Bible Questions #415 - 422

Joshua Chapter 5

415. Joshua 5:1 How do the people around the area feel about the Hebrew people?___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________416. Joshua 5: 2-8 What does God tell Joshua to do? ____________________________

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Circumcision became a "mark" for the Jew. There were other people who did not worship God who did circumcision, so it was not unheard of. Most of those people did circumcision when they thought a boy was old enough to be considered a man. It was part of their worship ceremony.

God required all Jewish males, at 8 days old, to be circumcised. It was to be a "mark" that they were followers of Jehovah God.

Paul speaks of circumcision in some of his letters to the believers in the New Testament.

He explains that it is the "circumcision" of the heart that God is interested in. We "mark" our hearts, to show we are followers of Jesus. He explains that even in the Old Testament that the cutting of the body was not the main reason it was done. The reason was to "mark" the person as a believer and follower of God.

In the New Testament when Gentiles (non-Jews) became believers in Jesus some of the Jews tried to get them to be circumcised.

Paul said, we do not need to follow the Old Testament law. Because the reason for the law was not to "cut and mark" the body, it was a spiritual reason, to mark the men as followers of God. So, since it is spiritual in purpose, we do not need to mark the body, we need to mark our hearts. We need to not cut our bodies, but cut sin out of our lives.

We do not need to follow Old Testament laws now. Jesus has paid for our sin. Jesus makes us right with God. Following the Old Testament laws do not make us right with God. Even in the Old Testament, following the laws did not make you right with God, because people could not keep the laws. The standard of the law was so high, the people failed at keeping the laws. It was the animal sacrifice of a lamb given to God that God forgave them. The death of the lamb was their substitute. They should have died for their own sin, but God let them have a substitute so they did not have to die.

Paul said the Old Testament laws were given to hold before men as a standard of right living, but the people could never live up to it, because we are sinners, we fail.

The Old Testament law was there to show man how holy God was. Man tried to live up to the law, but he failed.

Man’s only hope for forgiveness was in the lamb’s death for him. God accepted the substitute death. Later, Jesus came. He became the substitute lamb for all people.

His death---once---was enough. All who believe and receive Jesus are covered by Jesus’ death for them.

So it is not by our own effort and work----of keeping the law or by circumcision---but by believing in Jesus that makes us right with God.

So the Gentiles in the New Testament were not required to be circumcised when they became believers.

Nowadays, in our country, the Jewish/Christian religion beliefs are widely accepted. Most male babies are circumcised in the hospital when they are born. This is more of a

cultural thing for Christians, nowadays, than a spiritual thing. The Jewish people still do it as following of the law.

417. Joshua 5: 11, 12 What happen here? This was different! After 40 years! Why did it happen? _______________________________________________________________

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418. Joshua 5: 13-15 Who was Joshua’s visitor? _______________________________

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Some Bible teachers believe that this Captain was Jesus. Another time that Jesus came to speak to a man was Abraham, when the Lord came to talk to him and told him that he and Sarah would have a baby and told him that Sodom would be destroyed. Genesis Chp. 18

419. Joshua 6: 1 Jericho is closed up. It is a walled city. The gates are closed. The people are watching and waiting. Vs. 2 The Lord said, "See, I have given into your hand the Jericho and the king and the men of war."

It did not look like it.

This is where faith comes in. Joshua had to look at that walled city, locked up, and believe that God was going to give him a miracle.

I wonder what we would have done?

420. How many days did they walk around the city?___________ How many times did they walk around the city each day? ___________ The seventh day was different. How many times did they walk around the city that day? ____________ On the last time around the city, what did they do?____________________________________________

__________________________________________ What did God do?______________

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What do you think the people in the city were thinking as they watched the Hebrew people walk around the city once each day, then leave?__________________________

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What do you think they were thinking on the seventh day when the Hebrews started around the city the second time, then the third, etc.?__________________________

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This city was their first city to conquer (win). God said it was to be offered to him as an offering. Everything in the city was to belong to God. They were not to take one thing. It was all God’s. In the future, the cities would be theirs to have, but this one was God’s.

They were to kill every living thing. Every thing in the city was to be burned as an offering to God.

421. Only one person and her family was to be saved. Who was that? ________________________________________________________________________

Joshua 6: 17,22,23,25

422. Vs. 26 Joshua makes a "curse" over the city. What does he say? _______________

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In I Kings 16: 24 you will see where this came true.