Wilderness Parents Joshua 5
Written by Adam Neil (Excerpt from Divine Wilderness)
Message from the author:
Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter from my book, Divine Wilderness: Discovering God in Difficult Seasons. I hope you find it both encouraging and thought-provoking.
This chapter, "Wilderness Parents," was inspired by the striking contrast between the generation that faithfully circumcised their children while living as slaves in Egypt and the generation that neglected that same responsibility while wandering in the wilderness. It explores the reality that seasons of hardship can either deepen our faithfulness or tempt us to relax our spiritual priorities—and that our choices inevitably shape our children. My prayer is that this chapter encourages parents to remain faithful in teaching, training, and modeling a wholehearted walk with God, even in life's most difficult seasons.
*If you enjoy the chapter and would like to read more, Divine Wilderness: Discovering God in Difficult Seasons is available on Amazon.
“People love to quote J.R.R. Tolkien out of context, saying, ‘Not all who wander are lost,’ but I would add a warning: all who are lost have wandered too far.”
I read a story about a doctor who was called in the middle of the night and urged to come to the hospital to perform emergency surgery on a young boy. The doctor quickly got up and headed to the hospital. On the way, he stopped at a red light, and while his car was stopped, a man opened the driver's side door and pulled him out of the car. The stranger got in and stole the vehicle.
Now, the doctor was on foot and had to arrange transportation to the hospital. When he finally arrived, he found that he was too late; the boy had already passed away. The doctor was told that the boy’s father was in the chapel. The doctor went to meet with the father to express his condolences and explain why he was late. But when he approached the man, he realized that the boy’s father was the man who had stolen his car.1
What caught my attention about this story was that this father did something so blatantly illegal because he had already lost hope. He didn’t know he was delaying his son’s doctor, but he did know his crime would result in prison time, which would mean his absence from his son’s life. He knew his actions would hurt his son, but he didn’t understand how dire the consequences would be.
It seems to me that this father believed his son was going to die, so he thought his actions didn’t matter. He didn’t realize that his despair would snuff out his son’s only hope.
Yes, the crime could seem justifiable given the circumstances; maybe all he cared about was seeing his son one last time. But at the same time, it was still a crime and would bring heavy consequences, one way or another.
Consider the weight of this situation: Because a parent lost hope, he began to behave recklessly and, yes, sinfully. Consequently, the child was doomed to an early death, and even if he had lived, he would have struggled with an absent father.
Someone once said, “We can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without air, but only a few seconds without hope.”
Wandering people are often hopeless. Sometimes they wander into sin, even sin they never would have committed before. But they’ll do it in the wilderness because they feel their hopeless state justifies it.
People love to quote J.R.R. Tolkien out of context, saying, “Not all who wander are lost,” but I would add a warning: all who are lost have wandered too far.
The issue I’m presenting to you is that this “hopeless wandering” has dire consequences for the children. I’m calling these parents Wilderness Parents.
I’ve seen it countless times: parents drift away from the things of God, often because of conflict with the church. They may still attend church somewhere, but they’re no longer obeying God as they used to, and then their children backslide. Years later, some of the kids still haven’t recovered.
Is it possible for church kids with godly, obedient parents to backslide? Of course. But in that case, it would be because of the children's conscious decision to rebel. However, a Wilderness Parent actually puts their kids in a position to fail.
I want to consider the effect that wandering has on our children. Let’s study a passage from the book of Joshua:
Joshua 5:1-9 ESV
As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.
”2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.”
Notice verse five: “Though all the people who came out (of Egypt) had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness… had not been circumcised.”
This is a very revealing statement because it shows that the parents had strayed from the commands of God. The generation that stopped circumcising their sons was rejecting the covenant.
I need to briefly explain the significance of circumcision: God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him he would be the father of a holy nation—a people set apart for the Lord. No other nation has enjoyed that distinction. Only Israel is a covenant nation with God.
The Israelites had a responsibility to uphold their end of the covenant: every male child born of Abraham would be circumcised. God gave them circumcision as a sign of their entry into the covenant. It symbolized obedience and allegiance to God alone.
The people’s desire to uphold the covenant was expressed symbolically through circumcision. It was a declaration that they honored the covenant.
So here in the wilderness, God insisted that the men be circumcised before they inherited the Promised Land because circumcision restored the covenant relationship with God. It was a physical act that symbolized Israel's repentant condition.
Wilderness Parents
God had big plans and great blessings in store for the Israelites; they were about to enter the Promised Land, where they would flourish and thrive. But first, He had to correct a failure among the children for which the parents were responsible. It was something in the children that the parents had allowed and overlooked.
Wilderness Parents are people who have lost hope for the future, so they lower their standards of righteousness and don’t teach their children to live according to the word of God.
I believe the reason they raised their children without instilling the law of God in them was that it seemed unnecessary, since they were just wandering and would never enter the Promised Land themselves.
What’s the point of striving for obedience? We’re going nowhere. What’s the point of working so hard in the kingdom if we’ll never see the reward?
I love baseball, but sometimes an umpire makes a call I don’t like or agree with. But we can’t overrule the umpire and just do whatever we want, because the game wouldn’t work without the judgments the umpires make. In fact, without rules and someone to enforce them, no game can even be played.
What’s happened here is that the wilderness parents have given up on the game, so who cares about the rules? Aren’t rules for people with a purpose?
It’s as if the parents said: We’re miserable out here in the desert; surely we can't be expected to follow restrictive rules and practices. That would just add insult to injury. We’re already wandering in the wilderness; let’s not make it any more miserable than it needs to be.
They knew they wouldn’t fulfill God's promises or inherit the Promised Land, so they lost their sense of vision for their children.
People do this today as well. We justify our sin and neglect of God's word by the hard times we are facing. We begin to stray and return to the sins from which God freed us.
People return to alcohol because they’re depressed. They’re drawn into adultery because they’ve given up on their marriage. They stop seeking God and start pursuing careers. They stop investing in the church and ministry and slowly withdraw from the congregation.
The worst part of this is that our children will struggle because of it!
For centuries, immigrants have come to America and worked themselves to death so their children could succeed. Yes, they also secured a better life for themselves, but the real promise of America was for their children. They sacrificed and worked unbelievably hard because they believed in that promise for their children. Their children had the most to gain.
I’ve heard many stories of immigrants who came to America and worked long hours in laborious jobs: janitors, maids, etc., saving every penny they could so their kids could go to college. They went without the necessities of life so their children could have a better opportunity. They sacrificed so their kids could start ahead of where they started.
The parents knew it was nearly impossible for them to receive the full promise, but it was very possible that their kids could receive it.
Parents with vision understand that giving their kids opportunities is their opportunity. No, you won’t reap the rewards personally, but enabling your children to receive the promise IS THE REWARD.
But the wilderness parents of Israel gave up and allowed their children to grow up without obeying God’s law.
Faithfulness and obedience are tested most when things aren’t going as we hoped.
I’m sure the parents felt justified in their backslidden state because they were upset, discouraged, and frustrated. I’m sure they believed they had good reasons to stop following God’s law.
Because of all their problems, they stopped fighting for their walk with God, but the most damaging decision they made was deciding not to apply the law to their children either.
Wandering Assaults Discipline
One of the marks of the wanderer is a lack of discipline. Uncharacteristic carnality is among the first signs in a wanderer’s life. They will watch things they didn’t watch before and speak in ways they didn’t speak before (crude conversations, gossip, slander, hateful speech, etc.). They read their Bibles less, pray less, and church attendance is minimal at best.
This is because when they gave up on the vision they once had, they lost their reason to maintain the discipline that vision naturally requires.
A wanderer has neither vision nor discipline. The two go hand in hand.
When these Wilderness Parents chose to break covenant, they stopped fighting for their children’s destiny; their children were born into homes that did not value their future. The word of God gives us vision and hope, but destiny is disregarded when we stop applying and teaching the law of God to our children.
When you talk to wanderers, they lament the standards of their old church and its high regard for morality—as if those were bad things… Why is self-discipline so quickly labeled an enemy? The truth is, it’s one of the healthiest things a person can have! Why do wanderers begrudge spiritual disciplines so?
We can endure tremendous discipline if we have a vision for it. There are many stories about the excruciatingly demanding training for elite military forces like our Navy SEALs, yet people still submit to this discipline because they believe they can achieve something great through it. Self-discipline is one of the greatest things a person can have in life. But if you don’t have a vision for anything, you likely won’t submit to any discipline either.
The challenge with Wilderness Parenting is that the parents can recover if they decide to, but it’s much harder for their children. These parents chose to drift from God and loosen their standards, yet they can re-establish those disciplines if they wish. Having seen God's power firsthand, they know He is real. Additionally, they were personally invested in by others—such as their parents, who circumcised THEM—making their return to God a matter of repentance and a conscious realignment. For their children, however, the toll is much greater.
The issue is that we only have so much time to teach our children the right way before they’re gone. A five or ten-year backslidden state may not be the end of the world for the parents, but if those years fall during a formative period for their children, the kids may never come back. Most often, this is where the tragedy happens, and people lose their children to the world.
The parents backslide for a few years, and their teenagers run away, get pregnant, or start using drugs. Is it worth it to backslide if your teenagers die in sin? Again, for the parents, it’s just a few years away, but for the children, it could be the difference between living for God and losing their innocence, or even their lives, to the world.
I have seen this myself: people get frustrated and start to backslide. Their kids notice the change in their parents and are deeply affected. You could talk to the parents later and find they’re okay now. They made it through a grim time and are saved now. They may not be thriving, but they’re doing all right. But their kids are experimenting with drugs and sex. The kids are still pushing boundaries because they haven’t recovered.
I’m not saying it’s hopeless because it isn’t. I’m saying that deciding to stop serving God, even briefly, can harm our children's lives more than our own.
What’s striking to me about this is that these people lost hope in the wilderness, yet their own parents did not lose hope in Egypt! The Hebrew Slaves were Godly parents!
The slaves were in a far worse situation, yet they held the line! They continued to circumcise their boys and to teach them the traditions of their father Abraham.
These parents in the wilderness reaped the benefits of having parents who continued to serve God and to remain in covenant with Him, even though they were slaves in Egypt!
Now, this next generation of parents is in the wilderness, and they won’t do for their children what their parents did for them.
You may not have had Christian parents, but if God gave you Christian leaders who taught and helped you, you have received a spiritual inheritance and investment. Be careful to honor that inheritance by passing it on to your children.
The Hebrew slaves show us that trials don’t have to rob us of hope for our children. With each generation they circumcised, they were saying, “Surely, THIS generation will be free! And by this sign of the covenant, they’ll be ready to continue walking before God as Abraham did.”
And when Moses arrived to deliver them, their children were ready to be led out of Egypt!
Again, our text says, “All the people who came out (of Egypt) had been circumcised.” Remember, when Moses instituted the first Passover in Egypt, the people were ready to observe it.
God didn’t have to first tell that generation to be circumcised! They were made ready by their parents!
Seeking a better life for our children brings us hope and blesses our lives, too. Believing through dark times has a way of bracing and fortifying your spirit.
But in the wilderness, these people, who knew what they were supposed to do, began to lose hope. They became miserable wanderers and stopped teaching their children what was right. When we wander, we lose sight of what is truly important.
You know, when Moses was in the wilderness of Midian, he didn’t circumcise his boys either… what is it about the wilderness that tempts us to disregard our values?
Whatever state of life we are in, there are no exceptions to raising our children according to God’s word. We have been entrusted with a task by God; we must live by God’s word and teach our children to do the same.
As with the aircraft safety instructions, put on your breathing mask first, then help your child, because if you pass out while putting theirs on first, you both may die.
There is an order here. Your children need you to follow the instructions and then help them do the same.
Our Decisions Impact Our Peers
It’s odd to me that the entire generation stopped circumcising their sons…
It wasn’t just a family or two, or even a tribe or two; it was the entire generation across the nation. The entire group collectively decided to give up on discipline, vision, and passing their traditions down to their children.
I don’t think any meeting was held where they all voted to disregard their heritage: “Alright, guys, listen up: on Thursday, after bingo, we’re going to vote on circumcision.” Yet they all agreed to it.
I doubt this decision was ever spoken aloud very often. But it’s strange how these things can have such a powerful pull and affect so many people.
I remember watching a church struggle with holiness after a tragic accident involving some of its members. Several families within the church began drinking alcohol again. These were leadership families. Men and women who had been saved for years and set free from alcoholism. They knew the devastation of alcohol and the tendency to compromise because of it. They learned from godly pastoral examples and from their own experiences with addiction.
Yet, because of a tragedy they suffered together, they chose to wander. In choosing to wander, they lost their vision, and having lost vision, they lost the will to uphold self-discipline. With no reason for self-discipline, they disobeyed the Holy Spirit’s message through the Apostle Peter, “Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.” 1 Peter 1:14v NLT2
Even though it was largely unspoken and mostly done in secret, they did it together. It was a group decision to withdraw from holiness and return to the former sins of their old nature.
It’s bigger than just taking a drink. It’s a decision to pull away from God and return to the ways of the old man.
None of these families is doing well today. Most of them outright backslid; a few individuals may be saved, but they are not nearly the spiritual people they once were.
The saddest part of the story is the spiritual devastation of their children. All the children who were still living at home were severely affected. None of them is living for God.
None of them.
This chapter comes from a message I preached at my church; after the message, one of the ladies in my congregation sent me the following text message:
“Just checking in from this morning! It was a great sermon. I was a wilderness mom, and my sin has been impactful! I didn't feel condemnation (from the sermon) but great sorrow! Sorrow for what I lost for not staying close to the Lord... and for what my kids lost as well. I also felt the sorrow from the Father’s heart! I'm so glad He's a God of forgiveness and Grace! I'm more determined than ever to live wholly for Him!”
I’m grateful for her honest confession. It’s deeply sobering. I don’t want to be a Wilderness Parent because I don’t want my children to suffer.
Where are those who will stand up against compromise?
Where were the priests in all of this? The priests were the ones who circumcised the boys on the eighth day. They would have known this wasn’t happening anymore. Did they just turn a blind eye and pretend the families were handling it on their own?
I think they were silent because when so many people fall into sin, it’s heavy and wearing to be the lone voice upholding the standards and traditions of God’s word. But the truth is, a generation of priests stopped obeying, too. The priests stopped circumcising their own sons.
Wandering has an allure: be free of discipline, be free of the rigors of maintaining vision… But it can be fatal.
Consequences of Wilderness Parenting
The obvious consequence is that these men had to willingly submit to circumcision as adults! This was how God wanted them to show their humility, allegiance, and commitment to obedience to God.
At no fault of their own, these grown men were now in a situation that required them to make a major sacrifice. Circumcision as an adult is excruciating and involves a difficult recovery period.
Because of their parents’ mistakes, they had to agree to endure a period of suffering so THEY could inherit the promise. Admirably, they chose to comply. They weighed the options and decided it was worth it to receive the promise.
Someone else’s mistakes may have hindered your ability to walk in the promise, but you can reclaim control of your destiny and stride in the promises of God.
Although it will likely come at a high price.
Many people are unwilling to do what they need to do to take their future back from the enemy because they are so consumed with charging those who have hurt them. They are so focused on assigning blame for their trial that they are unwilling to take responsibility for their future.
Although others may hurt and hinder you, you are responsible for regaining your own dominion. They may never apologize or admit their mistakes, but you can’t live disconnected from God and your destiny because of their faults.
The question is, can we willingly submit ourselves to God’s word and His ways, even when we must overcome problems other people have created for us? Can we do that even when it requires sacrifice and is harder than it should have been? This is a heart issue. Bitter people struggle with this. Hateful people struggle with this. Hence, the quality of their spiritual life is reduced in direct proportion to their ability or inability to forgive.
Unfortunately, some people refuse to accept that they may be called upon to make a personal sacrifice because of someone else’s mistakes. They can’t accept that their path forward may involve more pain before it starts to improve.
When we teach child training, we teach that there are phases of learning obedience. At first, we want our kids to be able to obey us without an explanation. It’s obedience without a high degree of knowledge. There are spiritual reasons for this that I’ll get to shortly, but it’s also practical. We want them to learn to obey without an explanation because if there is some sort of danger they are unaware of, we want to be able to save them even when we don’t have time to explain. If they’re chasing a ball headed for a busy street, we want to shout, “STOP!” and know they will stop immediately without questioning the instruction.
But there is another phase: obedience with knowledge. As the child grows, we teach them to be obedient and offer explanations along with the commands (e.g., why we work hard, why we go to church, why we live for Jesus). As the relationship is built and the child shows they can be obedient, they are invited into a more mature understanding of obedience.
This also increases their responsibility because understanding the reason behind a command gives them the knowledge they need to make wise decisions in the future, including in situations we can’t supervise. When it’s their conscience leading them, that knowledge will apply.
I believe it’s very similar to our relationship with God; we first learn to obey Him without explanation so we can learn to trust Him. There will always be things on this side of Heaven we don’t understand. We must learn to trust God, or we’ll constantly be fighting Him.
But then we find that God begins to reveal things to us. He brings understanding and opens our eyes to new insights. We start learning more about Him and His word, and things start to make more sense as we gain revelation.
There will always be an element of mystery, but our revelation increases as we accept the mystery and go deeper into our relationship with God.
If you are an adult whose parents explained every minutia of their rules and ways from day one, you may struggle to obey God when you don’t understand what He’s doing.
And it may be your sacrifice to God to learn to obey Him in a way your parents should have prepared you for.
There are countless other real-life examples of this. You may have to make the painful sacrifice of forgiveness to have peace with people and with God. That’s not necessarily “fair,” but it’s reality.
Circumcision was also a test. Their ability to take the Promised Land was tied to their willingness to rise to the challenge and do whatever God commanded them in battle. God would have them fight in very creative ways. The men who said “yes” to painful circumcision were also the men who said “yes” to taking a city by walking around it and shouting. That’s a highly unconventional way to go into battle, but they accepted it without understanding it and trusted God for victory.
These men came to a place where they believed God’s way would be best, no matter how painful or unexpected it might be.
The consequence of the parents’ disobedience became an opportunity for sacrifice and reward for the children who chose to obey. Circumcision would qualify them for the Passover celebration.
Passover was established when they were spared the tenth plague in Egypt. God intended it to be an annual festival celebrating God’s mercy toward Israel. However, no male could participate in the annual Passover feast unless he had been circumcised.
In this case, submission to circumcision represented humble, obedient hearts before God and a willingness to undergo the necessary preparation for what God wanted to do in their lives.
God’s goal in all of this was to give Israel victory over her enemies and to bless them, and to grant them His presence, so they had to renew their covenant.
Behaviors of Wilderness People
Wilderness Parents threw off restraint for themselves and lost vision for themselves and their children. Consider some of their characteristics; maybe you know some modern Wilderness Parents:
These were people who were too fearful to possess the Promised Land at first. They displayed an unwillingness to attempt things that required great faith and high spiritual discipline.
They were a people who wandered aimlessly, and instead of crying out to God for forgiveness, weeping and begging for another chance, they just complained about Moses…
Consider that God even relented from giving King Ahab the full punishment he deserved.3 If God showed mercy to Ahab, one of the most wicked, if not the most wicked, kings in Israel’s history,4 perhaps he would have done the same for this generation. But they would not cry out for mercy or repent.5 They would not take responsibility.
They were a people unwilling and unable to maintain healthy relationships with authority. They constantly rebelled against Moses and fought him. They were consumed by a victim mentality. Nothing was their fault:
MOSES brought them out of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness. MOSES brought them out to starve. MOSES brought them out to die of thirst.
You never hear them lamenting their own disobedience, which caused their wandering in the first place. Nor do you ever hear of them organizing hunting expeditions for meat or digging wells for water. In their minds, everything was Moses’ fault, so he should fix it.
To these wilderness people, all of Moses’ rules seemed overbearing and harsh. Discipline seemed barbaric. I’ve seen this, you have, too: you can’t correct them, and you can’t correct their kids.
They had rejected discipline, including what their parents taught them, so they no longer had any healthy point of reference. Nothing to look to and say, yes, I know what discipline looks like and what it accomplishes. I can recognize healthy discipline, and I know it brings positive results. I know that it brings the promise.
Many times, Wilderness Parents lose their children to the wild. But in this case, God intervenes and shows mercy to the children. The parents die in the wilderness, and the children survive and thrive because of a man of God who led them when their parents didn’t.
Thank God for that. But parents, we are the primary leaders in our children’s lives. We can’t expect a Joshua to come and bail us out of our disobedience.
These wild children needed a strong pastor, a wilderness pastor.
The Wilderness Pastor
If you’re going through the wilderness, it helps to have a wilderness guide.
That’s how it worked on the American frontier. When settlers pushed west, they didn’t just wander into the unknown—they followed frontiersmen. Men like Kit Carson and Jim Bridger 6 had already lived in the wilderness. They knew the terrain, the dangers, the rhythms of the land. And people needed them. Without guides, many wouldn’t have made it.
But these men weren’t polished or predictable. They were known for being a little wild themselves—hardened by the very wilderness they were leading others through. That was the point. You didn’t want a soft guide in a brutal land. You needed someone who had survived it.
In the same way, Joshua wasn’t just a leader—he was a wilderness guide. He had walked through the desert, endured it, and now he was calling others to a hard obedience and leading them into battle.
Like Elijah and John the Baptist, a wilderness pastor isn’t always gentle. He’s shaped by the wilderness and strong enough to lead people through it—because the people need him to be.
Verse four of our text tells us that “all the men of war died in the wilderness.” They died because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.
But Joshua was one man of war who DID survive… and he obeyed God.
Wilderness pastors must enforce discipline because the parents won’t. They’re a tougher breed of people, not out of desire but of necessity.
Could you imagine being Joshua and hearing God’s command to circumcise this generation of adult men?
“Really, God? You want me to do what? And I just took over for Moses... I don’t want them to hate me right away...”
But God gave the command to a man who could bear the burden, and he did bear it. He gave the command and enforced it.
Nobody really likes having to enforce discipline, but a wise leader understands it’s necessary so that God can bless His children. So, Joshua obeyed; he had to circumcise all the young men. Joshua had to do what the parents wouldn’t do.
Now, he has a new problem: Joshua appears legalistic to these undisciplined young people. He’s enforcing a rule their parents never enforced. He looks like “the bad guy.” Surely, some of the young men understand the importance of obeying God's command, but undoubtedly, many question it.
This was an excruciating procedure; whether they saw the wisdom in it or not, nobody liked Joshua for a while… nobody was inviting Joshua over for dinner.
And yet, all he is doing is obeying God’s word, but he looks like he is uncaring. He seems unsympathetic to the pain the young men would now have to endure. Even though that’s not the case, and this wasn’t his fault or his idea.
Some people probably whispered, “Moses didn’t make us do this...”
But Joshua took the heat and did what God told him to do. And the bottom line is that it wouldn't have had to happen if their parents had obeyed God's word.
Our failure to discipline our children sets them up for conflict with their leadership.
These men had to keep their hearts right with Joshua. To them, he represents their pain, but their parents caused it. This is a battle they shouldn’t have had to face as grown men. They had to forgive their parents and they had to forgive Joshua!
Over the years, I’ve met and worked with several Wilderness Kids who simply didn’t understand discipline. They believed that if you disciplined them, it was because you didn’t like them. They held this belief because they’d been raised by Wilderness Parents, who taught them that loving parents don’t discipline.
The parents say things like, “I don’t want them to be mad at me.” Exactly. You’re disobeying God and withholding discipline because you care more about your feelings than about teaching your children discipline.
Or I’ve heard, “I can’t spank them because I love them.” No, the Bible says the opposite: if you LOVE your children, you WILL discipline them. This is godly: “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” Hebrews 12:6 NLT
Our responsibility is to biblically discipline them and to teach them how to receive discipline. If we don’t discipline our children, they may struggle to be humble before leadership that seems oppressive to them, because they don’t know what strong leadership looks like.
In their minds, leadership should always back down if you complain enough. Leadership should always cater to your desires if you make a pouty face. Strong leadership looks overbearing, cruel, and oppressive only because the kids have no idea what proper discipline looks like.
Again, loving parents discipline their children so that their children can have good relationships with bosses, teachers, policemen, and be ready for life! “Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise, you will ruin their lives.” Proverbs 19:18 NLT
Rewards for Obedience
Wilderness Pastors can’t stay in the wilderness: after the time of discipline, Joshua had to lead them out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
The period of discipline in our wilderness must be moving towards something greater, too. We must be able to see the reward beyond the difficulty we bear. The promise represents many wonderful blessings: a greater dimension of intimacy with God and greater authority from God, as well as increase and advancement, all of which are worth fighting for and enduring discipline for. The people needed a vision for that and to trust Joshua to get them there. Over-emphasis on the discipline will detract from the POINT of the discipline: to bring them into a greater spiritual dimension!
The children were brought into line with God’s word, and then they were able to reap the benefits of the promises of God. The reward goes to those who obey!
Joshua went from being the wilderness pastor to being the giver of God’s promise. We all should strive to achieve that. Yes, we must bring discipline, but it’s only because we seek to lead people to the promise.
Taking Away Shame
After the circumcision of the men was complete, God gave Joshua insight into a deeper purpose for the people: “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.’ So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.” Joshua 5:9 NLT
God dealt with their shame. When it comes to God’s discipline, there’s always a reason for our benefit. When the men of Israel submitted to God's word and law, God addressed a deep need in them—something they may not have realized they were still dealing with: a lingering sense of shame, and God wanted to heal them of it.
With the renewal of the covenant came a renewal of the covering.
And a name: They were no longer the Israelites, slaves of Egypt; now they were the Israelites, the people of God.
Egypt had left its mark on them. The name “slave” carries a lot of baggage… it can be a mark on every generation that follows. God wanted to cut that off. He “rolled away their shame” by renewing their covenant and giving them a new identity.
In Leviticus 26:13, we see a powerful summary of God's work for Israel here in the wilderness: “I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you could walk with your heads held high.” 7
God wants His children to have this kind of confidence: Hold your head up high; you’re a child of the King. Shame has no hold over you.
Passover and Companionship
Another immediate benefit of their obedience was that God reinstituted Passover in Joshua 5:10.
Passover was established while the Israelites were still in Egypt. The tenth plague God sent would kill the firstborn in every household in Egypt unless the door of the house was marked with the blood of the lamb. This final plague led Pharaoh to finally let the Israelites go. The symbolism is important; it’s a prime example of a substitutionary sacrifice accepted on our behalf, pointing to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We all sin, and sin must be judged, but God will accept the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.
The people of Israel observed one Passover meal in Egypt and then abandoned it during years of wandering in the wilderness. Here, God gives it to them again—and Passover is a gift! It is a tremendous gift that you and I would not be obligated to pay for our own sins against God, but instead be shown mercy because of Jesus.
But since Israel had abandoned circumcision in the wilderness, they broke the covenant Abraham had made with God and surrendered its benefits, including Passover. Now they were eligible again! I don’t think anyone expected that; God always has more in store for us than we initially understand.
Passover represents God’s covering over His children, paving the way for intimacy with God. The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God, but the blood of Jesus cleanses us, enabling “closeness” or companionship with God. Because of Jesus’ forgiveness, we are invited to be friends with God and even heirs according to the promise.8
The Voice of God
Then Joshua has a powerful encounter with Jesus in verse thirteen of this chapter.
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 9
It is true that God had spoken to Joshua before this, but it isn’t until after Joshua obeys regarding circumcision that he experiences his own personal theophany, or a visible manifestation of God. This is where the new leader of Israel, Joshua, sees and hears God “face to face,” as Moses did.
In verse 15, the Angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Jesus, tells Joshua to remove his sandals, as He had told Moses years earlier. This feels very much like an ordination to me. The Lord Himself personally visited Joshua, imparting a new dimension of authority and an anointing for leadership.
But only AFTER he obeyed in the wilderness… The wilderness pastor was ORDAINED!
Supernatural Provision
This story's final blessing for obedience was a victory over an enemy city, the first of many. But this first victory was special because it was accomplished purely by miraculous means. By no military action of their own, God gave Israel the city of Jericho.
God even says as much, “And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.’” 10
The people of Israel were instructed to walk around Jericho once a day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. Then the priests were to blow the ram's horn, and the people were to shout. When they did, the walls of Jericho fell flat, just as God had promised.
Supernatural victory, supernatural provision.
When Joshua led the people in returning to the covenant, it was about so much more than a mere religious removal of skin. We must recognize the value of living and teaching God’s word to our children. It’s not just about rules; it’s about removing shame and re-entering the covenant. It’s about companionship, hearing God’s voice, and receiving God's supernatural gifts and provision.
Let’s remember the promise: we are preparing our children so they can receive God’s best. We want them to be ready when God offers it.