Daily Bible Reading
Day 68
Today's reading: Joshua 4-5
Look for the promises in God’s word. As you read and find them, write them in your journal along with the scripture reference.
Joshua 4
Israel Commemorates the Crossing
1. When the entire nation was on the other side, the Lord told Joshua,
2. “Select for yourselves twelve men from the people, one per tribe.
3. Instruct them, ‘Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests stand firmly, and carry them over with you and put them in the place where you camp tonight.’”
4. Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one per tribe.
5. Joshua told them, “Go in front of the ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to put a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the Israelite tribes.
6. The stones will be a reminder to you. When your children ask someday, ‘Why are these stones important to you?’
7. tell them how the water of the Jordan stopped flowing before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan stopped flowing. These stones will be a lasting memorial for the Israelites.”
8. The Israelites did just as Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones, according to the number of the Israelite tribes, from the middle of the Jordan as the Lord had instructed Joshua. They carried them over with them to the camp and put them there.
9. Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan in the very place where the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood. They remain there to this very day.
10. Now the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people was accomplished, in accordance with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people went across quickly,
11. and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed as the people looked on.
12. The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed for battle ahead of the Israelites, just as Moses had instructed them.
13. About forty thousand battle-ready troops marched past the Lord to fight on the plains of Jericho.
14. That day the Lord brought honor to Joshua before all Israel. They respected him all his life, just as they had respected Moses.
15. The Lord told Joshua,
16. “Instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenantal laws to come up from the Jordan.”
17. So Joshua instructed the priests, “Come up from the Jordan!”
18. The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and as soon as they set foot on dry land, the water of the Jordan flowed again and returned to flood stage.
19. The people went up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
20. Now Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.
21. He told the Israelites, “When your children someday ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones represent?’
22. explain to your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground.’
23. For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you while you crossed over. It was just like when the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea before us while we crossed it.
24. He has done this so all the nations of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power and so you might always obey the Lord your God.”
Joshua 5
1. When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites.
A New Generation is Circumcised
2. At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.”
3. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of the Foreskins.
4. This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt.
5. Now all the men who left were circumcised, but all the sons born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.
6. Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, a land rich in milk and honey.
7. He replaced them with their sons, whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way.
8. When all the men had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they had healed.
9. The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal even to this day.
10. So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.
11. They ate some of the produce of the land the day after the Passover, including unleavened bread and roasted grain.
12. The manna stopped appearing the day they ate some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again.
Israel Conquers Jericho
13. When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?”
14. He answered, “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. Now I have arrived!” Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?”
15. The commander of the Lord’s army answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.