“So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed.” Joshua 5:8
In the book of Genesis beginning with Abraham through the closing chapter, you will recognize that every generation experienced a famine. Famines are strategic in scripture because they are designed to shift the focus of the people from themselves, their money, and their natural resources to YHWH. Since He is the ultimate provider of all that we enjoy, when we look away from Him as our source the famine serves as the instrument to get our attention.
In the last 25 or so years this present generation known as “millennials” has not experienced a famine. The last event that gripped the attention of the world was 9/11 and most of them were toddlers when that happened. Intellectually and emotionally they were unaffected. So this present crisis has become so completely enveloping that even the millennials are beginning to feel the impact with their inability to work, attend schools, go to entertainment events, exercise, shop, eat out, and in some cases just walk through the park. Why is this so important?
It’s important because without realizing it we were raising up a generation in a spiritual wilderness. In the same way that the children of Israel were doing so in their journey to Canaan. They had forgotten the spiritual principle of circumcision. Circumcision represented a connection to the covenant YHWH made with Abraham with blood. (Genesis 17:9-11) To ignore that practice was to ignore your spiritual heritage and thus deny your spiritual destiny. Without circumcision these children had no right to enter into Canaan!
So if you read Joshua 5, you will see G-d instruct Joshua to circumcise the men “again”, which is to say everyone must be circumcised. This would mean that “young and old” would experience the pain of this experience together. No one would be exempt. This pain would create the same impact of a famine among the people. They could do no work, have no fun, and even the women would have to keep their distance so as not to exacerbate the pain. They would have to “sit in their tents” until they were healed. This time of healing is designed to promote a heart of contemplation.
One of the things millennials do not possess is a spirit of contemplation. They have been born in a spiritual wilderness. Their minds are continually bombarded with a relentless digital onslaught designed to keep them from contemplation. Millennials take very little time to sit and think or meditate. Their minds have been programmed to function by retrieval and not research. They have been made to believe that they are entitled to receive without effort or energy. Therefore, they must experience a famine, pain, and inconvenience if they will ever have a spiritual awakening.
In Joshua 5:9, the name Gilgal is given to this the place of this event. It simply means to take away the “shame or disgrace” of a situation. It is shameful that we have raised up a generation of people that have no spiritual connection to the G-d of heaven. During this season of famine and pain we have been given an opportunity to contemplate, think, muse, meditate and be alone with our thoughts as we “sit in our tents” until we are healed. This is our Gilgal…
“There must be a cutting before there is a Canaan…”
As you make time to contemplate, remember before you enter Canaan there is a Passover. (Joshua 5:10) Isn’t it interesting how G-d will cut you and then require from you a sacrifice? This is designed as a “heart test.” Presently, we are one week from Passover 2020. Now is your time to contemplate your sacrifice to the Lord for taking away your shame. Your sacrifice represents your “blood on the doorpost” of your home. The threat has no right to come and claim anything in your possession because you have already offered willingly your sacrifice to the Lord.
After this famine (pain) we will be ready for Canaan…
Shalom NB