Joshua 5:2-5

"At that time, Jehovah said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of flint, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him knives of flint, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came forth out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came forth out of Egypt. For all the people that came out were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not been circumcised."

"The reason why circumcision was omitted in the wilderness was that a sentence of death was upon that generation of murmurers (Numbers 14:28ff)."[7] The rebellion of Israel which led to God's rejection of that entire generation also resulted in a number of other conditions:

1. Very little is recorded in the Books of Moses concerning what that whole generation did. Critics have been very vocal about that, but the lesson is simple enough. What any generation does after they have rebelled against God is of little or no consequence in the eyes of the Lord. Even the things that are recorded, for example, in the Book of Numbers, are written, not for their intrinsic importance, but for the "learning" of subsequent generations (See 1 Corinthians 10:11).
2. They also omitted the observance of the Passover. Why? "During that time the Covenant was abrogated."[8] There is also the general impression throughout Numbers that the whole sacrificial system was largely ignored during that period. Indeed, some have supposed that the ceremony involving "the ashes of a red heifer" was a kind of "short form" utilized by Israel during the wanderings, instead of a strict observance of all the sacrifices laid out in the Book of Leviticus.
3. The verses before us indicate that not even the rite of circumcision was observed during this terrible 40-year period during which even those who were not condemned to die in the wilderness were nevertheless under the curse of God's displeasure. "Your children shall bear your whoredoms" (Numbers 14:33).

The one redeeming fact about the awful punishment that befell Israel in the wilderness was that God, from the very first, promised to renew the nation to its former favored position when the years of the sentence against them were ended. Here is the great importance of what happened in these verses. Israel, by renewal of their faithful observance of such things as circumcision and the Passover, after having been assured of God's favor by their miraculous passage of the Jordan River, were now once again possessors of the Covenant. The sentence of God against them was now fully executed by the passing of the 40 years, and their feet were firmly planted in Canaan!

These verses do not teach that any person was circumcised a second time. The mention of the whole nation as being circumcised "a second time" applies only to those for whom the rite had been omitted during the wanderings.[9] Keil pointed out that the punishment of the sons of the murmurers (those under twenty years of age) was very similar to that pronounced upon their fathers, except in this one thing, that, "The sons were not to die in the wilderness, but enter Canaan after their fathers were dead."[10] Keil also pointed out that the total number circumcised by Joshua still left a great many Israelites who did not need to be circumcised and that these were fully capable of protecting the nation in case of any heathen attack during their recovery period from the circumcision.[11] Besides, there was that panic which had immobilized all of Canaan. Jamieson estimated that at least 50,000 able-bodied soldiers remained who did not need to be circumcised on the occasion here.[12]

We have discovered no reasonable explanation of why "flint knives" were used for the circumcision reported here, other than the obvious fact that it seems to have been traditional. Although, we do not trust the Septuagint (LXX) with any great credibility here, it is written therein that, when Joshua was buried (Joshua 24:30), "They put with him into the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel at Gilgal."[13]

Pink observed here that good military strategy would have demanded that Joshua move quickly to take advantage of the panic that had spread with the news of their crossing Jordan, adding that, "God's people follow not the ways nor employ the devices of the world."[14] That truth surely appears here in the circumcision of the people, carrying with it the inevitable remembrance of how Simeon and Levi had taken advantage of the Shechemites in just such a situation (Genesis 34:18-30).