CONSECRATION AND CIRCUMCISION BEFORE CONQUEST

Text: Joshua 5:1-15.

 The enemy was afraid of the children of Israel because they had heard of the power of God in their midst from their time in Egypt and when they were in the wilderness. It is a wonderful thing for the enemies to know that the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in past centuries is still the same in the present-day church. Although the hearts of the enemies had melted because of the children of Israel, God commanded them not to attack Jericho yet, but first be circumcised. Humanly speaking, circumcising the armies of Israel at this time would weaken them and expose them to attack from the enemies, but they did not argue with God because God does not speak to the head, He speaks to the heart; God does not speak to the flesh, He speaks to our faith; God does not speak to our opinion, He speaks to our obedience. The children of Israel had to obey God so that they would be able to conquer the land of Canaan and possess the promised land. We need consecration, absolute surrender, total obedience to the Lord, and circumcision of heart if we are going to conquer and overcome.

1.     THE PRECONDITION OF CIRCUMCISION BEFORE THE PROMISED POSSESSION

Joshua 5:1-5,7-9.

• The Compelling Consideration of Individual Circumcision – Deuteronomy 10:16-17; Jeremiah 4:3, 4, 14; Ezekiel 18:31; Colossians 3:5-9. Circumcision was compelling for every individual among the children of Israel because God had commanded Abraham that any male child that was born unto his descendants who was not circumcised would be cut off from among them. “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:” (Deuteronomy 10:16-17). God extended the circumcision from the circumcision of the flesh to their morals, character, behaviour, and mindset. The circumcision of their hearts was to take away the hardness of the heart from them. “For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” (Jeremiah 4:3-4). In the New Testament language, God expects repentance, reformation, and transformation to show that circumcision has been done in every heart. “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 18:31). If there was no circumcision of heart and stubbornness continued with them, they would die without inheriting the promised land. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:” (Colossians 3:5-6).

• The Convincing Confirmation of Indispensable Circumcision – Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 32:38-40; Colossians 2:11-15; Romans 2:28-29. “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” (Deuteronomy 30:6). There is the human, personal responsibility of circumcising the foreskin of our hearts by ourselves because God will not repent for us, and He will not do His divine part until we do our part. The evidence that we are circumcised in the heart is that we will love the Lord our God with all our heart above self, personal preference, and any human being on earth. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:28-29). A Christian is not a person who is a member of the church outwardly but one who is a member of the living church inwardly, just as we have the fruit of the spirit from the inside and it is expressed outside.

• The Continued Consecration for Interminable Circumcision – Job 27:5-6; Deuteronomy 31:13; Luke 1:74-75; 2 Peter 1:3-8. Our consecration and sanctification must be consistent, and we must be careful not to allow anything to terminate our holiness experience or circumcision experience. “God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” (Job 27:5-6). Despite all that Job went through from his wife to his friends, and all that he lost after the devil did the worst he could do, Job maintained His integrity and consecration to the Lord; this is the kind of commitment and consecration that the Lord wants us to have. “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” (Luke 1:74-75). There are external and internal enemies, but there is no enemy as strong as self; when you have conquered the outward enemy, you must watch that the enemy within is conquered too. Whether the day is good or bad, whether we feel high or low, whether we have lost or won, we should not allow anything to take holiness away from us.

2.     THE PREVENTION OF CIRCUMCISED CORRUPTERS FROM THE PERFECT PARADISE

Joshua 5:6.

“For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.” (Joshua 5:6). The older Israelites who were circumcised before they left the land of Egypt and crossed into the wilderness became corrupters by their tongue. Although they were circumcised, they were prevented from getting into the promised land because of the corruption of their tongue. Today, the people who dig their graves with their tongues will not get to the perfect paradise. The tongue of one of the thieves on the cross turned his life around and brought him a place and possession in perfect paradise, while the other thief did not repent of his sin of the tongue and went to hell. It is not the people who call themselves Christians but have acidic, disgusting, condemning, corrupting, and corrupted tongues that are Christians but the people who have the change on the inside.

• The Rejection of Disobedient Circumcised People – Joshua 5:6; Romans 10:21; Acts 7:51-53; Hebrews 3:17-19. “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” (Romans 10:21). The Lord wanted the children of Israel to be saved because they were circumcised as descendants of Abraham, but their tongues cut them off. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:” (Acts 7:51-52). The children of Israel felt the outward circumcision was sufficient and because they were not circumcised in heart, they remained stiff-necked. Although the Jews had privilege, they lost the privilege when they refused the grace and truth that came through Christ because His revelations were different from the law they had known. Denominational churches stand the same risk when they close their minds to the revelation of God’s word if it is different from what they have always known. Resisting the word of God is resisting the Holy Ghost. The children of Israel killed the prophets that were sent to them with stones and swords, but these days, people are killed by pressure that results in psychological conditions such as depression, worry and anxiety, despair, negative thoughts, and negative self-talk. “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:17-19). The children of Israel believed before they left Egypt, but they stopped believing when they entered the wilderness and therefore, they could not enter the promised land. It is not enough to believe in the Messiah before the cross, but after the resurrection, you must believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and confess it with your mouth; that is what brings salvation. Unbelief can land a person in hell forever. If our belief is tampered with, our getting to heaven is also tampered with.

• The Reason for Disqualifying Circumcised Proclaimers – Joshua 5:6; 1 Samuel 5:1329; Zephaniah 3:2; Titus 1:16. King Saul was disqualified because he talked with the mouth, but his heart was not circumcised. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16). There are people who profess to know God, but they deny him in works, attitude, heart condition, and lifestyle. The Lord wants us to have an experience of obeying Him, not standing in a church position without the possession of the deeper life inside us.

• The Reversal of Destiny for Circumcised Profligates – Joshua 5:6; 1 Samuel 2:2930,35; Jeremiah 6:30; 2 Peter 2:17-20. “And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.” (1 Samuel 2:35). Eli and his family were rejected from the priesthood because he forgot what was in God’s heart and did his own will.

3.      THE PREEMINENCE OF THE CAPTAIN OF PRIVILEGED POSSESSORS

Joshua 5:10-15.

• Commitment to Keeping the Passover as Commanded – Joshua 5:10; Matthew 26:19, 26-29; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; 11:23-32. It is not what you possess to please yourself that matters but what you practice to please the Lord. Before going into battle, the children of Israel had to first obey the commandments of God concerning circumcision and keeping the Passover which He commanded to please Himself. “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.” (Joshua 5:10). The children of Israel left their own desires of conquering the enemies and obeyed God first by observing the Passover. We must not be in a haste to carry out assignments, but we must do first things first. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
• Commencement of Corn, After Manna, in Canaan – Joshua 5:11-12; Deuteronomy 6:10-12; John 6:31-33,63; Matthew 4:4. “And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Joshua 5:11-12). Many believers are so used to what they have always had that they do not respond well to God when He takes it away from them like He took manna away from the children of Israel. “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). We must not stop the preaching of the word of God because physical food is delayed.
• The Captain and Commander of All Conquerors – Joshua 5:13-15; Isaiah 55:4-5; Hebrews 2:10-11; 12:1-2. Joshua was a leader and commander who would not run away from an unknown danger or personality. Jesus is the Captain who appeared to Joshua, not an angel because an angel would not accept worship. He that honours the Father, must honour the Son also; as the Father commanded Moses to remove his shoes and he obeyed, Joshua also obeyed when Jesus, the Captain, appeared unto him. The Lord will give us a new heart of obedience and total submission to the word and will of God in Jesus Name.