Gilgal

Joshua 5:9
And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of this place is called Gilgal (A rolling) unto this day. (King James Version)

Pictured above are the steps that I walked up and down daily when I was eight years old. I wish that someone could sit one of them in my front yard and engrave the name “Gilgal” on it as a Daily reminder that God has rolled Egypt off of me. I Don’t Live There Anymore! Just Let It Go!

I read the Book of Joshua yesterday, then I was overtaken with depression. I wondered how that could be. As I thought about Joshua, I realized how God uses his Word to heal us. The Lord knew what I was facing before I even saw it coming.

Joshua was born into slavery in Egypt. He was not only in the wilderness for forty years, but a slave for more than forty years. He was Approximately eighty-two years old when they crossed over to the Promised Land where he ruled for twenty-eight years (Ussher qtd. In Scofield,259) and died at one hundred-ten years old. His life was not an easy one. It brought to my mind the squeezing of the olive to produce the Oil (The Anointing).

Joshua was commissioned by the Lord to go out and Possess the Land (As We Are). Here we read about Rahab the harlot hiding the two spies because the fear of Our God had melted the hearts of men (Josh. 2:11). Oh, My Goodness!! On the seventh day, and the seventh time marching around the walls of Jericho, they All came down With a Shout, Amen (Josh. 6:15-20).

This is a Power Packed Book for sure! Joshua 3:10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the Living God is among you, and that He Will Without Fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

How I Love That! We can replace those words with our own enemies, such as depression, anxiety, sickness, worry, stress, unforgiveness, and Heaviness in general. Sometimes my yesterdays are heavy, and I just need to lay them down (Let God roll Egypt off of me).

It came to pass that when these enemies had heard of all the things that Our God had done, they came out against the children of Israel in Multitudes, even as the sand is on the seashore (Josh. 11:1-8). Well now, doesn’t that sound familiar? Maybe they didn’t hear about the five kingdoms that rose up, and how Our God took out more men with hailstones than were slain by swords (Josh 10:11).

In the words of Joshua:

23:14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of the earth: and ye Know in All your Hearts and in All your Souls, that Not One thing hath failed of All the Good things which the Lord Your God Spake Concerning You…….

24:14-15 Now therefore fear (reverential trust) the Lord, and serve Him in Sincerity and in Truth: and put away the other gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, AND in Egypt: and Serve ye the Lord. 15…………….Choose this day who you will serve:……………. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Amen

Works Cited

The Bible, Scofield Reference Edition, edited by Cyrus I. Scofield, Oxford University Press, 1917