New Year: Josh 3-5 for Mar 4

The three chapters for today culminate in Joshua 5:15. It is not a "literary surprise," but a God surprise. You might say the narrative at Exodus 3:5 until Joshua 5:15 culminates in Joshua 5:15.

Joshua 5:9 is also indicative of the conclusive significance of this time in Israel's history since even Exodus 1:8. What was the "reproach of Egypt?" The slavery, the suffering, yes, but also the possibilities Moses had mentioned in Ex 32:12. Now removed.

There is another piece of the reproach of Egypt that is also now removed, the one described in Numbers 14:4. Three reproaches are now removed: what the Egyptians had done, what the Egyptians might have said about God had the Israelites not crossed into the land, and what the Israelites had said about going back to Egypt along the way. All removed.