Claiming your Canaan

Redemption Remembered Joshua 5:10- 15

1. The third work at Gilgal: A redemption remembered
   1. V. 10-11 The Passover is celebrated: looking back to their redemption from Egypt. In these verses, we find Israel once again keeping the feast of the Passover. They first observed it when they were still in Egypt, Ex. 9-14. They also celebrated it at Mount Sinai before they left for Kadesh-Barnea, Num. 9:1-14. Hereafter, Israel did not observe the Passover in 40 years. The new generation had not been circumcised, and this was a requirement for participating in the Passover. They were to always live remembering that they were a people delivered and remembering God’s work of deliverance. In the same way, we are to be in constant remembrance of our redemption at Calvary and live our lives in the shadow of the cross.
      • Reflect on this statement, “we are to be in constant remembrance of our redemption at Calvary and live our lives in the shadow of the cross.”
   2. 12 A new source of provision: God stops the manna. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land: When the people were able to provide for themselves from the rich produce of Canaan, God stopped the manna. He did not want them to get lazy, but to enter into a new partnership of trust with Him. You had to trust God to bring the manna every day; but you also had to trust Him to provide for you through other means. They ate the food of the land of Canaan that year: God always provides; but He is perfectly free to change the source of His provision from time to time. We need to trust in Him, not in His manner of provision, or we will stumble when that changes. The city of Gilgal became a beachhead and camp for Israel in their conquest of Canaan. They returned there after battle and remembered, finding strength in the remembrance of the memorial, their obedience, and their redemption. It is good to have a place like Gilgal in our life. This is a place where we first come into God’s promises, a place of memorial, a place of obedience and redemption.
      • Why reflect on God’s past deeds?
        I Pet 2: 9; Joshua 4: 6, 7
   3. V. 13-15 Joshua meets with the Commander of the army of the LORD. Joshua boldly approaches this mysterious Man with a drawn sword. As a shepherd over God’s people, he has a responsibility to see if this man is a friend or a foe.
      1. Are you for us or for our adversaries: This was a logical question to this impressive man. The response of the Man was curious, almost elusive. “No” was not a proper answer for Joshua’s question. In a sense, the Man refuses to answer Joshua’s question because it is not the right question, and it is not the most important question to be asked at the time.
      2. “Army of the LORD” here is used in a way that implies that the armies commanded are angelic armies. This is a Being who commands angels.
      3. As well, Joshua refers to the angel as my LORD; but most of all, the command to remove his sandals (a picture of our humanity and contact with a “dirty” world), was to Joshua (who read and knew Exodus 3:4-6 because he was in God’s word) clear proof that the Man standing before him was the voice from the burning bush.
   4. And Joshua did so: Joshua’s total submission God shows that he knows who is really in charge. It also is a virtual guarantee of victory for Israel. When we follow after the Commander of the army of the LORD, how can we lose? Why did God come to Israel at this strategic time?
      1. He had come to instruct Joshua in the plan to capture Jericho. Joshua will carry out a plan in the following chapter that is so improbable it could only have been initiated at the direct command of God.
      2. Most of all, He had come to conquer Israel – before Israel could conquer anything else in the promised land, they had to be conquered by God – and Joshua’s total submission shows that they are conquered by Him. This is the missing element in a life of victory for many Christians; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God. Why?
         • Who is the strange Man in the text?
           Exo. 3:4-7; Josh 5:14
         • Is humility crucial in life’s battles?
           James 4: 6, 7, 10
         • • Explain, “Holy Ground” in the text?