Gilgal – What’s in a name 2

The Freedom of Gilgal (Joshua 5:10-12)

This is the gain after the pain. Here in this account we have an illustration that shows us that God allows His people to live and to eat freely of all the great provisions that He provides. He did not bring us out of our desperate existence, an existence where we have been wandering around in a desert picking up a daily supply or a daily fix of quails and manna, just for us to continue in the same ineffectual and unsuccessful way. God has graciously provided for us because He cares for our existence and well being. He wants us to enjoy a freedom that allows us and enables us to partake fully of a “land flowing with milk and honey” for us to have a life that will be fully satisfied with Him and to have a life that has no limits. It is true to say that God has no limits, we set the limits. The children of Israel committed themselves to observing the passover meal, a meal that had been at the start of their amazing journey out of Egypt, the land of their slavery. By committing themselves to re instigating the feast of passover the Isrealites were recomiting their lives to God, a God who had rescued them from slavery and bondage, a God who had sustained them through a wilderness and a God who had led them through a flooded river that separated them from a land of plenty. God had always intended that His people should passover the Jordan into something new, into a freedom that none of them had ever experienced before, having been enslaved by the Egyptian’s for 400 years, yet 40 years before a different generation had failed to possess the land of promise. What I like about this passage is that it shows that God is a God of new beginnings, the God of the second chance. The question is are we willing to accept the offer and follow through the Jordan River which is the place that separates us from a life of wandering and reliance on a daily supply of quails and manna to a life in God that has no limits. What we see in this passage is that because of an obedience to follow and to put down a memorial and because of a willingness to be wounded these people were able to participate in the freedom that came at Gilgal. We see in Joshua 5:11-12 some indication that God wants us to be free of daily handouts of a limited variety and become more accustomed to living in a land that provides more variety. The passage says they “kept the passover and then the manna ceased after they had tasted of the produce of the land”. There is a truth that when we have tasted the produce of a land that has a bountiful variety of God’s goodness and Grace there is no need for the food of a limited variety that we had relied upon while we wandered in the wilderness. God brings us out of slavery and gives us the responsibility to choose and the ability to work out our salvation in our daily lives. Paul, the apostle, encourages the church at Philippi in Philippians 2:12-16 “to work out their own salvation”, “to shine as lights in the world”. This is exactly what was required of the Israelites when they were “bought out to be bought in”, they were to live by God’s Grace and possess the freedom that He had given them and also to be an example of the same Grace to those in the land they were possessing. What about you and I, are we living in the freedom of what God has given and are we good examples in a dark world? We will see in a later post what happens when we abuse the God given freedom of Gilgal.

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