Joshua chapter 5

It is interesting to me how often God in doing great things asks us to do some hard things. When God caused the waters of the Jordan River (flowing downstream none the less) to stop and stand in a heap (Josh 3:13) so Israel could cross on dry ground to enter Canaan, it must have seemed to the Israelites that their entrance into and possession of the promised land was all but clinched. Truly, the peoples round about that heard of it were amazed and terrified of the Israelites. All the signs pointed Israel in one direction: Go! But God has a different message: Wait! In Joshua 5, God tells Joshua to prepare flint knives so the Israelites could be circumcised. What? Right now? Now, while the iron is hot for us to strike the nations because of the fear you put upon them, you want us to make ourselves vulnerable. (Not to mention it's going to hurt) But Joshua doesn't question God. He makes the knives, he circumcises the men and God says these words, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you."
Isn't this like our Christian lives? We crossed the Red Sea from Death to Life by Christ dying for us. We crossed the Jordan into the promised land of eternal life by accepting Christ's death and repenting and believing in him. But before we enter the abundant life that Christ wants for his disciples, we must roll the reproach of our old lives away. We must physically sever ourselves from our old way of life where sin was our master and do the hard, painful work of circumcising our hearts in obedience to God. Is this process painful? Truly it is. Does it take a while to heal? Yes it does. Does the time it takes to become circumcised to God mean you are missing out on the action? I see from this story that all systems can seem to be "Go" but God wants us to do some hard work on ourselves before he continues his great things. After all, since God requires it of us (as he did the Israelites) his timetable is not disrupted at all, but when he is obeyed his children are right on time.