The other reason why this passage is tremendous is because this altar of uncut stores was not constructed, as we might suspect, in the valley between the two mountains. Rather, they were told to build it on Mount Ebal, the mountain of the curses. Why was it built on the mountain of the curses? It wa
There is also something else we need to see. This matter of the reading of the law at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim was not only given to teach the principle that blessing follows obedience and judgment follows disobedience; it was also given to explain the way of finding God’s favor when we do disob
This is precisely what we have recorded as being fulfilled in Joshua 8. All Israel were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing the priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant
Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are in the high country about 25 miles north of Ai and a little bit to the west. Now Ai, as we saw when we were studying these initial battles, was at the high end of the approach road that Joshua and the armies used as they moved into the country from the Jordan. Jerich
It’s agreed by most Old Testament scholars that the heart of the Old Testament law is the book of Deuteronomy, and that the heart of Deuteronomy is the list of blessings and curses that are found in chapters 27 through 30 of that important book. Deuteronomy presupposes an eternal covenant establishe
So when we look at this battle of the Jewish troops at Ai, we learn a great deal from the fact that there was no miracle this time. But notice that even though it was won by non-miraculous means, the victory was every bit as complete and every bit as much of a triumph as the victory that had been wo
Let me also point out that it’s not merely that God operates in different ways in different people. God also operates in different ways in our own lives, entirely apart from other people. At one point in your life, you have a particularly thrilling experience. Things just seem to go so well for you.
Now, there are great lessons in how Israel went about the capturing of Ai. One is that God uses different methods when He deals with His people. We don't like that because we like everything to work exactly the same every time. We like God to be a computer, where as long as you push the buttons in t
You know, in the Christian life when you and I run into difficulty, we have a tendency to think that probably what the Lord is teaching us is that this isn't the way we should go. We should bypass the difficulty in order to find an easier road. I think younger people today are particularly susceptib
We come now to Joshua 8, which recounts the victory of the Jewish armies over a little fortress high in the mountains that was known as Ai. If you know the book and have read ahead, you know that Joshua has 24 chapters. So the eighth chapter is a third of the way through the book, and yet, the peopl
The Lord Jesus Christ is our master, and He has gone before us and we must enter by the same path that He has walked. That is the path of the cross. What exactly does that mean? For it certainly does not mean that we’re to die on the cross for either our own sins or for the sins of someone else.
And so we come here to Revelation 21and see the presence of God again with His people. It's a glorious scene. We then see something else. We see described the bride of the Lamb, that is, the bride of Christ. This bride is a holy bride, a bride without blemish, without stain, a bride who has been
Martin Luther said at one point that when God created the man, He created him perfect and therefore stronger than the lion and faster than the lynx; and with eyesight that was sharper than the eagle’s. That would presumably have been true of the woman as well. But in addition to those qualities, s
Moreover, not only did God create this perfect environment and the perfect man to live in this environment, but also He gave this man in this perfect environment perfect work to do. We sometimes think in our fallen state that bliss should involve no work. In the earlier part of this century, there
The idea for this particular evening Easter sermon came from this year’s PCRT conferences, the first of which was held just a number of weeks ago. This year’s conference theme dealt in part with the subject of an earthly Utopia, which concerns mankind’s quest to attempt to bring about a perfectly f
Because Jesus has removed death’s sting by His death in our place, although physical death comes, for believers what follows is the receiving of our resurrection bodies. This is necessary because, as Paul himself says, flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God. You have to have a resurrection
Yesterday, we concluded by making the point that Jesus’ resurrection is proof that God the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins on the cross.And not only that, the resurrection is also a victory because it shows that the ravages of sin will be reversed—those ravages of sin which affect us
Jesus is the One who described Himself in John 14:6 as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, "No one takes my life from me. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." But when Jesus stood alone before this formidable foe, it seemed by any reasonable analysis,
However, it wasn't only the enemies of Christ that seemed to have won on that Good Friday. It was also a victory for the devil, or so it seemed. The devil had begun his onslaught against Jesus even before the religious leaders. Even before the leaders knew He was around to cause them trouble, the de
We want to talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a victory, which is a good theme just now in this moment of American history because most Americans are tuned in to the idea of victory because of the victory of our military forces in the Persian Gulf. People who think about that victory, ho
Up to this point, we have dealt largely with sin and judgment. Judgment is a grim note. It is not something that we want when we see it unfolding, especially unfolding on a member of the people of God. We are drawn up short because we recognize that we, too, sin. And judgment is something that must
Once the lot fell on Achan, Joshua pursued the matter: "My son, give glory to the Lord. Tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me." Achan, exposed now before Joshua and the people as well as before God, did confess his sin.Once the lot fell on Achan, Joshua pursued the matter: “My son, give
Yesterday we looked at the first step in Achan’s sin, which was dissatisfaction with God. Today we look at the second and third steps. The second is that sin progressed to the point of covetousness; that is, Achan began to desire that which was not his. Now according to the laws of war, the possess
Not only do we learn that sin cannot be tolerated, but I think we learn something else, too. We learn something about the birth and progress of sin. It’s very seldom when we study the Bible and come across a chapter like this that talks about some great spiritual failure, or some sin on the part of
