Joshua 5:2-9
“At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel a second time ... . And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 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 show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that He would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom He raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way ... . And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal (that is, Rolling or Liberty) unto this day” (Josh. 5:2-9).
“Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ... mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:3,5).
The more a man learns of God, the more he knows of grace. If we would apply to ourselves spiritually the lessons of the circumcision in the land, we must give the grace of God, which led to the circumcision, full place, and remember that God asks for the devotion of His people, because He has, in Christ, brought them into perfect favor; otherwise, we shall fall into the error of monk-like minds, and, with them, wrong God, by seeking to attain that favor through our own efforts.
Was it by observing God’s ordinances, or was it through God’s almighty grace that Israel entered the land of promise? They entered it as a nation in uncircumcision, and, therefore exclusively by God’s sovereign grace. The people of Israel were circumcised before the judicial sentence was passed upon the men of war at Eschol, where they slighted God’s grace, and had therefore forty years of wandering in the wilderness assigned to them. During these forty years the nation neglected circumcision. God, therefore, regarding His people as a whole, now He had brought them into the land of promise, bade Joshua “circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.”
God made no demand upon Israel for circumcision so long as they wandered “by the way,” but when He brought them into the land, then (“at that time”) He required it. And why did God not seek for circumcision from the people of Israel, so long as they walked in the wilderness? The wilderness was the scene of their distrust of God. While there they doubted His promise of bringing them into His land, and were not therefore in a condition warranting that entire separation to Himself which circumcision signified. But now, being brought by God’s own faithfulness, and we may say, almost in spite of themselves, into the land of promise, and, because they were there, doubting no longer, God could call upon them for circumcision. Grace had delivered them from the unbelief of their hearts – grace had brought them into the land, and God could call them into full nearness to Himself, and, consequently, into entire separation from the rest of the nations.
A distrusting spirit is ignorant of God’s real character, and consequently is not morally fitted for separation to Himself; but God, having brought us by His grace to know ourselves to be in the heavenly places in Christ, seeks separation to Himself, corresponding with the liberty into which He has brought us. Grace known and realized is the only true power for heart separation to God.
“This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way ... .And their children, whom [Jehovah] raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.”
Here distinction is made between the men of war who came out of Egypt, and those who grew up in the wilderness. The “men of war” that came out of Egypt, “because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord” concerning the promised land, were consumed in the desert (See Num. 14:32-33). At Eschol they disbelieved God’s promise of bringing them into the land, and then added to their sin of unbelief that of self-will, self-will even to going up to the land of promise in their own disobedient energy. Such men of war God rejected, and instead of these, He raised up in the wilderness others, whom He trained, by discipline, for Himself.
Israel learned death to their men of war that came out of Egypt by a long and painful process; one by one, for forty weary years, they dropped down and died, until they were all consumed. And slowly, very slowly, the strength and vigor which we brought up out of the world dies in us, as God disciplines, chastens, and teaches us what we are. This lesson is not learned in a day. It is a lifelong experience, and, in a sense, occupies all our “folly years” of pilgrimage. Yet this teaching is blessed, for the same hand which “consumes” “raises up in the stead of” that which it withers. In the very place of discipline, that is, this wilderness world, God quickens in His people new powers; as self dies, the life of Christ manifests itself. The process is painful, but the end is blessed. God consumes our fleshly zeal in grace, so that His own power may dwell in us.
Circumcision with Israel was merely a carnal ordinance, and, in common with all ordinances, gave neither power for communion with God, nor for conflict with His enemies. It was a sign that the children of Israel were God’s earthly family, and a people separated from all the rest of mankind. The circumcision made without hands, with which the Christian is circumcised, in Christ, is a separation to God from the whole world. God had brought His people, Israel, into His own land, and this being their position before Him, of necessity, to satisfy His own character, He required in them a suited condition. He could not, without compromising Himself, permit His people to be like the rest of mankind. “Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever” (Psa. 93:5). It is a principle in Scripture, that the nearer the relationship to Himself into which God graciously brings His people, the more stringent the call made upon them for separation from evil.
God first brought Israel through Jordan into Canaan, and then He bade them be circumcised. As Israel was by the river of Jordan separated to God, from Egypt, the wilderness, and their old “men of war,” so the Christian, by the death of Christ, is separated to God from the world and his old nature, whether in its unbelief or energy. And because we have new life in Christ, we are bidden, in the power of that life, to reckon ourselves dead. In the walk and testimony of the believer, the order of God’s word runs thus; “Ye are risen”; “ye are dead.” “Ye are risen”; therefore, seek those things which are above, and set your mind on them. “Ye are dead”; therefore, mortify. Ye are risen; Christ is your life; hence the strength for heavenly energy. Ye are dead; Christ died; hence the power for dying to the world and to self. The Christian is, in the sight of God, dead to all that to which Christ died; “our old man is crucified with [Christ]” (Rom. 6:6). But the Christian, although he has divine life, is yet in the flesh. Once he walked in the lust of the flesh; but now, being dead with Christ, he is exhorted to “put off” old nature vices, “seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” The Adam-nature is called the “old man,” which the Christian is said to have “put off.” Such as are not dead with Christ are living in disobedience to God, and are called “the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2; Col. 3:6). They are thus called, because they are of their father Adam, the disobedient man.
As the people of Israel, because brought through the Jordan, were enjoined by God to be circumcised, and their careless Wilderness ways were allowed no longer; so the Christian, because he has died with Christ to the world, and to his old self, is exhorted to mortify his members, and his worldly ways are no longer permitted. This mortification is simply self-denial, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Man naturally loves sin; he loves his own way, which is the essence of sin; but he who lives in Christ is called to die to himself in daily walk and conduct. There is no way of living to Christ, but by dying to self.
The Son of God, seen in the glory, dries up all the sources of our old nature on the one hand, and on the other, energizes the new life. And if the Christian would live up to the measure of that grace wherein he stands – as one alive in the risen Christ, he must remember that he has died with Christ to the world. It would be impossible to glory in the fact of being risen with Christ, unless we were dead with Him. There could be no seat for the Christian in the heavenly places, unless Christ had hung upon the cross for sin. There could be no dwelling in the cities of the land of promise for the children of Israel, if they had not passed through the River of Death.
That system of Christian doctrine which merely glories in the “life which is hid with Christ in God,” and does not treat self as dead, is unpractical. To be practical in our walk upon the earth, we must be as circumcised men; as men who, being dead to the world and self by Christ, mortify their members which are on the earth.
It was by no means sufficient to Israel to know that they went across the Jordan, in order to enjoy the riches of the inheritance; for until circumcision was effected, none of Canaan’s food was spread before them, nor were they called to conflict. And we may be sure that so long as we walk in the flesh and please ourselves, there can be no communion – no feeding upon Christ. Neither can there be any victories for the Lord, unless self is subdued.
The tendency of man is to give undue prominence to some favorite doctrine, and the sorrow caused by this universal failing is widespread. God of late has graciously taught His people much truth relative to the life in Christ, and the heavenly calling of the Church; and Satan is busy trying to induce God’s people to take up portions only of those truths, that he may introduce false weights into the balances, and so turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Satan would beguile the youthful believer into the misty atmosphere of a Canaan of the imagination, where the flesh is allowed to work. In this aerial Christianity, circumcision – self-mortification – is not permitted; the practical result of being dead with Christ is not allowed to wound the will. But there is no stability of soul, no solid devotedness. Such a believer is like the insect, which, well nigh composed of wings, and possessing scarcely any weight, is driven from the flower garden by the first storm. When God by His Spirit leads such a one into the full clear light of His own presence, there is a holy, watchful self-denial which outweighs all the pretensions of verbal Christianity.
Sorrowful as is the result of letting the imagination carry away the soul, perhaps the effect of accepting divine truth in intellectualism is more so. A Christian holding the doctrine of death with Christ, and resurrection with Christ, in the understanding only, goes out from the sunlight of God’s presence into a land of deathlike coldness. If he transgresses, he exercises not his soul about his sin, but answers, “I am dead.” He covers his evil ways with an ice-like mantle of doctrine, and perhaps goes so far in moral distance from God as to say that his Christian character is of little moment compared with his standing in Christ. Alas, this is no fanciful picture; we have seen the tender fruits of God’s cultivation roughly trampled upon by men of this spirit. The doctrine has been boasted in, but the virtues which belong to it have been unheeded. It is, indeed, a vain thing to hold a doctrine in word only; at the best it is no better than the clear shining of the moon on a bleak snow-clad landscape, which cheers no heart, and excites no desire to remain under its influence.
If circumcision in its spiritual signification were rightly valued, such abuses of the truth of God would certainly find no place in the believer’s heart. To mortify our members is not a painless exercise. Saying, “We are dead,” is not mortifying; but it is to deny the wishes of our old nature because “we are dead.” “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13).
The mere fact of the people of Israel’s entrance into Canaan did not constitute them at liberty before God. They were brought into the land of promise by the passage of the Jordan, but were not pronounced free by Jehovah until circumcised. “And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal (Rolling or Liberty) unto this day.” God brought His people out of Egypt, through the Wilderness and into the Land of Promise, bade them to be circumcised, and then declared that He had made them free.
God’s liberty for His people is that of His own making, and therefore perfect. It is what He thoroughly approves and delights in. And the means by which, step by step, He brings His people into the enjoyment of this liberty, is grace. If we are God’s free men, it is evidently in the land of promise that we have liberty, for only in the fullness of God’s favor can we experience His rolling away the reproach of our bondage.
Now every believer in Christ is spiritually over the river of death, and set down in the heavenly places; “all the people are clean passed over,” for Christ is risen. It is then a solemn and heart-searching question that the believer may put to himself, Am I one of the Lord’s free men? Not only risen with Christ and seated in Christ in the heavenly places, but practically free from the love of the world? Has the death of Christ severed my affections from the world, or is there, as Israel lusted at times for Egypt’s food, still a lusting after its attractions? God Himself pronounced His people to be free; their freedom was the result of His own work. His gracious hand had so wrought for them that they had not only passed through the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan, but they had circumcised themselves.
Gilgal is the center of Israel’s strength through all the conflicts recorded in the book before us. Thither they repaired; both after victory and defeat, there was the camp. And we need a continual returning to our Gilgal; both in the hour of sorrow, and in the time of prosperity. If we would be true men for the Lord, we must ever hasten to the secret place of strength – holy self-judgment in the presence of a once crucified and now ascended Savior.
As it is a principle so deeply important, let it be repeated, that God exhorts His people to carry out what actually exists. He says, “Ye are dead,” “mortify therefore your members.” God places death to our old nature as the starting point; man, in his religious teachings, exhorts to destroy the old nature in order that some day life may be attained, and thus drives souls to despair. Such taskmasters are more relentless than those who beat the bondsmen in Egypt when, their straw taken from them, they pleaded their powerlessness to make the bricks. Bitter is the cry which rises up to God from many of His beloved ones; some, afflicting their bodies in order to purge away their lusts; some, tortured with penances; some, rising up early and late taking rest; and all beaten by spiritual tyrants, and goaded on to their hopeless tasks, with “Ye be idle, ye be idle.” Such are trying to destroy their old nature; not knowing that they have been crucified with Christ, and are dead; such are endeavoring to mortify themselves by their own strength, being ignorant of the power of the indwelling Spirit. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” “The flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63).
It is marvelous, in the face of such plain teaching as that of the Epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians, such spiritual bondsmen can submit to their thrall, unless the believer had a new nature, he would not be bidden to reckon himself (that is his old nature) dead. When the Christian imposes upon himself the bondage of carnal ordinances, subjects himself to a religious system, which addresses itself to the soul through his senses – through sights, and smells, and sounds – it is evidently not of faith nor of the Spirit of God. If, by the death of Christ, the Christian is severed from and dead to the rudiments (or elements) of the world, shall he, as if he were living in the world, be subject to ordinances which merely affect the senses of his old nature, “Touch not; taste not; handle not”? Shall he turn from his exalted Head in the heavens, from whom all nourishment is ministered, to such weak and beggarly elements as meats, drinks, holydays, new moons, or sabbaths? Who shall beguile the feeblest of God’s free men into a false humility and worshipping of angels? This “show of wisdom” is after the commandments and traditions of men, and not after Christ.
The springs of the believer’s life are in God, and not in man; and this simple, yet blessed truth (blessed beyond utterance to those who know experimentally somewhat of the workings of sin within), is the believer’s strong tower. There is not a particle of intercourse with God through the channels of the old-Adam nature. When God made these channels they were lovely, and as originally formed, intercourse with God flowed through them. But, when Adam fell – when, in disobedience and independence, he ate of the forbidden fruit – the springs of his nature were corrupted, and the channels broke down. God has never purified the springs, neither has He repaired the channels. He leaves them in ruin. Now, from Christ in the heavens, as from a life-giving fountain, and through the Holy Spirit, as by a channel, nourishment is ministered to God’s people on the earth. The heavenly water feeds the new nature which He has imparted to His people, it ministers nothing to the old nature – it never reaches it. Such as may have observed the wells dug about the sides of Italian hills, which receive their nourishment from the distant fountain, will understand our illustration. There during the long summer months, drought parches the valleys, and to supply the need of the fruit, the peasants dig wells about the hill sides. The wells receive their nourishment from the sky-girt mountain, from the heights of which the exhaustless fountain pours out its waters. The waters of the fountain are, we may say, the life of the wells. And the medium through which the water is received into the wells is a thread-like watercourse, humble to the eye, but all-important. This watercourse reaches from the mountain top to the wells, spanning gullies and edging gorges in its downward course, and brings, with unerring certainty, the bounty of the fountain down to the wells. Like the fountain is our Head in heaven, and like the watercourse, the blessed Spirit of God, who testifies of Him; and communicates of His fullness to God’s people.
The Word of God teaches this doctrine, and the experience of the child of God witnesses to its truth. Appealing to this experience, we appeal to the Spirit’s testimony to Christ within God’s people. Now, what saith this voice? It speaks alone of Christ, Who is our Life, our Fountain, our Strength. Nothing of self, or from self, or in self, aids one bit in knowing, loving, or enjoying Christ; but, contrariwise, when self is put out of sight, reckoned dead, and forgotten, then the love of God and the power of God fill the earthen vessel. “We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).
What is it God would have His people use for their self-mortification? It is, we believe, the cross of Christ. Being risen with Him, we have grace to use the fact of His death, as the instrument of severance from what is of self and of the world. The Cross has proved our old man – self – judicially dead in “sight of God:” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). When the believer, by God’s grace, realizes that he is dead with Christ, there is no longer excuse given for the proneness of the old man to act contrary to God, or allowance for the workings of the flesh, or sanction to sinning. And so far as he walks with God in the power of the life of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, he has grace practically to refuse the inclinations of the flesh. The carnal mind is enmity to God still. The world which hated the Son of God, is the world still. Its religion, its rulers, its people, one and all, are opposed to Christ. But has the power of the Cross failed in the hearts and lives of those who are dead to the world and alive to God?
It is vain to say, We are risen with Christ, and seated in Him in the heavenly places, if we walk here as men of the earth. “Ye are dead ... .mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.”