Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Joshua 5.1 through Joshua 6.5, Jeremiah 30 and 31, and 2 Corinthians 12. This devotional is about Joshua 5.1 through 6.5. Now, when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan, and all the Canaanite kings along the coast, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted, and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites. At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath Haraloth. This is why Joshua circumcised them. All those who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died on the journey in the wilderness after they had left Egypt. Though all who had come out were circumcised, none of those born in the wilderness on the journey from Egypt had been circumcised. For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation's men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land he had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. Until this time they were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way. And after all the nation had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you, so that place has been called Gilgal to this day. On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover. The day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land. And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites. So that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan. Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? Neither, he replied. I have now come as commander of the Lord's army. Then Joshua fell face down in reverence and asked him, What does my Lord have to say to his servant? The commander of the Lord's army replied, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Joshua 6 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out, and no one came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, Behold, I have delivered Jericho into your hand, along with its king and its mighty men of valor. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ramshorns in front of the ark. Then, on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. And when there is a long blast of the ram's horn, and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the wall of the city will collapse, and all your people will charge straight into the city. This is God's word. For decades, God had provided manna for his people to eat in the desert. For most of the people in that generation, God's provision was all they knew. Six days a week, manna was waiting for them in the morning. On the sixth day, they gathered enough to feed them for the Sabbath as well. I wonder if it ever occurred to the younger adults in Israel that the manna would stop someday. Or, if they did ever think about that, I wonder if they thought it would continue until they had conquered some territory and were settled. Regardless of what they expected and thought, the manna stopped when they entered the promised land. They ate a Passover meal and the manna was no more, according to verse 12. Yet God was not done caring for his people. The crazy instructions that the Lord gave to Joshua about how to conquer Jericho is proof of that. Instead of laying siege to this fortified city or doing a frontal assault, God just told them to march around it. Day after day, for one whole week, they played ring-around-the-rosies with Jericho. On day seven, they did that seven times, and boom, the walls of the city sang, we all fall down. This strategy was designed to show Israel that God was in control of their conquest, and that their victories were due to Him fighting on their behalf. There would be more traditional battles in the future, ones where God's people would use conventional weapons and warfare to take cities. But this conquest of Jericho was to show them that it was God's might, God's power, God's promises that would give them the land, not their military prowess. Isn't the Christian life just this way? We look for God to provide for us and make it easy. Sometimes He does that, and He does so to show us that He is with us. But more often, God calls us to trust his promises and cultivate the land ourselves. God commands us to claim his power, but then show that we've claimed his power by doing battle with our will, our sin nature. We get deeply disappointed with God for not causing holiness to descend into our lives like manna. Oh sure, we're thankful when he gives us victory on one certain day in our lives, But the next day he calls us to do battle with ourselves in faith, faith that he is fighting with us and fighting for us. Israel's failure to get everything God promised them was a failure of faith. Instead of learning the lessons of the manna and Jericho and boldly taking the rest of the land, God's people became too satisfied too soon. Don't allow a complacent attitude to keep you from striving, from growing strong in Christ. Although this passage has to do with miraculous food and miraculous military victory, God works in the same way in all domains of life. Trust that the God who provided for Israel miraculously until they could reap his provision providentially will provide providentially for you, too, if you work at your life in faith. Trust that God will be there to provide supernaturally when you need him to. but that he's already providing what you need through divine providence. Claim all of this by faith and do the hard work of daily Bible study, daily prayer, daily fighting the sinful impulses of the flesh, daily working hard at your profession and your relationships. Do these things in faith, believing that God will reward you for believing his word and acting on it. 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May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.