Whack-A-Mole

INTRODUCTION — THE GAME

There’s a sound most of us can recognize instantly — even if it has been decades since we heard it. A ding… a buzz… a wooden mallet striking rubber. And somewhere deep inside the memory, a child’s frustration mixed with sudden triumph.

Whack-A-Mole.

You remember the game. A carnival booth. A brightly painted cabinet. Holes everywhere. Moles popping up at random. And the entire thrill — and chaos — of the game is that no matter how many times you land a perfect hit… another mole pops up somewhere else.

You finally hit the one on the left… and suddenly another pops up on the right.

You strike the one directly in front of you… only to find two popping up behind it.

Your focus is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Your success lasts seconds.

And your failures linger longer than you wish to admit.

And whether we like it or not, most believers understand the game a little too well.

Because some battles don’t stay in the past.

Some wounds don’t stay where they were buried.

Some habits you thought were dead… still twitch.

Some fears you thought you conquered… rise again.

Some attitudes you thought God healed… show up when life gets loud.

Some sins you thought you outgrew… knock on your door again.

Brothers and sisters, today’s message is for anyone who has ever felt like they’re living a Whack-A-Mole Christianity — where every step forward seems to wake something else buried deep inside.

And that is exactly where Joshua 5 meets us.

Before Jericho falls, before trumpets blow, before walls crumble, before victory appears on the horizon… God stops Israel in their tracks and deals with the things inside them that keep popping up again and again.

Joshua 5 is a chapter of interruptions.

God interrupts momentum.

God interrupts excitement.

God interrupts progress.

God interrupts expectation.

God interrupts the rush toward Jericho.

Why?

Because God never rushes you into public victory before He addresses private vulnerability.

And some of us are praying, “Lord, bring down my Jericho,”

while the Lord is whispering,

“Child, before I bring down the walls around you, I must deal with the things that keep rising inside you.”

That is Joshua 5.

That is Whack-A-Mole.

And that is where God does His deepest work.

---

THE JORDAN IS BEHIND THEM — BUT EGYPT IS NOT

Israel has just walked through a miracle. The waters of the Jordan River stood at attention. The priests carried the ark into the torrent, and the waters fled backward. The entire nation crossed on dry ground. Twelve stones were lifted and carried into the riverbed. Twelve stones were raised on the bank as a memorial. The last man stepped out, and the waters roared back into place.

A new life.

A new land.

A new season.

A new promise.

You would expect God to say:

“Joshua, take Jericho while the fear of the Lord still chills their bones!”

or

“Strike now while the hearts of the Canaanites melt in terror!”

But instead, God says something that feels almost absurd:

“Stop. And deal with the old wounds you carried across the river.”

Because the river may be behind them…

…but Egypt is still inside them.

And what good is taking Jericho if you still belong to yesterday?

What good is victory if the past still defines you?

What good is forward movement if backward thinking keeps popping up?

Whack-A-Mole.

---

POINT 1 — UNCIRCUMCISED HEARTS: THE MOLE OF UNFINISHED OBEDIENCE

Joshua 5 begins with a shock.

> “At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’”. — Joshua 5:2

Everything about the timing feels wrong.

Why would God command surgery…

in enemy territory…

in full view of Canaanite kings…

with Jericho right in front of them…

when they need all their strength to fight?

Because sometimes God must wound you so He can heal you.

Not harm you.

Heal you.

Because the greatest danger Israel faced was not the walls of Jericho…

…it was the wilderness still inside them.

The text tells us that the entire generation born in the wilderness had never been circumcised.

Forty years of wandering…

Forty years of manna…

Forty years of cloud by day and fire by night…

Forty years of God’s presence visible and near…

But the one act that marked their covenant identity

—the one act God commanded Abraham as the sign of belonging—

had been neglected.

Forty years of religious activity…

And they still carried unfinished obedience.

Brothers and sisters, that mole pops up in our lives too.

We pray.

We worship.

We serve.

We sing.

We attend.

We give.

We study.

We believe.

But somewhere… something God asked us to do years ago… still sits unfinished.