Today’s short text is set near the end of a 500-year story. The Hebrew people were rescued from starvation by entering into Egypt only to be delivered out of the ensuing Egyptian slavery into freedom. On the eve of taking possession of the promised land, the Israelites, are about to taste and eat of its abundance.
As you enter this story in prayer, your own story of shame may surface – or it may be the shame story of your people, your family, community or nation. Gently hold whatever emerges in your prayer before God who continually leads us out of narrow places (Egypt) in our minds, hearts and habits into His expansive places of freedom (the promised land).
Those who the son sets free, will be free indeed…John 8:36
Joshua 5:9-12 (NLT)
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.
10 While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. 11 The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. 12 No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.
For Reflection and Prayer:
If there was a word, a phrase, or an image that sought your attention as you listened, stay with it and listen deeper with Jesus.
If you noticed any place of tension, or some other sensation, in your body as you listened, gently follow it with Jesus.
Journal about your longing or experience of shame being rolled away in your life. Give that story a name.
Quietly rest in the presence of the Lord with any comfort or consolation given to you.
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