FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Genesis 12 - Deuteronomy 24:16 - Deuteronomy 11:29 - Help Page - The Chosen: Season 5 Sneak Peek Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our own. SHOW NOTES: - Follow The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube - Follow Tara-Leigh Cobble: Instagram - Read/listen on the Bible App or Dwell App - Learn more at our Start Page - Become a RECAPtain - Shop the TBR Store - Credits PARTNER MINISTRIES: D-Group International Israelux The God Shot TLC Writing & Speaking DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
Full Episode
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. The Israelites have just set foot in the Promised Land as a nation for the first time. This is the partial fulfillment of something God promised them approximately 750 years earlier when He first called Abraham in Genesis 12.
More fulfillment will come when they take the land, but at this point, their enemies, the Canaanites, still live there. The first city they plan to take is Jericho, a town near the eastern border of the Promised Land. But before they do that, God wants them to be fully prepared. In God's economy, preparing for battle has very little to do with sharpening your weapons.
It has everything to do with preparing your heart. He wants to make sure their hearts are surrendered to Him and aligned with His own heart before they go face the enemy. The first thing they have to do is circumcise all the Israelite males, then allow them time to recover. After every male is circumcised, they celebrate Passover. The timing of this is beautiful.
It's kind of a second Exodus, exactly 40 years after the first one. Their hearts need to celebrate Passover because it will reinforce their faith. It serves as a reminder to them that God has protected and provided for them through the years. Then in 5.12, we get a little sentence that speaks volumes. It says, What? This is incredible. This is God's precise provision on display.
He gave them miracle food six days a week for 40 years, and the manna even follows them into the promised land, but then it stops on the day after they have access to the local food. There are no gaps in God's provision. Next, Joshua has a strange encounter with a man holding a sword. Obviously, this could be super scary given the fact that they're in enemy territory.
So Joshua wants to know if this man is an Israelite that he just doesn't happen to recognize, or if he's a Canaanite. And the man basically says, guess again, I'm God. How do we know he's God? First of all, he receives Joshua's worship. God's elect angels don't allow people to worship them. They reject it because they know they don't deserve it.
Second, the angel of Yahweh also tells Joshua to take off his shoes, just like God had told Moses to do when he appeared in the burning bush, because he was standing on holy ground. The presence of angels doesn't make things holy. Only God can do that. In this conversation, many people suggest that God is refusing to take sides in the battle since God doesn't give Joshua a straight answer.
But we know from the surrounding text that God has aligned himself with the Israelites. So what's going on here? God's reply to Joshua suggests more that Israel is on his side than that he is on Israel's side. Meanwhile, Jericho is shook. They probably know what's coming. This terrifying army is camped outside their city, so they hole up in their houses.
God tells Joshua that Jericho is theirs for the taking because he's giving it to them. But he has some super weird instructions on how to accomplish this. They'll march around it, carrying the Ark once a day for six days, while seven priests blow trumpets. Then on the seventh day, they'll march around seven times, and on that seventh trip, all the people will shout.
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