NO MORE REPROACH!

By Pastor Michael Olawore
 New Wine Church, London

Foundation Scripture: Joshua 5: 1-9

Sunday 11^th March 2012

In the 5^th Chapter of Joshua, which recounts the immediate aftermath of the crossing over the River Jordan of the children of Israel into the Promised Land, God made an important announcement. In verse 9 He said: ‘This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ Similarly, I declare to you today the word of the Lord: the reproach of Egypt is rolled away from your life. This is a prophetic message that is both timely and relevant: the reproach of Egypt has been rolled away from your life.

The children of Israel had been in captivity, in bondage and oppression in the nation of Egypt for more than 400 years. Previously, in Genesis 15: 12 -15 God had fore-warned their ancestor Abraham that they would go into bondage but they would come out greater and better than before saying “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them and they will afflict them for four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions”.  Here, God was announcing the future to Abraham; a future involving bondage and affliction after which there would be great increase.

From this therefore we can understand that there is nothing that occurs in our lives of which God is unaware; nothing takes him by surprise.  Also, in God, there is always an afterwards. God was specific about the outcome for the lives of the descendants of Abraham; in like manner, He is specific about the details of our lives. Your life is not a mystery to God; He knows everything - the A-to-Z of your situation. And so therefore, regardless of what you are facing, relax in the knowledge that what He permits or allows to occur in your life, is to be used for His purposes. Why, we may ask, did God allow the oppression of the people of Israel? They being His chosen nation and special inheritance, why did they have to suffer more than 400 years of affliction? The answer of course, is that God permit us to face the challenges and struggles of life, in order to use them to refine and develop us for the advancement of His purpose.

Interestingly, the conversation between God and Abraham in Genesis 15 took place in the Promised Land. Abraham was already there, however, God told him that his descendants would leave the land and go into captivity and affliction but they would, after four generations, be returned to the Promised Land. In answer to any question about the need for this process, we can see in verse 16 that God had stated ‘for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’ God was explaining to Abraham that there was a land that would be given to his descendants but it was not vacant yet. And therefore the people of Israel would be sent into a foreign land in order to enable the people who inhabited the land, the Amorites, to be given an opportunity to repent, showing the justice and mercy of God. As the sins of the Amorite people were not yet complete, God allowed the descendants of Abraham to be taken into captivity in order to grow them and multiply them and turn them into a nation. God’s conversation was with Abraham, an individual, unfolding His plans for the nation that would spring forth from the season of affliction.

The promise of God was on them and therefore nothing could take them out. We are told in Exodus 1: 11 ‘But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.’ Because of the word of God that was on their lives, affliction could not kill them – similarly, because of the word of the Lord that has been spoken over your life, representing the purpose and plan of God, affliction and adversity cannot kill you.

Let’s look at the three implications that flow from God’s conversation with Abraham in Genesis 15 as follows:

(i)     Your life is not a mystery to God – Nothing takes God by surprise. God knew and pre-determined the beginning and the end of the season of affliction that the descendants of Abraham would face.

(ii)    Your problem has an expiry date – God set the boundaries of the season of affliction from the outset.

(iii)  You are meant to out-last your problems – There is an afterwards in God.   

At the appointed time God assigned a young man to be the deliverer for the descendants of Abraham. God affirmed that he had seen the affliction and oppression of the people. There is an appointed time for your deliverance. He confirmed that He had heard the groaning of His people and remembered His covenant with them. God will not permit you to go through that which you cannot bear. He has heard your prayers and will act.

In due season indeed the descendants of Abraham were delivered and they left Egypt just as God had promised but their miraculous deliverance was not the end of the matter as although they left Egypt, Egypt did not leave them. We are told that when they crossed Jordan the Amorites and Canaanite kings were terrified of them, having heard of how God had dried up the waters of Jordan for them. The descendants of Abraham had indeed left Egypt but there was something that had come with them and that was reproach. Reproach, the shame and dishonour of the past had followed them. This is the enemy that reminded them of the pain of the past, a voice of condemnation that sought to frustrate their attempts to rise up in faith. After more than 400 years of enslavement and oppression, the descendants of Abraham had lavished their children with the experience and mentality of slavery in Egypt. Therefore although they had long since left Egypt, having wandered for 40 years in the wilderness and finally being brought by Joshua into  Canaan, reproach was there with them. It was the voice telling them that permanent freedom from captivity was impossible and that a return to Egypt was inevitable. This is the same demonic device that leaves us with a feeling of inadequacy, repeatedly telling us that what we dream of and aspire to cannot be achieved. The Amorite and Canaanite kings were afraid of the descendants of Abraham however they were more afraid of them due to the reproach that was on them which condemned them to the past and sought to contradict the word of God over their lives.

Reproach blocks out the light of God’s glory. The descendants of Abraham were coming out of the past waiting to embrace the new, but reproach stood between them and their destiny. They left bondage but bondage had not left them. Jesus said that new wine cannot go into old wine skins; if you do not deal with the past it has the capacity to frustrate the future. God therefore sent Joshua to circumcise the men, representing the re-establishment of covenant between God and the people. This was necessary as although the people who had left Egypt were circumcised, they had all died in the wilderness and the generation that were now entering into the Promised Land were not grounded in their covenant relationship with God and therefore were unsure of who they were. You cannot go into the battlefield of life not knowing who you are, as if you do, the enemy will effortlessly take you out. You must be sure and confident of who you are, knowing that the Lord is your Shepherd and that you will lack nothing, convinced that the Lord is the glory and the lifter of your head; confident that the Lord will fight for you, that you are more than a conqueror and certain that the Greater One lives inside you.

The purpose of circumcision was to re-establish their relationship with God and bring about a change in their paradigms, and thereby, a change in their perspective. Once the covenant was established they began to see themselves differently. Joshua 5: 8 says “So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed.”  The healing here did not just refer to physical healing but a healing of their mindset, causing them to see themselves as God saw them. After they were healed, God declared to them that He had rolled away the reproach of Egypt.

God is taking us somewhere in New Wine; it is important for us to understand what the word of God is to us in this season. Three events arise from this account that are of particular relevance for this House:

(i)     Circumcision – This relates to a rediscovered intimacy with God which brings about an adjustment of mindset. We cannot afford to walk by sight; there must be a circumcision of the heart and adjustment of our collective perception. We cannot afford to allow what we see in the natural to be the final determinant of what we do.

(ii)    Healing – There will be a manifestation of God’s healing power in this house. Every reproach is rolled away.

(iii)  Celebration – The descendants of Abraham celebrated the Passover after the circumcision; there will be cause for celebration in this house.

God is about to take us into our Promised Land, however there must first be a readjustment and a re-alignment with the purpose of God. There will be a demonstration of God’s power in this season and anything and everything that represents the bondage of the past will be rolled away. I declare to you that every reproach is rolled away in Jesus’ Name. Everything standing between you and your destiny in God is rolled away! No more reproach! This is your season of celebration!