Joshua 5:10
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
The children of Israel made their first encampment in Canaan at Gilgal, a short distance from the Jordan, in the plains of Jericho, where they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening. The name Gilgal means a rolling away, pointing to the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt from Israel at that place. The keeping of the Passover came after the miraculous crossing of the swollen Jordan on dry land and after Joshua circumcised those born in the wilderness in renewal of the covenant, and it came as Israel prepared to possess Canaan on the eve of battle, before the appearance of the Captain of the Lord's host and the overthrow of Jericho.
The Passover is the memorial of deliverance from Egypt, but it had been discontinued in the wilderness since the rebellion at Kadesh as evidence of the Lord's displeasure at Israel's desire to return to bondage, just as circumcision, the appointed symbol of the covenant, had been suspended as a constant witness that the covenant was broken. Keeping the Passover at Gilgal together with restoring circumcision showed the covenant renewed, the years of rejection ended, and God again acknowledging Israel as His people in renewed favor and recognition of His covenant. The rolling away of the reproach of Egypt means the heathen reproach against the Lord and His people was silenced, for the nations had mocked that the God of the Hebrews could not bring them into the promised land as expected after leaving Egypt, had triumphed over their long wandering and lifted themselves against God, but after God signally manifested His power and favor in opening the Jordan they could no longer reproach them for failing to enter the land.
At that time the kings of the Amorites and Canaanites were melted with fear because the Lord had stopped the Jordan and because Israel had slain two kings. On the morrow after the Passover they ate unleavened cakes and parched corn of the old corn of the land, and the manna ceased on the morrow after they ate of the old corn, so Israel had manna no more but ate of the fruit of Canaan, marking the end of the long years of desert wandering with their feet at last treading the promised land. The observance belongs to Israel's history just before taking possession of Jericho, following the sin at Kadesh and the forty years of wandering, and that history of failures and victories in carrying out the principles God had given was to be reviewed.
The observance was one of the mighty manifestations of God's power and solemn warnings that gave weight to the command to keep from the accursed thing, so that transgression afterward was defiance in the solemn hour of triumph and judgment. Encamped in the plains of Jericho keeping the Passover on the eve of battle, Israel's experience shows that God Himself works for His commandment-keeping people and gives certain triumph through the Captain of the Lord's host tearing down the walls of Jericho, so every opposing element will be defeated, every lying tongue silenced, every deceptive scheme overthrown by angels' hands, the bulwarks of Satan will never triumph, and victory will attend the third angel's message.