Joshua 5: Rolling Away the Reproach

"Under Construction"

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At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”

So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt.

For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD—to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

- Joshua 5:2-9

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart
and the heart of your descendants,
to love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul,
that you may live.
- Deuteronomy 30:6



Break up your fallow ground,
and take away the foreskins of your heart...
- Jeremiah 4:3, 4




Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart,
and be stiff-necked no longer...
- Deuteronomy 10:16




But he is a Jew who is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart,
in the Spirit, not in the letter;
whose praise is not from men but from God.
- Romans 2:29

After crossing the Jordan River, the Israelites camped in a place called Gilgal. Here they placed the twelve stones that they picked from the river to serve as a memorial, just as the Lord had instructed.

Gilgal is very important. Not only is it the starting point of the conquest of the land, it is the place where the Israelites put up their very first memorial in Canaan.

I find it significant that God would instruct them to put the twelve stones here, at the outset of their journey. God is very particular about putting up memorials because He knows just how easy it is for us to forget.

The memorial was not just about the crossing over the waters of the mighty Jordan. It was also about the circumcision of all the Israelite males that God required before they entered the land of promise.

Before they could begin to conquer the territory ahead of them, circumcision was required.

Circumcision is an external process but it represented something deeper - the stripping away of the outer layers of our hearts, that we may become more sensitive to God.

This physical process was the symbol of the covenant that God made with Abraham years before. In Genesis 17:7-14 we read of the promise God gives:

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant.... Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession....

This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you....

And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised..., that person shall be cut off from his people, he has broken My covenant.

Joshua may have forgotten all about this important symbol, but God has not. The covenant He established with Abraham was that Abraham would be given all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and the symbol of this covenant was the circumcision of every male child in Israel.

God is a covenant keeper. He never breaks, nor does He forget, any of His promises. And I find it so significant that just as the people were about to enter this land of promise, God wants them to remember the covenant.

Circumcision is not painless. How important it was for them to go "under the knife", a symbol of their willingness to keep their end of the covenant.

Circumcision is not so much an external as it is an internal process. We understand that it refers to the circumcision of our hearts, the stripping away of that which hinders and obstructs. God wants us to be very sensitive to Him, that we may follow Him wholeheartedly, without anything blocking, or hindering us from doing so.

The standing stones in Gilgal are indeed a memorial to the purification process that happened there.

What further strikes me is the deeper significance of the place.

The word Gilgal literally means "rolling."

God says to them, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you."

Such tender, beautiful words.

All these years their fathers had lived as slaves in Egypt. This new generation of Israelites were born and raised in the wilderness. They have never known what it means to have a land, and be a people.

In their minds they were tent dwellers, runaway slaves, running away from the land of captivity where their fathers had suffered much under the hands of cruel taskmasters.

In Gilgal God declares that they are no longer slaves of a foreign power. He has removed the stigma and the shame... the reproach of Egypt has been rolled away.

No longer were they in bondage, living in fear of their past captivity. In the symbolic act of circumcision God was renewing His covenant with them - Fear not, you are mine.

In rolling away the reproach of Egypt from them, God was in effect reminding them of the words of the covenant that He had established with Abraham hundreds of years before:

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant.... Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession....

The everlasting God... has established an everlasting covenant... and He is giving them a land as an everlasting possession...

God removed from them the victim mindset, the slave mentality.

They were a special people, and they were coming into the Promised Land, a land that will be to them an everlasting possession.

Jeremiah 31 comes to my mind at this time, and I can hear the Lord speaking words of comfort.

I have loved you with an everlasting love...

I have drawn you with cords of compassion...

Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt...

I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble...

For I am a Father to Israel...

They shall come and sing in the height of Zion...

They shall be as a well watered garden...

They shall sorrow no more at all...

I will turn their mourning into joy...

My people shall be satisfied with My goodness...


Gilgal is such a special place, a memorial to their new beginnings as a people. The standing stones here bear witness to what happened on that day.

A reminder to them that as God's chosen people, they are to be set apart, consecrated.

Victory will surely follow, but the message at Gilgal is this: there is no victory without purity.


I need to go back often to Gilgal to remember what happened there. To look at the stone memorial. To remember that I have been bought with a price. No longer a slave.

The reproach has been rolled away. In many ways, Gilgal points to Calvary, where Jesus bore my sin and shame.


And I remember still another place in the Bible where the stone has been rolled away:

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
- Matthew 28:6

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Help me Lord, to never forget.