Joshua 5:9-12

Joshua 5:9-12 (NRSV)

⁹ The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰ While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹² The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

Joshua 5:9-12 is an account of the Passover in the Tribal Federation, a reminder that the Passover is an ancient remembrance, designed for protection, and then incorporating a remembrance of deliverance. The Deuteronomist Historian wants to resurrect or to remember pre-monarchial traditions concerning Gilgal. In the canonical context, the passage is part of the mobilization theme that began in Chapter 1. These verses give the account of the first Passover celebrated in the new land. ⁹ The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away (galloti) from you the disgrace of Egypt.” The Lord had to re-establish the Israelites as covenantal people before they could properly conquer and occupy the land, which would become holy to (set apart for) the Lord. The Israelites had previously shown lack of faith in the Lord by refusing an earlier command to go up and conquer the land. Subsequently, they had to wander for the rest of a 40-year period in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan, and the first generation would die without entering the land (see Numbers 14:26-35, in context, as well as Deuteronomy 1:29-40). This is part of the background of Joshua 5:9. Thus, it could refer to the disgrace of slavery and the humiliation it brought. It could refer to the disgrace of not trusting the providential care of the Lord by thinking that the Lord was slow to provide relief in the wilderness. Regardless of the historical reference, we know what disgrace feels like. We know feelings of shame lodged in painful memories. We know the burden of guilt from secret sins. We know the sense of regret about poor choices and missed opportunities. Yet, as the Israelites embark upon new stage of their journey under new leadership, the Lord rolled away their disgrace. The Lord has forgiven them.  Therefore, offering a folk etymology, that place is called Gilgal to this day. Gilgal is related to a verbal form of gll, the Hebrew word for “roll away.”[1] Gilgal was the location just west of the Jordan River where Israel encamped after crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4:19-20). Gilgal is just east of Jericho, which the Israelites would soon conquer (when the walls would “come a-tumblin’ down”) — see Joshua 6. Gilgal is the site where Saul later became king over Israel (I Samuel 11:15). Gilgal is also where King David, after the death of his son Absalom (who had led an armed revolt against his father), crossed the Jordan on his way back to Jerusalem to rule again (II Samuel 19:15, 40). Based on inferences drawn from words of the prophets Hosea and Amos, Gilgal still later became a site of improper worship. Gilgal became the place of a re-paganized religious observance within Judah. Around the middle 700’s, Amos and Hosea had already denounced the religious observances there. Amos sarcastically invited people to come to Gilgal and multiply transgression, bringing sacrifices and every morning and tithes every three days 4:4). The people ought not to go to Gilgal, for it shall experience exile (5:5). The Lord came to hate the evil deeds of northern kingdom, which began at Gilgal (Hosea 9:15).

¹⁰ While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the Passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month, yet another narrative parallel with the exodus that conforms to Exodus 12:6, in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes, consumed after the Passover offering of a lamb, and parched grain, anticipating the next verse. The Passover was a family celebration in the home. One can read Exodus 12 for an account of how the faithful were to celebrate it. The lamb would be a tradition from shepherds and the unleavened bread from farmers. ¹² The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna. The cessation of manna, the food of wandering, marks the beginning of settled agrarian life. Some Bible scholars have tried, over the years, to figure out what manna was. There are all kinds of theories. “Manna” is an excretion by insects on the branches of tamarisk trees, one scholar confidently asserts. Others will suggest tree sap; still others, an edible fungus that sprang up during the night. Nobody really knows. To the authors of the Bible, it is a miracle. The Lord graciously provided manna for a generation Israelites. That time is done. The occasional extraordinary act of the Lord is not something on which in daily life. We need to learn to feed ourselves, seeing the work of the Lord as much in the ordinary activities of life as we do in the extraordinary. Nevertheless, the Lord has not left them when the manna disappears. They ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year. The Lord clearly is not finished with the Israelites when they cross over into the Promised Land; instead, the Lord is giving them a new beginning. Thus, the providential care of the Lord for them does not cease. It would come in a different form. Like the ancient Israelites, we are travelers on the way to a sacred place. In each part of the journey, the Lord holds us in the palm of his hand. The part of the Heidelberg Confession that deals with providence has a beautiful statement of what it means to trust in the providential care of the Lord. “I trust God so much that I do not doubt God will provide whatever I need for body and soul and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends upon me in this sad world.” Then, the authors of this confession define this theological concept, asking, “What do you understand by the providence of God?” 

The answer: 

The almighty and ever present power of God 

by which God upholds, as with his hand, 

heaven and earth

and all creatures, 

and so rules them that 

leaf and blade, 

rain and drought, 

fruitful and lean years, 

food and drink, 

health and sickness, 

prosperity and poverty — 

all things, in fact, 

come to us 

not by chance 

but by his fatherly hand. 

 

Saint Augustine had it right when he said, “God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails.” Our Lord gives us the limitless power of the Holy Spirit, but it is our job to raise the sails of our time and talent to capture this wind and move forward. This means giving time each week to worship, listening for the guidance of the word of the Lord. It means making a commitment to a small group in the church because the Lord did not intend life in the Promised Land to be a solitary enterprise. It means putting effort each week into some form of service so the hungry of the community have the “unleavened cakes” they need for survival. Raising these sails is not going to be easy. It can feel like roughing it in the wilderness. However, with your disgrace rolled away, you are ready for the challenge of hiking into the new life that God desires for you. The Promised Land is waiting.

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[1] The name Gilgal means “(sacred) circle” (of commemorative standing stones), from the Hebrew root galal, meaning “to roll” or “roll away” (as a wheel or ball of dung because of their roundness; see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906, 166; see also W. R. Kotter, “Gilgal,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary [New York: Doubleday, 1992], vol. 2, 1022). The lexeme is a reduplication of the gll root (a Pilpel form; see Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910], 152), which may indicate intensification, iteration or reflexivity. The basic meaning of the root is “to be round” (and, derivatively, “to roll”), which comports with the account of the Israelites’ setting up of 12 stones (stele) taken from the dry riverbed of the Jordan after their crossing (although the text, 4:20, does not indicate if the stones were arranged in a circle; such circular groupings of standing stones — menhirs — have been discovered in other locations; see “Menhir,” Wikipedia, October 12, 2018, 07:15 UTC.