The Rolling Away of Reproach

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

“And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you,’ and so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.”

Well, every, every people, uh, every nation has its sort of marked moments of significance, right?

Uh, just driving to church this morning, uh, one of my children asked the question, uh, you know, how, how, wh- how old is New Zealand? Or when did the, when did Europeans first come? They’re talking about the different transition, you know, like, there was Abel Tasman and then James Cook, and then, uh, think about Marsden coming, and then you think about the, the Treaty of Waitangi being signed, and then a government eventually being established, and then eventually a country, and, and you know, you get these significant moments in history, in, in your nation.

We can think the same in our family, can’t we? So we think of wedding anniversaries, think of births, think of marriages of children, think of moments of marriage for ourselves, these different moments that we think of with fondness, and, and we face one of those moments now, don’t we, for us as a church?

This is a significant moment in our story that will be marked down in our history by, uh, I was gonna point over there but it’s now here, I forgot, by a covenant document, also—but also in our memories, in our hearts, with fondness, uh, and Lord willing, just one piece of a puzzle of a story, right?

The same is true for Israel.

So, Israel had been on a long journey, a very long journey, not just from Egypt, we remember. But it goes all the way back to Abraham, right? So, Abraham was chosen out of moon worshipers, and after Abraham came Isaac and Jacob, whom became Israel, who had 12 sons, of whom came the nation.

And that nation, under the goodness of Joseph, found a place of peace and prosperity to dwell in Egypt. One person describes Egypt for Israel like an incubator. You guys know what an incubator is, right? Children? An incubator is like a little place that they put little babies so that they can grow easily. Uh, you can have incubators for animals, so you can get an incubator for eggs. You put eggs in an incubator, they flourish really well. Uh, so this is an incubator for Israel that can flourish and grow, but they—it also becomes a torture house for Israel, doesn’t it? And they’re sorely oppressed and, and they become severely treated slaves.

But God in his grace and power liberates them. He comes and he takes them out of Egypt by his own hand, and he leads them into the wilderness. And as he leads them into the wilderness victoriously, he leaves behind him what? A trail of dead Egyptians because the warrior king has come.

And as the warrior king leads his people into freedom, he leads them to the promised land after 40 years of wilderness wandering, because they were a wicked generation and they refused to hear God. They f- refused to listen to God. By faith, they accepted nothing. They saw with human eyes, and they died in the wilderness.

That generation passes, and then we find ourselves with the present generation in Joshua 5. And finally, they’ve made it into the promised land. They’ve eaten of the produce. They’ve drunken of the water, and they see the land unfolding before them, and then Joshua says, “Stop. We need to make some flint knives.”

Now, don’t worry, I’m not gonna challenge you men to all get circumcised right now. Uh, he says, “It’s time to circumcise the, the men.” That was the covenant, right? The covenant was sealed by circumcision, and we’re told in the chapter the reason for this is because the whole generation in the wilderness had not been circumcised, none of the children born there.

And so they enter in, they circumcise all the males, and then the Lord Himself declares in verse 9,

“Today, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

And there’s, there’s 2 questions really that we need to consider.

Firstly, what is the reproach? And secondly, how was it rolled away?

It’s striking, right? Because God says, “I’ve rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” Now, that should strike you as relatively interesting because they’re nowhere near Egypt, right? I mean, they, they w- left Egypt 40 odd years ago. It’s not like Egypt’s current news. And all of the ones who were in Egypt, with the exception of, like, Joshua and Caleb and Hur, they’re what? Dead. So, all of the ones currently alive have never been in Egypt. And if they were, they were small children, ’cause it was everyone from 19 down.

So, what is this reproach being spoken of?

Well, some have suggested it’s the reproach of not being circumcised because they hadn’t obeyed the covenant. But if that was the case, it would have been the reproach of God, right? Keeping the covenant. So it can’t be that.

Some have suggested it’s the reproach of, uh, people mocking them, the Egyptians ridiculing them for being slaves. But I don’t think it’s quite that either, because that would have applied to the previous generation much more than this generation.

So, what is this reproach?

Well, to, to understand that, you have to think back to something Moses says quite a long time ago in about, I think it’s Exodus 14. In Exodus 14, God says, He, He says, “I’m going to destroy the people.” Do you remember m- do you remember Moses’s prayer? It happens about 3 times in the wilderness narrative. About 3 times, Moses says, “Lord, if you kill the people, what will Egypt think?” Egypt will say you were not able to bring them into the Promised Land because they were such a stiff-neck people. You brought them out of Egypt just to kill them. In other words, God wasn’t strong enough or able to deliver this people on what He promised. The Lord promised a land flowing with milk and honey, and He never gave it to them.

So the reproach of Egypt partly was—so on one hand was, God is not big enough or strong enough or able to deliver on His promises.

The second part was the reality of what had happened in the wilderness, because the generation had died, and God had judged them, and they had been disciplined, and that sin clung to all the people, right? Because all of the people were worthy of damnation. All of them were rebellious, and none of them deserved to enter the Promised Land.

And so now, as they enter in, they enter in with 2 things clinging to them: the accusations of the, uh, the Egyptians that, “Your God is pathetic,” and the accusations of their own sin, “You don’t deserve it.”

Now, the reason I, I raise this for us is that these are 2 of the most perennial things that cling to us in our flesh, aren’t they? Even as we sit here now, the 2 primary accusations that lay at our feet will be,

“You’re in sin.” “You are wrong.” “You don’t have the authority.” “You don’t deserve to do this.” “You’re not following my technical expression of church polity order.”

And any other number of charges that fall at your feet for your failings, and mine.

The second one that will cling to you is,

“Because of that, your God is not with you. The Lord has forsaken—If you were of us, the Lord would be with you. But the Lord won’t be with you while you’re like that, or while you’re with him, or with them.”

And this reproach is not just a today thing. This will cling to us for some time. People will say, “Oh, you’re that church.” “You have that minister.” “I’ve heard of him.” “I’ve seen the things that have been declared about him.” “I know the people and your type as you gather together.”

And this reproach sits upon us not just from men, but from the devil too, right? The devil will work very hard to come in our midst and say to us,

“God is not among you.” “God doesn’t love you.” “God is not good. God has cast you out. That’s why you’re small. That’s why you’re insignificant. That’s why you’re overlooked. That’s why no one cares, because God doesn’t care.”

And he will stir up temptations in our heart to believe the lies of the devil and to begin to think in our hearts, “Maybe it is my fault.” “Maybe it is her fault.” And I say this because my own heart is tempted to do it, to sit and ask myself and chastise myself and say, “Maybe I’ve gone about it all wrong.” “Maybe I made a mistake.” “Maybe I got it wrong from day one.”

This is the reproach that sits upon us, as individuals, as families, and as a church family.

And yet the wonderful thing about this narrative is that just like the foreskin being circumcised from the Israeli men, the Lord rolls away the reproach. And so we’re told,

“Today, I have rolled away the reproach.”

I noticed 3 things.

Firstly, he says today. He doesn’t say, “I am rolling your reproach away,” as if it’s incremental. You know, like, “I’m gonna take a little bit away now, and a little bit away tomorrow. And then, you know, as you slowly take over the promised land and prove to everybody that you’re actually a good nation, I’ll take your repro-” He says, “No. Today, I have done this. It is finished. The reproach is gone. Today, I have removed your reproach.”

But he also doesn’t just say today, he says, “I have done it.” He doesn’t say, “You have done it.” He doesn’t say that Egyptians have changed their opinion, you know. They, they sent some delegations, and they came with a lovely gift box and some flowers and an apology letter to express their sincerest apologies for being your overseers and your cruel task masters and making fun of you for the last 400 years. No, he says, “I have done it. I have removed your reproach. I have rolled it away.”

But then thirdly, notice what he does. He doesn’t say—it’s very interesting. The word chosen is very, very interesting. He doesn’t say, “I’ve taken away your reproach.” He doesn’t say, “I have erased your reproach.” He says, “I have rolled away.”

It’s the same word used to describe rolling a rock. So, you remember, there’s the story when Jacob goes to—he’s looking for a wife, and he’s going along, and he finds Rachel, and he finds her at a well? You remember, he’s standing at the well with a whole bunch of shepherds, and he says to the shepherds, “Why, why aren’t you watering the sheep?” And they say, “We can’t, ’cause there’s a massive rock on the well, and we’ve gotta wait for all the shepherds to be here.” And then, beautiful Rachel turns up, and Jacob’s so smitten that he becomes Hercules, and he walks up and just yeets the ro- stone away. He rolls the stone away, we’re told. It’s the same word.

Now, this is significant. And this is why. When you roll a stone away, what happens to it? This is pretty logical. It goes somewhere, right? It doesn’t vanish. I mean, maybe you don’t realize that, but when you move an object, it’s now somewhere else, right?

Now, if you delete something or if you erase something or if you wipe something away, it vanishes, but God doesn’t say that. He says, “I have rolled away your reproach.” Why? Because he transfers the reproach somewhere else, and you’re all good Bible students, and you know where I’m going with this, right?

The reproach of Israel has been rolled onto the Lord Jesus Christ, and what’s really, really interesting is this word for reproach is a very similar word, very similar word to the expression Isaiah says when he talks about Christ in that beautiful Isaiah 53.

“He was despised. He bore our reproach.”

It’s not the same word, but very similar meaning.

You see, what’s happening here is the reproach of Israel is being taken away. The sins of Israel in the wilderness, the, the failure, the charge of failure of Egypt against the Lord is all being taken away, but it’s being taken away by the scapegoat.

Do you remember the day of Yom Kippur? It just happened, by the way. Yom Kippur is the annual celebration that the Jews do. It just happened. It’s called the Day of Atonement.

On Yom Kippur, the Israelite, the high priest, was to select 2 goats, one called the scapegoat, the goat for Azazel, and then the sacrificial goat. And the high priest would take the goat for Azazel and he would put his hand upon it and he would confess all of the sins of the whole nation, and he would place the sins of the whole nation upon the goat, and the goat would wander off into the wilderness and disappear. They didn’t kill it. They just sent it out, and it just wandered off into the wilderness. Who knows what happened to it? Eaten by a bear or a lion? Who knows? But off it goes into the wilderness, carrying with it all of the sins of God’s people.

And what’s happening here is the Lord is doing exactly that, but He’s not rolling the reproach of Israel onto a goat, but onto His Son.

And here’s the wonderful thing, brothers and sisters. Though many people, and though the devil may rage in our ears with all sorts of accusations, and all sorts of reproach, in Christ, all of your failings which are truly your failings, and all of mine, are rolled onto Him. And all of the accusations that God is not good are rolled away in Christ. Why? Because Christ is the proof that God is good.

Yes, we have reproach, because let’s be honest. None of us have acted sinlessly in this whole thing. Who of us can stand up this day and say, “In the last year, I have acted perfectly righteously before God in how I have conducted myself?” None of us.

And yet, all of it is rolled away onto Christ.

And so you know the wonderful thing is people can come to you and they can say, “Oh, I know what your minister’s like.” And you know what you can say? “Yes, so do I. He’s a sinner who deserves nothing, and yet his sin has been rolled onto Christ.”

When they say, “Oh, we know what you lot are like. You’re a divisive, schismatic bunch.” You can say, “Yeah, to be honest, we probably are, and yet our reproach has been rolled onto Christ and we’ve been made new,” because today God says, “I have rolled away your reproach.”

And every day that a sinner comes to Christ, Christ takes his reproach so that, that like in Zechariah 3 with Joshua the high priest, as he stands before God and the devil stands to accuse him because he’s dressed in filthy garments. And the devil has every right to accuse him. “How dare our high priest turn up in filthy garments!” And it says what?

“The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord rebuke you, for He is a brand plucked out of the fire.”

And so are we. Plucked out of the fire of a year of adversary, God has used that brand to build a house for Himself.

And so there’s one brief more word that comes from this and it’s, it’s from the Greek actually. You know, you know the Old Testament’s written in Hebrew, and then it was translated to Greek. The Greek translation is called the Septuagint, Septuagint, and, and the word used here in the Hebrew which is translated to the Greek for reproach is a word we find in the New Testament.

Do you remember in that wonderful chapter in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, where it’s like Abraham and all these different guys and people that they do these awesome things? And you get Moses. And there’s this amazing verse that says Moses counted the reproach of Christ worth more than all the riches of Egypt.

You see, there’s a third point here, and that is that having, having had our reproaches rolled onto Christ, we now stand with Christ and receive His reproach. And we rejoice in His reproach, and love His reproach more than all of this world could offer.

You see, ’cause the world and the devil will offer us many things for temporal comfort, right? So that for temporal peace, we won’t have temporal reproach.

But in having our reproach taken away, we enter into the reproach of Christ, and we are reproached in this world, but not in eternity.

And so we’re invited today as a family to share in the reproach of Christ. As we sign this document, to do it together as a family. Like the 3 men in Daniel, to stand in the furnace as brothers and sisters, and say,

“Even if the fire consume me, we want you to know, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we still will not bow down to your statue.”

And to do it side by side, as a family, we love one another. And to see this area transformed by the Gospel as a family, and to labor together by God’s grace as a reproachless in Christ, but reproached in this world, covenant family.

Brothers and sisters, I count it all joy to be counted among you. I loved being at Covenant—as I know you did, too. But I count it a far higher privilege to be counted as your brother, to be known by you and to know you, and to love one another until Christ shall come back. What a joy.

Don’t let anyo- don’t let anyone take that joy away from you.

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