Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Joshua 10-12 - The Promise of Conquest (Josh 10.5-8)


[9.1, 10.3-5, 11.1-5]  The enemies gather.  Like ravenous wolves.  A gathering storm.  Those who oppose not only throw their collective might and resources against God and His people but they also come against those who are going over to the side of God’s people.  ‘Cuz rebellion not only loves company, it cannot abide [deserters].


The promise of conquest.  The [southern Canaanites] gather against the new allies of Israel, the Gibeonites, to whom Joshua has made a promise.  And Joshua keeps his word and comes to their aid [6-7].  To which God gives Joshua yet another promise:  Josh. 10:8 The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.”  Same for the [northern Canaanites]:  Josh. 11:6 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel.”  Do not be afraid.  Why?  I will be with you, AND I will fight for you.  God is highly vested in fighting for His people.  Over and over again He repeats this promise and shows this truth to Joshua.  Just as sure as the world is against us, opposing the purposes and the people of God, God is with us.  He is for us [Rom. 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?]  He is always with us [Matt. 28:20b “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”].  AND He is faithful.  Know this, Never.Doubt.This: 2Chr. 16:9 “The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”  The promise of conquest.  How about you(r heart)?  How completely is it His?


The armies of the world line up against God’s people.  They even line up against the friends of God’s people.  Enemies are sure to come.  Temptations, and distractions are sure to come.  If we would live in God’s land of promise, there is sure to be opposition.  Those who oppose.  They point their arrows and their fingers and level their accusations against God’s people, would-be ambassadors of Good News who are far from perfect.  But in reality, this battle isn’t ultimately waged on any earthly plain.  When we pull back the curtain, we see a pitched battle in the heavenlies.  An age-old rebellion, led by the prince of darkness.  And his minions, those of like mind, are loathe to acknowledge God as God.  A desperate rebellion that is doomed to fail.  In the end, God always wins. 2Ki 6:16 So [Elisha] answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  We see the same thing in these next 3 chapters of Joshua: Joshua 10:25, 42  Joshua then said to them, “Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the LORD will do to all your enemies with whom you fight.” Joshua captured all these kings and their lands at one time, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.  Josh. 11.23  So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war. Josh. 12:1,24b  Now these are the kings of the land whom the sons of Israel defeated…: in all, thirty-one kings.  We see total victory/vindication of the plans and purposes of the God Who.so.loves the whole world (including those who oppose)  The promise of conquest.


One message resounds throughout the entire Bible: God, His plans, His grace - and those who side with Him - overwhelmingly conquer: Rom. 8:37  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  The promise of conquest.  2Cor. 2:14  But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. Is. 54:17  “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.


Now, [12.24]  31 kings (+2).  Each one representing cities inhabited by hundreds if not thousands of people.  So we’re talking tens of thousands of people.  They ALL knew what was coming.  They all heard about the God of Israel [2:8-11][Rom. 1:18-20  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.].  Everybody knows in their heart of hearts that there is a Great I Am, and I am not Him.  Life is all about surrendering to that truth.  Surrendering to Him.


As best we can tell, the Canaanites were all hoping for some other form of deliverance besides surrendering their heart to the one true God.  The one exception we know of?  Rahab.  And maybe the Gibeonites?  But as we step back and we “assess the damage”, this conquest of Canaan, it’s tempting to point a finger and accuse the Lord of being too harsh.  It’s natural to feel a sense of shock and awe at the destruction we see in Joshua.  Maybe instead we should be shocked by the [rebellion].  Horrified.  Cuz truly, the consequences of sin ARE horrific.  Remember, God told us that at some point, the sins of the Canaanites (Amorites) would be complete [Gen 15.16].  We see that our holy AND merciful Maker reaches this breaking point with peoples, where the depth and depravity of their rebellion catches up with them and He brings physical destruction down upon their heads.  People not simply living apart from Him but standing against Him, against what He wants.  The days of Noah.  Sodom and Gomorrah.  Now the Canaanites.  Their sins in the name of religion - were horrific, AND catastrophic.  Sin has catastrophic consequences: definitely in the next life, often in this.   


But again, 2 key points: 1) life is not about our fate in this life. This life can be great, so enjoyable in so many ways.  But it is also broken on so many levels, and fleeting.  Once broken, this world ceased to be our ideal home.  In fact, God’s Word tells us that He is going to make a new world for His people - and it will be so much better than this.  The point of life in this world is getting ready for life in the next.  THAT is the promise of conquest!


2) God’s justice and white hot holiness requires that rebellion MUST be dealt with.  Sin must be punished.  The most shocking awesome thing is actually that God would delay at all in dealing with our sin.  Yet the history of the world is exactly that.  God delays the just penalty for sin because He is also full of mercy.  And He is giving people everywhere the chance to repent, to turn around in their hearts [Acts 17:30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.].


And this is the real conquest in play here.  What we’re ultimately talking about is not you and me and ours conquering the things of this life, having everything turn out with us at the top of the heap [Frank Sinatra famously crooned, "I wanna wake up in the city that doesn't sleep, to find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap"].  The real conquest is where each and every heart puts the Lord at the top of their heap.  Where every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.  [Phil. 2:10-11 At the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.]  The promise of conquest.  AND the paradox of surrender [Lk 9.24].  Losing our life.  Sadly, this kind of surrender is super hard for many people to embrace (including and especially Americans) - cuz we hate to lose [cf the quote by Gen. Patton below].  But as it relates to God's promise, victory, conquest, is tied to our ability to surrender.


There ARE enemies.  Stumbling blocks.  Things that make victory seem unattainable.  Make faith seem unbelievable.  But there is hope, in the Lord.  And in Joshua we see the Lord fulfill His promise to His people. He does all the necessary fighting for them, even against overwhelming odds.  The promise of conquest.  He is faithful.  And merciful.  And we can trust Him.  Yeshua.  The God Who saves.



2Cor. 11:3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

2Chr. 20:6 and he said, “O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.” 

Luke 9:24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.



PATTON

"When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time… Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans."

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Joshua 9.14-15 - The Promise of a Promise


[14-15]  Israel here makes a big promise.  Bigger than a [pinky promise]. They swear an oath before the Lord.  But in making this big promise, they make a big mistake.  They don’t ask for "the mouth of the Lord."  What comes out of God’s mouth?  Words, words of life, living words.  How did God make the universe and everything in it?  He spoke.  Words.  That’s why it’s such a big deal that God’s Word is living and active [Heb 4.12] - these aren’t just dead words on a page.  THESE words ARE God-breathed [2Tim 3.16], out of His mouth, and they give life.  Food for our spirit, which is the very breath of life in us.


Prom•ise /ˈpräməs/: “a declaration/assurance to do a certain thing”.  There’s no word for “promise” in Hebrew.  The notion of a promise exists, on two levels.  1) God/people say things, and what they say, they do.  The ideal is, words hold true [Num 32.24 “Build yourselves cities for your little ones, and sheepfolds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.” lit, do what came out of your mouth].  In our culture, when someone says, I will do [this/that], we ask, do you promise?  We say, I promise I will.  But God doesn’t say, I promise.  He simply keeps His Word, always.  To not do so would be totally and otherwise inconceivable.  [Gen. 28:15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” —> Literally, “until I have done what I said to you”].  I said it, I will do it.  It’s about trust, and the Lord is completely trustworthy.  Always faithful.  God says it, it’s [money in the bank][a check that will NEVER bounce].


2) Then, sometimes people (and God) swear an oath.  AND they invoke a deity, on threat of divine retribution.  [God Himself swears an oath to Abraham:  Gen. 22:16-17 “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed…”]  And if they want to make it super permanent, they [CUT a covenant].  For these peoples there is/was no firmer guarantee of legal security or personal loyalty than the covenant [Gen 15.9ff].  It's exactly what the Gibeonites ask for here [6,11], and that’s what Israel does.  


(In contrast we Westerners sort of operate on three levels, don’t we?  We say things, and we promise things, and then we vow/promise/swear before God (and these witnesses).  But the Hebrews had no middle ground.  If I said it, you could expect it).


Obviously, dealing falsely IS a problem.  Anyone ever dealt falsely with you?  Said something, and not done it?  Happens in business, in relationships.  Sadly, for most people around the world, where values are not rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic [whose ideal is the character of God], dealing falsely is a fact of fallen life.  Everybody does it.  But whenever/wherever people don’t keep their word, you can’t trust them.  Leaders.  The police.  Your neighbor.  Maybe this doesn’t sound too bad - UNTIL it happens to you.  Someone we assumed we could trust did not keep their word, and in that moment we FEEL how wrong it is.  We’re disappointed, and hurt - because a part of us KNOWS the Ideal.  If I say it, you can (should be able to) expect it.  We’re supposed to be able to trust what comes out of someone’s mouth.  That’s how kids are - they believe everything you tell them (faith of a child?).  The fact that we grow up and learn we too often cannot trust what people say just points to how broken the world and people are.  But make no mistake - we can always trust what comes out of God’s mouth.


Of course, we still deal with people.  Gen. 21:22-23 At that time that Abimelech said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do; now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring, but you shall show to me and to the land in which you have sojourned, the kindness that I have shown to you.”  A Gentile king makes Abraham swear that he won’t deal falsely.  Cuz this supposed “man of God” had already dealt falsely!  Abimelech SEES the hand of God on Abraham, knows enough to honor the Lord in SPITE of Abraham’s false-dealing, even calls him on the carpet for NOT keeping his word.  Swear an oath, he says.  Which means, call on God Himself, as a witness to what you’re saying, and God-forbid that you go back on your word now.  


How does this apply to us?  James 5:12  But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.  1) We ought not make flippant oaths.  God will hold us accountable, and we ALL can struggle to keep our word at times (especially when our culture more and more does NOT keep its word). But then 2) by God’s grace, we make our yes be yes, and our no no.  The promise of a promise. 


And why does it matter?  Because this what God is like - and we are created/recreated in His image.  We keep our word because God keeps His Word.  That’s what it means to say God is faithful.  We can always take Him at His Word.  When HE says something, we can trust/expect it.  (This is also why the enemy tries SO HARD to get us to question what God has said.  He so desperately wants to make the Lord look bad and to undermine our faith in the God Who is forever and eternally faithful.)  And yes, WE struggle to keep our word.  BUT God gives us His Spirit - Who helps us!  Lord, help me…


[14-15]  It says the MEN of Israel take these stale moldy provisions, and Joshua cuts a covenant with these Gibeonites, not to harm them.  This is Joshua’s first big mistake.  And this big mistake begins when they undertake such a big decision WITHOUT seeking the “mouth” of the Lord [or their wives? God can speak through them...!].  Big mistake.  Huge.  Never make any big decision, without seeking God’s counsel [Lord, what do You want].  And of course, the important part about seeking counsel is actually being open to doing what the Lord wants.  And IF God doesn’t want it for us, then we DON’T want it.  I may think I want it, my feelings are saying I want it, but I am mistaken.  Feelings can’t be trusted [case in point - flying an airplane by instruments, when your feelings sometimes don't agree with the instruments, but when more likely than not, the instruments are right].  God's words are our instruments for flying thru the fog of life.  God’s Word is far more trustworthy than my feelings.  What does God say?  Are you and I willing to believe that God knows what’s best for us?  Then we ought to trust Him.  Ask Him what He wants.  And follow.


But I (mostly) love how Israel responds here.  [18]  The people know their leaders didn’t follow what God said.  Now I don’t love that they grumble against their leaders.  But the leaders know that to go back on the oath they made before the Lord would have been just as bad as making the ill-advised oath to begin with [I.e. in 2Sam 21 - Years later, we see the anger of God against Israel when King Saul breaks the oath].  Having made the oath, God’s people honor it [19-20, 10.5-10].  We look to the Lord to help us make the decision, and we look to Him to help us abide by the decision.  And when we mess up, we look to His amazing grace.  His forgiveness thru Christ.  We own it/confess it, and keep going….


Joshua messes up - but going forward he resolves to do what he knows God wants.  There are consequences, but the Lord uses the process.  And how about the Gibeonites?  They start out as deceivers, but I think we see a genuine fear of the Lord in them [24].  They serve in the temple for generations [27].  Later we see Gibeonites helping to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem [Neh 3.7, 7.25].  In the account of the Gibeonites, we see that God’s divine purposes can be furthered even in spite of the shortcomings of His people.  The promise of a promise.  That’s God’s grace.  So immense.  So free.  Greater than all our…you name it.  He can take our foolish self-centeredness and turn it around for His glory.  The promise of a promise.



•(on flying by instruments) A helicopter pilot based on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific told this story: "I was flying the helicopter back to the ship when a blinding fog rolled in. Flying at a low altitude, I knew that a single mistake would plunge my crew and me into the ocean. Worse yet, I was experiencing a complete loss of balance -- which is common for pilots flying by instruments. This loss of balance was so bad that despite the instrument readings I was certain that I was lying on my side. For 15 minutes I flew the helicopter by its instruments, fighting the urge to turn it according to my feeling. When we finally broke safely through the fog, I was deeply thankful I had been trained to rely upon my instruments rather than on my feelings.”


•(on covenants in the Near East) In the Ancient Near East, when two parties made an agreement the weaker party would cut animals in half and walk through the halves, in essence saying: “May this be done to me if I don’t uphold my side of the covenant.”  Ancient Hebrew reflects this understanding because in Hebrew you don’t “make” a covenant, you “cut” a covenant.  What’s amazing about the covenant the Lord makes with Abraham in Genesis 15 is that the Lord is the One Who passes between the animals, not Abraham.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Joshua 9.3-6 - The Promise of Nakedness?


We come to Joshua 9.  This encounter with the guiley Gibeonites.  It says they act “craftily” [4].  For this word, we go back to the beginning…


[Gen 2.25-3.1  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.  But the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.]  The serpent is described as “arum”.  It’s the same word used for the Gibeonites.  Sometimes it’s translated as crafty, or shrewd.  Sometimes it’s translated as prudent, or sensible.  Wise.  I.e this same word that describes the serpent shows up repeatedly in Proverbs, the book of wisdom. [Prov. 14:8  The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, but the foolishness of fools is deceit.]  So what’s the difference?  Both the crafty person and the prudent person are very smart, very clever, gifted by God to figure things out and make things happen.  But prudent becomes crafty, it goes bad when there is hiding.  Some hiding or twisting of the truth.  Deceit.  


Now, by contrast, in [Gen 2], the first couple is described not as “arum” but as “arom”.  It sounds almost the same - the serpent is arum, and Adam/Eve are arom.  WE translate arom by saying they were naked.  I.e. what we see with them is there was NO hiding whatsoever.  No hiding.  And they had no reason to hide.  They were unashamed.  No guilt.  No guile.


The Hebrew emphasis is that, on the outside they were innocent, no public disgrace.  Nothing to hide, no need to hide anything to keep up appearances.  But I think there was also an inner peace, an inner acceptance of themselves, no contaminating or condemning thoughts about who they were.  They were arom.  Everything was out in the open - literally!  They had no misgivings about how God had made them - nor should they have.  They were fearfully and wonderfully made, made in the image of God, to reflect what He is like.  Just like you and I.  They knew that God SO loves us, just the way He made us.  They weren’t listening to the voices.  The world.  Or our feelings.  Cuz the world and our feelings often try to convince us that the truth about who God made us to be needs to be hidden.  Or twisted.  So fast forward several millennia, and what we find today is a pandemic of self-doubt & self-loathing.  And hiding.  [Think about all the things the average person would say, I don’t like about myself.]  I imagine every person in here can think of things we don’t like about ourselves.  We can all struggle with coming to terms with how God has made us.  And I think if the Lord could tell us one thing this morning, it’d be: Don’t doubt how I made you.  I went to great lengths to weave every part of you together in your mother’s womb.  And I have good plans for you.  Let Me help you become all I created you to be.  Practically speaking, this is where faith comes in.  Faith is the assurance of things unseen, isn’t it?  God, I believe that You knew what You were doing when You made me.  Thank you for making me.  I may not see it or feel it, but I choose to believe it.  We don’t need to be ashamed.  That’s arom.


Now, what was the first thing the first couple began to do after they did the one and only thing that God had told them not to do?  [Gen 3.7-8 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.]  They fell - and they hid.  Our fallen instinct is to hide - hiding from one another, and from our Maker.  AND we hide from the truth.  When God asks them what they did, how do they respond?  Naked honesty (arom) would say, yes I did it.  But how do they respond?  [11-13 And God said, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”  Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”]  The simple naked truth is, they messed up.  But they deflect the truth, they twist the truth.  Running from the truth.  Hiding. 


And that’s what their descendants have done ever since.  That’s what we do.  We avoid the truth.  We twist it.  And we hide, don’t we?  We hide our faults.  Our fears.  Our failures.  We hide our feelings.  Our motives.  We hide from one another.  We try to hide from the truth.  From God.  We deceive ourselves into believing a lie. [Rom. 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.]  Exchanging God’s truth doesn’t make it any less true.  But this hiding the truth is what makes the serpent - AND these Gibeonites - crafty as opposed to prudent: they’re hiding.  They "get things done", but they’re hiding the truth - from others AND from themselves.  And to put it bluntly, they’re reflecting the image not of their Creator but of the serpent… [John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.]


So what DOES this crafty deceiver try to do?  He tries to get us to question what God says [Gen. 3:1 And (the serpent) said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”].  And on top of that, he layers the logical negative.  The logical opposite.  Instead of if p then q, he insists, if p, then not q.  If you eat it, you will surely die, God says.  And the serpent fires back, if you eat it, you surely will NOT die.  We not only deny the assertion, we contradict it entirely.  This is wrong - no, it is right!  This is bad - no, it is good!  Of this we should be ashamed - au contraire, we should be proud!  Can you see how this has filtered into modern thinking?  So much twisting, and hiding, hiding from the truth, from who God designed us to be.  But there’s nothing "progressive" about this - it’s as old as the garden.


So, back to Joshua.  The people of Gibeon, who act with “arum”.  Crafty.  They’re the 3rd people spotlight we get in Joshua.  We’ve seen Rahab (who hid the spies), and then Achan (who hid the booty), and now Gibeon, hiding AND twisting the truth.  But there’s a difference.  Do you know what sets Rahab apart from the Gideonites?  With Rahab, who is the focus, Who gets the credit? [2.9-11]  For the Gibeonites. who is the focus, who gets the credit? [9.24-25]  Joshua.  They aren’t looking vertically, up at the great God of heaven.  They’ve heard something about Him, but they’re looking horizontally.  And so it comes as no surprise what they do.  Instead of trusting in the God of Israel, the one TRUE God, their response is to resort to human reasoning, human means, to craftiness.  And truth-twisting.  Unlike Rahab - who simply trusted in the God of Israel - the Gibeonites hope for deliverance, hope to turn away destruction by human effort.  Negotiation and deception. They’re trusting in themselves, in their own attempts to get things done.  [For insight on who we are trusting, consider how you would answer if the Lord asked you the following: Why should I let you into heaven?  Is my focus/trust on myself or on the Lord?]


We are too often tempted to put our hope, our trust in the horizontal.  Things like Negotiation. And Deception.  And what do those sound like to you?  How about politics?   Sadly, isn’t that often the case, that so many of our political solutions are about what WE can accomplish by means of negotiation and, if necessary, deception?  Craftiness?  [Who can we really trust?]  Our world is broken, our leaders are flawed.  Our own efforts (invariably fall short)?  We ought always put our focus, our trust, our hope in The God Who saves.  Yeshua.  He will never lie to you.  No hiding…


In the end, the Gibeonites are trusting in themselves, their own efforts.  And they put their God-given cleverness to work to deceive God’s people.  In the end, they are deceiving themselves.  And they wind up as slaves [23].  Unlike Rahab.  She trusted in the God of Who saves - and she got included in His family, the family of Messiah.  Yeshua - God saves.  Have you put YOUR trust in Yeshua?  


Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Joshua 8.30-35 - The Promise of Two Mountains (and a Third)


[8.30]  Joshua builds an altar on this mountain, Mt Ebal.  The Hebrew word for altar means, place of sacrifice.  [and they had to be UNCUT stones - Ex. 20:25 “If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.”] -  On this they’re offering burnt offerings - sacrifices for sin (which make the relationship whole), and peace offerings (which celebrate that the relationship is whole) [Ex. 32:5-6 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”  So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.].  And it’s a feast!  All the people are here: women, kids, strangers.  Everyone is participating.  And the location is perfect - these two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal form a huge natural amphitheater [you should take a peak on google].  And Joshua builds this altar on the one mountain, but then the rest of the focus - the Ark, the priests - is in the valley in-between the two mountains.  But where are we?  The town is called Shechem.  It's 30 miles north of Camp Gilgal, so at least a 2 day march on foot.  What are they doing way up here?  Let’s rewind a few days.


Camp Gilgal.  The army has just returned from Ai.  The Ruins.  They just got a do-over.  The promise of a Re-Do.  Cuz at Jericho, one guy kept for himself something that should have been given to God, the whole nation fell out of favor with the Lord and then got owned by the Ai-ites [ch 7].  But the God of the Re-do made a way for them to have a 2nd chance.  They made things right and God just gave them a sweet victory over Ai.  So all 500k fighting men have returned to Camp Gilgal and the whole nation is celebrating.  They’re back on track.  And out of the blue Joshua announces, pack your bags, get your kids and your animals ready, cuz there’s something we have to do.  And they gotta move all their stuff - cuz they’re not gonna leave anything behind for any locals to steal.  But so they push pause on the conquest, and go way out of their way to carry out something Moses had charged them to do.  Rewind a few months: Deut. 27:11-14,4  Moses also charged the people on that day, saying, “When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. The Levites shall then answer to all the men of Israel with a loud voice… So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.”  So, this detour is not a total surprise, but suffice it to say, at this point it’s a major inconvenience.  


For the record, it is always good to do the right thing.  Even if it means pausing something you’re right in the middle of.  Even if it’s inconvenient.  In fact, doing the right thing is often inconvenient.  Matt. 3:15 But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”


So, they head to Shechem.  What do we know about Shechem?  Rewind a few (7) centuries:  Gen. 12:5-7 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their household, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.  Later Jacob built a well right here, same spot, kept flocks here.  And now, 700 years later, Joshua is building an altar in the same place!  The children of Abraham have returned to renew their covenant with the Lord here in Shechem.  The promise to Abraham has now come fully full circle!


The placement here is interesting.  Mt Ebal, to the north, is the mountain of the curse.  Check out the tribes that are assigned to Mt Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali.  These tribes wind up settling more north (or else on the other - i.e. the wrong side of the Jordan).  Of course the northern tribes all wind up on the wrong side when God’s People split up after Solomon dies.  To the south, on Mt Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, we have Levi, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, Joseph, and Issachar.  These tribes mostly did settle further south, closer to the seat of worship, and more of them stay more loyal to the line of David/Messiah.  Just curious.  Which mountain do you think you would rather be on?  And where does Joshua build this altar and write all the words of the law?  Mt Ebal.  The mountain of the curse.  Don't miss this - the curse is tied to the law.


There’s a beautiful distinction drawn here between the two covenants which God has enacted over the years.  The basis of the first covenant which He enacts with Israel (Old Covenant), and which Israel affirms as they are sprawled out across these two mountains is a religion of works.  If you obey, you will be blessed.  If you disobey, you will be cursed.  And God has given them hundreds of commands to obey (613).  The Law.  Written down on Mt Ebal, the mountain of the curse.  There’s no way on earth they (or anyone) can obey all these commands.  I.e. the curse is inevitable.  Which is why we need the other mountain, Mt Gerizim, the mountain of blessing.  And God is preparing yet another picture of His plan to bless the nations.  Fast forward…


700 years later, the northern tribes, those in this area of Shechem (aka Samaria) have rebelled against God AND against David’s throne.  As promised, they get the curse.  Here come the Assyrians, who carry some of them away, and replace them with conquered Gentiles.  That’s how the Assyrians controlled people they conquered: they intermingled them and diluted the cultures.  But what it meant for the people of Samaria - they became half-Jewish.  Half-breeds.  NOT pure Jews.  Pure Jews looked down on these Samaritans.  They shunned them, went out of their way to avoid them.  Samaritans were UNwelcome in the temple when Ezra rebuilt it.  So at one point they built their own - on Mt Gerazim!  Maybe they weren’t certain about how to be included in the promises of God, but they wanted to be included, and they at least knew for certain that Mt Gerizim was the mountain of blessing.  Fast forward to ~120 BC, Jewish zealots (heard of the Maccabees?), they destroy this Samaritan temple in the area of Shechem.  They couldn’t stand the thought of anyone other than pure Jews worshipping the God of Israel.


Fast forward ~150yrs, a young Jewish rabbi wanders into Sychar (i.e. Shechem), and sits down by Jacob’s well, in the shadow of Mt Gerizim and that Samaritan temple which now lies in ruins.  And He does the unthinkable - asks this unmarried unclean, Samaritan woman He finds there for a drink from the well.  When she figures out He is a prophet, she says, [Jn 4.19-20 “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”] 


Jerusalem is not far Shechem/Mt Gerizim.  40mi south.  There there’s another, slightly smaller mountain.  More like a hill?  NOT far away.  Where long ago a father went with his beloved only son.  Had his son carry the load of wood on which, as it turns out, his son was to be sacrificed.  At the final hour, God provided a grown male lamb, his head all wrapped up by some thorns, as a substitute.  And God played out that scene TWICE in fact, on that same mountain, also known as Moriah.  God sent Abraham there to offer up his only son.  And Moriah happens to be the same mountain where Solomon built the original temple.  But later, God’s own Son, His beloved only Son, climbs that same hill, (aka Golgotha, Calvary).  Like Isaac also carrying a "load of wood", a rugged Roman cross, head wrapped up in thorns, and in that glorious moment the Father laid all the curses of Mt Ebal, all of our sins, on His Son Jesus, Who freely laid down His life as the once-and-for-all perfect sacrifice for all our sins [Gal. 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE” — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.].  And in so doing, He unleashed the blessing of Mt Gerazim, the promise of God, to all the families of the earth.  That’s what God was up to, way back in Genesis: Gen. 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”  Deut. 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.”


[v35] Let’s not miss the priority Joshua gives to God’s Word [Deut. 11:18-19 “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.] [v31] But at the same time, note the elements of food and celebration as God’s people gather around His Word [peace offerings: Deut. 27:7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.].


Meanwhile, back by that Samaritan well, the rabbi replies, [Jn 4.21,23 “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”].  For us, our mountainous climb is a journey of the heart


Like Moses urged the people of God to choose life, to choose the blessing instead of the curse, we also have a choice, choosing to trust in this One Who took the curse for us.  Jesus Christ our Lord.  Everything you and I do becomes grounded in choosing Him, choosing this state of wholeness before the Lord, in our relationship with Him.  Trusting in Jesus, that HE is the Blessed Lamb Who alone can remove the curse of sin from us.  And nothing is more important.  Nothing comes before this.  We ought not delay.  We do not wait until we’ve finished our conquest.  Or finished our degree.  Or finished having kids.  Or whatever thing might seem more important or urgent.  There is nothing more important to living a whole life, a life of shalom, of overall well-being and blessing, than being whole in our relationship with the Lord.  Of making peace with Him.  Of choosing the peace, the blessing that comes only from Him.  So, let us choose life...