THROUGH THE BIBLE—- JOSHUA

 THE  FIRST  4  CHAPTERS  OF  JOSHUA  ARE  PRETTY  STRAIGHTFORWARD.  USE A  MODERN  TRANSLATION.

CHAPTER  5  HAS  SOME  INTERESTING  SECTIONS.

Joshua 5

New King James Version

The Second Generation Circumcised

5 So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until [a]we had crossed over, that [b]their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at [c]the hill of the foreskins. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. 5 For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were [d]consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 7 Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

8 So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. 

[O YES…. THAT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN PLEASANT - Keith Hunt]

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal[e] to this day.

10 Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. 11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and [f]parched grain, on the very same day. 

[AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 14 DAY THEY KEPT THE PASSOVER. THE PASSOVER AND FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO USE THE YEAR BEFORE GRAIN TO OBSERVE—- OLD CORN AS THE OLD KJV STATES.  THEY COULD HAVE BOUGHT IT FROM WANDERING MERCHANTS THROUGH THE AREA. OR FROM THE LAND AREA WHERE THEY WERE. HOWEVER THEY GOT OLD CORN, THE POINT IS THEY HAD IT, SO UNLEAVENED BREAD COULD BE MADE - Keith Hunt]

12 Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

[NOW THEY HAD COME TO THE LAND OF PROMISE; THE LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY—— MILK IS PACKED FULL WITH HEALTH BENIFITS. THEY NO DOUBT HAD MILK TO DRINK DURING THE 40 YEARS WANDERING; THEY CAME OUT OF EGYPT WITH CATTLE AND HERDS - Keith Hunt]

The Commander of the Army of the Lord

13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”

14 So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”

15 Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

[THE HEBREW FOR "LORD" IN VERSE 14 IS—- YHVH.  THE GROUND WAS HOLY BECAUSE THE GOD OF ISRAEL WAS THERE, TALKING WITH JOSUAH!!!  THE GOD  OF ISRAEL AT TIMES CAME DOWN TO EARTH AS A HUMAN BEING AND TALKED WITH MAN—- TO MOSES AND NOW TO JOSHUA; HE CAME IN GENESIS 18 TO ABRAHAM AND HIS  WIFE; TWO ANGELS CAME ALSO AND HAD A MEAL WITH ABRAHAM.  THAT GOD DID WRESTLE WITH JACOB.

THIS IS WHY JESUS SAID WHAT HE SAID IN JOHN 3: 13. THE SON OF MAN, THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IS THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS ASCENDED TO HEAVEN.  HE, JESUS GOD, DID DESCEND AND ASCEND A NUMBER OF TIMES TO EARTH AND HEAVEN.  HERE WE SEE HIM DOING IT WITH JOSHUA - Keith Hunt]

Some have used Joshua 5 to bring up a SUNDAY teaching, tied to the Pentecost Feast.

Here is my answer to them—-

Joshua 5 - What Day?

The idea of Sunday

JOSHUA 5 AND PENTECOST COUNTING WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD by Keith Hunt If you have never seen the movie (based on a true story) "A CRY IN THE DARK" then do yourself a favor and go out and rent it, and see a CLASSIC example of "emotions" and "dumb so-called experts" that make a simple truth into a stupid falsehood. An innocent woman gets put into prison and the majority for a while believe the silly notions in their head are the facts of truth. And also the majority includes the dumbness of experts (but you know what an expert is do you not? Well an "ex" is an unknown quantity, and a "spert" is a DRIP UNDER PRESSURE!). Besides the innocent woman and her husband and the church they belonged to (which was Seventh Day Adventist), her lawyers, and the "judge" (who could see the simple truth from the word go), just about everyone else "read into things" and came up with their own silly WRONG ideas and conclusion, which eventually put the woman in prison. The truth did come out at last and a whole bunch of people (with their experts) had a dozen eggs smashed over their faces. Meryl Streep plays the woman and Sam Neill her minister husband, and I think they act to their fullest talent, a super job they indeed did. Well, what has all this to do with Joshua 5 and Pentecost? First, try and clear your mind of anything to do with Joshua 5 and Pentecost. Sorry to say but for many this seems to be impossible to do, especially IF you already have certain teachings you've had installed into your mind by so called "experts" of theology. For you who have had no thoughts of Joshua 5 and Pentecost, and have had no "experts" telling you what it is supposedly saying (you remember the saying that goes, "tell a lie enough times and people will believe it as truth"), this will be pretty easy, so try to bear in mind some have been fed things about Joshua 5 and counting to Pentecost, over and over again, to where they read the words and what they have been taught just locks in ... they can't see the forest because of the trees. What do some want you to believe about Joshua 5. They want you to believe the Passover took place on a Friday evening (or Saturday evening if you go with the sect of the Pharisees teaching) and the day after the Passover was a SUNDAY, the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, and that it is from that day (the first day of UB feast) you begin to count 50 days to Pentecost. The rest of the time in counting to Pentecost, they are quite willing to take the Sunday AFTER the weekly Sabbath that falls during the UB feast. But when it comes to the first day of UB feast beginning on a Sunday, they say Joshua 5 proves conclusively we should start to count from that day to Pentecost. They are usually reluctant to tell you that the Sadducean sect (who were the priestly class of the Temple in Jesus' day) did NOT count it that way at all, when the first day of the UB feast came on a Sunday. The Sadducean sect of priests simpley stayed with the basic rule and waited until the weekly Sabbath came DURING the UB feast, and counted from the Sunday after that weekly Sabbath to Pentecost. So in such years as when Sunday is the first day of UB, the Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed by about ONE week, but actually there is more to it than that, explained in other studies. Now back to Joshua 5. Read verse 10. What does it say? And what does it NOT say? It says that Israel observed the Passover on the 14th of the month (we know from other Scriptures the Passover was to be observed on the 14th day of the FIRST month). Do you see ANY calendar date here given? It is NOT there. Oh, please do not try and give the "Jewish perpetual calendar" answer, as saying you use it and go backwards and can known the date. The Jewish perpetual calendar did not come into existence until WELL into the Christian age, about two thousand years after Joshua 5. THERE IS NO CALENDAR DATE OR ANY DAY OF THE WEEK GIVEN TO US IN JOSHUA 5:10!!! How on earth people come up with the Passover on a Friday (or Saturday) evening, and hence the day after (the first day of UB feast) being then a Sunday, just BOGGLES my mind. I sit and read verses 10 to 12 and scratch my head, twist my mind, do spins and loops, do hand stands, and flip flops, stand on one leg while I close one eye, and for all the life in me and CANNOT find ANY DATE OR DAY OF THE WEEK in those verses. We then have some kind of argument about "OLD" corn of the land being eaten, and with another twist of the mind, this is also supposed to add up to a day of the week, the day being Sunday. Again for the life in me I do not see where old corn eating proves it was eaten on a Sunday. I mean I can take old corn from anywhere and eat it on the day after the Passover when Passover falls on ANY day of the week. So what on earth has old corn eating on the day after the Passover got to do with Sunday? Still further, the argument goes that old corn eating was the Israelites going out and harvesting the corn (or barley or wheat or whatever) of the land. Again somehow this has to do with a Sunday ... scratch, scratch my head again, do another hand stand, loop the loop, and stand on one leg ... I do NOT see any word here about going out and harvesting a crop. Why they hadn't yet really inherited the land. But besides that, it certainly does not say one word about the Israelites going out into the fields to harvest a crop. I can eat "old" anything if it is already there, already harvested, and put in bins, or sacks, or cereal boxes and stored away, so I can go and eat from that old stuff, if and when I need to. Old is NOT new, and new is not old, unless you figure language can mean anything you want it to mean, and if that is so, then truly as some say, "You can prove anything from the Bible." But let's run with the argument for the sake of running. We will say the Israelites did go out and harvest what was new so it could be old, but EVEN LETTING THAT BE SO, THERE IS STILL NOT A DAY OF THE WEEK mentioned in these verses. The simple fact of the truth of the matter, the plain truth, if you will, is that these verses DO NOT GIVE ANY CALENDAR DATE, OR TELL YOU WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK PASSOVER WAS OBSERVED ON !! To try and use these verses in Joshua 5 to prove the first day of the UB feast BEGAN on a Sunday, is like all those emotional people and dumb "experts" in Australia, trying to prove from silly unrealistic evidence, made in the human mind, that this woman killed her 10 week old daughter, in the movie "A Cry in the Dark." If you go back to Leviticus 23 and read about the feast of Unleavened Bread and the wave sheaf day of verses 10 to 14, you will clearly see (that is if you want to see) the instructions were for WHEN they had come into the land and had planted and were harvesting their crop, they were to bring the wave sheaf to the Lord on the day after the Sabbath. Of course we now enter the question of "the Sabbath" and which Sabbath. The Pharisees and the Sadducees strongly DISAGREED on this issue. I have gone into all that detail in other studies on the Pentecost topic, on this Website. But whatever you want to argue on this matter, the fact is still just as clear, NO DATES ON THE CALENDAR, as for calendar dates, but we do have a specific "on the morrow after the Sabbath" - such specifics are NOT found in Joshua 5. Joshua 5 has no word "Sabbath" in it, hence it is simply not possible to determine on what day of the week the Passover fell, or what day of the week "on the morrow after the Passover" was. Nothing in Joshua 5 gives us ANY clue as to the day of the week on which this Passover was observed. For anyone to try and prove a SUNDAY for the first day after the Passover, from Joshua 5, is like all (the majority of people, jury, and prosecuting lawyers) those in Australia, in about 1980- 82, reading into things, making up things, ideas, and stories, from the imagination, and emotions, trying to say this woman killed her baby and not a wild dingo. The truth was what all those people thought what could never be done by a wild dingo, proved only one thing in the end, the wild dingo was wiser and more astute than they were, it was they who were dumb and the dingo made then all look silly, and their "experts" .... well you can guess what. ............... February 2005