Joshua 8:30-35 – Devotion another key to victory

In Joshua 8:27-29, we learned the need to constantly put to death the deeds of the flesh if we are to maintain a vibrant spiritual life. There is no denial even as a child of God each one of us still has conflicts with our flesh. Hence, in our spiritual journey, we need to constantly put to death our flesh in order to preserve a continual victory in Christ. Like Paul, we must live our life by the integrity of Christ Jesus who has given Himself for us and continues to love us. One key to maintaining victory in our spiritual walk is to submit to Him daily and place our trust in Him wholeheartedly.

In Joshua 8:30-35, we can see another key to walking victoriously in Him. It is devotion to Him and His Word. In these verses, we discover that Israel had already totally eliminated Ai. The victory they experienced gave them a reason to celebrate. They remembered that it was God who had given them the victory. They could have gone on and continued with the conquest of the rest of Canaan. But they didn’t. Why? They took time to pause and honor the Lord who had granted them the victory. This is something that we must constantly do with each victory God had granted us. Let us pause periodically to give thanks to the Lord. So here we see Joshua and Israel gratefully taking time to honor God and also to do what Moses in the Law had instructed them to do.

Gratefully, they constructed an altar on mount Ebal. It was built with uncut stones on which no iron tool had yet been used to chisel and shape it. And on it, they offered their burnt and peace offerings to the Lord. The altar was a place of death as well as a place of sacrifice. It serves as a reminder that they did nothing by their own power to achieve the victory. They were victorious only because God gave it to them. All they had done was to surrender their pride and their will and laid them at His feet. If we are to experience continual victory, we need to learn to surrender our will and pride and let the Lord take control over our lives.

Notice in this verses that together with the sacrifices offered, Joshua also wrote a copy of the Law given by Moses in the presence of the people. This speaks of the need to be mindful of the Word. This copy of the Law of the Word served to remind them of the importance to stay devoted to God’s Word. Here we see Joshua carried out what God had instructed them to do in Deuteronomy 27 and 28.  One-half of the people of Israel including the natives of the land stood on Mount Ebal and the other half of them, on Mount Gerizim. The Levites then took their place in the valley between the two mountains and read out the curses and the blessings. Every time the curses were read out the people on Mount Ebal would shout, “Amen.” And when the blessings were read out the people on Mount Gerizim would shout “Amen.” These were done to remind them of what God would bless and what he would not bless. It was also an affirmation that they should live by the Word daily.  

Interestingly Ebal means “the heap of barrenness.” Gerizim, on the other hand, means “cutting off.”  Ebal is intended to remind us that disobedience to the Lord will result in barrenness. Gerizim reminds us that we must remain as God’s set apart people. To maintain continuous victory in the Lord, we not only must need to continually put to death our flesh but must also live in total devotion to the Lord. Let us seek to give priority to the Word of God and to take time to live it out.