Joshua 5 has two major events that take place. The first is the circumcision of all the male Israelites who had not been circumcised in the wilderness. The generation that left Egypt had been circumcised, but the ones born in the wilderness had not, for some unstated reason. When one thinks of it from a human perspective, disabling all one’s fighting men immediately before a battle does not seem like a good way to win. However, God’s ways are not human ways, neither are his thoughts human thoughts. The whole point of this mass circumcision is that the Israelites will be consecrated before the Lord. It is the Lord who is calling the shots. God will lead his people into battle and he will give them the victory. All the people have to do is obey. The consecration of the people is deemed complete when the Lord says to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” (Joshua 5:9) The second major event of Joshua 5 is a meeting between Joshua and “the...