Message Title: Spiritual Growth From Being Consecrated – Week 3 of the Set Apart Series

Scriptures: Joshua 5:1–2 (NKJV)

¹So 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 we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

²At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”

Definition: Circumcision was an outward physical sign of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people.

Scriptures:Joshua 5:3–5 (NKJV)

³So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

⁴And 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.

⁵For 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.

Negligence/Disobedience of the previous generation

Scripture: Joshua 5:8–9 (NKJV)

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

⁹Then 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 to this day.

Definition: Reproach – address (someone) in such a way as to express disapproval or disappointment.

Scripture: Joshua 5:10–11 (NKJV)

¹⁰Now 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.

¹¹And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day.

Definition: Passover – A yearly holy day set apart for the Israelites to observe the exodus from Egypt, particularly the passing over of the Israelite firstborn males when the firstborn of Egypt were struck down in the last of ten plagues.

Scripture: Joshua 5:12 (NKJV)

¹²Then 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.

Spiritual Maturity