OUR LORD WHO ROLLS AWAY OUR REPROACH

In the book of Joshua chapter 5 verse 3 - 9, the passage below describes when the descendants of Israel had wandered the wilderness for 40 years and now were being prepared to go into the promised land. It reads like this;

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.

Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. 

The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

The act of circumcision was a sign of being separated from Egypt, from slavery, from idolatry and from all the vestiges of Egyptian culture. 

Let us give thanks to the Lord for leading us through our own wildernesses so that we can shed the vestiges of this world and separate from the things of the flesh and transition into the promised land of living in the spirit and by the Spirit of God.

Amen.