Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 20
8
IMMERSE
•
KINGDOMS
5:6–6:8
after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.
The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the
men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died.
For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let
them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk
and honey. So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up
to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the
way to the Promised Land. After all the males had been circumcised, they
rested in the camp until they were healed.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame
of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.
While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho,
they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first
month. The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted
grain harvested from the land. No manna appeared on the day they first ate
from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time
on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man
standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and
demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your
command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”
The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for
the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.
Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were
afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord
said to Joshua, “I have given you Jeric ho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a
day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a
ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven
times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give
one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they
can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge
straight into the town.”
So Joshua called together the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the
Lord’s Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each
carrying a ram’s horn.” Then he gave orders to the people: “March around
the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of
the Lord.”
After Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests with the rams’ horns