Rolled Away

In church a couple weeks ago, Pastor was preaching through Joshua 5, and this statement jumped out at me from verse 9:

“This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you…”

The Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, where they had been enslaved and mistreated for close to 400 years. Yet, throughout their journeying in the desert, they had carried that reproach with them. At times they even wished to return to Egypt as slaves, in order to enjoy the comparitively abundant food and water there. But they had forgotten the reality of the reproach.

Belittled, despised, looked down upon. They were God’s people, intended to be victorious, but living under the oppression of daily defeat. That was the reproach of Egypt.

But there on the banks of the Jordan River, God rolled that reproach away. He didn’t lift it with a great effort, as with some heavy burden. He simply rolled it away.

Think of a coin dropped or knocked off a table. If it lands right, it rolls and rolls and rolls until it finally spins itself to a stop. God rolled the reproach of Egypt right off the Israelites. They couldn’t have budged it themselves, but God effortlessly rolled it away.

It’s like that with salvation, too. When we repent, turning to God and from our sin, asking Him for forgiveness, He rolls our sin away. Psalm 103:12 puts it this way:

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.”

Our sin, so heavy to us, impossible and immovable, is so lightly dislodged by the free and full forgiveness of God through the sacrifice of Christ. It rolls away at His bidding, lightly as a pebble skipping down a steep slope, never to return. Micah 7:19 tells us,

“He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins in to the depths of the sea.”

This is why Resurrection Sunday is such a personal and joyous celebration—because it wasn’t just someone’s sin Christ’s death, burial and resurrection rolled away: it was yours and mine!

When the angels rolled the heavy stone away from the tomb, Christ’s victory over sin was complete. God’s perfect justice was satisfied, and just like the Israelites, we too can have the reproach of our bondage to sin rolled away.

As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior this Sunday, remember the weight of your sin, and how much Christ sacrificed to roll it away.

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

 Colossians 2:13-15