No Pain. No Gain.

February 9, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience into Blessing

Joshua 5:1-9                                                       NOT EDITED

SIS—You cannot live a victorious life without experiencing pain.

“No pain. No gain.” I've heard it a thousand times.  I’m sure you have, too.  We know this mostly as a catchphrase in regard to fitness--especially body-building. Jane Fonda used it in ads for her workout video in the ‘80s. It goes back much further. Robert Herrick used it in a poem in 1650. Old Ben Franklen put it in his Poor Richard's almanac in the 1700’s. I've heard it at motivational lectures for business. The phrase is everywhere. It might surprise you that this is also the theme for Joshua 5:1-9. The "Gain" is the reward of entering into the rich land that God had promised. The "Pain" . . . well, I'll let you read it and I think it will become evident, especially for men.  Our text clearly teaches, nothing of value comes cheap (hey! another catchphrase!)

That phrase pretty much sums up the formula for life.  For many, maybe most people, there’s seems to be an awful lot of pain for what seems so little gain.  Some people bemoan the pain of life, others shrug it off stoically; still others take it in stride as a matter of course in life.  A brave few embrace it as the inevitable cost of living victoriously facing life’s pain with great expectation.

“No pain, no gain.”  This is axiomatic.  Give nothing, get nothing.  Nothing ever begets anything.  There is no free lunch.  I guess we have amassed many ways of expressing what the University of Hard Knocks has taught many of us:  anything of value costs something.  Any achievement takes effort.  “There is no gain without pain.”  Or, as Joshua teaches:  Blessing Requires Obedience and Obedience is Hard.

Take the Olympics that started this week.  The best of the world’s amateur athletes will gather in Sochi, Russia.  These athletes have spent years preparing for this event.  These athletes will have endured many hours of grueling training and much pain in hopes of gaining an Olympic gold medal.  You simply cannot make it to the Olympics, without enduring much pain.  Pain plays an integral part in preparing for the possibility of gaining Olympic Gold.  Our text in Joshua 5 explains this same truth but in a spiritual context, not a sporting context.  The gain for the Israelite is to possess the Promised Land which the Bible describes as an extremely rich land, “flowing with milk and honey.”  But, such a gain is not without pain as we will see in our text.  Let’s read it together, verses 1-9:

JOSHUA 5:1-9

OUCH!  It appears holiness has its price!  I wonder how many men would have gladly stayed on the other side of the Jordan had they known what awaited them on the banks of the Promised Land?  Many of you cringe when we ask for an offering.  I think they would have gladly reached into their wallets had that been an option.

May I say right here in the beginning of this message, that the content of this chapter in Joshua makes me a little uncomfortable—no pun intended.  In fact, that’s partly what makes me so uncomfortable.  This passage can be a goldmine of puns and innuendo.  I confess, I am a prude for the most part and it will no doubt show as this message progresses.  Please keep giggling to a minimum, and only laugh if you are absolutely sure I am telling a joke.

Do you remember back in chapter one when in preparation for crossing the Jordan God instructed Israel to “consecrate themselves?”  Well, this is the physical act that symbolizes that consecration.  God cannot and will not pour Himself into an unholy, unconsecrated, unsanctified vessel.  To be filled with the Spirit of God—the key to success in all areas of life—one must be “consecrated,” or holy.  Circumcision is very old and occurs in various cultures.  For the Jews it was a religious ritual instituted by God when he chose the race of Abraham to be His favored people (Gen. 17).  It would serve as a perpetual reminder of God’s covenant with Israel.

These men here on the other side of Jordan, should have already been circumcised, but they are not.  In the Wilderness, Israel strayed from God’s commands.  Disobedience and Wandering aimlessly go together.  Circumcision here in Joshua would also serve another means, besides a reminder of the covenant with God.  It would teach Israel, through the collective pain of a whole generation of men, what it really costs to be fully devoted to God.  In America we baptize babies for cosmetic or hygienic reasons (and religious reasons if you are a Jew).  Doctors comfort young parents by assuring them that the young boy’s “pain receptors” are not fully developed and they will feel little pain.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But these were grown men, not babies.  Verse 8 tells us there was a significant recovery period.  These men were about to get a crash course in what it means to be “a fully devoted follower of God.”  

What lessons can we learn from this passage:

1.  Salvation is “FREE” but it ain’t “CHEAP!” (v 3)

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the
Israelite men at Gibeath-haaraloth.

People confuse these two ideas in the church.  In fact, I think this is a major reason most Christians—I’m speaking of true believers save and going to heave—really don’t amount to much in the Kingdom of God in the here and now.  They confuse “free” with “cheap.”

Let’s look back on what just happened in chapter 4.  God parted the raging flood waters of the Jordan and the Israelites passed by on dry land.  God moved them from the Wilderness of Rebellion to the Promised Land of Obedience and it cost them absolutely nothing for the fabulous miracle.  Remember, we called that “free passing”  “saving grace.”  This miracle, as all the miracles before including the parting of the Red Sea as the Israelites fled Egypt 40 years before, cost the Israelites absolutely “nothing, zero, zip, nada.” On the other side, it was another matter.  They were going to find out that “sanctifying grace” was going to cost them dearly.

You see, salvation is “free,” not because it is cheap and valueless, but because someone else paid the price.  You might say, “Someone else did the heavy lifting.” They crossed from sin’s slavery to the blessing of obedience on the wind of God’s miraculous providence.  This whole act of gaining the Promised Land by a miracle of God and then, demonstrating the high cost of following God in obedience, is a picture of what happened when Christ died on the cross.  The Bible says in 1Cor 6:19 -20:

You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought  at a price.

That price was the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you and I.  Salvation is “free,” not because it is cheap and valueless but because Jesus paid the price on our behalf.  We often treat our salvation as if it is cheap because we let the terrible scene of the crucifixion slip out of our minds.  Too often, we take the value of our salvation for granted.

God knew that the Israelites had very short memories, as we discussed last week with the memorial stones set up in the middle of the Jordan and on Jordan’s western bank.  The pain the men of Israel experienced (and the entire nation witnessed) would linger a long time in the mind of Israel’s collective conscience.  Pain is a very valuable resource.  Pain doesn’t contribute to healing, but it serves as  an alarm that something is not right.  This whole scene of the circumcision was a reminder that Israel is God’s chosen people and His unique possession. 

The pain reminded the Israelites, salvation is free, but it ain’t cheap.  Becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ is an expensive proposition in a variety of ways, and it is not without pain.

God continues to use pain in our lives to remind us that the world just isn’t right.  It is broken.  It is devastated by sin.  Pain reminds us we live in a broken, fallen world that has been alienated by our loving Creator because of sin.  The beginning of Pain’s story goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God said to Eve:

¹⁶ He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains;

you will bear children in anguish.

God forgave Adam and Eve and even covered there nakedness, a symbol of covering our sins with the blood of Jesus, but there was still a price to pay.  Sin and rebellion have consequences.  The pain that entered our earth through Adam and Eve continues to this day.

We learn first of all that “pain,” in general, is God’s way of getting our attention and reminding us that “salvation may be free, but it ain’t cheap.”  Getting saved is the easy part—God does it all.  Getting consecrated and living a holy life—that’s the hard part.  It can be very painful reminding us:  Salvation is free, but it ain’t cheap.

2.  Holiness is our greatest weapon in the battle of life (8-9)

  ⁹ The Lord then said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, that place is called Gilgal [to roll away] to this day.

Notice the words, “rolled away the disgrace of Egypt.” Egypt represents living under the bondage of sin.  Here it is referred to as “disgrace.”  Salvation moves us from “disgrace to a better place through God’s grace.”  What was once not holy, is now declared holy by God.  God was preparing Israel for the tremendous battles that would take place as they took occupation of the Promised Land. Notice that the most important preparation was consecration, or becoming fully devoted to God.  We can call this holiness.  God did not give them special weapons, just a special relationship with Himself.

An illustration from our school will show us the connection between holiness and victorious Christian living.  One of the foundational principles of our school is this:  “character is more important than academics.”  Now, don’t hear what I didn’t say.  I am not saying academics are not important.  Character is just “more” important.  Many parents do not believe this, but we see God teaching this very lesson in Joshua 5.  Let me say that in nearly forty years of ministry I have never seen a marriage fall apart, a family be torn apart by drug addiction, or any person have a devastating moral failure because they got a “C” in high school chemistry.  In the race of life, character always trumps intellect. Always bet on good beating smart in the long run.

That’s our lesson here.  Circumcision represents being in a right relationship with God seeking to please Him with our lives.  That’s holiness.  Holiness is our greatest weapon.  You will never be a champion in God’s Army if you do not believe holiness is your greatest weapon.

Circumcision is a lesson in “holiness.”  Every story in the O.T. helps us understand a spiritual truth in the N.T.  Think of O.T. rituals as “sign posts, or directional signs.”  The problem is we often cling to the sign instead of the reality to which the sign points.

For example, think of a man in lost in the desert.  He comes upon a sign that says, “This Way to Water.”  The sign cannot keep him from dying of thirst.  He must go to where the sign is pointing.  The O.T. in toto is a “sign pointing to Jesus.”  If you cling to the O.T. signs, or rituals, you will die of thirst in the desert.  The O.T. points to Christ that fulfills all the signs and symbols and types of the O.T. 

The Jews of Paul’s time (as many religious people today) put more value in the signs, than that to which the signs pointed, namely Jesus.  They died of thirst clinging to the sign that said, “This Way to Water.”  Paul points this out:

^{Gal 6   15} For  both circumcision and uncircumcision  mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

What we need to conquer the trials of life and possess the Promised Land of Blessing is “holiness”—defined by Paul as “becoming a new creation.”  Holiness is a 110% commitment to God through Jesus Christ.   Circumcision represents a “deep commitment” to God.  It is both personal, and sacrificial.  It is the literal “giving of one’s self” (represented by giving of the well … it’s embarrassing for a prude such as myself to say, but you know “giving a small part of the flesh represented giving all of one’s self).

Holiness is our greatest weapon in the Conquest of Life.  Even Hollywood agrees on this—and Hollywood never agrees on anything Christian.  All you horror movie fans know this.  We’ve all seen it a thousand times.  Dracula flies into a room of potential victims, and what do they confront him with:  holy water and a crucifix!  Yep!  Holiness beats Dracula every time.  Of course, there’s nothing at all wrong with a few, silver bullets to give an added edge.

Holiness is so very powerful.  Isaiah describes the awesome power of holiness (Isa. 6:3-4):

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; His glory  fills the whole earth.  ⁴ The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

Do you want to be a conqueror in life.  Holiness is your greatest weapon.  A third lesson we learn at Gibeah-haaraloth (the Hill of Foreskins) is:

3.  Radical Results Require Radical Action

⁸ After the entire nation had been circumcised, they stayed where they were in the camp until they recovered.

“Until they recovered!”  I don’t know if there is a more “radical” way to demonstrate one’s devotion to a person or cause than to cut off body parts.  I guess, human sacrifice would be more radical, but it is usually not initiated by the one being sacrificed as an act of personal devotion.  Circumcision, on the other hand, is a radical act of devotion.

Self-mutilation, ritual scarring, flagellation and other radical displays of devotion are not new to the game of religion.  Circumcision, in this regard, is not all that unique.  Tribes and cultures have been practicing such radical stuff to appease gods since we have recorded history. 

Circumcision is a little bit different—actually a lot different—than pagan acts of appeasement.  Pagan sacrifice is propitiating.  That is, it appeases, or pays, a god to gain his (or her favor).  Jewish circumcision was not a propitiation.  Circumcision is not for God’s benefit at all.  Circumcision was for the Israelites benefit.

Circumcision does nothing to gain God’s favor whatsoever.  In fact, Paul makes it clear that no religious act—however radical—can appease God or when God’s favor.  As we read above in Galatians, “circumcision is nothing!”  Nothing man can do could ever appease, or propitiate, meaning, “buy God’s favor” and assuage God’s wrath and judgment upon sin.  Only God could provide a propitiation for sin.  He did it for Himself, with Himself, through Christ.  Paul says:

1Jn 2   My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate  with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One. ² He Himself is the propitiation  for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

Circumcision at Gilgal was not for God’s benefit, but for the benefit of the Israelites.  They were about to undertake the most “radical” campaign in their life as a nation.  They were going to “conquer and occupy” the Promised Land, that was already occupied by strong and warring factions like the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites (Jos. 3:10).  Fighting these enemies would be a radical change from Wandering Aimlessly in the Wilderness with God providing their every need.

Radical things happen when men take radical action.  However you look at it, the circumcision at Gilgal was a “radical” act.  These are grown men who are taking a “flint” knife and cutting on a very delicate part of the human body.  There’s no “socially acceptable” way to discuss this in mixed company.  I’ve already confessed to being a prude.  I don’t like talking about these types of things.  But, it is here in our text and it is important.  It needs said, so I said it.  Radical Results require Radical Action an nothing is more radical than grown men getting circumcised with flint knives.

Radical faith requires radical actions.  Now, rest easy.  I’m not going to pass out flint knives—even my most radical faith is not THAT radical.  But, I hope as you squirm and feel a bit of discomfort from this message (I’m speaking mostly to fellow prudes), you will come to realize just what it means to say, “I have faith in God.”  Radical talk is cheap—radical action is another matter!  If a person’s faith doesn’t lead to a radical change in how one lives from day to day, then such faith will have little to no impact upon the world.

We need more radical churches filled with radical—take it to the streets—kind of people.  Thank God, there are many, many radical believers around the world who are literally giving a piece of their lives to further God’s Kingdom on earth.  The interesting thing about Christian radicals is that they don’t usually look like radicals at all.  They are usually very, very ordinary people.  They are not your Seal Team Six kind of people storming beaches wearing jungle mascara.  Most Christian radicals are quite ordinary.

Let me give you just one example of “radical” believers who are demonstrating a radical faith and embracing the pain that comes along with true.  His name is Rick.  His wife’s name is Ellen.  Rick is described by most who meet him as “perfectly boring on the outside.”  He wears glasses.  His hair is neatly trimmed giving him the look of a Chicago businessman (don’t ask me why Chicago).  He dresses like any typical American from Atlanta, Georgia.  He is definitely not your typical warrior—but he and his wife have warrior hearts.  They have set those warrior hearts against the sin, depravity, and deprivation of one of the most hostile places on earth for human habitation—Delhi, India.  India has very little tolerance for Christians, especially radical Christians.  People who have visited India commented, “India is not a fun place to visit . . . and even less fun place to do Christian ministry.  In many parts of India, it can get you killed” (Mike Barrett, CT, Searching for Radical Faith).

In many places India suffers from severe pollution that affronts one’s faculties of sight, sound, touch and even smell.  Someone said, “It’s the kind of poverty you can taste in the evening when you go to bed and dig out of the corner of your eyes when you wake up in the morning.” Dogs and cows roam freely in the streets doing what animals do.  Men urinate on the sides of the road as a matter of course.  Every place is crowded.  The poverty is almost beyond description.  Millions of people are so poor they live in cramped huts constructed out of cow dung.  It is not uncommon for the starving masses to eat the starving dogs just to stay alive.

Into this horrific squalor and personal danger Rick and Ellen from Atlanta invest their lives to plant home churches.  They make almost nothing.  It takes years to get home churches going.  There is no glamor in their radical expression of devotion to God.  There is no money in it; and, it could very easily cost one his or her life.  For many of us, we might even prefer the momentary pain of circumcision for the every day pain of radical faith. 

You see, that’s the point of the story that takes place on the “Hill of Foreskins.”  Devotion to God involves pain.  Conquest requires risk. 
The risk could even mean death.  The gain for such pain, however, is the blessing of living a victorious Christian life in the Land of Promise rather than a pathetic life wandering in the Wilderness of status quo.

CLOSE

This message was forged in the context of one of the most distressing, depressing, and soul-stressing weeks of my life. It has had a profound effect upon me.  This week I painfully faced the realization that I am not embracing the pain of devotion to see the gain of a radical change in the world around me like I should be.  This has cost me a couple nights of sleep this week tossing and turning in my soul.  On Friday, tears welled up in my eyes as I was praying and realized that I have a perfectly comfortable and predictable life.

On Friday, I followed updates on Shari’s phone as my son Jonathan made a huge transition in his life from the familiar surroundings in Great Lakes to a whole new environment in Dam Neck, VA.  I am so proud of my son as you know, but the feeling I was feeling as I watched this adventure in his life unfold was one of despair—not for him, but for myself.

It brought back a flood of memories of what seems like another lifetime ago, and another person’s life.  Thirty-eight years ago—mark that thirty-eight—I said off on a similar adventure.  In the course of just five short months I went from pumping gas at Don Ruch’s Sunoco while in college, to Orlando, Florida, then San Diego, California, then Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving on the island of Guam.  I marched across the quarterdeck of a Submarine Tender, dropped my sea bag down the hatch of a submarine and in four days I was submerging in the Marianas Trench which is over 36,000 feet deep.

Five months.  I was out of my element.  A painfully shy boy from West Virginia I was anxious and afraid because I never knew what to expect next.  But, I felt so alive.  Jonathan’s recent trek across the states reminded me of just how predictably comfortable my life is at the present time.  I’m not seeing the gains in my spiritual life because I am not feeling the pain of true devotion.  I’ve crossed the Jordan of salvation to be sure, but I’ve not undergone the complete circumcision of my heart that radical faith requires.

I suspect many of you can relate to my despair.  I suspect that many of you realize you are living predictably comfortable lives.  Some of you are younger, and I hope you take this text as a warning:  NO PAIN. NO GAIN.  Nothing of any value in life comes cheaply.  Don’t do as one Indian Chief pointed out, “Become old too soon and wise too late.”

You cannot live a victorious life without experiencing pain—even more pain than what is common to man.  Embrace the pain of fully devoted service, whatever that costs.  Don’t take salvation for granted.  Decide to live a holy life.  Do something radical with the time God gives you on this earth.

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