So Joshua and his
whole army, including the bravest warriors, marched up from Gilgal. – Joshua
10:7 (NET)
Gilgal was the place
to which the Israelite nation first came after crossing the Jordan River and
entering into their land of promise, doing so under the leadership of
Joshua. According to the Scriptural narrative as reported in the book of
Joshua, it was at Gilgal that the men of Israel were circumcised, with this
done in accordance with the terms of the Abrahamic covenant that has been
effectively
re-confirmed and
substantially expanded upon, through Moses at Mount Sinai. With the
circumcisions having been undertaken, “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have
taken away the disgrace of Egypt from you’.” (5:9a) The follow-up to that
statement is that “the place is called Gilgal even to this day” (5:9b).
The root of the word
“Gilgal” is “galal,” which expresses the idea of something round, or circular,
or rolling. Because of this, the phrase “taken away” is sometimes
translated or considered as “rolled away.” The same root is to be found
in the word “Galilee,” with this said to be related to the fact that the cities
of the Galilee were set around the lake, in something of a circuit.
Another word that is
closely related to Gilgal is “Golgotha.” The close relations occurs
because of a shared root word. Golgotha, of course, was the place where
Jesus was crucified. In Aramaic, the word is “Gulgoltha,” which becomes
“Golgotha” in Greek. The sharing of the root word “galal” occurs because
of the occurrence of galal in the Hebrew word for “skull,” which is
“gulgoluth.” The “galal” in “gulgoluth,” presumably, is connected to the
roundness of the human skull.
Because of the close
connection between Gilgal and Golgotha, together with the fact that “Joshua” or
“Yeshua” is the Hebrew form of the name “Jesus,” close parallels are able to be
drawn between the events that occur in connection with the place called Gilgal,
and the events that occurred in connection with the place that is called
Golgotha. The natural and immediate connection to make is that just as
the Creator God is said to have rolled away or taken away the disgrace of Egypt
from off of His covenant people at that place, so too, within the single
continuous narrative that is communicated via the Scriptures in which the
ministry of Jesus and the reflections upon His ministry make sense, did He
remove (roll away, take away) the disgrace of sin (failure to bear the divine
image---exile from His purposes for them) from off of the new covenant people
by means of the cross.
While this should
certainly be a cause for rejoicing amongst those that find themselves joining
the people of the covenant through belief in Jesus as Messiah, that is not the
focus of this study. Rather, this study looks to the tenth chapter of
Joshua, where “Joshua and his whole army, including the bravest warriors”
(10:7a), can be found marching up from Gilgal to do battle with the five
Amorite kings.
There, it is said
that “The Lord told Joshua, ‘Don’t be afraid of them, for I am handing them
over to you. Not one of them can resist you’.” (10:8) So just as
Joshua marched up from Gilgal, with brave warriors in tow, so too does Jesus
march up from Golgotha, with His saints, to do battle with the forces of
evil. Yes, those that have cast their allegiance with Him as King and
Lord of all, go forth in the power of the Resurrection, but do so on the basis
of what took place at the cross.
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