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Joshua 5

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1 Now when the news came to all the kings of the Amorites on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites living by the sea, how the Lord had made the waters of Jordan dry before the children of Israel, till they had gone across, their hearts became like water, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make yourself stone knives and give the children of Israel circumcision a second time.

3 So Joshua made stone knives and gave the children of Israel circumcision at Gibeath-ha-araloth.

4 And this is the reason why Joshua did so: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the fighting-men, had been overtaken by death in the waste land on the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5 All the people who came out had undergone circumcision; but all the people whose birth had taken place in the waste land on their journey from Egypt had not.

6 For the children of Israel were wandering in the waste land for forty years, till all the nation, that is, all the fighting-men, who had come out of Egypt, were dead, because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord: to whom the Lord said, with an oath, that he would not let them see the land which the Lord had given his word to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 And their children, who came up in their place, now underwent circumcision by the hands of Joshua, not having had it before: for there had been no circumcision on the journey.

8 So when all the nation had undergone circumcision, they kept in their tents till they were well again.

9 And the Lord said to Joshua, Today the shame of Egypt has been rolled away from you. So that place was named Gilgal, to this day.

10 So the children of Israel put up their tents in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the lowlands of Jericho.

11 And on the day after the Passover, they had for their food the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and dry grain on the same day.

12 And there was no more manna from the day after they had for their food the produce of the land; the children of Israel had manna no longer, but that year the produce of the land of Canaan was their food.

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, lifting up his eyes he saw a man in front of him, with his sword uncovered in his hand: and Joshua went up to him and said, Are you for us or against us?

14 And he said, No; but I have come as captain of the armies of the Lord. Then Joshua, falling down with his face to the earth in worship, said, What has my lord to say to his servant?

15 And the captain of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. And Joshua did so.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6846

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6846. 'And He said, I am the God of your father' means Him who was the God of the Ancient Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'father' as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 6075. The reason why the Ancient Church is called 'father' is that from it the Churches that came after it were born - the Hebrew Church, and later on the Church among the descendants of Jacob. For the religious practices and the statutes decreed through Moses for Jacob's descendants were not new but had existed previously in the ancient Churches and were merely re-established among the children of Jacob. They were re-established because among other nations they had become idolatrous practices, and in Egypt and Babel they had been converted into magical ones. The fact that the same things had existed in ancient Churches becomes clear from a large number of places in the Word. So it is then that the Ancient Church is meant by 'father', and also that it is called 'father' in the Word where the subject is the Church. The God whom people worshipped in the Ancient Church was the Lord in respect of His Divine Human; and it was well known to those people that the Lord was the One who was represented in each particular religious observance of their Church. A large number of them also knew that the Lord was going to come into the world, when He would make the Human within Himself Divine. Nor did the people of that Church take Jehovah to mean anyone else, for whenever He appeared to them He did so as a Divine Man, and was called Jehovah, 1343, 5663, as He also appeared at a later time to Abraham, Genesis 18:2 and following verses; to Joshua, Joshua 5:13-15; to Gideon, Judges 6:11 and following verses; and to Manoah and his wife, Judges 13:3 and following verses. He was acknowledged as God overall, and as the one and only God whom they were to adore. From all this one may now see that 'the God of your father' is used to mean in the internal sense Him who was the God of the Ancient Church, namely the Lord. But in the external sense written as history 'father' is used to mean Abraham, also Isaac, and Jacob too.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.