Joshua 5:6; Deuteronomy 6:10-12; Joshua 5:2,8-12
The LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time…And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Gilgal was the place where the Israelite camp rested the first night of their entering into that land which had been promised to their fathers from the days of Abraham.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Now circumcision was enjoined, partly because they were about to celebrate the Passover, which required circumcision in all that partook of it, Exodus 12:43; and partly because they had now entered into the land of Canaan, which was given them in the covenant of circumcision, Genesis 17:8, wherefore it became them to now observe it, and as typical of spiritual circumcision.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God would hereby teach them, and us with them, in all great undertakings to begin with God, to make sure of His favour, by offering ourselves to Him a living sacrifice—for that was signified by the blood of circumcision.
THE EDITOR: Circumcision requires the blood of sacrifice. Moses was a type of Christ, whom Zipporah called a “bloody husband, because of the circumcision,” Exodus 4:25,26; Acts 3:22. And the Apostle John connects blood flowing from Christ’s pierced side in His sacrificial death with “water—“and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe,” John 19:34,35. Christ “has washed from our sins in His own blood, cleansing us from all sin,” Revelation 1:5; 1 John 1:7. Remember Jesus promised “living water,” John 4:10, 13,14; John 7:37,38. As Christ’s blood spiritually cleanses us for justification, the baptism with “living water” by His Spirit causes us to believe, regenerating us as new creatures in Him, and begins our cleansing in sanctification. John connects the Spirit, the water, and the blood together here again: Compare 1 John 5:6-8 and Revelation 5:6 with the “water of life” flowing “from the throne of God and the Lamb,” Revelation 22:1.
MATTHEW HENRY: This second circumcision—as it is here called in Joshua 5:2, was typical of the spiritual circumcision with which the Israel of God, when they enter into the gospel rest, are circumcised. It is the learned Bishop John Pearson’s observation that it points to Jesus.
JOHN PEARSON (1613-1686): This circumcision, being performed under the direction of Joshua, Moses’ successor, points to Jesus as the true circumciser, the Author of another circumcision than that of the flesh, commanded by the law, even the circumcision of the heart, Romans 2:29, called the circumcision of Christ, Colossians 2:11.
THE EDITOR: After the Israelites had been circumcised, the Lord said, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.” It clearly demonstrates that the anti-type of Old Testament circumcision in the flesh is the spiritual circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit’s regenerative power. It was a shadowy typical fulfilment of Deuteronomy 30:5,6, that God would bring them into the land, where He would also circumcise their hearts.
ADAM CLARKE: In Hebrew, גל gal signifies to roll; and the doubling of the root, or Gilgal, signifies rolling round and round, or rolling off or away, because, in circumcising the children that had been born in the wilderness, Joshua rolled away, or rolled off completely, the reproach of the people.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is perfectly obvious the place was called “rolling off,” because God there rolled off from His people the disgrace which unjustly attached to them.
THE EDITOR: But why does the Lord particularly perpetuate Gilgal’s meaning—“rolled away?”
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is the reproach of man that ever he was the servant of sin in any degree: and this reproach we are to be rolling away; and, as the redeemed of the Lord, we are to be “glorifying God with our body and our spirit, which are His.”
THE EDITOR: But this circumcision at Gilgal wasn’t about what we do—it’s about what the Lord has done. The Hebrew root of Gilgal is doubled, because there is a double fulfilment of the type—the true spiritual “circumcision made without hands,” of Colossians 2:11, was still to come, as Christ said, “Wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence,’ Acts 1:4,5. The phrasing of “rolled away” connects to Christ’s resurrection. Notice this detail, found only in Matthew’s Gospel: “Behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it,” Matthew 28:2. It was the aftershock of that earthquake which had opened the graves of “them that slept.” But those saints didn’t actually come out of those graves until after Christ’s resurrection, Matthew 27:53. Remember the concern of the women coming to Christ’s sepulcre? “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” Mark 16:3. Well, that angel did it for them. Then he “sat upon it.”
JOHN GILL: Thereby showing who it was that rolled it away; that it was done by him, not by the earthquake, nor by any human power.
THE EDITOR: Yes. And it also demonstrated Christ’s complete victory over sin and death. Next, the angel told the women, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” Matthew 28:2-5. The stone was rolled away to let Christ’s disciples view the proof of Christ’s resurrection—His grave-clothes lying there, Mark 16:1-6. When John saw them, he believed, John 20:3-8. According to Paul, believing this truth of Christ’s resurrection is absolutely necessary to completely roll away our reproach, Romans 10:9—as Paul later wrote: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished…But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept…afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming,” 1 Corinthians 15:17,18,20,23.
ADAM CLARKE: Gilgal was the place where the manna ceased.
THE EDITOR: Manna was for the wilderness, in their uncircumcision. But now God had brought them into the land as He had promised. They were circumcised, they had observed the Passover, and the day following, “they ate of the fruit of the land.”
JOHN GILL: The increase of the land—“which they had neither sown nor planted.”
THE EDITOR: Yes, because it was all of grace; so in our spiritual life—when the Spirit regenerates us, we enter into that spiritual land flowing with milk and honey—the sincere milk of God’s Word, and the sweet honey of His grace, the spiritual food of the “land of promise.” And the day after they ate the “old corn” of the land, the manna ceased. But the previous day, before they could eat any “parched corn,” what must happen first?”
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The feast of Firstfruits was to be observed in the land.
THE EDITOR: Exactly. With that “handful” of “parched corn” from the barley harvest, it clearly signified that Old Testament saints have their portion in Christ’s resurrection, Psalm 73:26; Lamentations 3:24; Job 19:25,26.
