The Covenant Renewed

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Joshua chapter 5. Brothers and sisters, this is not just some mere story. But this is the very Word of God. Let's pay attention to it. Joshua chapter five.

So it was when all the kings of the Amorites were on the west side of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their hearts melted And there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourselves and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the people who had came who came out of Egypt who were males, all of the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years into wilderness, till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord swore that he would not show them the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers, that he would give us a land flowing with milk and honey. Then Joshua circumcised their sons, whom he raised up in their place, for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. Now, the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

Prayer for Illumination

We'll stop reading there. Let's go ahead and pray. Oh, Father, We pray that Your Spirit would be our teacher this morning. Father, we pray that You would let us understand these words and that, Father, You would bury them in our hearts, that we might follow after You and keep Your ways in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

The Israelites have crossed over. They've made it over the Jordan. God has shown that He's keeping His promises. But before they can just go and start conquering the land, there's a problem. There's a problem. God's covenant people have not celebrated the covenant signs.

And so as we come to this passage before us and in Joshua, chapter five, verses one through 12, we need to see that, yes, there were memorial stones that were meant to be left in the Jordan River and in the camp of Gilgal. But there was another memorial that they needed to celebrate circumcision and the Passover.

And so as we look at how the people are keeping God's word and as they're following in obedience to the Lord, let's turn our eyes first to what the text starts with. And that's how the how the nations around them are responding. Look with me at verse one.

So it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, And all of the kings of the Canaanites who were out by the sea heard that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. There's reports going out. It's like water ripples when you drop a stone in a pond and the ripples go out in concurrent ways and the news is spreading. There's rumors and there's stories of somehow did you hear the Jordan River stopped and that massive amount of people walked across on dry land?

And what does the text say? It says that their hearts melted. All these different warlords, all these different local kings who are men who are warriors, who earn their kingdoms by the strength of their hands. Now their hearts melt. Their hearts melt before God's people.

It's exactly what Rahab had said in chapter two. Even the people in Jericho had known this. But notice, interesting, In the middle of verse one, when it talks about the Amorite kings and the Canaanite kings heard that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over. This is the author of this has to be whoever the author is. Surprise, surprise. I think it's Joshua crossed over with them. They were eyewitnesses of this and now they're hearing.

They're hearing the reports that all the kings are afraid. Their hearts are melted and there's no longer any spirit in them because of the children of Israel. Now, the question that we need to ask ourselves is if you're afraid of an army who you know God is working for them, who has crossed through the Red Sea and who has crossed now through the Jordan River, what might be the sane thing to do? Well, what happened in Afghanistan when we knew that the Taliban was about to take over? What did people try to do? Escape, flee, get out of there.

As we come into the conquest and as we start looking, especially in chapter six and following, remember that the Lord had been chasing the people out with bees. The Lord had been chasing the people out with severe trials upon them. He had told Abraham that he was going to receive this promised land, but the sins of the people was not fulfilled yet. And so he was being patient with these people, and then he was driving them out. But the people who are remaining are hell-bent against the Lord.

Now they're going to keep their land, they're going to keep this no matter what. Even though they see the signs, even though they hear the rumors, even though they know that a God is with the people of Israel and that he has promised to give them the land, it's their obstinacy, it's their hardness of heart that keeps them there. They could have fled from the wrath to come or they could have been like Rahab and opened up the gates and said Yahweh is our God too. We'll bow before him. Your God will be our God and your people will be our people.

But no, we're going to find next chapter as we come to Jericho, when people are dead set against that. But it's not this key moment. When you expect, you know, they've crossed, they've crossed over, they have camped, they're only about two miles outside Jericho. Gilgal is right there. They're able to see Jericho up on the hill. All they have to do is go fight. And the Lord tells them to do something absolutely nuts. Incapacitate all your troops. You know, all your men of war incapacitate all of them. Look with me at verses two through nine as they celebrate this sign of the covenant that had been neglected, verses two through nine.

And at that time, Yahweh said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the four skins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. And this is the meat and potatoes of this passage. This is the heart of this passage. Look with me at verse four. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

So this is this is taking our mind back four decades. It is saying, hold on, zoom backwards 40 years. Go back to when Moses was face to face with God and God had told him in the burning bush that he was to go and to lead his people out of Egypt. He goes and he's there.

What's one of the first things that the people of God do when Moses arrives on scene in Egypt? They circumcise. Because they've heard that, okay, God is here, God is going to deliver us, God is going to be with us, and we need to have this sign of the covenant on us. This is a sign that God had given to Abraham all the way back in Genesis chapter 7. It was going to be this mark in their flesh to prove that they were truly His people, body and soul.

But when they had come out of the wilderness, we get to the place where, by the way, the wilderness wandering wasn't ever supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to happen. God himself was the one who told him to send the spies into the land. So they were supposed to just go up from Egypt, you know, cross the Red Sea, go up the Sinai Peninsula, go in from the south, up from the desert in the south. And they were supposed to give two weeks journey, Max. But instead, what do they do? They send out the spies, one from each tribe. They go and they spy out all the land they bring back.

The text tells us that they bring back and there's like a pole across their shoulders and there's huge grapevines dripping down from it. I mean, man, look, this really is a land flowing with milk and honey. It's got pasture lands and there's places for orchards and they have fig trees. Man, it is good.

And this is what Caleb and Joshua report back. But the other ten spies, they say, uh-uh. Nope. Nope. There's giants in the land. They're on a team in the land and we're like grasshoppers. They're just going to squash us. Right. And the people heart in their hearts, they don't trust Yahweh. They don't trust the Lord. Instead, they believe the disbelieving spies. At that point. It's at that point that they're a church under discipline.

I was talking to the kids just the other day, a very frank conversation that I wasn't expecting in the kitchen. And one of the kids was saying, you know, we were talking about how Jesus loves the church, like a husband loves his wife. And one of the kids just very aptly said, yeah, but Jesus loves mommy a lot more than you do. I thought, that's true, bud. But then we started talking and they were talking about how Jesus is kind and Jesus is loving. And those things are true. But Jesus also. Is a God who cares about his commandments being kept.

And here we find a church that is disbelieving in their hearts. For 40 years. They refuse to circumcise a single child. Think about that. Imagine a whole generation. A whole generation of people say, I know that the Lord had said that we're supposed to put the sign of the covenant on our children, but I'm not going to do it. Imagine 40 years. Where parents refuse to bring their children to be baptized. Imagine 40 years of disobedience. See, we like to think of that time in the desert wilderness and, and it's just this wandering around.

No, this, this is a stubborn hearted people. And it's an absolute miracle that their children are the ones who keep the covenant. That's the children who raise up all the men of war, all the valiant men, all those who were fit and ready for battle, the Lord puts them to the side and he says no. Not a single one of you is going to inherit the land. Not a single one of them was allowed to come into the promised land. But their children would. And so here. Here, the Lord. Rolls away that reproach from them. Look with me at verses five through nine.

For all the people who had come out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of Yahweh, to whom Yahweh swore that he would not show them the land which Yahweh had sworn their fathers that he would give us. a land flowing with milk and honey. Then Joshua circumcised their sons, whom he raised up in their place, for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people, they stayed in their place in the camp till they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

People don't like a disciplining God. This is not a popular thing to preach. People don't like a God who holds our feet to the fire. People don't like a God who says, hey, if you do this X, Y or Z is going to happen. We really like the gospel. And that's true. The gospel is absolutely true that God shows grace to sinners. Jesus Christ came not for the healthy, but for the sick. And this is true. And yet. If somehow we think that we can walk in lawlessness and still cling to the covenant, The book of First John says you got something wrong.

We can't live however we want and ignore the ordinances of God. And expect to have the blessings of God to come from it. It might be a difficult thing to hear, but that's the reality of the pattern it has always been. Hear my words and obey my voice. Turn from your wicked ways, you stubborn, you stiff-necked people. This is what God desires and this is what God commands. And it's when they obey Him. It's when this new generation raises up, praise God, there's the hope of a new generation. It's when this new generation owns the covenant. It's when this new generation says, you know what?

Probably would have been easier if my folks had done this when I was eight days old, but instead now I'm a 40 year old man. We're going to get this done. Think about the act of faith that would take. Think about the pain that you would endure. This is not just an easy thing. You know, baptism is pretty easy. You just get water poured on your head. Circumcision was painful. And you did it to a baby that would scream and cry because it hurts. takes days now. God has incapacitated his troops for at least three days.

Why did the Lord do this? Well, there's a few reasons. One, he was a covenant keeping God, and this was the sign of his covenant. And it was a blessing for the men and for the whole nation of Israel, even though it was painful. to now have the sign of the covenant placed upon them. Secondly, secondly, it is a sign also that they're that they are no longer under the discipline of the Lord. They're no longer under the Lord's discipline, but they truly are the generation that God is going to fulfill his promises in front of. And I was also the sign. of God's favor towards them. Just as real as their circumcision was, so also was the Lord's favor towards his people. But it's not just the circumcision that happens, it's also the Passover that's celebrated. Look with me at verses 10 through 12, verses 10 through 12.

Now the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna. But they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

This is this beautiful providence. I love how God works things out in his timing. On the tenth day of the first month, the month of Adim, they cross over the Jordan River. It's a day of preparation. It's a day the Passover lamb was brought into their homes. The next day, Joshua is told to circumcise all the males in the camp. And so they do it. And then three days to four days later at twilight, they're there. And now they get to celebrate the Passover.

As I was researching this, the last time I could find that they had celebrated the Passover, and I could be wrong with this, commentators debate it, but the last overt time where they're said to celebrate the Passover was at Mount Sinai. Now, feel free, go into the Pentateuch and prove me wrong, and I'd be fine with putting away this bit of speculation. But from what I could research, it seems like the last time that they had celebrated the Passover was at the giving of the law. These people would have been little children, babes, Like many of you children here. That's the last time they had celebrated the Passover.

When they had asked their parents, what does this mean? Why do we do this? When they had seen their dad tucking his cloak into his belt and put on his sandal and have his staff ready in his hand at night. Because they had just crossed over the Red Sea.

They had just been miraculously delivered. And now God has brought them into The camp at Gilgal, they had prepared for the Red Sea by celebrating the Passover, the very last of the ten plagues. And now they've come into the promised land and they get to celebrate the Passover as they've crossed through the Jordan River. It's here that they are celebrating, that it is God who has spared their lives. It is God who has provided for them.

It is God who has provided the lamb to be slain. That they might paint it over the doorposts of their house and on the lintels of their doors. That the angel of death might pass over them. This visible sign that it's only by the blood of the lamb that somehow they would be spared. That they would enter into prosperity.

And here, as they partake of this sacramental meal, as they partake of the Passover, It's their last time doing it, or the next day they would eat manna. What does it say in the text? And they ate the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day.

They ate the dry matzo bread. I'm not sure if you've ever tried matzo bread. It's not worth trying. It's really dry. It's not good with anything. But they ate the dry unleavened bread. No taste. Just bitter herbs with their meat. And the next day, instead of eating the honey and coriander type seed manna, what did they have?

They got to eat the produce of the land. They got to see that God was good for His promises. That He had made these promises long ago to Abraham. And here they were eating the promised food. Here they were enjoying the Lord's bounty. And so do we. So do we. We must be the new covenant church who also keeps the sacraments, the signs and seals of what God has done for us.

We read in Colossians 2 how they had been circumcised, and in Colossians 2 it specifically ties that to how we have been baptized in the blood of Christ. So also, we should look back to those days where we were baptized. Have you told your children about their baptism? When's the last time you've looked back at the vows you took for baptism when you baptized your children? Have you been praying for them? Have we been praying for the baptized members in our congregation? Have we been passing on the faith to the younger generation?

That they might be those who would take hold of the covenant for themselves? Do we partake of that better Passover? Do we keep the Lord's Supper and remember the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world, who gives us access into the heavenly throne of God? It's through the blood of the lamb that we don't look forward to an earthly land where we might eat from a land flowing in milk and honey, but a heavenly land where the tree goes on both sides of the river and produces fruit all year long. Do we look forward to the covenant promises that Jesus Christ has given to us and the signs and the seals that he has given to us to celebrate that his promises are true? That His goodness is new. That His love never fails.

I fear. This is a weird way to end the sermon, but I'm just going to be honest with you. I fear. I fear that a lot of the American church is a church under discipline. As the older generation continues to die off. As we see in many, many, many mainline churches, their pews emptying in a radical decline between 5 and 12 percent, depending on which part of the country you're in every single year.

Will we have a new generation? Will you pass on your faith to your children and your grandchildren? Will you tell of the wonderful deeds that your God has done for you? Will you tell your children and your grandchildren that they need to own the covenant?

Yeah, it might be awkward. It might be hard. Some of you have done this. Some of you know what it's like. Help us who are raising the younger generation. Older women, teach the younger women. Older men, disciple the younger men. Pour your lives into them. Point them to Jesus Christ. Remind them of their baptism. Bring them to God's Word. Tell them of how God has done marvelous things in your life. Tell them of the monuments in your own soul. how He brought you to Himself.

If we won't do this, if we're just comfortable in our faith, and we keep our mouths shut, don't be surprised if a church in America dies. I hope we're not a church under discipline. I hope that our congregation might be one who would be spurring on our children. Because do you know why the Muslims have to make laws against evangelizing? In many places, their hearts melt before the gospel. They're afraid of what happens to families and to the social structure if people hear that grace comes by Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Jesus defeated the principalities. He reigns as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, no matter if it's President Biden or the Sultan in Dubai. It's going to happen. Will we teach our children to be bold in the face of enemies?

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. We thank you for the work that you have done for your covenant people in days of old. Father, we pray that you might not let these things be a memory for us. But father, we pray that they would be our reality. We pray that we would celebrate the things that you have done. But that we would also be pressing on in the Great Commission. Lord, we thank you that the gospel is for us and for our children. Lord, we pray that all the nations might bow their knees to Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.