Concerning the mass circumcision of the 2nd generation of Israelites who crossed over the Jordan, I hope you’re catching the divine principle being established here in Joshua Chapter 5.
That divine principle is this:
The Lord only considers ethnic Hebrews as His Chosen People when they are members of His covenant community as evidenced by the sign of circumcision in their bodies.
It wasn’t until AFTER Israel was circumcised that God rescued them from Egypt.
And it wasn’t until AFTER Israel was circumcised that God referred to them as His chosen people or AM in Hebrew.
But here’s the thing.
Even after being circumcised and saved from Egypt, the Israelites fell into rebellion.
They began to bitch and moan and even began questioning if it was necessary to obey ALL the laws they had been given at Sinai.
Doesn’t all this sound familiar?
We can see echoes of the rebellion that happened in the Garden of Eden here.
And what happened as a result?
God reversed their salvation…literally.
That’s what happened and this is something clearly expressed in the original Hebrew especially right here in Joshua Chapter 5.
The Lord went from calling Israel AM (my special chosen people) to calling them GOY (gentiles).
And by the way, this isn’t the first time this happened in Israel’s history.
Ever heard of the Northern Kingdom of Israel…
…otherwise known as the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Take a look at the book of Hosea.
The same patterns and principles I’ve been discussing can be found there as well.
Hashem had been warning the Northern Kingdom (called Ephraim-Israel) who at the time were rebelling against Him, that if they didn’t get their act straightened up, He was going reverse their salvation status.
And again, pretty much the same language is used.
God told the 10 Northern tribes that they would go from being AMMI (plural for AM) to LO-AMMI if they kept up with their idolatrous shenanigans.
LO means “no” in Hebrew.
So literally, God was saying I will change your status from “My-People” to “NOT-My-People”.
LO-AMMI is basically just another word for GOY.
Unfortunately, as we know from history, the Northern Kingdom didn’t straighten up their act.
Thus the Lord judged Israel by sending the empire of Assyria to conquer them.
This resulted in literally millions of Israelites being scattered throughout the entire Asian continent.
And true to God’s prophecy, the vast majority of them (not all but most) lost their Hebrew identity and became LO-AMMI or gentiles.
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