Day 11: Joshua 8 – 30-35
The covenant at mount Ebal
Joshua has been in the midst of chaos and he has seen a lot of pain and death going on around him. In the verses we are looking at today, Joshua is taking it down a notch and having a moment focused on God.
We join Joshua when he is going to build the altar. He has all the instructions mapped out. Once this is built it will be used to give offerings and sacrifices to God. This is a time for Joshua to take a step back and give back to God. It is also enabling others to give their sacrifices to God. The building of the altar is a legacy that has been passed down from Moses’s instructions.
Verses 30-32
Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.
Joshua takes the time to write down the laws that Moses had passed onto him. I love this change of pace; I wonder what was going through Joshua’s head at that time? He is in a position where he was going to pass the Law of Moses to the Israelites. There would have been a heightened level of anticipation from the people. Joshua was to read this to bless the people as Moses had instructed.
Nowadays, we are in a privileged position to have the word of God at our fingertips. Imagine if we had to stand in front of a mountain to hear the blessings from God- can you imagine how much excitement there was in the atmosphere?
There was no ability to quickly search on an app or grabbing our copy of the bible in multiple translations. Have we lost this excitement and anticipation of what we are going to read and unpack from the Bible?
I challenge you to spend a few minutes before you next open the Bible and think about these two things:
- How did the Israelites feel as they were waiting for Joshua to read word?
- How blessed we are to have this given freely to us in book or app form.
My prayer is that God would fully impart His word into our situations. No matter how crazy life is, God can give us a moment of calm to see His blessings, just like he did for Joshua and the Israelites.
Michelle Hodgson
Leadership Academy Graduate