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Consecration Before Conquest — Joshua 5 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. All right, Joshua chapter five.
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Let's pray before we get into it. Lord, you are
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good and you are powerful and you're the king
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over all. And Lord, as we've been going through
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the book of Joshua, it's evident that you were
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there with the Israelites as they were going
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into Canaan. And by extension, Lord, you're there
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with us when we're going through the things that
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we go through, the trials that we go through,
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and specifically our battle against the flesh
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and the world and the devil. You're in the middle
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of that battle. You're the one who leads it.
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You're the one who does the miracles, Lord. God,
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as we go through this chapter on first things
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first, basically, having the right attitude and
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getting our lives squared away so that you can
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bless, Lord, we just pray that you be speaking
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to our hearts. And Lord, that our focus would
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be set on you. We love you, Lord. We thank you
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for the things that you've done for us. And Lord,
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we're looking forward to the changes that you're
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gonna make in us. And we ask this all in your
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name, amen. Okay, Joshua chapter five. You remember
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Joshua chapter three and four? You have the crossing
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of the Jordan River. And the Jordan represents
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death and judgment, basically. It's the idea
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of crossing over from basically the world from
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specifically wandering away from the Lord and
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going into a place of victory. Whenever I think
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of the Jordan River, I think of baptism. It's
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a place where you die to yourself. Well, it's
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a picture of that. Hopefully you've already died
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to yourself or begun that process. But it's a
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picture of where I left my old man. I got dunked
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in the water. He got buried there. I came out.
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I'm brand new. That's the picture. And so these
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guys are crossing over the Jordan. As soon as
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they cross over the Jordan, they're in enemy
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territory. And one of the things Joshua specifically
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does, actually God leads him to do this, is takes
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stones out of the middle of the Jordan River
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and places them on the banks and takes stones
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from the banks of the Jordan River and puts them
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into the Jordan River. specifically setting up
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memorials. And again, the whole picture is that's
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where I've been, this is where I am now. I used
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to be there in a place of death and judgment,
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and now I'm here in the promised land. I'm here
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in the place that God has prepared for me. And
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those are good memorials to have. I need to remember
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what the world was like, and I need to have a
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cognizant understanding of exactly what I was
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in when I was in the world. One of the things
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that Satan loves to do is he likes to glorify
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your past. You see that with the children of
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Israel when they're in the book of Numbers. When
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they get hungry and they want some meat, they
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go, we remember the flesh pots of Egypt and the
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leeks and the onions and the garlic, and now
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all we have is this manna. And manna was bread
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from heaven. It was a miracle every day. God
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was feeding these people with the Bible says
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angel food in the book of Psalms. It's the first
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angel food cake. He was feeding them with angel
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food and they were complaining about it. And
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what they did was they remembered flesh pots
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and it means meat pots and leeks and onions and
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garlic. And all they remember is the food. and
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they don't remember the slavery, and they don't
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remember the mud pits, and they don't remember
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the whips, and they don't remember the bondage.
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Satan loves to do that with you. He likes to
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take your time in the world and make it something
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awesome and something that you actually miss,
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and he wants to take the time that you have in
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Jesus and minimize that completely. And so we
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need to have memorials. I'm not going to go through
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it again but I have these memorials of what I
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was like when I was in the world. I have these
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little kind of vignettes in my life where I remember
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things that I was doing and the consequences
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that came from those things and they're fresh
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in my mind. I've been away from it for over 40
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years. They're still fresh in my mind because
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they're memorials and I don't want to go back
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there. Then on the other hand, I have memorials
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of the conquests that God's given me down through
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the years. I have these specific times that I
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remember when God did specific things. And you've
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heard a lot of those things. I use them all the
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time when I'm teaching. And the reason I use
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them is because they are fresh in my mind. I
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still remember the first time I pulled an envelope
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out of my mailbox at my apartment and it was
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unmarked except for my address and I opened it
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up and it had enough money in it to pay the bills
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that wouldn't get paid because I tithed and nobody
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knew that stuff. I can still remember the envelope.
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I can still remember how it was in my hand. I
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could still remember opening it and finding a
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bunch of cash and looking into it and seeing
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this stuff. And again, it's a memorial of what
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God's done for me. So I got memorials of where
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I was and I got memorials of the things that
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God's done on this side of the Jordan River.
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And so you have that. Then you get to chapter
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five and it says in verse one, so it was when
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all the kings of the Amorites who were on the
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west side of the Jordan and all the kings of
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the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that
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the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan
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from before the children of Israel. until we
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had crossed over that their heart melted and
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there was no spirit in them any longer because
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of the children of Israel. At that time, the
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Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourselves
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and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second
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time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself
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and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill
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of the foreskins. And this is the reason why
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Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came
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out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war
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had died in the wilderness on the way. after
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they'd come out of Egypt, for all the people
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who came out had been circumcised, but all the
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people born in the wilderness on the way as they
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came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For
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the children of Israel walked 40 years in the
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wilderness till all the people who were men of
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war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because
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they did not obey the voice of the Lord to whom
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the Lord swore that he would not show them the
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land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers,
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that he would give us a land flowing with milk
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and honey. Then Joshua circumcised their sons
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whom he raised up in their places, for they were
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uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised
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on the way. So it was. when they had finished
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circumcising all the people, that they stayed
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in their places in the camp till they were healed.
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Then the Lord said to Joshua, this day I have
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rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore
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the name of the place is called Gilgal to this
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day. And you probably read about Gilgal in various
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places in the Bible. Samuel's connected with
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Gilgal. Saul is connected with Gilgal. There's
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a number of Bible stories that have that name
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in it. And the word itself means rolling. And
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it's where all the children of Israel were circumcised
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and it has to do with what you do when you circumcise
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a kid or when you circumcise a man you roll the
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skin back you cut it off and That's where it
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got the name. So every time that they would say
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the name Gilgal That's what they're remembering
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the mass circumcision of the children of Israel
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after they crossed over the Jordan River now
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Again, what they're doing, and you gotta get
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the geography, I've already told you that Jericho
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is up on the side of the hills. There's these
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hills that are on the west side of the Jordan
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River, and when you're looking at a map, it's
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on the left side of the Jordan River. Those hills
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go up to Jerusalem, and right on the farthest
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hill before Jerusalem, on the eastern side of
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Jerusalem, is the Mount of Olives. And so you
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can get up on the Mount of Olives, and you can
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look down in the Jordan Valley. And so Jericho
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is kind of nestled up against those hills. And
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so again, the children of Israel are on the other
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side of the Jordan River and they cross the Jordan
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River right across from Jericho. You can get
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on the walls of Jericho, you can still do it
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to this day. There's a ruin there where you can
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look to the east and you can look down into the
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Jordan Valley and you can see the Jordan River
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as it goes down and goes into. the Dead Sea,
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and so they saw the encampment of Israel on the
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other side of the Jordan River, and then they
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saw them coming up to the Jordan River, and it's
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at flood stage, and then they saw the Jordan
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River drying up, and then they saw them coming
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out of the Jordan River doing something with
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rocks. or whatever. It's far enough away that
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they wouldn't be able to see that without binoculars
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or something and obviously they didn't have those
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back then. But they saw this whole event and
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saw over two million people crossing the Jordan
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River and then they come on the Jordan River
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side and they go a little bit south of Jericho
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and they camp there and that's what the people
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of Jericho are seeing. And so they see the river
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drying up. They see the Jordan River coming right
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back down in its bed. As soon as they walk out
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of this place, they see the whole thing and they
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start spreading the news. And so that's in Jericho.
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And by the time that you get to this, you know,
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we're talking days here. So they cross the Jordan
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River on the 10th of Nisan. They're about to
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have Passover, right? And so within that period
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of time where they're about to go into the conquest,
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everybody in Canaan knows about what happened.
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That's how quickly the news got around. Good
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news gets around, bad news gets around faster,
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right? And so that's the situation there. So
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here we go. Here we are. We got over three million
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people who've crossed the Jericho. They've done
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it in the sight of the kings of the Amorites
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in Jericho itself. And they are absolutely demoralized.
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So not only the King of Jericho or the city of
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Jericho is demoralized, all of them are. And
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whether you're talking about the Amorites or
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whether you're talking about the Canaanites over
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on the coast, this is probably about 50 to 70
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miles away. everybody on the coast land is demoralized
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because of this event. So they've heard of Israel
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coming out of Egypt, the Red Sea parting, the
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fact that these people have been wandering around
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out there for 40 years, heard about the fact
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that they took out Og and Zion and all of those
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guys on the other side of the Jordan River. Now
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they've crossed the Jordan River. Everybody's
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demoralized. So what should we do? Let's circumcise
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all our men. There is a passage in Genesis chapter
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34 where a couple of the sons of Jacob decide
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that they're going to get back at a man who had
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raped their sister. So he'd raped their sister.
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He's a prince of one of the Canaanite cities.
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He'd raped their sister and then he fell in love
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with her after he did the raping and he wanted
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to marry her. And so they came up with a story
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for this guy and said, we cannot have our sister
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marry somebody who's uncircumcised. This is Levi
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and Simeon that did this. And so they talk to
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him and say, yeah, we'll let you marry our sister,
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but you have to circumcise yourself and you have
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to circumcise everybody, every man in your village.
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And so he loves her and so he does it. So he
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has himself circumcised and then he circumcises
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everybody in the village. And three days later,
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the Bible says when they are hurting the most.
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And that's not something that I've experienced.
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I've known some guys who've been circumcised
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as adults. I've never had the opportunity to
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ask them which day is worse after it's been done.
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But apparently third day is bad. And so basically
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they cross over on the fourth day before Passover.
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Then it looks like that day or the day after.
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They circumcise everybody, and so by the time
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that Passover comes around, they're gonna be
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hurting units, right? And what's wild about this
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whole thing is that instead of taking advantage
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of the situation where the kings of the Amorites
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are demoralized, what they do is they stop and
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do something that's going to absolutely put their
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whole army in bed. so that they can't fight because
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what happens at the end of that story with Levi
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and Simeon is when it comes to the day that they're
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worst off they go walking into the village with
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a sword and they kill every one of the men in
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that village and They just wipe them out It's
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one of the reasons that later on Jacob has some
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choice words for these guys as far as their anger
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and that kind of stuff and so What they're doing
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is taking their own army out of circulation.
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Basically, is that a wise move? You know this
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morning I was talking about the fact that we
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as Christians, when we're looking at our obedience
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to God, our obedience to God needs to be something
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that circumvents what our flesh has to say. There's
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all kinds of things that God tells me that my
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flesh does not want to do. And so my flesh does
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not want to stop, doesn't want to stop. My flesh
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does not want to submit, doesn't want to. My
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flesh does not want to sweat. Doesn't want to,
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doesn't want to work hard. My flesh has all kinds
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of attitude. And there are times when I need
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to submit. There are times when I need to sweat.
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There are times when I need to do things that
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I don't want to do. And so my spirit is supposed
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to be ruling over my flesh. Well, it's the same
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thing with my brain. The Bible says a natural
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man cannot receive the things of the spirit.
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The phrase natural man in 1 Corinthians chapter
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2, where that passage is written, is a word that
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means the psychic man. It's the soukikos man
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in Greek. And it's the idea of somebody who runs
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their life by their brain. And so you have people
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who run their life by their flesh. You have people
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who run their life by their minds. And admittedly,
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running your life by your mind is better than
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running your life by your flesh. Because at least
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if you're running your life by your mind, you're
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gonna be rational. You run your life by your
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flesh, you're gonna be completely irrational,
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making goofy arguments, making choices that are
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just gonna destroy you and destroy the people
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around you. Running your life by your mind, that's
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a little bit better, but you don't know everything.
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And that's the problem. And so what we're supposed
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to be doing is running our life by our spirit.
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my spirit is supposed to control my mind, my
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spirit is supposed to control my flesh, and my
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spirit's supposed to be under the control of
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the Holy Spirit. And I can't say that I'm under
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the control of the Holy Spirit and start doing
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things that are against what scripture says.
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I cannot say that. And so in this instance, the
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rational, the sukkukas, the natural way to take
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advantage of verse one in this passage is to
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attack immediately. You got them back on their
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heels because of what God's done here and you
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need to go in and start taking them out. You
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think they're demoralized now, what's gonna happen
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when you take out the capital of the Amorite
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kingdom, Jericho? What's gonna happen when you
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do that? What's gonna happen to these guys' minds?
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You would end up on a natural perspective having
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a route of these people. That was probably something
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that was on the minds of the leaders of the armies
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of Israel, including the mind of the absolute
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leader of the army of Israel, which is Joshua.
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God speaks to him and he says, I want you to
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take knives and circumcise your army. Again,
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not a good move if you're living by brain power,
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basically. And so what God does in this passage
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is he lets you know that before you're going
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to ever be able to conquer. you're gonna have
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to have consecration. Consecration always precedes
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conquest. And so what God tells Joshua to do
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is get things right here. I've done a miracle
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for you in bringing you across the Jordan. Before
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we go on and before we begin fighting the battles
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that I have for you, there are some things that
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need to be done as far as the covenant that we
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have between you and I. And the first thing,
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that he talks about is circumcision. Spiritual
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comes first. Worship comes first. God comes first.
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And it's always gotta be first things first in
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the life of a Christian, because he's not gonna
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bless it any other way. You know, I don't need
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to get things done. I don't need to get them
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done in the timely manner that I feel like I
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need to get them done. All kinds of things come
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up in my life that seem like they have... a time
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stamp on them and they need to happen quickly.
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And my life is not run by the clock. My life
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is run by Jesus. And I'm not saying that you
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should be lazy or you don't do your responsibilities.
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Obviously you do. But a lot of times we're making
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choices about where we live and what we do and
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the jobs that we have and those kinds of things
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and we think that they're time sensitive and
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they are not. What they are is sensitive to the
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things. of the Spirit of God. God has these things
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in control. He knows the job that I need. He
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knows the house that I need to be living in.
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He knows the job that I need to have. He knows
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all these things, and he's got those things under
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his power and under his control. He knows what's
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supposed to be happening in my family. He knows
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what's supposed to be happening with my children.
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He knows all of those things, and he's in control
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of those things. And what I needed to be doing
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is tapping in to the will of God in all these
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kinds of areas, and that's gonna take some prayer.
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And the idea of prayer is the idea of coming
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before God and spending time with him. You set
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yourself apart, you set yourself aside, and you
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get yourself right with the Lord, and you spend
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time with him, and then he begins to guide. That's
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what you're gonna see in this chapter. And so
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the first thing that they need to do is they
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need to circumcise their men, because they haven't
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been circumcised for 40 years. So they've been
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wandering in the wilderness. And one of the things
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that took place before they came out in the wilderness
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is the fact that all of Israel was circumcised.
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They were probably circumcised during the three
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days of darkness in Egypt. There's a good chance
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that that's when it took place. And then after
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that, they go into the wilderness. First thing
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that they do is go over to Mount Sinai. And when
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you get to the story of Israel over in Mount
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Sinai, that whole trip from Egypt to Mount Sinai,
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where they get the law, they build the tabernacle,
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all of the implements, all of that stuff. And
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then they go up to Kadesh Barnea, which is the
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southern entrance into the land of Canaan, where
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they were supposed to go in the first place.
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That took two years. And so you only have two
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years. between those two events and you know
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what happened when they got to Kadesh Barnea.
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What they did was they rebelled against God.
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They rebelled against his plan. They said that
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you're bringing us out here to kill us. There
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are giants in the land, that whole thing. And
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the specific indictment that they brought against
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God was that he was going to kill our children.
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You're going to kill our children. And that took
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God off. And so God said to these people, Not
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only am I not gonna kill your children, your
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children are the only ones who are gonna go in.
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And so everybody from 20 years old and above
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were people who died in the wilderness in the
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next 38 years, and it was their children that
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went in. There's a passage in Numbers 14, 32
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through 34. This is God speaking to Israel during
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that story. He says, but as for you, your carcasses
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shall fall in this wilderness. and your sons
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shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years,
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and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your
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carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According
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to the number of the days in which you spied
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out the land 40 days, for each day you shall
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bear your guilt one year, namely 40 years, and
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you shall know my rejection." And the point being
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is they rejected God, and now God's saying, I'm
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rejecting you. And so one of the things that
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you have in this situation in the wilderness
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is even though God is keeping his promise to
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Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, we talked about
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this this morning with the Abrahamic covenant,
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he's going to give them the land of Canaan, even
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though he's keeping that, this generation has
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walked away from him. And they're apostate. God
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goes, you rejected me, now I've rejected you.
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And your children are going to bear the brunt
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of your infidelity. And one of the things that's
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interesting about this, is the fact that their
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children were never circumcised. So every time
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a male child was born to an Israeli on the eighth
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day after their birth, they were to circumcise
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their children. And so for 38 years, these people
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hadn't been doing it. And you don't have any
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reference in the Bible to Moses saying, why aren't
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you doing this? There's nothing going on with
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that. And so again, basically, when they're wandering
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in the wilderness, it looks like what was happening
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is you had a bunch of apostate people who have
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no choices. And they've aligned themselves with
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the God of Israel and with the people who are
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actually going to go into the promised land,
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which in this instance was their children, and
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they had nowhere else to go. They couldn't go
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back to Egypt because the Egyptians would just
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put them back into slavery. They couldn't go
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into Canaan because they were too afraid. And
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what they did was they wandered around in the
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wilderness until they died and they didn't serve
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and worship the Lord. And so they didn't do circumcision.
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And again, what happens is their children are
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bearing the brunt of that. So God says to Joshua,
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what I want you to do is make flint knives for
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yourselves, circumcise the sons of Israel, verse
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two, again the second time. So Joshua made flint
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knives for himself, circumcise the sons of Israel
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at the hill of the foreskins. and then it goes
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through and talks about the reasons, and again,
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the fact that they'd been wandering in the wilderness
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and this had gone on. One of the things that's
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cool about this passage, and you don't see it
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specifically in answer to Joshua, but in verse
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five it says, for all the people who came out
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had been circumcised from Egypt, and it talks
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about the children not being circumcised, and
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down in verse seven, then Joshua circumcised
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their sons whom he raised up in their place.
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for they were uncircumcised because they had
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not been circumcised on the way. So it was when
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they had finished circumcising all the people
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that they stayed in their places in the camp
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till they were healed. And so all these guys
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who are men of war, every single one of them
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is getting circumcised and they all submit to
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it. Joshua comes up and says, we need to be circumcised.
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So actually he says specifically, you need to
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be circumcised because Joshua was already circumcised.
23:59
And again, that picture of circumcision is a
24:01
picture of cutting away the flesh. You've been
24:05
listening to Crosswalk with Pastor Steve Wintory.
24:07
Crosswalk is the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel
24:10
Tri -Cities in Kennewick, Washington. If you're
24:12
wanting to know more about what it means to follow
24:14
Christ, then please contact our church office
24:16
by phone at 509 -736 -2086. You can also look
24:21
us up online at calvary -tricities .org. Calvary
24:26
Chapel Tri -Cities is offering two in -person
24:29
training courses for those seeking to serve in
24:31
missions or ministry. The School of Missions
24:33
starts with 12 weeks of classroom -style learning
24:36
and local outreach in the Tri -Cities, Washington,
24:38
followed by a 10 -week cross -cultural mission
24:41
outreach. The School of Ministry, this course
24:43
is 18 weeks of in -person learning environment
24:46
followed by a four -week mission trip. Find out
24:48
more at calvarytrainingcenternw .com.