Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.' (as usual, all scripture today from the NIV '84).
Not only did God's miraculous intervention 1) get the Israelites from the east side of the Jordan to the west side 2) prove Joshua as the leader of the people and 3) provide a memorial for folks to reference for generations to come, it also put so much intimidation on the folks on the west side of the river that they bolted up their cities and hid.
Which was perfect, because the Israelites were going to be particularly vulnerable for the next few days.
See, the law of circumcision had not been enforced while the people were traveling. So the entire generation of fighting men had not been circumcised, which is a prime commandment for the offspring of Abraham. Now that they had entered the land that God promised them, it was time to renew the covenant. Joshua made flint knives, and the entire male population was circumcised.
For a few days, they would not have been in any shape to fight anything (reference the decimation of Shechem, back in Genesis 34). But the folks around them were so terrified of the Israelites and their God that no one ventured near them to see that they were, um, indisposed.
After the circumcision was completed, God made an interesting statement to Joshua. He said, 'Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' (v.9). So, of course they named the place Gilgal, which sounds like the Hebrew for 'roll'.
Now, it had been 40 years since they left Egypt; everyone who was over the age of 20 when they left had died in the desert (except, of course, Caleb and Joshua). Most of them wouldn't even remember Egypt. But they had the identity of slaves and nomads. It was time for that to change. It was time for them to let go of the past and move into the future they'd heard of all their lives. It really was happening.
While at Gilgal, two other significant things happened...one, they celebrated the Passover, and two, the very next day, they ate what was available from the land around them, which meant that the manna stopped. Manna was pretty much the only diet they had known; it must have been odd for them to get up in the morning and not see the manna lying about on the ground as it had every other day. But it was a new place and a new paradigm.
The reproach...the shame, the former identity, the old way of doing things...was rolled away. It was time to move into what God had for them.
What old habits, thought patterns, even ways of doing daily life need to change in my life to move into what God has for me? What has been a good thing in its time, but that time is past and I need to let it go? Recognize that cutting off that old stuff may be painful, but know that God has this and will Himself make sure I have time to heal.
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