Joshua 5: God Prepares You Before Sending You into Battle

Introduction

"I like to be prepared." That is how Leon Johnson, pastor of the Windsor site of Kerith Community Church, opens this message in the church's series on the book of Joshua. When he leaves the house, he wants enough battery on his phone and enough fuel in the tank. His motto, which his wife has heard him repeat many times: "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

His wife, on the other hand, is comfortable with chaos. Once, on a trip, she packed his bag, and he discovered he had only one T-shirt for the next four days.

But the Bible also calls us to be prepared spiritually. We often want God to change our circumstances, open doors, fulfill his promises, and give us the breakthrough and the victory. Yet very often, before God changes our circumstances, he changes us. He does something in us before he does something through us. That is what Joshua 5 shows: God prepares his people before the battle.

Outline of the Message

1. Before the Battle, God Presses Pause

Israel has just crossed the Jordan. Moses has died, God has raised up Joshua and told him again, "Be strong and courageous," Rahab has protected the spies, God has stopped the river, and twelve stones have been set up to remember his faithfulness.
The kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites have heard what the Lord has done: their hearts melt and they lose courage (Joshua 5:1). Israel has momentum, the enemy is in sight, swords are drawn.
Humanly speaking, the logical next step would be to attack. God says, in essence, "Not yet." Before the battle comes preparation.
You see this throughout the Bible: Moses spends forty years in the wilderness before leading Israel out of Egypt, David tends sheep and faces lions and bears before being anointed king, Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness after his baptism, and Paul spends a season of preparation before his ministry. God cares more about preparing his people than about sending them into battle.
Leon Johnson has lived this. When he sensed the call to ministry, there were about four years when nothing seemed to open up. Looking back, he sees that God was shaping him: his character, his humility, his motives.

2. God Prepares Your Identity Before Your Activity

At that very moment, God gives a strange command: "Make flint knives, and circumcise the children of Israel again the second time" (Joshua 5:2). The whole generation born in the wilderness had not been circumcised.
The people's greatest need was not military. They needed to remember who they were.
Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Israel, an outward mark that said, "We belong to God." Before they were his soldiers, they were his people. Their identity came not from their army, their weapons, or their ability to fight, but from God.
"Our identity is not founded on our success," whether at work or in our relationships. You are not worth more in God's eyes because of what you produce. Your identity rests on the covenant God has made with us.

3. A Costly Preparation That Defies Logic

The men are waiting for the final order: "Let's go, attack!" Instead, Joshua announces that they must be circumcised. Imagine sitting there with your sword and shield, ready to fight, and receiving that command.
It leaves them wounded, sore, and vulnerable to the enemy. You can imagine their question: "Why didn't he ask us this on the other side of the Jordan, when we were safe?"
Sometimes what God asks makes no logical sense. Forgiving when it would seem normal to stay bitter. Giving when it would seem wise to keep everything. Waiting when you have the momentum to move forward.
Faith means trusting God more than our own calculations, even when it feels like we are waiting when we should be pushing, because God wants to do something in us before he does something through us.

4. The Circumcision of the Heart

Joshua 5 does not give us an Old Testament rite to copy. It points to something deeper.
Moses foretold it: "Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live" (Deuteronomy 30:6). Ezekiel promises a new heart and God's Spirit within his people (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Paul, in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans, teaches that the circumcision of the heart is done by the Spirit (Romans 2:29).
The preacher quotes a Bible commentator: Joshua was preparing the bodies of the Israelites for the promised land, but God had always been looking for something deeper, a people whose hearts were prepared for him.
The question for us, under the new covenant, is not "Do I have the outward mark?" but "Has my heart been circumcised by the Spirit? Is my heart surrendered to God?"
Even in church, we can have outward marks: attending services, singing, serving, knowing the Christian language. God cares about something deeper. Can you tell him, "Lord, remove from my heart everything that needs to be removed. My life belongs to you"?

5. The Reproach of Egypt Is Rolled Away

In verse 9, God speaks a beautiful word: "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." The place is named Gilgal.
Egypt represented slavery, servitude, and oppression under Pharaoh. Israel had physically left Egypt years earlier, but still carried that identity.
This is a challenge for us too: you can leave your old life and keep a slave mentality. God wants to remind us that we have a new identity.
The failures of the previous generation no longer apply. The fact that these men had not been circumcised may have come from a failure of the generation before them, but God tells them, in essence: the failure of those who came before you does not stop you from being my people.
The forty years in the wilderness were a time of preparation. Deuteronomy 8 says that God led his people into the wilderness to humble them and to know what was in their hearts. There Israel learned dependence: they needed God for water, for food, for the manna of each day.
There are wilderness seasons when you ask, "God, why am I still here? Why haven't you changed my situation?" They are hard, but God can do in us there what comfort never could.

6. When the Manna Stops: From Dependence to Participation

On the fourteenth day of the month, on the plains of Jericho, Israel celebrates the Passover and remembers who they are in God. The next day, the people eat the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain (Joshua 5:10-11).
Then the manna stops (verse 12). For forty years it had been there every morning. The people did not plant it, make it, or harvest it: it came from God.
God does not stop providing; he changes the way he provides. The people must now take part in the provision by gathering the produce of the land.
God moves them from dependence to participation. That does not mean they stop depending on God, but that this dependence now includes their participation.

7. Are You on God's Side?

Near Jericho, Joshua sees a man standing with his sword drawn in his hand. He asks him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" The answer: "No; but as prince of Yahweh's army I have now come" (Joshua 5:13-14).
When we step into something new (a job, a relationship, a challenge), we often ask, "God, are you on my side? Will you bless this?" The real question is the opposite: are we aligned with him, are we on his side, busy bringing his kingdom to earth?
Leon Johnson says he heard Bono, the singer of U2, relate the advice of a wise Christian: "Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Get involved in what God is doing, because it is already blessed."
Joshua falls face to the ground, takes off his sandals, and surrenders. He recognizes God's presence, his holiness, his authority. His prayer is simple: "Lord, I am here. You lead, I follow."
What are the Jerichos in your life? Perhaps a new job, a relationship, a partnership, a ministry, a role in your local church. Perhaps also walls of disobedience: fear, pride, bitterness, temptation, discouragement, cynicism, self-reliance.
Before Jesus' public ministry began, before the Sermon on the Mount, the healings, and the cross, the Father declares at his baptism: "You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11). God reminds him of his identity before any work.
To stay spiritually fit: surrender your heart to God every Sunday, return to him before you step into your workday, ask him to circumcise your heart again by the Spirit, stay in the Word, stay surrounded by others, and keep the purposes of the kingdom first. "Make the main thing the main thing."

Key Takeaways

Before God changes your circumstances, he changes you: he does something in you before he does something through you.
Your identity comes from God's covenant, not from your success. You are his child before you are his worker.
What God asks can defy your logic. Faith trusts him more than your own calculations.
God is looking for a heart circumcised by the Spirit, not just outward marks of Christian life.
The right question is not "Is God on my side?" but "Am I on God's side?"

Personal Application

In what area do you feel God has made you press pause? What might he be shaping in you?
What are you basing your worth on right now: your work, your relationships, what you produce, or what God says about you?
Is there something in your heart that you need to let God remove?
Are you still carrying a slave mentality tied to your old life?
What is your Jericho today, and are you asking God to bless your plans or seeking to align yourself with his?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does God ask for circumcision right before the battle of Jericho?

For Leon Johnson, Israel's greatest need was not military: the people needed to remember who they were. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant, a mark that said "we belong to God." Before they were his soldiers, they were his people. God prepares identity before activity.

What does "I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" mean?

Egypt represented slavery and oppression under Pharaoh. Israel had left Egypt long before, but still carried that identity. In Joshua 5:9, God gives the people a new identity in him. The preacher sees in this a call to leave behind the slave mentality, even once you have left your old life.

Why does the manna stop in Joshua 5?

For forty years, God fed Israel with manna without the people sowing or reaping. On entering the land, the manna stops and the people eat the produce of Canaan. God does not stop providing: he moves his people from dependence to participation, without them ceasing to depend on him.