Some time ago, a fictitious manual for Peace Corp volunteers headed for South America contained the following advice on “What to Do If Attacked by an Anaconda”:
#1, If you're attacked by an anaconda, do not run; the snake is faster than you are.
#2, Lie flat on the ground.
#3, Put your arms tight at your sides and your legs tight against one another.
#4, The snake will begin to climb over your body.
#5, Do not panic.
#6, The snake will begin to swallow you from the feet end.
#7, Step six will take a long time.
#8, After a while, slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife, and very gently slide it into the snake's mouth. Then suddenly sever the snake's head.
#9, Be sure your knife is sharp. And
#10, Be sure you have your knife. (John Ortberg, The Daniel Project—Part 3, November 15, 2009; www.PreachingToday.com)
Though somewhat humorous, these instructions make a serious point: You need to be prepared! Now, you probably don’t ever have to worry about an anaconda attack, but there is another snake that seeks to devour you every day (1 Peter 5:8). And that’s that old serpent, the devil, who wants to take you down every chance he gets. The Bible says, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
My dear friends, we’re engaged in a spiritual battle, so how do we prepare for that battle? How do we get ready to fight the devil and his minions? How do we steel ourselves to take on the unseen forces of evil? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Joshua 5, Joshua 5, where we can learn some lessons from the Children of Israel as they prepared for battle against enemy forces in Joshua’s day.
Joshua 5:1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel. (ESV)
God’s mighty hand in drying up the Jordan River demoralized the enemy! It was “shock and awe”, creating the best time to attack, so verse 2 says at that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Go forth and conquer!” Is that what your Bible says? No!
Joshua 5:2-3 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.(ESV) – which means “hill of the foreskins.”
Now, wait a minute! What’s going on here? Instead of attacking when victory is assured, God instructs all the men and soldiers to be circumcised. Ouch! That’s going to take several days to heal and incapacitate Israel’s entire army.
In Genesis 34, when Jacob’s sons wanted to get revenge after Shechem raped their sister, they tricked him and his men into getting circumcised. Shechem wanted to marry their sister, and Jacob’s sons said the only way they would allow it is if he and all the men of his city would undergo the surgery on a very sensitive part of their body. Then three days later, when they were very sore, two of Jacob’s sons went into the city and slaughtered Shechem, his father, and every other male. Well here, Joshua’s army is making themselves very vulnerable to the same kind of fate. Why?
Joshua 5:4-7 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. (ESV)
Joshua circumcised his soldiers, because they had not been circumcised when they were eight (8) days old as required in God’s Covenant to Abraham (Genesis 17:12). An entire generation of male Israelites had missed it! Those born in Egypt had been circumcised, but their sons, born in the wilderness, were not.
Now, circumcision was very important to the Israelites, because it was the sign God gave them that He would keep His promise to give them many descendants and the land before them. Circumcision was God’s mark, God’s proof, that He would do what He said and give them the land. That’s why Joshua’s soldiers received that mark on that day. They were circumcised, so they could move forward with confidence in God’s promise.
Joshua 5:8-9 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 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 [or rolling] to this day. (ESV)
God rolled away Egypt’s scorn, Egypt’s taunt that they would all perish in the wilderness (Exodus 32:12), which they nearly did! 40 years pervious, their fathers refused to go into the land, because they were afraid of the giants in the land and its walled cities. They didn’t believe God’s promise, so God made them wander for 40 years in the wilderness until that whole generation died off.
However, God preserved the next generation to go into the land He promised to give them. And when they entered that land, God rolled away their shame, God rolled away the taunts of the Egyptians as pictured in the act of circumcision.
It was absolutely necessary in their preparation for battle, and it is absolutely necessary for you, as well, as you prepare to battle the unseen forces of evil. If you’re going to be ready to fight that spiritual battle, you must…
LET GOD ROLL AWAY YOUR SHAME.
Allow the Lord to take away your reproach. Permit Him to peel off the disgrace of your sin and unbelief.
ESPN's documentary, “The Four Falls of Buffalo,” tells the story of the Buffalo Bills four consecutive Superbowl losses in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993. In their 1990 Superbowl appearance against the New York Giants, field goal kicker Scott Norwood experienced the greatest shame. With 8 seconds left in the game, Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal, which would have given the Buffalo Bills the win. 20 years later, Norwood still felt the pain of that missed field goal. In 2010, ESPN asked him what feeling he had that day. Norwood responded, “Sorrow, I guess, and disappointment in letting down the teammates that are there on the field of battle with you. I get choked up thinking about it, putting myself back in that situation.”
However, nothing prepared Scott Norwood for the greeting he would receive in Buffalo the next week. Nearly 30,000 screaming fans met Norwood and his teammates in Buffalo after the loss. Many of them chanted and screamed, "WE WANT SCOTT!!...WE WANT SCOTT!!” Here's how Norwood described the scene:
We got back to town and I did not know what to expect. What I really wanted to do was just remain behind the scenes, but there was a chant that intensified … I was not expecting to be called to the front like that. I had to speak off the top of my mind and real quick. I think in a sense, that's when the truest feelings arise.
The documentary shows Scott with mic in hand telling the crowd, “I know that I have never felt more loved than I do right now.” Expecting condemnation, Norwood found a small taste of amazing grace.
Scott Norwood would return the following year to help win the AFC title against Denver after a successful 44-yard kick. And Bruce DeHaven, the Bill’s special teams’ coach, would later name his adopted son after Scott. (Paul Harris, “Can Anything Good Come From Buffalo?” Mockingbird blog, 1-20-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
The experience of grace and forgiveness helped Scott Norwood roll away the shame of the past and roar into the future with confidence.
My dear friends, you too can experience that same grace and forgives from God Himself no matter what your failure was. All you need to do is trust Christ with your life, who died for all your sins and rose again.
Colossians 2:11 says of believers, “In him… you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh (i.e., the sinful nature), by the circumcision of Christ.”
False teachers had taught these Gentiles believers that they had to be circumcised like Jews in order to reach the highest levels of spirituality. But Paul tells them, in Christ, they have already been circumcised, not physically, but spiritually, in a circumcision of the heart done by God Himself when Christ died and rose again.
That’s because Christ cut away the hold that sin had on our hearts when we came to know Him. He put off the “flesh” Colossians 2 says. In other words, Jesus took away sin’s control on our lives. God is not concerned about the cutting off of physical flesh. He wants the rebellion cut from our hearts, and that’s exactly what Jesus does for us when we trust Him with our lives. He cuts away the rebellion, the inward pressure to sin.
Rick Ezell, in his book Seven Sins of Highly Defective People, talks about receiving a different kind of a recall notice in the mail. It looked like a normal recall notice for a car, but this one was more personal. Stamped in big red letters across the top were the words IMPORTANT RECALL. Then came the following:
“The maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to the serious defect in the primary and central component, the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed Subsequential internal non-morality, or more commonly known as SIN, and its primary symptom is a lapse of moral judgment. If one is susceptible to loss of direction, foul vocal emissions, lack of peace and joy, or selfish behavior, then one is inflicted with the defect. The manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized repair and service, free of charge, to correct this SIN defect, at numerous locations throughout the world.” (Rick Ezell, Seven Sins of Highly Defective People, Kregel, p. 5; www.PreachingToday.com)
All you have to do is come to Christ, and He repairs the heart. Or to use the language of Colossians 2, He circumcises the heart; He cuts away the rebellion and sin and gives you a whole new life!
Please, let God do that for you! Through faith in Christ, let God roll away your shame. It’s the only way you’ll be prepared for the spiritual battles ahead. Then, to be prepared for those battles…
RELISH YOUR SALVATION.
Enjoy the benefits of God’s grace and provision. Taste the goodness of God in your own life. That’s what the Children of Israel did after God rolled away their shame in the Promised Land.
Joshua 5:10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. (ESV)
They remembered their deliverance from Egypt.
Joshua 5:11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain,
I.e., roasted grain or corn, a real delicacy for them.
Joshua 5:12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (ESV)
They remembered their deliverance from Egypt and relished the fruit of the land. God had provided manna for 40 years. Now, He provides the rich produce of His Promised Land, and the children of Israel are enjoying it. They are relishing the benefits of God’s grace and provision on the eve of their first battle.
And that’s what you must do if you’re going to be ready for the spiritual battles you face. Taste and enjoy the goodness of God.
Eugene Peterson, who just passed away last month, told the story of Fred and Cheryl, who went to Haiti several years ago (1985) to pick up a child they had adopted. Addie was five-years-old. Her parents had been killed in a traffic accident that left her without a family. As she walked across the tarmac to board the plane, the tiny orphan reached up and slipped her hands into the hands of her new parents whom she had just met. It was an expression of “innocent, fearless trust.”
That evening, back home in Arizona, they sat down to their first supper together with their new daughter. There was a platter of pork chops and a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. After the first serving, Fred and Cheryl’s two teenage boys kept refilling their plates. Soon the pork chops disappeared and the potatoes were gone. Addie had never seen so much food on one table in her whole life. Her eyes were big as she watched her new brothers, Thatcher and Graham, satisfy their ravenous teenage appetites.
Then Fred and Cheryl noticed that Addie had become very quiet and realized that something was wrong. Was it agitation, bewilderment, insecurity? Cheryl guessed that it was the disappearing food. She suspected that because Addie had grown up hungry, when food was gone from the table, she might be thinking that it would be a day or more before there was more to eat.
Cheryl had guessed right. She took Addie's hand and led her to the bread drawer and pulled it out, showing her a back-up of three loaves. She took her to the refrigerator, opened the door, and showed her the bottles of milk and orange juice, the fresh vegetables, jars of jelly and jam and peanut butter, a carton of eggs, and a package of bacon. She took her to the pantry with its bins of potatoes, onions, and squash, and the shelves of canned goods—tomatoes and peaches and pickles. She opened the freezer and showed Addie three or four chickens, a few packages of fish, and two cartons of ice cream.
All the time she was reassuring Addie that there was lots of food in the house, that no matter how much Thatcher and Graham ate and how fast they ate it, there was a lot more where that came from. Her brothers were no longer rivals at the table. She was home, and she would never go hungry again. (Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection, Eerdmans, 2010, pp. 159-160; www.PreachingToday.com)
Addie faced a lot of adjustments in her new home, but she had to experience her new parents’ generosity before she could begin to make those adjustments.
In the same way, you need to experience and relish your Heavenly Father’s generosity to face your battles. I find it very interesting that the end of Ephesians talks about spiritual warfare, but the beginning of Ephesians identifies our spiritual blessings. In other words, before God tells you to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11), He reminds you that He has blessed you in Christ with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).
You see, you cannot fight the devil until you appreciate God’s goodness and generosity. So stop every once in a while (at least once a week) and reflect on how richly God has blessed you. Then enjoy those blessings and thank Him for what He has done for you.
If you’re going to be ready for the spiritual battles ahead, 1st, let God roll away your shame; 2nd, relish your salvation; and 3rd…
RESPECT YOUR SOVEREIGN LORD.
Submit to Jesus your King. Bow before the Commander of the Lord’s army. That’s what Joshua does before he leads the Children of Israel into battle against the city of Jericho.
Joshua 5:13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” (ESV)
Joshua is scouting out the battlefield when he meets a strange man with a drawn sword. So Joshua asks the man, “Whose side are you on, ours or theirs?”
Joshua 5:14a And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”
In other words, “Joshua, you’re asking the wrong question. It’s not a question of whether or not I am on your side. The question is are you on my side? It’s not a question of whether or not I will submit to you. The question is will you submit to me?” How does Joshua respond?
Joshua 5:14b And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”
Joshua, the commander of Israel’s army submits to the commander of the Lord’s army.
Joshua 5:15 And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (ESV)
Joshua did so, because he realizes he is standing in the presence of God Himself, the same God who asked Moses to remove his sandals over 40 years previously at the burning bush.
I believe this “commander” is Jesus Christ Himself, God the Son, in one of His appearances before He actually became a man in Mary’s womb. This is the One before whom Joshua bows and in whose presence Joshua removes his shoes.
He submits to Christ, the King! And that’s what you must do before you fight your battles. Bow before the Commander of the Lord’s army.
At the age of 35 Christian psychologist and researcher Dr. Jamie Aten was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his pelvis. Aten said:
For the first six months, whenever I asked for a prognosis, all my oncologist would say was: “I can't tell you that it's going to be okay, Jamie. It's too early to tell. If there's anyone you want to see or anything you want to do, now is the time.”
Cancer wasn't the first disaster Dr. Aten faced. His family and he had moved to South Mississippi six days before Hurricane Katrina. “But this disaster was different, “he said. “There was no opportunity to evacuate as I did before Katrina made landfall. This time the disaster was striking within: I was a walking disaster.”
Dr. Aten had done some research on the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and “found that people who showed higher levels of spiritual surrender tended to do better.” The finding didn't make sense to him at the time. It seemed to him like a “passive faith” response.
Then he faced his own disaster, the diagnosis of Stage 4 colon cancer. He says he vividly remembers taking the trash to the curb one winter morning while praying that God would heal him. The freezing air felt like tiny razor blades cutting across his hands and feet because of the nerve sensitivity caused by chemotherapy.
Wondering if God even heard his prayers for healing, he kept praying as he walked back inside his home. “Then all of a sudden,” Dr. Aten says, “I dropped to my knees and prayed the most challenging prayer of my life. Instead of continuing to pray for God's healing, I asked that God would take care of my wife and children if I didn't make it.”
Dr. Aten says this was the hardest prayer he had ever prayed; but for the first time in his life, he says he truly experienced spiritual surrender. He finally understood. True spiritual surrender is far from passive – it is a willful act of obedience. (Jamie Aten, “Spiritual Advice for Surviving Cancer and Other Disasters,” The Washington Post, 8-9-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, you may or may not be battling cancer or some other illness, but whatever the battle, you must engage in “spiritual surrender” if you’re going to be ready to face that battle. You must willfully obey the Commander of the Lord’s Army and surrender to His will.
If you’re going to be ready to face the spiritual battles ahead, you must 1st, let God roll away your shame; 2nd, relish your salvation; and 3rd, respect your Sovereign Lord. Then…
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross,
Lift high His royal banner,
It must not suffer loss;
From victory unto victory
His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished
And Christ is Lord indeed. (George Duffield, Jr.)
