Shifting To The New Covenant Faith

Joshua Chapter 5 narrates how Israel, under Joshua's leadership, circumcize themselves and passover the Jordan River in dry ground. The reason mainly is because all the first generation Israel who came out from Egypt died due to their disobedience in the wilderness, while this new generation were not yet circumcised (Joshua 5:2-7). This circumcision and passing over the dry ground, for us Christians, speaks of repentance or returning to God from sin to serve the living and one true God (1Thessalonians 1:9) , and water baptism to which we are being crucified with Christ, baptized unto his death, so we will no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died for us (Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:15).

Now after Israel undergo that process of salvation, the Lord said, " Today, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you (Joshua 5:9)," which means that the Lord is finally cutting them away from their old life of sin in Egypt to a new life in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), which is what the promised land of Canaan represents. That is also true to us that after we believe, repent and baptize, we are now completely new and justified with Christ (Romans 5:1).

Now, there is one thing we need to emphasize here, if we read Joshua 5:10-12, particularly in verse 12, " And the manna ceased the day after they ate the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.".

Manna and Canaan blessings speaks of God's provision. Manna is a provision when they are still lost in the wilderness, where God provides them bread from Heaven. Canaan's blessing is a provision after they crossover and overcome, (where the people will till their land to produce greater crops), ready to set out for battle to conquer the giants in the land. Manna ceased after they reached Canaan. This only means that when we are still weak and we can do nothing, God provides us a way out from our sin (Romans 5:8, John 3:14-18), but after we are now justified, the next provision is the Holy Spirit when He said He will never leave us orphans (John 14:16-21), which will be our power to overcome our giants in life and it will gives us everything we need to live a godly, and to will and to act for God's glory (Jn 16:3,Acts 1:8,Ph. 2:13, 2 Peter:1:3-4)

The significance of this interesting event in Israel's lives and to our lives today is that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. His way of teaching for His people never change and we have to realize that being saved once never guarantee our salvation forever. We have to wprk it out on (Phil. 2:12) with the Holy Spirit and deny our flesh everyday.