Praise to you, Lord, Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory Ping!
If you aren’t on this ping list NOW and would like to be on it, please Freepmail me.
From: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
Celebration of the Passover at Gilgal
[10] While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal they kept the passover
on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. [11] And
on the morrow after the passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of
the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. [12] And the manna ceased on
the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the people of Israel
had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
5:1-9. Semitic peoples practised circumcision as an initiation rite for entry into
manhood. Israelites observed it on the eighth day after birth, and it has an emi-
nently religious meaning: it shows that the person is a member of the people of
God (cf. the notes on Gen 17:1-14 and Lev 12:1-4). It was specifically laid down
that a person had to be circumcised to be able to celebrate Passover (Ex 12:43-
49).
The reason given here for the circumcision of the people at Gilgal (that is, the
fact that the circumcision of males born during the desert years had been post-
poned) makes sense. However, the fact that the circumcising takes place at this
particular point is highly significant: it is a way of showing that this people which
has come to the gates of the promised land has attained its maturity after its
long pilgrimage in the desert. Israel truly is, after the Covenant of Sinai, a people
who belong to God.
5:10-12. Once the men have been circumcised and can celebrate the Passover,
that feast is held in the promised land for the first time. The Israelites are able to
use grain from that region to make the unleavened bread; and now that they
have access to the agricultural products of the land, they are no longer provided
with manna — the food God gave daily to them in the desert.
God was perfectly ready to provide them with miraculous food when they needed
special protection in the desert, where food of any kind was in short supply. But
once they can fend for themselves, by working the land, God ceases to give
them any special help.
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.