At Gilgal, God told Joshua to circumcise all the Israelites who had been born in the wilderness and were not circumcised prior to crossing the Jordan river.

After Joshua circumcised the Israelites, they stayed at Gilgal until they healed. Then, God told Joshua: “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Joshua 5:9

There were two incidents that nearly invoked God’s judgement to destroy Israel: When they moulded a golden calf to worship (Exodus 32) and when they refused to enter the Promised Land in Kadesh Barnea, complaining against Moses and Aaron and asking to return to Egypt (Numbers 13-14).

Each time, God was about to destroy disobedient Israel – until Moses interceded for them.

But at Gilgal, God removed the sins and judgement due them, through the act of circumcision. Gilgal symbolises the cutting away of the flesh – our fallen sinful nature and carnality. Why did God command Joshua to have all the males born in the wilderness to be circumcised?

First, it was to renew their covenant with Him (Genesis 17:10-11).

In Genesis, God established His covenant with Abraham and through that covenant with Isaac and Jacob. As a sign of this covenant, God required every male Jew to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. These included slaves and foreigners who wanted to be part of this covenant. Circumcision was a reminder that they were a “marked” people, that they were in covenant with God.

Secondly, it was to reaffirm their confidence in the Lord.

At this time, Israel was encamped in the midst of enemy territory (Joshua 5:1-8). After they were circumcised, they had to stay in their camps until they recovered. As a result, they were temporarily unable to fight.

As Israel’s obedience to God had the consequence of making them very vulnerable to the enemies around them, it took great faith to obey God and carry out His command. They had to demonstrate full faith and confidence in God to protect them.

Just as physical circumcision took away the Israelites’ natural abilities to defend themselves, spiritual circumcision is needed for us to fully obey and rely on God. “Acting in the flesh” is when we are completely immersed in the natural, and not living any differently from pre-believers.

Paul explains the nature of the flesh as carnality and worldliness (1 Corinthians 3:1-4), leading to believers remaining as spiritual “infants”, still drinking milk and remaining immature.

The implications of Gilgal for us

It reminds us of the need to spiritually “cut off the flesh” removing the things that hinder us from have a vibrant relationship with God and with others. Why?

1.       The flesh is hostile to God and cannot please God. (Romans 8:7) It is not neutral, but an aggressive enemy of the rule of God in our lives. Simply put, this is lawlessness. This is in our sinful nature, however well-behaved we may otherwise be.

2.       The words of Christ are spirit and life, and the flesh profits nothing. (John 6:63) The flesh adds no value to the things of God, the kingdom of God and the building of lives.

3.       The sinful nature is corrupt and cannot be transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is why when we receive Christ, we are not “improved” but we become a new creation. The sinful nature is not to be reasoned with or accommodated; it must be crucified and put to death.

The sinful nature of man

To deal with the flesh, we must recognise two aspects of the sinful nature in us: That which “sins” and also that which does “good”.

There are sins of commission – attitudes and actions that are wrong and violate the Word of God (Galatians 5:19-21). But James also points out the sins of omission (James 4:17). For example, Scripture tells us to respect and honour our parents, and failing to do so is sin.

There is another part of the flesh that we need to deal with: Our own natural “goodness”, abilities, zeal, wisdom, strength and power. The source of the flesh that does good is also the natural life, which is fallen and corrupt. No matter how good it appears, the flesh is at enmity with God, and those who act in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:7-8).

The bottom line of this zeal of the flesh is dependency on self.

“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” Romans 10:2

In this verse, Paul makes a distinction between zeal without, and with the knowledge of God. The former adopts a posture of depending on our own abilities and strengths while the latter is one of total reliance on God.

In our walk with Him, unless we recognise the corruption of the flesh and the need to cut it out, we will stumble and fail to fully receive the fullness of God’s blessings for us. The degree that the flesh is not cut is the degree we will not enjoy victory, fruitfulness and the abundant life of everything that the Lord Jesus has promised (John 10:10).

 This excerpt from the book, Running With Horses (Singapore, Armour Publishing, 2014), is republished with permission. The book is available at armourpublishing.com.