excuse for why they were NOT going to trust the Lord. Those giants totally got them off track, going round and round in circles in the wilderness for 40 years.
Same thing happens to us. Giants. A giant mistake. A giant hurt. A giant question. Giant pains in the donkey. Giants rise up and they loom in front of us, like a big alien sucking on our face, trying to get our eyes off the Lord. Trying to get us to unbelieve. But there is no giant so big that God is not bigger. NO raging river so wide or flooded that God cannot get us across. We need to get our eyes off the giants, and get them focused on the God of wonders [focus of course being critical to seeing what we are supposed to see]. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. HE is faithful. The promise of God.
And so, finally, God’s people really have come full circle, into God’s land of promise. [4:18] This whole coming back into the Promised Land - after 40 years in the desert and 400 years of captivity in Egypt - is huge! The mother of all “are-we-there-yets”. And the timing of all this is amazing. Just what you’d expect from the God of wonders.[19 The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.] God’s timing is always perfect. What happens on the 10th day of the first month? Ex. 12:3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.” It’s time to celebrate the Passover [Ex 12.25]. They’ve actually only celebrated it once since they left Egypt - at Mt Sinai [Num 9.5]. 40 yrs ago - so most of them by this time had NEVER celebrated the Passover! Certainly not in the Promised Land. Talk about a celebration! But that’s not the first thing they do. [20] First they set up this circle of "Rocks of Remembrance" at this place called "Gilgal" - cuz of that promise of forgetfulness ["gilgal" sounds like “galgal”, which is Hebrew for “wheel” - another circle of sorts].
And then there’s this: [Ex. 12:48 “But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.]. Circumcise - to cut around (another “full circle”). Also huge. They need renew the covenant of circumcision. Cuz circumcision has marked out the sons of Israel as God’s chosen people since Abraham. No other nation did this, they're all referred to as “uncircumcised”. But Israel didn’t observe circumcision for those 40 yrs in the widlerness. Why? [Num 14.33 - there was a temporary suspension of the covenant w the unbelieving generation]. But so this new generation had not been marked out as God’s people, not since they had left Egypt. [2-9] We actually get the Hill of the Foreskins [600k of them!].
[9] The reproach of Egypt. This is the taunts of the pagan Egyptians against the God of Israel and His people [Deut. 9:28 ‘Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.”]. The critics had rushed to judgment. 2 million slaves out in the desert with no food or water, on their way to an occupied fortified land, w no military training?? So when the spies/people unbelieved God’s promise and the nation was sentenced to wander for 40 years (homeless!), the naysayers had a field day. The pagan nations were taunting Israel, and disrespecting their God. They were a sorry people, and theirs was a sorry god, unable to bring His people into this land. The reproach of Egypt.
So on this day, the day the people set foot on the west bank of the Jordan, finally back in the land of promise, God says He has rolled away this reproach of Egypt, this criticism from the Gentiles. Rolling away is ALSO rooted in this idea of a circle, of something round. [Rolled away = galal; place is called Gilgal]. HUGE!! God shows off His great power and faithfulness by bringing the entire nation all the way back to the land He promised to give them - out of famine, and slavery, across barren wilderness and raging waters and past fierce enemies, and they are back. Full circle. God’s promises always come full circle. Fully full circle, because now Israel are all marked out again as His people, by renewing the covenant of circumcision. Well, almost fully full circle. There are two more things that take place:
[10] So, while they are healing up, we come to the 14th day, and they observe the Passover. IN the land of promise. Huge! [To this day, Jews hopefully declare, "Next year in Jerusalem!" - hoping to celebrate the Passover in the Promised Land].
[11-12] Finally, the day after that, Israel eats some of the fruit of the Promised Land, and the very next day the manna ceases. This daily bread had been served up by the Lord, without fail, faithfully, every day for 40yrs. [Ex. 16:35 The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.] Every day. No matter where they were - Kadesh-Barnea, the wilderness, Abel-Shittim, and even now having crossed the Jordan for these few days, every single day God provided them with their daily bread (which they complained about - how ingrated of them!). God’s provisions never cease until He is ready. And now He has fully brought His people into the land of Promise [Deut 8.7-10]. Just as He promised, He is now feeding His people from the produce of the land. Full circle. God always fulfills His promises. His timing is perfect. Great is His faithfulness. [Phil 1.6, 2Tim 4.18]
Extra verses:
Num. 13:32-33 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Ex. 12:25 “When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite.”
Num. 9:5 They observed the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did.
Num. 14:33 ‘Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.’
Deut 8.3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
Deut 8.7-10 “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.”
Phil. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
2Tim. 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment