Preparing for Battle, Part 1

Joshua chapter 5. Joshua chapter 5. Preparing for battle. All of us face battles day in and day out. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But the important thing is, is that we need to be prepared for each and every battle. So many times we face a temptation, we face a difficulty, and we're unable to make it through because we're not prepared. And so tonight, we want to talk to you just a little bit about how you prepare for battle. Joshua chapter 5. gives us a new section of this book as the nation of Israel begins to conquer the land.

And before they actually go into battle, Joshua takes some time to prepare the people of God To face the enemy. And you'd think that having just crossed the Jordan River and realized that, according to Joshua chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, that the people there, the surrounding area, were absolutely terrible. Of the nation of Israel and the Lord God of Israel, that that would be the exact moment that Israel should attack. That everything was in line when people were already down, that Israel could now attack them and defeat them and win the battle.

But God's ways are not always. And even though the people were unified, and even though God had been glorified, and even though the enemy was terrified, it was not the proper time. For them to go into battle, God wanted to do some work in their lives. God wanted to do some work in Joshua's life. And so Joshua chapter 5 is a chapter about preparing for battle, what God wants to do in the lives of his people. And so many times we forget to prepare, and yet, without preparation, we will be defeated.

And so Joshua chapter 5 opens up to us some ideals about what it means to be prepared to face. The enemy. So let me read to you the first 12 verses and then we'll talk about them together.

Joshua chapter 5, verse number 1. Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed that their hearts melted. And there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel. At that time, the LORD said to Joshua, Make for yourselves flint knives, and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gib Haral. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, all of the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war, who came out of Egypt, perished.

Because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the LORD had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children whom he raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way. Now it came about, when they had finished circumcising all the nation, that they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, on the desert plains of Jericho. and on the day after the Passover, and on that very day they ate some of the produce of the land, ele cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.

Now, having read that, you're probably thinking to yourselves, how is this going to prepare me to face my battles? Well, two things I want you to see. Number one is the circumcision, and number two is the commemoration.

The circumcision deals with obedience. And the commemoration deals with remembrance. Obedience and rem are the two key elements that prepare you to face Each and every battle. Next week, we're going to see where Joshua encounters the captain of the Lord of hosts in verses 13. Following. And there we'll see how there's a conversation between He and the angel of the Lord. And He receives great confidence, which Adds the which brings everything full circle for us to help us understand how it is we are prepared to face each and every battle.

But tonight we want to begin with a circumcision. And then a commemoration. One dealing with obedience, the other one dealing with remembrance, because both of those are key elements in how you face the enemy. And how you win the victory because you will have been prepared to face the battle. Three things about the circumcision: one, we want to talk about the Demand for it, the danger in it, number two, and then the three, the dismissal, excuse me, after it.

First of all, I want you to notice the demand. For it. It was imperative that the children of Israel be circumcised. That was not something that was an option. That was an ob leg. Turn back with me if you would to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. You will remember that in the Abrahamic covenant, there was the soil, the seed, and a substitute. The soil is the land. The seed is the Messiah, who would be the substitute. Those three elements make up the Abrahamic covenant. You can look at it another way.

There was a property, which was the land of Canaan. There was a person, who was the Messiah, who had become the provision. For the sins of Israel. That is the essence of the Abrahamic covenant. We talked about it in Luke chapter 1, just a couple of weeks ago. But it's imperative that you understand that the sign of that covenant was circumcision. And listen to what God says in Genesis chapter 17 to Abraham in verse number 9.

God said further to Abraham, Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants, after you, throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall Be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and there shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. Down to verse number 14.

But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off. From the people, he has broken my coven. Now, this becomes very important for the nation of Israel to understand. Because if you're ever going to be prepared for battle, you must always remember that obedience is the key to any victory. Obedience in every area that God calls you to obey him in. In this case, it was circumcision because it was a sign of the covenant. And we have told you before that circumcision was a mark of identification.

It was a mark of identification. It would identify Is as some who was different. That mark of identification was not, listen, was not a means for salvation. But it was a mark of separation. Circumcision was not a means of salvation. It was a mark of separation. That is, it was a sign between God and his people. And the reason they were circumcised is because they believed in the covenant that God made with Abraham. And it wasn't just simply going through a ritual. It simply was the fact that there had to be a heart belief behind it.

It wasn't good enough just to be circumcised. You had to truly believe in your heart that God had promised to His people a land, a soil. He had promised to them not only a land, but that they would be a blessing in that land, and they would be a blessing to all the other nations, and that would be because of the seed that would come to Abraham. And that seed, according to Genesis 22, would ultimately be the substitute for all of their sin. That was, in essence, the Abrahamic covenant. And so when they circumcised all those male children at eight days of birth, remember those children weren saved because they were circumcised, but it was a sign that their parents believed.

In what God had promised to Abraham. It was Israel's mark of identification. God was saying, I own you and you are mine. And that mark of identification would always be a reminder. Listen, it would always be a reminder of the need for purification. And the only way Israel would ever be pure was when the substitute would come and take their place. So their sins would be forgiven. That's what Israel longed for. That's what they believed in. That was the essence of the Abrahamic covenant. And so they had to come to grips with what God was doing in their lives.

Now take for example us. Circumcision is not required for us except for the circumcision of the heart. Remember Romans chapter 2, verse number 29? Colossians chapter 2, verses 11 and following. Talk about circumcising the heart. Understand this. Israel had the same requirement. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 4, verse number 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your heart, you men of Judah. and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn, that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

You see, the physical circumcision was only a symbol of the heart's condition. That's why it was so important. To deal with one's heart, God is always into dealing with the heart of man. We've read earlier in Joshua chapter 5 that there were a whole slew of men that came out of Egypt, and every one of them were circumcised. They had all Done the ritual, but they all died in what? Unbelief in the wilderness because they did not believe in what God had said. Oh, they had gone through the outward act, but their heart had not been changed.

And so, the warning in Hebrews. Chapter 3 and Hebrews chapter 2 is a warning to us that we need to believe in our hearts. It's not enough just to go through the outward motions. And how many times do we are we reminded of the fact that it's not what we do externally that saves us? But it's what happens on the inside of us, in the heart of a man. Now that affects what we do on the outside. But how many times did God condemn Israel? You honor me with your lips, but your what? It's far from your heart.

Your heart's far from me. You say all the right things, you go to all the right places, you do all the right things, but your heart's not in it. Your heart is far, far from me. And God says, This is a covenant between me and you.

I've made a promise. And the sign of that covenant will be circumcision because you are my people. You are my marked people. And therefore, you must always remember that you identify with me. You identify with me. And you know what? Why did God require circumcision? Because when we identify with God, we are reminded once again, the covenant of God to Abraham was a covenant of grace to Abraham. And Israel, every man throughout the day would be reminded over and over and over again that God in his grace Wanted them to be a part of his plans.

Folks, that's the grace of God. And it was a constant reminder that God had gracefully chosen Israel and no one else. Because why? Why would God require circumcision? Because it was that clarification for them to realize that at the depths of their being they were sinners and they needed a Savior. They were sinners because they were born sinners. And they passed the sin nature on after one child, after another child, from generation to generation. It was just passing on the sin nature. And there needed to be a Savior.

And the Abrahamic covenant was about the saving of the people of God. It was about a land, yes. It was about a Messiah, yes, but it would be a Messiah who would be their substitute. And provide for them sal from their sin. That's why God required circumcision. And God demanded it. It was not an option. You know, we have signs, we have marks of identification. Philippians chapter 3, verse number 3 says, We are the circumcision. We are the marked ones. Who's that? Paul says. We are the circumcision.

We are the marked ones. We are the ones who worship God in spirit, take no confidence in the flesh. gl in Christ Jesus. Those three elements are our mark of identification. We are the circumcision. Who are the ones who identify with God? Who are the ones that are called and chosen by Him? They are the ones who worship God in spirit. That means they worship him from the inside out. Their hearts have been changed. There's been that circumcision of the heart. They are the ones who take no confidence in the flesh.

Why? Because they walk in the spirit day by day. They don't trust in themselves. They trust in God. And to glory in Christ Jesus. It's all about the glory of Almighty God. We are the marked ones, Paul says. How are we marked? How we worship? How we live, and who we give glory to. Galatians 5: the fruit of the Spirit. Is that not a mark of identification? Sure, it is. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and long-suffering, and patience, and kindness. All those things are marks of our identification.

They set us apart from other people. Why? Because we are different than the world. And therefore, we need to understand that while we might not go through an actual physical circumcision, there is a circumcision of the heart. Speaking, where God takes away the flesh and causes us to want to serve Him and follow Him and honor Him. And that's the essence of what Christianity is. And Joshua, here he was, just crossed the Jordan, on the brink of fighting their first battle, getting ready to overtake the enemy.

To take the land that was theirs, and God says, This is what I want you to do. You got to circumcise each and every male. Why? Because I have a people, and my people will follow my will. Remember Moses and his not circumcising his second son in Exodus chapter 4 and on his way to lead the nation of Israel out of bondage, the Bible says that God wanted to kill him?

Kill him? He's the leader. But God wanted to kill him. And so his wife Zipporah circumcised their son right there and threw his foreskin on the ground. That tells you a lot about victory. Moses was a great man. But Moses is a lot like you and me, fellas. You don't want to do too much to upset the app card in the home. And maybe Zipporah was a little upset with the circumcision of their first son and really wasn't in favor of that.

In fact, Exodus chapter 4, the conversation between Zi and Moses. Would lead you to believe that that was the problem. And so, Moses, not willing to upset the app cart, listen, wanted to obey God and fulfill the plan of God, listen, without being completely obedient to God. Can't happen. It just can't happen. So many times, fellas, we want to serve the Lord and we want to go into battle and we want to do what God's asked us to do, but at home, we're not really strong. We're kind of weak. Let me tell you something.

If you're weak at home, you're weak everyplace else. I don't care what anybody else says. And Moses was weak at home. And God knew he was weak at home. And it happened because he wasn't willing to do what God had said about circumcising his son. He couldn't go and say he believed in the covenant of God to Abraham And yet not have circumcised his son. He couldn't stand before the people and say, Listen, I believe in what God has said, we got a land and we're going to that land without circumcising his son.

See? That had to take place. He had, the essence is, obedience to what God says. And when we go to battle, we always have to sit back and say, okay, before I face the enemy. Have I been obedient to God in everything that he has said? Is there one thing I'm not obedient to God in? You know, we tend to think that if we're obedient in nine areas and not obedient in one area, we're pretty good. I mean, if you go nine for ten, that's excellent. That's ninety percent. That's good. But in God's economy, it's bad.

See? That's real bad. He wants complete obed. Now, do we sin? Yes. Do we fall short? Yes. That's where the grace of God and the mercy of God and the love of God come in and pick us up and move us right along. But still, we need to be honest with ourselves and say, God, am I obedient to you in every single area of my life? When it came to circumcision, God demanded it. But you know what? There was a danger in it, wasn't there? There was a danger in this. Remember way back in Genesis chapter 34, the whole deal with Simeon and Levi and the men of Shechem?

Remember when Jacob's daughter Dinah was defiled? By the men of Shechem. And Simeon and Levi were furious. They wanted to do something. And so they made a pact with the men of Shechem that they could have Their sister, Jacob's daughter, if all the men of Shechem were circumcised. And so they were all circumcised. All the men. And on the third day, you can read about in Genesis 34.

On the third day, when they were at the highest level of pain. The boys of Jacob went in and killed them all. Killed them all. Now, do you think Israel knows that story? I think those in the tribe of Levi and those in the tribe of Simeon would remember that story. And so there's a great danger in Joshua circumcising all these men in Israel. For the enemy could come and wipe them all out. Now think about that. Somebody could say, hey, you know, Joshua, we've crossed the Jordan. We're in the land that's our land, but there are many enemies here, and we've got to defeat them.

If you go around circumcising all the men, we can't do that. We can't stand up. We can't fight. We are going to be. Slaughtered. We're putting ourselves in a very vulnerable position here. This is a very dangerous position, which leads me to this. Obedience to God always puts you in the most vulnerable position to your enemy. And yet, that's where the power of God is the greatest. That's where the power of God shines forth the greatest. And these men would see it. The risk factor was great, but obedience to God always involves risk.

And we don't want to take those risks. We want to remain in the comfort zone, thinking that everything's going to be okay. But listen, in order for us to be prepared for the battle, we have got to obey God even when it hurts. We've got to obey God even when it's not convenient. We've got to obey God even when we don't want to. We've got to obey God when it looks like obedience will bring us nothing but turmoil and pain. Because then your commitment to God is tested, is it not? These men had a test of faith.

Remember when Israel crossed the river, the Red Sea? And there was a test. As soon as they crossed the Red Sea, there was a test, a water test. Exodus 16, Exodus 17. Two water tests. And they failed the t miserably. They grumbled, they murmured, they complained. They've now crossed another river, and now there is another test. But you will note, nobody murmured. Nobody grumbled. Nobody said, you know, Joshua, wait a minute. Do you really know what you're doing here? I'm not so sure that this is the best time for us to be doing this.

We could have done this, you know, many, many weeks ago. But it's kind of like the wrong time for this circumcision to take place. Nobody complained. Nobody murmured. No said, you know, I'm a little too old for this kind of stuff. This is beyond me. I believe in my heart. I believe this is our land. In fact, we're standing on the land. How could I not believe it? We're here. I don't want to be circumcised now.

But they did, see? Because that's what God required of his people, Israel. And they had to obey, and there was no murmuring. And Joshua, what did he do? He immediately obeyed, didn't he? God says, Joshua, so I you to do.

And Joshua said, okay, sure. And the people were prompt in their obedience. There was no hesitation. There was no procrastination. They did exactly what was told them because they knew what God required of them. How many times do we delay our obedience because we know it's going to be a painful experience for us once we do what God says?

And so we refrain from it because we know it's going to cost us something, and we don't want to lose anything. These people obeyed God. They had learned. This new generation had learned.