Our "Gilgal" Moment

​From June 25 to 29, my ISI colleagues and I, and our families, will descend upon Orlando for our 2022 National Conference (hereafter NC22). The conference’s theme? “Our God of Great Things!”—because the God we worship and serve has done great and mighty things (Psa. 118:15-16)! NC22 will be our first in-person gathering in 3 years! Excitement is running high over the chance to catch up, hang out, and party with one another after more than 2 years of “virtual” meetings—where “Zoom” has become an accepted verb much like “Google”.
 
What awaits us in Orlando? ISI national conferences are where we meet corporately with the Lord. Recall the instances in Scripture when God summoned all Israel to assemble before Him—at Mount Sinai, to receive His law (Exod. 19-23); at Shechem, to hear the list of blessings and curses from His word (Josh. 8); and, again, at Shechem, to renew their covenant with Him (Josh. 24:1-28).
 
Orlando may not quite have the same zing as Sinai or Shechem, but there’s no doubt about the spiritual significance of our time there. By the grace and mercy of our God, ISI made it safely and soundly across our Jordan spelled “C-O-V-I-D.” After their miraculous crossing of the Jordan following their 40-year trek in the wilderness, per God’s commands, Joshua and the Israelites did 3 things at their rest stop at Gilgal between the Jordan and Jericho. They commemorated God’s deliverance, they circumcised (consecrated) themselves before God, and they celebrated the Passover.  
 
Commemoration
 
After the Israelites crossed the Jordan, they made camp at Gilgal. The first thing they did, per God’s command, was to put up a memorial using 12 stones from the Jordan to commemorate the Lord’s deliverance (Josh. 4:19-24). By God’s grace and power, ISI made it safely and soundly through the pandemic and its related challenges; the Lord enabled us to “cross our Jordan on dried ground” (Josh. 3:17).
 
Consecration
 
The second thing they did, again per God’s command, was to circumcise themselves. Circumcision was to address the immediate concern of an entire generation born during the 40-year trek in the wilderness who’d yet to be circumcised (Josh. 5:5). But the broader implication of the act was to signify God having “rolled away the reproach of Egypt” from the Israelites (Josh. 5:9). If so, perhaps what ISI needs, in the wake of the 2 years of pandemic and related challenges, is a time of circumcision/consecration to roll away the reproach of the divisiveness and disunity that marked us during that time (and which possibly lingers to this day).
 
Secondly, consecration is a time to prepare us for what lies ahead for the taking: our Jerichos. For me, nowhere is this better illustrated than Joshua’s encounter with the commander of the Lord’s army on the outskirts of Jericho, where Joshua learned the Lord does not take his (Joshua’s and Israel’s) side as much as Israel should choose to take the Lord’s side and do His will (Josh. 5:15). (Recall that old Sunday School chorus, “Who is on the Lord’s side, who will serve the King?”!) Indeed, fast forward a few decades later, and we find Joshua in his old age where, in his farewell sermon, the old leader levelled this challenge to Israel: But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD (Josh. 24:15). (I get goosebumps every time I read those words.) And this fundamental lesson Joshua learned and embraced through reverential worship before God, outside Jericho.  
 
Celebration
 
The third thing Israel did at Gilgal: they celebrated the Passover. Just as crucially, the day following the Passover, they sampled the produce Canaan had to offer—and with that, God’s miraculous supply of the manna that had fed them for 4 decades ended (Josh. 5:12).
 
Likewise, the Orlando conference will be our Gilgal where we will commemorate and celebrate our good and great God and consecrate ourselves before Him in preparation for the Jerichos that lie ahead!