[A Meditation on One Verse]

(Joshua 5:3) “So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth.”

Reading Joshua chapter 5 raises a question: “Why, of all times and places, did God have the Israelites circumcised right then and there?” Because to be circumcised at such a crucial time and place for the conquest of Canaan meant becoming strategically defenseless.

This is the identity of Israel. A community where God’s strength is proclaimed through my weakness, a community that experiences the fulfillment of His promise with their whole being, and therefore, a community that now walks relying on the one God alone. This is who Israel is.

Today as well, the Lord takes up a flint knife and performs a circumcision on our hearts. Through that circumcision, He engraves Himself upon our hearts. In doing so, He says, “You are mine.”

Let us be those who open a new day with this grace.

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(Daily Reading)

– Joshua 4:10-5:6