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[0:00] Well, let's take our Bibles tonight and open them to the book of Joshua.

[0:16] And I'm going to try to move through this chapter rather quickly. And we do have a business meeting tonight and food awaiting us over there.

[0:28] Now that shouldn't be an incentive for us to just rush through the study of God's Word, right? Glad to hear you say that, even though you were prompted to say it.

[0:39] All right, we're going to be looking at Joshua chapter 5 tonight. And we'll make our way through most of that.

[0:51] I am going to read all of it. That is starting with verse 2. Remember, we looked at verse 1, attached verse 1 to chapter 4. And need I remind you, as preachers like to do, that when the Bible was first written, there were no chapters or verses.

[1:11] And those were divisions that were made much, much later. The divisions are not inspired by God, all right? Even though I think, you know, they usually work pretty well.

[1:24] But verse 1 really belonged with verse 4. And so we'll start here with verse 2. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.

[1:43] So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

[1:55] 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. 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.

[2:13] 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 consumed because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.

[2:25] 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. 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.

[2:44] So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

[2:57] Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. 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.

[3:12] And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. 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.

[3:27] But they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. 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.

[3:42] And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? So he said, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.

[3:56] And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? 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.

[4:12] And Joshua did so. All right, so there's chapter 5. Now, at the very least, even before we consider anything this chapter has to say to us, just on the face of it, kind of overall, you get this impression from chapter 5 that God never gets in a hurry.

[4:33] Did you think that when we were going through chapter 5? I mean, even to readers, modern day readers today, we're ready to move forward, ready to get on with it, you know.

[4:50] And, you know, you have that feeling? And it's not just because we like the part about Jericho, you know, that part of the story is the part that we perhaps know the best and excited about it.

[5:06] And we're kind of wanting to get to that part. And, really, it even feels logical to us, given the momentum that has been building. Logical to, let's just get on with it.

[5:18] Let's go on to Jericho and let's defeat those rascals and start possessing the land of Canaan. It just seems logical if you think about it. Because, you know, they have just crossed the Jordan River in a most miraculous way, of course.

[5:35] Awesome way. And they have now encamped for the first time actually in the land of promise. And so now it's no longer theory, it's now reality.

[5:49] That, too, great event in the life of Israel. And then they possess a great army, a huge army, a army of mighty warriors, Israel does.

[6:02] Can you imagine how large their army was? Incredible. And to add to that, the enemy they faced, not just Jericho, but all the people of the land of Canaan, the enemy, according to Scripture, was terrified and, in essence, defeated already in their hearts.

[6:23] And so they may be saying, hey, God, let's just keep on going. Let's just go after Jericho. But God is not in a hurry. Not in a hurry.

[6:36] And, you know, by the way, he can enjoy the freedom, the liberty that he has to take his time. Now, we don't see it that way all the time, but God has that freedom.

[6:49] The battle is his. The battle of Jericho and every battle that they would face in the land of Canaan, the battle is his. And so he can operate on his own times table.

[7:02] All right, that we can say at the very least. But more than that, God does not get in a hurry regarding his people.

[7:13] His people Israel here and even for us. God does not get in a hurry for the sake of his people. Because what is going to take place in chapter 5 is extremely important for God's people.

[7:32] And that's what we have here in this chapter. That's what's important about this chapter. That's the message of chapter 5 for Israel, but also for us.

[7:44] Because you see, God's people, Israel, are not ready for Jericho. Now, they think they are. But they're not ready for it.

[7:56] They don't yet even know how Jericho is going to be conquered. What they have not learned yet is that Jericho will be conquered by the Lord and not by the people of Israel.

[8:07] But they don't know that yet because they're not ready for Jericho. Now, their army, I think, perhaps, was ready. Ready to fight. The people, I think, had the motivation and the will and the excitement and they were ready for battle in that sense.

[8:25] Their swords were no doubt sharpened and ready for battle. all of their armor was in order and they were ready for the battle. They were prepared for it physically.

[8:37] In fact, if you recall back in chapter 4, verse 12, as they were crossing over, well, chapter 4 is reviewing the actual crossing of the Jordan River. Remember that it says that Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed.

[8:51] And I think the implication is that the fighting men of Israel had in mind that as soon as they crossed over, they were going to just engage in the battle.

[9:06] They were ready. And so they went over armed, ready for battle. And so they were physically ready and maybe even mentally ready. But they were not ready spiritually.

[9:19] And that's why we have chapter 5. And there's a lesson for us here that we're not ready for the battles that we face. God makes us ready.

[9:33] But often we're not ready and we're not ready spiritually. And so God doesn't get in a hurry. And we get impatient and we want things to begin to happen.

[9:43] We want answers to our questions. We want victory in our life over certain things or enemies. or certain circumstances. And we want it.

[9:54] And we want it right now. But we're not ready and God doesn't get in a hurry. And He takes His time and He's preparing us. I'm convinced really that Israel, if Israel had proceeded to go on forward and engage in the battle against Jericho, I'm convinced that they would have been defeated.

[10:14] very much like they were defeated at Ai, first of all. And we'll, of course, get into that when we get to chapter 7.

[10:24] But if you know the story, then I think you understand the connection. They were not ready for Ai. They thought they were ready actually for Ai. And they went ahead and proceeded and were defeated initially. spiritually.

[10:35] And so, I think that is the lesson here for us. If you state it in the overall sense. Because the people of Israel needed to be prepared spiritually before they could do battle against Jericho.

[10:49] They must be, more specifically speaking, must be sanctified. Sanctified. Set apart for God. Because remember, they need to remember, we need to remember that the battle is the Lord's.

[11:02] It's not our battle, it's the Lord's battle. That was true for Israel and that is true for God's people today, for you and for me. All of life's battles belong to the Lord.

[11:14] They don't belong to us. And that, by the way, just in itself, I think, gives us a whole new kind of perspective on the challenges that we face.

[11:25] These battles are the Lord's. Now, yes, we have a part in them. We certainly do and God expects us to participate with what He's doing. But our part, really, is to sanctify ourselves unto God.

[11:37] To trust Him. To obey Him. To obey His Word. To literally be about cultivating our lives, our walk by His Word.

[11:50] And to be ready for the battles that come. And that's how we participate with God. If we expect to fight our battles in life and do well, have a good outcome, then we must make the right kind of spiritual preparations.

[12:07] Now, that's the lesson here from chapter 5. The battle is the Lord's and therefore the victory is the Lord's and because, really, the glory is the Lord's.

[12:19] No matter what battle we face. All right, now, we can discover, I think, from this chapter, five very clear, distinct elements of Israel's preparation.

[12:31] We'll look at four of them tonight, but I want to attach the fifth one to chapter 6 where we actually have the account of the battle of Jericho, if you could call it a battle.

[12:42] It was the Lord's battle. But the last one of these we'll attach to chapter 6 next time. All right, here then are four of the five.

[12:54] The first one, here's what God did with Israel. This is what Israel was doing here in chapter 5. Number 1, renewing Israel's covenant with God.

[13:06] Renewing their covenant with God. That's what we find in verses 2 through 7. A renewing of Israel's covenant with God. Look at verse 2 again. At that time, all right, so this is a specific point in time, at that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourself and circumcise.

[13:28] Now, we know what that is, don't we? So we don't have to describe what that is, right? Except for maybe the youngest of us and really, mom, dad, you can explain this later at home, okay?

[13:42] All right, to circumcise. The sons of Israel again, the second time. Now, the idea here is not, by the way, that these men of Israel are going to have to go through this a second time because really, there are only two of them that had not been circumcised.

[13:59] Who would that be? Joshua and Caleb. And so that plays into the reason for the circumcision a second time.

[14:10] We'll get to that here in just a minute. But he said to make flint knives and this is kind of strange. This is the second of really only two times that a flint knife is referred to in the narrative portion of the Old Testament.

[14:26] First time is in Exodus chapter 4 verse 25 and we'll not turn to that. It's not important at least in what God is wanting to say to us here. But it's back there when Moses' son was circumcised and Zipporah circumcised his son.

[14:43] You might go back and read that and there's quite an interesting story that surrounds that. But a flint knife is referred to there. Literally a rock sword.

[14:56] A sword made out of rock or flint. And so they may have used flint knives. One scholar has proposed it was for health reasons.

[15:09] There was some particular property of the flint and they could use a flint knife and then chip off what had been used and reuse that. I don't think that's it but that was one suggestion.

[15:23] Really I think it is that it was a ceremonial thing. And even though we won't have it mentioned only twice it was a ceremonial type of way of doing it.

[15:36] May have been used maybe this time in particular to refer back to to reference back to when Moses' son was circumcised.

[15:47] But regardless Joshua obeyed didn't he? God's instructions and he obeyed explicitly. Verse 3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

[16:02] Some of your translations have the word Gibeath Heraloth Heraloth and which means well what the King James and New King James translates.

[16:15] They're just giving a literal translation. A little bit later it's going to have the name Gilgal and we'll get to the meaning of that name here in just a minute. Verse 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

[16:29] Here's why. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way. That is during the 40 years of wilderness wandering and they've all died now.

[16:44] And that happened after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out of had been circumcised. Moses did that. But all the people born in the wilderness in the meantime all those born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

[17:03] So that would include a very large number of males who were born during the time of the wilderness wandering after Israel came out of Egypt. For the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were 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.

[17:32] And by the way that's of course a reference to Numbers chapter 14 when God's people did not believe the positive report of the spies. The spies had been sent into the land and the 12 spies and two of them gave a good report let's go up and take this land you know we're ready and God is ready and that was the report by Joshua and Caleb and the people did not believe them hence they did not believe God and so they sinned and had to spend 40 years of wandering until they were all dead and could not enter into the land could not even see it.

[18:10] 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. Now that's just you know kind of repetitious and it gives the explanation about the circumcision why they did it a second time and so forth and all that might be interesting to you probably not especially well most of us but what does it all mean?

[18:36] What's the point of this? Alright well circumcision as you probably know was the sign the original sign of God's covenant with Abraham the covenant that He made as you can read about it in Genesis chapter 17 verse 11 so it was the sign an outward sign of that covenant and it was then a reminder a constant reminder that the Jews were a quote marked people marked people now it was just the men of course who were circumcised but they were representative of the people of God and so that circumcision was a sign a sign of that covenant that God had made with Abraham through Abraham all of his descendants Israel this then was the sign of the old covenant and they were to never ever forget their unique relationship with Yahweh

[19:40] God now what had happened during the 40 years of wilderness wandering they had lost that sign and needed to be renewed they were still God's people but the outward sign of the covenant that had been given through Abraham renewed through his descendants had to be that had to be renewed now what about today well today circumcision though it is still practiced of course in our culture with men with male babies but circumcision in the New Testament is still a sign but it's an inward reality not an outward thing that is we have there is an indication or rather a sign within our hearts that we belong to him that we are we uniquely belong to God now we have an indication of that even in the Old Testament because even with the circumcision as a part of the Old Covenant even though that was an outward thing there was also it also carried with an inner or a spiritual meaning we learn that from Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 16 therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart the fleshy part the unredeemed part circumcised and be stiff necked no longer that's Deuteronomy 10 verse 16 now that carries over into the New Covenant

[21:17] New Testament there's the circumcision of the heart and so essentially they renewed their covenant with God and so what about us what is the lesson here for us well the lesson is very simple we before we face our enemies before we enter into our battles the battles of life battles with the flesh with Satan with the world before we attempt anything for God we must renew always renew our covenant with God that is and we do it by removing anything that displeases Him by restoring also our fellowship with Him that's a part of that implied by that by renewing our trust in Him before you face any of your Jerichos you better make sure that you are right with God right before God and that there isn't anything standing between you and separating you from your fellowship with Him it's not an issue of salvation you're still

[22:20] His son His daughter but the inner sign of that reality sometimes becomes mixed with fleshy things with sin and it needs to be dealt with before you attempt anything for God or before you do any battle against the flesh or the world or against Satan so it's pretty clear as it crosses over into our lives as we face our Jerichos number two reaffirming Israel's confidence in God that's the second thing there was a reaffirming of Israel's confidence in God and it's really quite interesting there in verse 8 verse 8 so it was when they had finished circumcising all the people the men specifically that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed that's pretty logical isn't it

[23:26] I mean what an ordeal alright I don't have to explain that you understand how painful this would be and how it would take time to heal not talking about little babies we're talking about grown men many of them being circumcised and so there needed to be time of healing and so it's pretty clear isn't it after the circumcision all the males in the nation were temporarily out of commission that is specifically they were unable to go to war so no battle was going to take place until these men were healed and that would take some time now clearly I think this reveals an enormous confidence that Israel must have not in themselves but in God totally incapacitated for a time and then therefore they were literally sitting ducks for any invading army now what about us how does this cross over in our lives well have you ever been in a position where you were incapacitated there's been a time in your life when you just man you just incapacitated physically yes

[24:44] I mean those those times come where physically we aren't able to do much that's really not the point here primarily I mean mentally incapacitated not permanently I hope but mentally incapacitated in the sense of you just don't know what to do you just come to a place in your life where there's some struggles there's some decisions to make there's some battles to be to be waged there's some victory that is needed and you must go forward but you don't know what to do and there is a mental incapacitation it can also be emotional you ever had those times where emotionally you were incapacitated you know maybe fearful uncertain burdened worried maybe you're just a basket case you know and there's just a time when you it's not time to go forward you can't go forward and so then what your life is kind of in a spiritual limbo you ever had those times in your life

[26:04] I hope you have hope I'm not the only one and so you feel vulnerable then do you feel vulnerable to the enemy but understand that many times just like with Israel God places us there in a place of incapacitation we can't go forward we don't have it in us we're out of sorts mentally emotionally spiritually maybe even physically and God places us there in order to reaffirm our confidence in the Lord to protect us and to keep us even though we're not moving forward and we feel vulnerable open to attack either from man or from Satan at least we sense that feel that we feel vulnerable and yet God has placed us there so that we have nowhere to go but to him and to just trust him and here these men are these men of war you know and they're in a foreign land they are surrounded by enemies because they're in the enemy's territory and I'm sure they're lying on their beds and maybe taking it easy in their tents and they're waiting to heal so that they can be ready for the battle and they're wondering at any moment any day you know an enemy is going to invade and what am I going to do

[27:26] I'm not up to snuff I'm not all that I should be and can be I'm physically drained or whatever it is and what do they have to do they have to place all their confidence in God for that time alright so here God's program of sanctification for Israel renewing Israel's covenant with God reaffirming Israel's confidence in God and then third removing Israel's condemnation by God or from God removing Israel's condemnation verse 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 to this day now what does this mean the reproach of Egypt the reproach of Egypt is kind of an interesting description of Israel's condition before God I think it certainly has reference to two events that

[28:31] Israel's that occurred during Israel's wilderness wanderer well one event that brought this about and another event that occurred during it and the first one is found in Exodus 32 1-12 when the children of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it as God remember that story alright that was sin and God brought judgment upon Israel because of it the second one would be what happened at Kadesh Barnea again I've already referred to this one when Israel displayed a lack of faith they did not trust God's faithful spies did not trust God to provide the promised land that they would be well able to take it and so that led to the wilderness wandering and led to that generation not being even allowed to see the promised land so those are two sins clearly is that the reproach of Egypt well really not now it's connected to it but this is interesting these occasions of sin and God's judgment as a result these were occasions for Egypt's reproach some of you might have a translation that uses the more literal term and that is scorn that makes a little bit more sense to us though we're not really sure how it applies here but it is literally

[30:07] Egypt's scorn scorn toward Israel and not referring to Egypt in the past but Egypt in that day their scorn of Israel in fact their scorn that had now lasted for some 40 years now what are you talking about well you see their scorn Egypt's scorn was directly related to God's punishment of Israel so that the Egyptians then as they viewed Israel and their wilderness wandering the Egyptians viewed this wandering in the wilderness as God God's abandonment of Israel he had actually abandoned his people and they scorned them for that I mean look at these these Israelites you know they really thought they were something yeah okay

[31:09] God delivered them from our land all right there God part of the Red Sea but look at them now God has completely abandoned them and possibly there's a second thing included in that scorn and that actually a scorn for God that God was unable to fulfill his promise and by the way this is what Moses predicted would happen in fact he did so three times in scripture let me just refer read them to you real quickly it's interesting in Exodus 32 starting with verse 11 just listen to this then well really starting with verse 9 the Lord said to Moses I have seen this people and indeed it is a stiff neck people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them and I will make of you a great nation this came right on the heels of Israel golden calf experience you know and God just threw with him that's what he's saying to Moses and he said

[32:19] I'll just take you and start all over then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said Lord why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with mighty hand a mighty hand why should the Egyptians speak and say well he brought them out to harm them to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm of your people look at what he's saying he's saying if you abandon your people here this will just give fuel to the Egyptians to think that you know this God is impotent led them out but he can't carry it all the way through that's what Moses predicted would happen the other example would be the other great sin that they committed and that was not believing the spies and you can find that in Numbers chapter 14 started with verse 10 and the

[33:20] Bible says and all the congregation said to stone them with stone who Joshua and Caleb now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the meeting before all the children of Israel then the Lord said to Moses how long will these people reject me and how long will they not believe me with all the signs which I have performed among them I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they and Moses said to the Lord then the Egyptians will hear it for by your might you brought these people up from among them the Egyptians will hear about it what will they say about this this is the reproach see of Egypt something that existed for Israel all throughout the 40 years of wandering you think they had some Egyptians with and you think they still had some contact with the Egyptians they knew what they were thinking about about them and about their God the reproach of

[34:21] Egypt and then the third one is really when Moses is kind of summing up their two great sins and it's in Deuteronomy chapter 9 actually starting with verse 24 and the Bible says you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you!

[34:39] what a statement thus I prostrate myself before the Lord forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself because the Lord had said he would destroy you therefore I prayed to the Lord and said oh Lord God do not destroy your people and your inheritance whom you have redeemed through your greatness whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand remember your servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob do not or on their wickedness or their sin lest the land from which you brought us should say because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which he promised them and because he hated them he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness this is the reproach of Egypt rather their scorn but the scorn of Egypt or symbolic of the pagan world God says has been rolled away when they entered into the land they crossed over

[35:46] Jordan and God brought them into the promised land he said that scorn has been rolled away and it's been rolled away because the source of it your sin your disobedience against me has been rolled away so God is saying Israel remember that in preparation for Jericho the battle that is coming and really from there on the conquest of the land you need to ever remember what the Lord has done he has rolled away that reproach no longer can Egypt scorn you or scorn me because now I brought you into the land remember that now do you think that was an encourager for Israel just before they were to face their very first battle in Cana I think it was quite an encouragement now what about us how does that apply to us what's the lesson here for us well sometimes maybe more than sometimes we allow ourselves to live under the reproach or scorn of unbelievers of an unbelieving world and sometimes you know we are affected by and overcome by the shame of maybe of those things we did

[37:17] BC before Christ and we just we allow those things and allow the world to bring those things back into our minds and into our lives you know I knew you when you what makes you better now you know all kinds of criticism and scorn and maybe it's in a time in your life when when you're hurting and maybe you're in a battle and maybe God is preparing you for battle and there are these these times when your life is in limbo and and maybe even struggling with some issues of life and the unsaved world would say see there this is all a bunch of malarkey this Christianity you know there is no God or if there is he doesn't really care about you you're not any different than I am so we let the sins of our pre salvation come in and say and also we are prone to allow the shame of those things we've done since our salvation to defeat us to be used as fodder for the scorners and the critics and blasphemers and so we live in defeat really through self condemnation but what do we need to remember that the reproach has been rolled away it has been rolled away and even though the unsaved world may not understand that or see that or even if they were to have that explained nor would they accept it but the good news is one day all of

[39:00] God's people will be vindicated once and for all and profoundly vindicated for our faith and for our following Jesus and living a sacrificial life for his glory we'll be vindicated for that but even now we need to remember that the reproach has been rolled away see this is an encourager for the battles we face as it was for Israel one last thing tonight remembering Israel's commitment to God remembering Israel's commitment to God remembering and by the way remembering their commitment to God comes first by remembering God's commitment to them and that's what we have here in verse 10 look at it again 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 and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day this is the first eating of the produce of the land the land of promise then the manna ceased so the manna was continuing to come on schedule up until this very moment even though it's not mentioned very much it continued 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

[40:30] Canaan that year now it's interesting regard to the Passover the Israel celebrated of course the very first Passover in Egypt alright when it was instituted Passover while they were in Egypt just before they were delivered on the day they were delivered and went out of Egypt they also celebrated it again according to scripture at Mount Sinai but there is not a clear statement in scripture about them celebrating the Passover anytime during their 40 years of wilderness wandering for 40 years they had lost track of that wonderful memorial commemoration of what God did for them in Egypt specifically that he passed over them and did not destroy them because when he saw the blood remember they didn't celebrate that during the 40 years and so they celebrate now the

[41:32] Passover now that they've come into the land and just before their very first step in conquest of the land God leads them to take the Passover and what is it for so that they will remember God's commitment to them as a people in the past what he did for them in Egypt specifically and I think there are other things that could be attached to that even the crossing of the parting of the Red Sea their complete deliverance out of Egypt and so that's the evidence of it of his commitment to them what God had done for them in the past but this was also a reminder of their need to commit their lives to God not just to remember his commitment to them but to remember again that they must be committed to him and I think the reminder of that is not in the Passover but in what's mentioned here about the manna the manna the manna was a reminder of

[42:36] God's demand or their need to be committed to him now why did God give them manna what was the occasion for that do you remember you can read about it in Exodus 16 3 the occasion for God providing manna was there complaining to God about being hungry and you remember what they said they said it a lot of times but they said it this time they said it'd be better for us to just go back to Egypt and be eating you know bread there rather than coming out here and starving to death and so God because of their complaint Moses said provided manna for them and you know the story about the manna how it would fall every day and they had to collect it every day they couldn't save it for the next day and then on the seventh day they had to or the sixth day they had to collect enough for the seventh day because there would be none on the seventh day on the

[43:38] Sabbath you know the whole story about the manna in connection with the Passover was first the Passover to remind them of God's commitment to them and then the mentioning of the manna was to remind them of a time when they were not committed to him but they needed to be they must be and what better time to remind them of their need to commit themselves to God than right before they would do battle their very first battle of conquest in the land now what about us what's the lesson for us well simple when we face the battles of life and we do frequently we must remember some of the great things the Lord has done in our behalf I mean certainly beginning with our salvation we should never lose sight of that God did in our behalf our continued fellowship with him and all the other things that God has done that we should remember that God has done in our behalf throughout our lives and we need to remember that and his commitment to us that in turn will bolster our commitment to him and then give us the courage to face our next battle if God was God if he was

[45:00]  God then in the past then he is still God now and that's the reminder for us there now there's one more and we'll save this for next week I'll go ahead and name it for you it's recognizing Israel's captain who is God he is God alright so to finish this up don't rush things don't rush it God's not in any hurry we want to just move right on with God and move out for God and we want to do this and do that for him and we want to conquer our enemies and have victory in our battles and there are decisions to be made and things to be about doing and some of those things we need to get doing it many times when God says move out get going what are you sitting here crying to me get going many times when God says I'm not in a hurry there's some things I need to do in your life he's interested in that he's interested in spiritual preparation for whatever battle we face