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Patriarchs and Prophets
I will be with thee.” And the result fulfilled the promise. “On that day
the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared
him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.”
This exercise of divine power in behalf of Israel was designed also
to increase the fear with which they were regarded by the surround-
ing nations, and thus prepare the way for their easier and complete
triumph. When the tidings that God had stayed the waters of Jordan
before the children of Israel, reached the kings of the Amorites and
of the Canaanites, their hearts melted with fear. The Hebrews had
already slain the five kings of Midian, the powerful Sihon, king of the
Amorites, and Og of Bashan, and now the passage over the swollen
and impetuous Jordan filled all the surrounding nations with terror.
To the Canaanites, to all Israel, and to Joshua himself, unmistakable
evidence had been given that the living God, the King of heaven and
earth, was among His people, and that He would not fail them nor
forsake them.
A short distance from Jordan the Hebrews made their first encamp-
ment in Canaan. Here Joshua “circumcised the children of Israel;”
“and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover.”
The suspension of the rite of circumcision since the rebellion at Kadesh
had been a constant witness to Israel that their covenant with God,
of which it was the appointed symbol, had been broken. And the
discontinuance of the Passover, the memorial of their deliverance from
Egypt, had been an evidence of the Lord’s displeasure at their desire
to return to the land of bondage. Now, however, the years of rejection
were ended. Once more God acknowledged Israel as His people, and
the sign of the covenant was restored. The rite of circumcision was
performed upon all the people who had been born in the wilderness.
And the Lord declared to Joshua, “This day have I rolled away the
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reproach of Egypt from off you,” and in allusion to this the place of
their encampment was called Gilgal, “a rolling away,” or “rolling off.”
Heathen nations had reproached the Lord and His people because
the Hebrews had failed to take possession of Canaan, as they expected,
soon after leaving Egypt. Their enemies had triumphed because Israel
had wandered so long in the wilderness, and they had mockingly
declared that the God of the Hebrews was not able to bring them into
the Promised Land. The Lord had now signally manifested His power