Joshua 5 explained: A New Start Before Jericho

The local kings lose heart (v. 1)

News that the Jordan had stopped for Israel spread through the region, and the kings of Canaan lost the will to fight. The river crossing was taken as proof that Israel's God was fighting for them.

Circumcising a new generation (vv. 2-8)

Circumcision, cutting off the foreskin, was the mark that a man belonged to the covenant, the binding agreement first made with Abraham's family, and the sons born during forty years in the wilderness had never received it. Why it lapsed is unclear: some think constant travel made it unsafe, others that it was a sign of God's judgment on the generation that disobeyed and died before reaching the land.

Shame rolled away at Gilgal (v. 9)

The name Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew word for rolling, tying the place to God's words about rolling away the disgrace of Egypt. Scholars are unsure exactly what that disgrace was, perhaps the shame of slavery or Egyptian mockery that Israel's God had abandoned them, but the rite marked a fresh start.

Passover and the end of manna (vv. 10-12)

Passover was the yearly meal remembering Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, and now it was kept for the first time inside the promised land. The day after they ate the land's own grain, the manna, the daily food that had sustained them in the desert, stopped for good.

The commander with a sword (vv. 13-15)

Asked whether he is for Israel or its enemies, the figure takes neither side and says he has come as commander of the LORD's army, which many readers take to mean the real question is whether Israel is on God's side. The command to remove his sandals echoes Moses at the burning bush, and many Christians have read this figure as Christ appearing before his birth, while others see a high angel.

Key verse: Joshua 5:14

Where Christians differ

Christians differ over who the commander of the LORD's army is: an angel sent by God, or God himself, with many traditionally reading him as Christ appearing before his birth.

Something to think about

Joshua asks the armed stranger which side he is on and gets an answer that refuses both. What might change about a conflict if the people in it stopped asking whether a higher power was on their side?