Episode 61 - Circumcision: Trusting God when He asks you to be weak

Do you know why in biblical days they did circumcisions on day 8?

Welcome back to the Sojo Show! Today‘s episode we are diving right into Joshua chapter 5! 

If you've been listening to us, we've been going through the first six chapters of the book of Joshua and today we’re discussing chapter 5. There is so much in this one little chapter!

As review, last week we talked about stones of remembrance. The Israelites set up stones so that their children and future generations would always remember the miracle of crossing the Jordan.

Immediately after crossing into enemy territory- remember, they were there to go into battle- God told them, “Circumcise all of your adult men.''

Imagine yourself in this situation. You've entered enemy territory and God asks you to do this, to become weak. For adult men to go through this, the entire lot of them, meant all their males were incapacitated. They had no one able to fight. 

If anybody came at them, they wouldn’t be able to fight. And what a sign and symbol of trust. 

An entire nation submitted and weak in order to rely on their God. That is not the only, but certainly is one of the explanations for circumcision. It is a symbol of our trust and dependence on God. 

In the New Testament, we recognize that circumcision pictures our separation from sin and death because of Christ. We are not separated because of this small piece of flesh that has been removed, but because of the “circumcision” of our hearts. 

Circumcision in the Old Testament (Joshua chapter 5) is marked by the physical and spiritual obedience to God's command.  It was a symbol of the covenant that God himself had made with the nation of Israel, this distinguished them from everybody else.

It also signified to them a new beginning or a new phase in their relationship with God.  

The transformation that happened physically for them is the spiritual transformation that happens for us. When we are made right before God, it's all by grace. When he does it, HE regenerates our heart, and we can now stand before Him holy and clean because of the righteousness of Christ. 

We want to remind you that it is okay to be vulnerable before God. We see as these people are crossing over the river, they become extremely weak. Extremely vulnerable and dependent upon the character of their God. And we can do the same thing. God asks us to bring all of those fears, all of those insecurities, all of that self-doubt, and be okay with it in front of him, to let ourselves be in that place of weakness and vulnerability.

He is not going to reject us.  

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