Scripture Text (NRSV)
Joshua 5:9-12
5:9 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.
5:10 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.
5:11 On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the
produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
5:12 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.
Comments:
After forty years wandering in the wilderness, the people of Israel
cross the Jordan and enter the land promised to them. Their entry into
the land, their homecoming, is marked by the end of one kind of
provision by God, manna, and the beginning of another, the produce of
Canaan. We are not told what their relationship is to the Canaanites.
What we know about modern situation with refugees and colonialism may
give us ways to reflect on this story.
By celebrating the Passover and eating the produce of the promised
land instead of the miraculous manna that had sustained them in the
desert, the Israelites symbolically bring their forty years of
wilderness wandering to an end at Gilgal.
The opening line is all about removing the Israelite's disgrace. It
seems to me that a lot of this is involved with the shame/honor
society they lived in. Can anyone out there explain this?
Mark in WI
From "The Dictionary of Bible and Religion" page 391.
Gilgal - The name of a number of towns and cities menioned in the OT,
especially during the early Hebrew conquest under Joshua. THe name
probably means "circle of stones," referring to religious monuments
similar to the Druid Stonehenge. Each town so named most likely had
such a stone circle.
There was Gilgal to the southeast of Jericho by the Jordan. Here
twelve symbolic stones were set up to symbolize the twelve tribes of
Israel. Jushua made camp at this place upon reaching the west bank of
the Jordan River (Joshua 4:1-9, 20, 5:10). Later, at Gilgal the
kingship of Saul was confirmed by the people (1 Sam 11:15). Still
later, because he ran afoul of Samuel, Saul lost the throne at the
same place. Hosea, AMos , and Micah all denounced currupt religious
practices at Gilgal, although it was originally a shrine to Yahweh (Hos.
4:15, 9:15, 12:11, Amos 4:4, 5:5, Mic. 6:5).
Mark in WI
"Today": the surrounding context were about how all other nations were
paralyzed when they heard the Israelite walk through Jordan as on dry
land. With that, all of Israel went through circumcision to renew
their covenant with God. "Gigal" was Hebrew for "roll".
There will be a day the long and tedious, monotonic manna will be
over, when the token promise will be realized. God's providence of
care move from the miraculous into the ordinary.
But in order to arrive, they must keep on going faithfully in the
covenant.
How is this text fit into this week with other passages? The younger
son keep pressing on until he arrived home? The older brother keep on
faithfully working until he got the heart of the father? We keep on
being an ambassador for Christ? We keep on confessing our sin until we
are hidden in the grace and love of God?
Coho, Midway City.
