This morning's text is Joshua 5:1-12. Can you think of a time when someone was disappointed in you? Perhaps someone in your family has expressed such disappointment or disapproval toward you ... perhaps for years. I remember the pain I have felt at times in my life - - - not chosen until the very last when we kids chose teammates to play on the playground, not selected for a leadership position in the marching band, not getting every job promotion I wanted, etc. Painful!
I cannot imagine living under the disapproval, the Bible in the NIV calls it the "reproach", of God for 40 years. Yet, that is exactly the situation the Israelites were coming out of here in the early chapters of Joshua. During those 40 years of wandering in the desert, God sustained them. He fed them with manna and saw that they did not utterly perish. But, they were outside His full blessing during that awful period.
Manna does not represent blessing. It was mere sustenance. The Israelites had a love-hate relationship with it. Obviously, it was highly nutritious because it was the mainstay of the diet for 40 years. But, in Exodus 16:3 we see them griping about the delicious foods they enjoyed in Egypt.
They did not grow closer to Him during their desert time, for the most part. During those 40 years, all of the men of military age who had been part of the decision to shy away from God's promise, to enter the Promised Land, died. This included Moses who, although he did not participate in that awful decision, was disallowed from entering the Promised Land because of his own individual act of disobedience.
During those 40 years, the people were, for the most part, passed over. They bore God's reproach which is called in 5:9 "the reproach of Egypt". They were so discouraged, in fact, that they no longer circumcised their male babies, nor did they keep the Passover. The last time they had kept it was at Mt. Sinai, one year after they had left Egypt (Numbers 9:1-5). I guess that the feast had ceased to have meaning to them. Those desert years were a time of mourning, Y'all.
Joshua 5:7 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. "So he raised up their sons in their place."
The circumcision of all the males born in the desert, which was practically every male in the bunch ("the whole nation" 5:8), was an act of consecration, preparation. (We discussed "consecration" a day or two ago here in the blog.) It was God's time-honored way to mark His people as uniquely His. Once they were healed from those procedures, they celebrated Passover once again. And, the very next day, they ate some of the fruit of the Promised Land.
The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.
That very day, God's reproach was taken away. They did not have to wait any longer for it. They only had to demonstrate their obedience and His blessing came pouring down. They were restored! We'll see tomorrow how God further demonstrated His power among them.
As New Testament believers, we do not bear God's reproach, due to the fact that we belong to Jesus Christ and are under grace. Paul says it like this: (Romans 8:1)
"There is therefore now NO condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus".
I'm reading a wonderful book on the topic of grace. It's by Tullian Tchividjian, and it's called One Way Love. He puts it like this:
"Jesus came to liberate us from the weight of having to make it on our own, from the demand to measure up. He came to emancipate us from the burden to 'get it all right', from the obligation to fix ourselves, find ourselves, and free ourselves. Jesus came to release."
Amen and amen.
But, I tell you this, Christian: if you walk in disobedience to what you know to be God's will and way for you, as revealed in the Bible, He will set you on the shelf, so to speak, and raise up your sons and daughters to do His will, until you repent and return to Him. And, that may feel to your soul like "40 years of wilderness wandering". I don't know about you; but, I don't want to be passed over.
People live their lives for many things - - - fame, fortune, love of family, pride, etc. Their motivations can be separated into one of two categories: they are either living for love of themselves or they are living out their love for the one, true God. Those who make the better choice, choosing the latter of these two, will never be "passed over"!
Father, I am constantly amazed by You. The longer I live, the more grateful I am for Your inexhaustible grace, because I need it more and more. Please forgive me for my wandering away from You, wanting to go my own foolish way. It is only by Your grace and through the power of Your Holy Spirit that any of us can ever, at any time, walk....resplendent. Thanking You, praising You, in Jesus' name, amen.
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