JOSHUA 5:9
Then the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”
Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
According to one source, Americans spend $50 million a year on subliminal message tapes
designed to help them do everything from improve their self-image to learn a foreign language.
Unfortunately, the National Research Council has concluded that subliminal messages simply
don't work.
Despite all the hype to the contrary, these tapes don't deliver the life­ transforming changes they
promise. But there is one source who always delivers on His promises God. As the Israelites
prepared to enter the Promised Land, they needed to renew their covenant with God.
This relationship required that circumcision be performed as a sign of the covenant. Those
Israelites who left Egypt had been circumcised, but those males born during the wilderness
wandering had not (vv. 4-5). It was now time for the younger generation to take their stand and
have the "reproach of Egypt" rolled away.
Circumcision is no longer a sign of the covenant relationship with God. When Jesus died on the
cross, the outward sign of circumcision was replaced with the inner presence of the Holy Spirit.
He is the fulfillment of the promise in Ezekiel: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). When
the Holy Spirit comes in, the old life is rolled away and we become "a new creation" in Christ (2

Cor. 5:17).
This experience can be yours as well. If you are still walking in your old life, why not receive
Christ today and let Him roll your sins away? The reproach of the past can be replaced with a
hope for the future.
CHRIST DOESN’T IMPROVE YOU; HE TRANSFORMS YOU
WOODROW KROLL
www.backtothebible.in