[A Meditation on One Verse]

(Joshua 8:33) “All Israel, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.”

After the conquest of Ai, Israel builds an altar on Mount Ebal, the mountain of cursing, and offers burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then half of the people stand before Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, and the other half before Mount Ebal, the mountain of cursing. In between them, the word of God is proclaimed. This scene raises questions for us: “Why, of all places, offer a sacrifice on the mountain of cursing? Why did half of them have to stand on the side of the mountain of cursing?”

It is because our place of despair is the very place where God’s grace unfolds. Were it not for that place, we would always be trying to boast in our own deeds and righteousness.

”There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” (Exodus 25:22)

In the deepest part of the Most Holy Place, on the atonement cover that sits over the ark containing the evidence of their sin (the broken tablets), sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb—it is in that very place that God meets with Israel.

That is the kind of being Israel is. They are those who stand between Mount Ebal, the mountain of cursing, and Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing; those who stand in a place deserving of the curse, but who enjoy the blessing of salvation because of the Lamb who took the curse upon Himself.

That Israel is you and me. Our whole life is like standing in the land of Shechem, between cursing and blessing. Because we know we stand in that place, we know that our salvation is not something we are entitled to, but a grace that can never be repaid. That place is the ‘Cross’ we have encountered.

We begin the new day given by the Lord like this:

”Lord, help me to see myself standing in the land of Shechem today, so that I may sing of the grace of salvation You have bestowed.”

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[Daily Reading]

– Joshua 8:18-35