Digging in the Desert- Rolling away the Reproach: Joshua Part 1

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

As I'm doing these things, I'm looking for, well, sort of natural breaks...clusters of verses, if you will.  And the first cluster in Joshua has to do with an event that happened just after the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River.  It is, really, the final closure on the end of the 40 years in the desert.

'Desert' is actually mentioned in the first chapter...as God is affirming his promise to Joshua, and it's a geographical reference.

'Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates -- all the Hittite country -- to the Great Sea on the west.' (Josh. 1:4)

But the cluster of desert verses is in Chapter 5, verses 4 - 6; I'm starting in verse 2 and going through verse 9 for context:

     At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again."  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 desert on the way after leaving Egypt.  All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not.  The Israelites moved about in the desert 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 that he had solemnly promised their fathers 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 the camp until they were healed.
     Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled the reproach of Egypt from you."  So the place has been called Gilgal until this day.

A little aside..My Sweet Babboo, being a participant in a 18th century frontiersman organization, actually has a hand-knapped flint knife and it is EXTREMELY sharp.  Almost surgical scalpel sharp. Definitely as sharp as a ginsu knife, lol. So it is quite believable that they could make really sharp knives for that task.  Just, you know, worth noting.

So, the deal was that none of the guys who had been born since leaving Egypt had been circumcised. They had crossed the Jordan; it was a new beginning.  And, just as if they were newborns, it was time for the males to be circumcised...to renew the covenant.

Now, if the whole fighting force was circumcised, they would have been particularly vulnerable had anyone attacked them in the following week. But...as is noted in verse 1, anyone who would potentially have attacked them was on lockdown, afraid.  The dramatic crossing of the Jordan had put the surrounding cities in terror of the Israelites and their God.  So, while they were weak, they were not challenged.

The phase 'today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you,' has always intrigued me.  It seems, after the people saw the Egyptian army defeated and  wandered forty years in the desert, with the passing of the generation that had actually served as slaves in Egypt, the reproach of Egypt should already have more or less dissipated.

But...no, it hadn't.

Hunting around in Blue Letter Bible (not happy with the new format over there but I supposed I'll get used to it) I found that the word translated 'reproach' is Strong's H2781 - cherpah, which, in this case, means 'a condition of shame or disgrace'.

I pondered it some more.  Circumcision was a physical mark declaring the individual...and, incidentally, his household...as one being in a covenant relationship with Yahweh. God instructed them to renew the covenant, and they did.  By renewing the covenant, they put themselves in position for God to remove the shame and disgrace of having served as slaves to the Egyptians.

Ok.  I'm going to do a bit of rabbit chasing here...yesterday, somewhere on social media I read a quote from someone who considers themselves a progressive Christian (I would quote it directly but, I don't know where I was when I read it and I didn't know at the time I would want the quote later), addressing someone who had a more biblical standard of right and wrong, saying something to the effect of 'You folks are in bondage to your legalistic views, but we are free to do what we want.'....and immediately I heard in my heart, 'Anyone who sins is a slave to sin.'  I thought it was in one of Paul's epistles, but when I looked it up this morning I found it was John 8:34...it was Jesus speaking.  Worth noting that Jesus himself said that choosing to do what is wrong is enslaving yourself.

Then I found the passage I had in mind...it's Romans 6, starting in verse 16:

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey -- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Paul's explanation is basically...ain't nobody who is their own god, determining what is right for them.  Everyone serves something.

The dear progressive brother isn't, as he thinks, free to do whatever he wants...he is choosing to serve the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life; which is a more demanding and severe bondage than serving righteousness...because that 'whatever I want' is never satisfied but keeps demanding more.  That slavery has reproach.  And this really isn't about the obvious sins...typically those involving physical appetites such as lust, fornication, homosexuality, gluttony, drunkenness.  No, it includes the less obvious ones such as gossip, manipulation, lying, rebellion...anything that is done to serve a personal agenda.   Even if we shut our eyes and stick our fingers in our ears and sing 'lalala,' or compare ourselves to others, saying, 'Well, this isn't as bad as that....'  It's still slavery and there is still reproach.  And, if we are honest, deep down we know that.  Because, if we belong to God, he doesn't let his children off the hook.  Sooner or later, the reproach rears up. 


But God is faithful.... He will roll away the reproach of that servitude when we come to him.  Even if we wander away in the desert, there is a place of new beginning where we renew our devotion and our covenant to Him...and he removes the reproach.  Immediately.

I've had lots of reproach over the years over stupid things I said and did...typically because I was following my own agenda.  I am slowly learning the lesson, and I am very, very grateful that He rolls away the reproach of my bullheadedness.