Covenant renewed (Joshua 8:30-35)
After the successful defeat of Ai (Joshua 8:1-29), Joshua renews the special covenant between God and His people publicly reading out the Law to the whole nation. Joshua’s renewal results in Joshua doing all that God had commanded through Moses (see Deuteronomy 27-30) on Mt Ebal.
In Deuteronomy 27-30 God warns and urges Israel to choose life, to choose to love God by obeying all His commandments, and in return God promises to bless them and cause them to inherit all that He had promised to them.
Jericho – God’s guidance, obedience & victory
Ai (round 1) – Self-reliance & disobedience – defeat
Achan’s sin – Sin in the camp, consequences to personal sin
Ai (round 2) – God’s guidance , obedience & victory
Mt Ebal – covenant renewed, worship/thanks & a recommitment to God’s word
The reading of the Law, God’s Word was central to this renewal (as it is in other renewals in Scripture like Ezra’s reading of God’s word recorded in Nehemiah 8).
Friend, nothing will have a more profound effect on our lives than honouring God’s word by reading it, meditating on it & obeying it.
So, decide today to commit yourself to growing in your love for God’s word.
Commit yourself to knowing God’s will (revealed in Scripture) and obeying it.
Choose today to revere God’s words too you even when they ruffle you.
Two words that matter 