Joshua 5:10-12 – Cultivating a responsible lifestyle

Camping at Gilgal, resting and waiting for their wounds to heal after their circumcision, the people of Israel celebrated the Passover. This was a feast in remembrance of their deliverance from death. This feast would remind them of the night they were delivered from bondage. It commemorates the night the angel of death passed over their houses because of the sacrificial blood of an unblemished lamb smeared on the doorposts and lintel of their houses. They first celebrated this feast on the eve of their departure from Egypt. And the second time they celebrated it, recorded in Numbers 9:1-14, was at Mount Sinai before they left for Kadesh-Barnea. Apart from these two occasions, we see no evidence that they celebrated it again in their wilderness wandering. It was probably because many in this new generation were not circumcised, and circumcision was a requirement for all participant of the Passover. Now in Gilgal, they celebrated it again after a long time.

In verse 12 we are told that the day they partook of the produce of the land, the manna ceased to fall from heaven. What does the manna signify? The manna was God’s provision to sustain them in the journey. The manna reminded them that they had left Egypt. Now that the manna had ceased to fall, it meant that they had to do their part to feed and grow. It was one thing for God to get them out of Egypt, but quite another to get Egypt out of them. They had constantly craved for the meat they had at Egypt. Every time they experienced a little hardship in the journey, they would wish they were back in Egypt. The day manna ceased to fall from heaven, it meant that they had to take responsibility for their own sustenance in this new season of life.

Like them, God had delivered us from the world in Christ Jesus and our appetite for the things of the world must ceased. It is time for us to work in collaboration with God for our own spiritual sustenance. It meant that we have to be disciplined and act responsibly and do our own sowing and harvesting to live the new life.  We are now in a new season of life, we should no longer crave for the things of the world. We must rise up, take the challenge and collaborate with the Lord in our walk with Him. We must put in the effort to cultivate spirituality, walk connectedly with the Lord and grow with Him.