We’ve gotten the Israelites across the Jordan River, and all the nations are afraid of them. At this point, God directs Joshua to circumcise the men. This would be a real act of faith in God’s protection since it would be a few days before they’d be ready to fight! (See Genesis 34.24 – 26)

No mention is made of that problem, but there is this surprising explanation:

This is why Joshua conducted the circumcision. All the males who had left Egypt, the soldiers, had died in the wilderness on the journey out of Egypt. All the people who had come out of Egypt, of course, had been circumcised, but all those born in the wilderness along the way since leaving Egypt had not been. The fact is that the People of Israel had walked through that wilderness for forty years until the entire nation died out, all the men of military age who had come out of Egypt but had disobeyed the call of GOD. GOD vowed that these would never lay eyes on the land GOD had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. But their children had replaced them. These are the ones Joshua circumcised. They had never been circumcised; no one had circumcised them along the way. (Joshua 5.4 – 7, MSG)

This is one of those stories I’ve always breezed through, but going through slowly, I see something very instructive:

Faith is more important than circumcision! I know that most of us don’t practice circumcision as a religious rite, but we do pay a lot of attention to a related rite: baptism (see Colossians 2.11, 12). And we argue about whom we baptize, when we baptize, and how we baptize. I think today’s lesson on circumcision applies.

The ceremony of circumcision was important, important enough for God to direct it. However, let’s think about it:

• They had just crossed the Jordan, a miraculous crossing similar to the Red Sea at the Exodus (see Exodus 14).
• Who crossed the Jordan? The uncircumcised!
• Who did not cross the Jordan? The circumcised!
• What was wrong with the circumcised? Disobedience resulting from lack of faith. (Please see this account of the unbelief recorded in Numbers 13.)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5.6, ESV)