Roll It Away (Joshua 5:9-12)

Joshua at Gilgal

 

[Title Slide] Roll It Away (Joshua 5:9-12)

 

Good morning! I suppose you might like to learn a little bit about your speaker for this morning. I am Scott Tyring, a United Methodist elder having served Indiana churches since 1994. [Slide] My wife Michele and I have been together since 1984. We have three children in the midst of adulting, and [Slide] three young grandchildren.

 

I was drawn to the Old Testament reading from the lectionary for this morning. The passage includes the practice of circumcision, a sign in the flesh of belonging to the people of the covenant. It’s not a pleasant topic, but circumcision is a continuous theme that appears throughout the Law and Prophets as well as New Testament writings. A good example comes from Moses. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. (Deuteronomy 10:16)

 

It might be helpful to give you the highlights of the story so far, as we are jumping into a story, centuries in the making.

 

[Slide] God, the maker of heaven and earth, called a man named Abram to go to a place He would show him.  Abram left behind his family. He left behind a culture that worshipped the moon god Nanna in Ur (Southern Iraq). He followed the voice of the Lord to Canaan. He was a wandering shepherd all his days. God promised Abram the land and more descendants than could be counted. Through God’s promise Abraham would become a great nation and all the world would be blessed through him.

 

But the road to that great nation was marked with great suffering. Abraham’s grandson Jacob had twelves sons and a daughter. A famine struck the area. To avoid starvation, Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt to buy grain. They prospered there. They grew from 70 persons to a multitude, so many that the Egyptians began to fear them. [Slide] So the Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews, forcing them into hard labor. He ordered all the male babies born to Hebrew women to be thrown into the Nile river. One mother saved her son and sent him adrift in a basket. The baby was rescued from the Nile by the daughter of Pharoah. She gave him the name Moses. He was rescued from the Nile by the daughter of Pharaoh and Moses was raised in Pharoah’s household.

 

When Moses was 40 years old, he witnessed an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave. He killed the Egyptian. Moses fled for his life and lived another 40 years has a shepherd among the Midianites. [Slide] God sent Moses back to Pharaoh to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. God sent ten horrible plagues upon Egypt, the last of them being the death of the firstborn. Only the Hebrews, who did as God commanded Moses, were spared. [Slide] They slaughtered first year male lambs without blemish and held a feast in their homes, with the blood of the lamb spread upon their doorposts and mantles. The angel of death passed over their homes. This event is known as Passover, and is celebrated annually. It’s April 15^th this year, the day we call Good Friday when Jesus the Lamb of God was sacrificed for our redemption.

 

God set the Hebrews free from Egyptian slavery, but learning to live free was an altogether different kind of deliverance. As the multitude led by Moses journeyed through the wilderness the people grumbled and complained. At one point they even wanted to go back to Egypt, back to slavery. God provided them water and food in miraculous ways; manna from heaven and water from the rock. God gave them victory over enemies who attacked them. God gave them the law through Moses. [Slide] And God raised up Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim as Moses’ second in command. Joshua led the army.

 

Joshua is first mentioned in Exodus 17:9, when Amalekites started attacking the Israelites. He is introduced only by name, but we learn that he is an adept military man and dedicated to Moses and the Lord. [Slide] Exodus 33:11 says that Moses spoke to God face to face at the tent of meeting, a makeshift temple of sorts. Moses returned to camp after these meetings, but Joshua would not leave the tent of meeting.

 

After a little over a year in the wilderness, the Israelites reached the southern edge of Canaan at Kadesh. Moses sent 12 spies, one man from each tribe, into the promised land. [Slide] They returned with massive clusters of grapes and other produce from the land! The spies gave a wonderous report of a good land flowing with milk and honey! But they were fearful to enter the land to take it because the cities were heavily fortified and the men there were very tall. They seemed like giants. The report terrified the people. Only Joshua and Caleb of Judah spoke in favor of going up to Canaan  to take the land promised to them. They argued, “The Lord is with us!”

 

Due to their lack of faith, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for another 38 years before they were ready to enter Canaan and take possession of the promise. All those who left Egypt, died in the desert. Their children born on the way entered the Promised Land.

 

[Slide] They crossed the Jordan in a miraculous event where God stopped the water of the river upstream. The people crossed over on dry land. God commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous. Every place they might set the sole of their foot would be land that the Lord had given them. The only problem was the current inhabitants. They needed to go. War was inevitable.

 

[Slide] Before they took Jericho, they prepared by circumcising all the men. It seems strange, doesn’t it? Until you consider that Passover was near. Exodus 12:48 says, “No uncircumcised person shall eat of the Passover.” The men were born during the journey through the wilderness. Apparently, they did not practice circumcision in the wilderness. Joshua was going to follow the Lord’s command to the letter.  [Slide] “Be careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go.” (Joshua 2:7)

 

Circumcision was a sign that they belonged to the people who keep covenant with God and each other. God established the practice through Abraham as an everlasting sign of belonging. The circumcised belong to the God of Abraham.

 

It was important to remind them who they were. They were descendants of Abraham, friend of God. They were children of promise about to take possession of the land. Their identity was further supported by celebrating Passover together. They celebrated their shared history, from Abraham on down, by circumcision and by observing Passover together. And the manna from heaven stopped falling! Promised fulfilled!

 

Identity is fundamental to action. [Slide] How many people go about their jobs completely dispassionate about what they do. It’s just a job, a way to pay the bills. But some have a personal sense of mission. Their identity is bound to what they are called to do. When mission is supported by a community of like-minded people, one’s identity is even stronger. Joshua’s people will need strength to face the coming challenge of war. They needed to be united in identity and purpose if they were to prevail over the inhabitants of Canaan.

 

After the men were healed from their circumcision, then the Lord said to Joshua, [Slide] “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” Let’s look at a couple words.

 

The Lord said He “rolled away” the “shame” of Egypt. [Slide] The Hebrew translated as “rolled away” is galal. It means roll. It can also mean rolling large round stone. The word is used to describe rolling the stone away from the mouth of a well.

 

[Slide] Galal is used in Psalm 37 to describe a commitment to the Lord.

 

Commit (galal) your way to the Lord;

    trust in him, and he will act.

 

To put it literally: “roll upon” the Lord your way of life, which means to live your life in dependence upon God.

 

Doesn’t that get after identity? How we choose to live our lives is tied to our self-understanding. Circumcision is a sign of belonging. They belong to a people who choose to commit their way of life in honor of the God they rely upon by keeping the religious pattern of life set forth in the Law of Moses.

 

God told Joshua, “I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” [Slide] The word translated as disgrace is herpa. The word means to scorn or taunt to pick out of a crowd or pick off a tree limb or vine. It means shame, scorn, taunt or reproach. Remember the Coasters Charlie Brown? “Why is everybody always picking on me?” That gets after the idea behind the word herpa. When you came into worship this morning what sorts of things were picking at you? What shame are you carrying? What inner voices taunt you? What old tapes are running in your head that you need rolled away from your life?

 

I live with post-traumatic stress disorder. I need the Lord to roll away from me the effects of childhood trauma. How does your past continue to impact you? Did your parents criticize you frequently? Were you bullied in school? Have you suffered abuse? It’s a journey learning to live free from the past. The God who rolled away the shame of slavery in Egypt, is the same God you worship. The Lord is able to roll away from you the burdens you carry.

 

God promised Joshua that He would be with him wherever he went. God tore down the walls of Jericho. God stopped up the waters of the Jordon river. God split the Red Sea and conquered Egypt in a showdown of wills. And if God can do those amazing things, then surely God can free us of our shame, fears and insecurities, sadness, depression, and anger. Roll it away Lord! Roll your way upon the Lord!

 

[Slide] Our sign of belonging is baptism. We die to our old way of life and rise anew in Christ’s strength. The blood of the Lamb washes away our shame, guilt, and makes us new!

 

We celebrate the Lord’s Supper to remember the ultimate Passover, when Jesus took the bread and broke it representing his body broken for us. He gave the wine to his disciples saying, “This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” We do these in remembrance of Jesus, and by practicing baptism, our sign of belonging, and holy communion, remembering when God chose to pass over our sins by offering up His only Son.

 

It's a journey learning to live in the freedom Christ won for us. When your past brings you shame or heartache, remember that Jesus has rolled it away upon Himself.  Roll it away to the cross of Christ.

Roll it away!