Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Today we’re going to talk a little bit about memory as we study Joshua chapter 8, verses 30-35 as we are reminded that we are called to never forget. Don’t forget what the Lord has done for us. How many of us would say you have a good memory? Like an elephant, never forget? Maybe like three hands. Ok! How many of you would say you have a bad memory? More hands. How many of you would say you have a worse memory today than earlier on in your life? A lot of hands. Have you ever thought about the fact that memory loss is actually a result of sin? The brokenness of sin has caused lots of different things in this world and one of them is that over time we forget things. Our minds are not as sharp as they once were. That’s part of the brokenness of this world. It’s not by God’s design, in fact you can see all throughout the Word of God, that God is a God of remembrance.
This week I just dove into some studies on memory. Some fun facts on memory. Did you know that we recall things most easily or more easily I should say when we close our eyes and are not continued to be stimulated by the environment seen around you? Did you know that how well you sleep greatly impacts your ability to recall things as well as to learn new things? So all of you students who don’t sleep well when you go into school—you’re just hurting yourselves. And all of you adults who don’t sleep well before you go into work, you’re probably going to forget how to do your job! Similarly to sleep, exercise helps our ability to recall and learn new things as we get oxygen and blood flowing through our bodies and ipso facto through our brain it helps us to be more engaged. We can improve or maintain our memories longer by active mental exercises like problem solving, using your imaginations, playing strategic games, doing puzzles, things like that. In fact there are several studies being done right now in elderly groupings where they are teaching them how to play video games and they are maintaining their memories longer because of the stimulation. See, I knew we’d find something good about them. No? Still not worth it. Your posture affects your ability to recall and learn new things. If you are in your seats, slouched over right now, you are not maximizing your ability to learn. Have you ever heard a teacher say, “Sit up, class!” It actually has a scientific basis. It helps those hearing and learning to be more effective. The worst posture is to be laying down. You won’t learn anything because you’re going to fall asleep.
The more senses you involve, the more effective learning is. Visuals, that’s why we project on the screen and one day we’re going to have all kinds of smells pumped into here (just kidding). Smell is, in fact, that sense that will most frequently and effectively trigger a memory. How many of you have smelled something that just, all of a sudden, Boom, takes you back to mom’s kitchen and I just remembered it because I smelled that thing? That sweet, sweet smell. Audio is the most difficult sense to learn from and recall and so if you are sitting here today and all you are doing is listening, chances are that in three days, you’ll just kinda sorta remember. Were we talking about Joshua or Jesus? So we would encourage you to take notes. But, audio is the least effective means of transmission of information.
Left-handed people have better memories. Any lefties out there? Several studies have shown and we think left-handed people are smarter. It’s not that they’re smarter, it’s actually that for whatever reason they’re wired to recall better. I’m right-handed, it doesn’t apply to me. Depression and discouragement strongly impact our ability to recall and learn. Similarly, if we fill our lives with passive activities where we’re not really engaging, like watching television or scrolling on your phone, that in fact makes your memory worse. So if your mom ever told you that watching TV will rot your brain, it won’t literally, but it will rot your memory.
Gaslighting is a very real phenomenon. The reason why it works, they are learning, this is one of the newest studies that I’ve read, it just came out last year, it says that our memories are essentially a remembering of a memory and the most recent time that we recalled something, we will remember that. So if we recall something and are told the facts are different and that happens several iterations, all of a sudden, we are remembering a false memory. So it’s always critical to go back to the source, to go back to the original. Ever try to make a copy off of a copy off of a copy? It gets distorted. That’s what gaslighting is and it’s a real thing with our memories. Part of the reason why we start to get fuzzy on certain details and perhaps even have things changed over time.
Good memories generally stick better than bad ones and a large part of that is a psychological defense mechanism is to block out traumatic events. Tragically, some of us have experienced that and know that all too well. And no matter how strong the memory is, it will fade as you age. Unless you are some outlier, your memory will degrade. In fact it is becoming an epidemic in our country because so many folks engage in passive activities more and more and more along with several other factors. One in ten Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimers and that number nearly doubles if you include dementia. Almost 20% of folks are going to have some significant and severe effect to their memory.
Memorials are important. God knows our memory is going to fade. As we read through the Word of God we see over and over and over again, Him establishing ways for His people to remember. I can recall two times in my life where I was at a memorial that I’ll forget eventually, maybe, but were very deeply impactful to me. One was just a couple of months ago, I took my sons through the Mall with all of the different monuments. It was really cool just to study and see our nation’s history, but the one that really stuck with me was the Vietnam War Memorial. It wasn’t anything unique or special about it. It was the solitary Vietnam vet standing at the wall with his hand there, head against it. It was very visceral and real and in the midst of all the tours of the students going by and everything and all the commotion and he was just still.
Memorials are significant. The other and this one, I cried. I went by myself at the head of the group. We went to Israel, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. This is the Hall of Names. There are millions of names recorded of people killed in the Holocaust. There was one exhibit in particular that was just empty shoes and it really tugged at your heartstrings because there was this little pair of baby shoes. It’s a reminder of how wicked and cruel we can be left to our own selfish devices. But that is a powerful memorial, a powerful reminder.
God intends for the memorials in our lives that he has prescribed and had encouraged us to be just as powerful. The problem is, especially with this memorial that we’re going to partake in at the end of this service, it becomes something we are familiar with. We lose the power of the memory it is supposed to invoke and so it is my prayer that we would be reminded of the power of that memory as we study the scripture today in Joshua. In Joshua alone so far we have already seen three memorials. When the people of Israel came to the river Jordan and they crossed over and God told them to take twelve stones from the river and set up the memorial in the camp and set up a memorial in the river itself and you read that in chapter 4. Then after they take Jericho, they find that there is sin in the camp, that someone took spoils for himself, Achan, and so the Lord said there are consequences to your actions and they stoned him and put a heap of stones over him. Another memorial to the consequence of sin which is always death – whether now or later it will be death. And now the people had victory over Ai after they were defeated because of the sin that was in the camp and in having victory over Ai and putting to death the king of the city, they put a heap of sin over him as the Lord directed – a memorial to God’s mercy, that He will always give second chances to those who repent and turn to Him in their sin and their wickedness for forgiveness. God will meet us there and always forgive as we sincerely turn to Him in repentance. Amen? Praise God!
And now after the people of God have journeyed over the river Jordan they have taken the city of Jericho and the city of Ai. It is time for perhaps the most important memorial in the book. If you study Jewish writing and the way of their thinking you’ll come across a literary technique known as a chiasm. Think of it as an Oreo cookie with the good stuff in the middle. A chiasm is a reflective device – all for one and one for all. There’s reflection on either side and that middle word, that middle thought in the chiasm is the most important. In Joshua there are seven memorials that are set up. We’ve studied the first three, this is the fourth, this is the center, this is the good stuff within the Oreo cookie of the Hebrew writing chiasm. End seminary lesson. The point is, this is very, very important and God’s plans and promises for His people. We’re going to read it, show why it’s so important for the Jewish mindset, and look at a couple points of application.
Joshua 8:30-35: At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.
So for the rest of the time I’m just going to read the book of Deuteronomy (just kidding!) That’s what they did. When they refer to the book of the Law, they mean the book of Deuteronomy. In Jewish thought a very, very important book. In fact, when tempted by Satan, what’s the book that Jesus quoted from? Deuteronomy.
Now, before we dive into the text itself. I want to make sure we understand some of the geography of what’s going on here. They had just conquered Jericho and Ai and were just encamped in Gilgal. That’s kind of like central Israel, northeast of Jerusalem. Gerizim and Ebal, depending on if they were coming from Ai or coming from Gilgal, was roughly 20 to 40 miles north and west of where they were. So they just fought these battles and in the gray area, the Jordan River on the east, Jericho, and Gilgal(?). Ai if you trace in is a little further inland to the west and up at the red pin on the map is Shechem and on either side of Shechem is Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. Shechem is right in the center of those two mountains. They are about a mile apart. The top of Ebal and the top of Gerizim (this is of course a present day photo) but what’s really cool is that you can kind of see the curvature in the mountains. The Lord made this location to be a kind of natural amphitheater. One mile large natural amphitheater. You can stand on the top of one of the mountains and you can speak out and it will be clearly heard on the other side and vice versa. Pretty cool.
Now if you are a student of the Word of God you might have heard of Shechem before. It’s pretty important to the people of God. There’s no record of Israel fighting anybody on the way here, but they traveled to the northern interior portion of Israel to do this thing and they took everyone with them—women and children and elderly—everyone was brought to do this ceremony which was a covenant renewal ceremony. Again, the people of God have just won a battle. They have taken the fortification that has essentially opened the opportunity to conquer all of the promised land and instead of continuing the march and taking city and town after city and town the lord says nope, I’m gonna march all y’all up to Mts. Gerizim and Ebal and we’re going to have a worship service. God’s ways are not our ways. He will so regularly have us do the exact opposite of convention and strategic logical reason. That’s what he did here. They marched up to Shechem between Gerizim and Ebal.
Shechem is significant because if you go in your bibles (and this is where if you have your bible open I would start writing some notes) to Genesis 12 where God comes to Abram and promises some pretty big things in verses 1-7: Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lordappeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
The first time we see God give the promise of the and was with Abram. Why was the Lord bringing them here? It was to get them to remember His promises—I told Abram I was going to give you this land and now, today, all these hundreds of years later, thousands of years later, you’re here and I’m giving you this land. Our God is a God of remembrance. He does not want us to forget that He will accomplish what He has said He is going to do. Amen?
Shechem wasn’t always the location of good stuff. Shechem was also the place where Simeon and Levi wiped out the whole town after the prince of Shechem defiled their sister. They basically tricked the town into circumcising themselves and then wiped them out on the third day. Because of the violence of Simeon and Levi, when Jacob died at the end of the book of Genesis, he cursed Simeon and Levi. For the people of Israel this is not only the place of promise, but it is a reminder of the consequence of sin, the curse of disobedience and sin and taking matters into our own hands and not pursuing the Lord’s plan. So the Lord had led His people here and He had already designed this worship service way back in their parents’ time with Moses.
If we turn back to Deuteronomy 11 we will see the first time this is mentioned in verses 29-32 it says, “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?31 For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.”
The Lord said I’m going to give you the land and I’m going to put blessings and curses before you and it’s going to be up to you guys to walk, to choose. That thought is echoed later on in Deuteronomy 27. Now we see the specifics from God via Moses as to what exactly He wants His people to do when they get to Gerizim and Ebal. (All these references, I’d be marking them down so that you know there is a chain and sequence here that the Lord has. To a Jew, they would know all this stuff. They know the Word and they know the Old Testament in particular, the Tanach, especially Torah, first five books, especially the book of the law, Deuteronomy. They would know all of these references and they would intrinsically understand the significance of this ceremony because of how God has ordained this.
Deuteronomy 27:1-8 says, “Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today.2 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; 6 you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lordyour God, 7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
We turn back to Joshua 8 and that’s exactly what they did isn’t it? They got in there, they plastered and wrote the law on the stones. Joshua followed it word for word. But that wasn’t the only instruction. Moses made very clear to the people that as they came into the land God’s promise would be kept. God’s promises are always kept. What He says will come to pass. And that they would keep the land. It would remain theirs so long as they were obedient. So long as they chose life and not death. See, God’s promise to give the people the land, not conditional, right? I’m giving it to you. You’re going to have it. So God’s promise for His people to receive the land was not conditional. God’s promise for them to keep the land, to remain in it, that’s conditioned on their obedience. Now, if you know the Word of God, you know that ultimately they were disobedient and they were sent into exile, out of the land, the consequence of sin. And Moses charged them with this in Deuteronomy 30:15-20:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
This pattern that the Lord laid out, this consequential lifestyle has not changed. Praise God that He has saved us. That those of us who have bowed our knee to Him in faith have submitted to Him, we are saved and have confidence in the eternal hope that awaits us. We are in our proverbial land of promise with Christ. Amen? Now that is not going to be taken from you praise God, but there can be consequences if we do not walk in the blessings of life and we instead choose to walk in death. Jesus said there is none who can take the sheep out of my hand that my Father has given me. We will not lose our proverbial promised land, that’s where the analogy breaks down between salvation and the promised land, but there are still earthly consequences that we can and will experience when we choose death instead of life. The Lord warns us of that over and over. Praise God that He wants to bless us. Amen? He wants us, desires us to walk in life, in blessing, in goodness, as He defines it, very important, not as we define it, but as He defines it, serving Him, and seeing good fruit that comes about that praises Him and brings glory to His name. It’s not just about prosperity and wealth and all those things that we think about. It’s about His blessing—His presence and His power in our lives. That is God’s blessing right there. Those two things. That’s really what it boils down to, everything flows into that. His power and presence in our life, there is no greater blessing than those things. Now, there is no greater blessing. Amen? There are other blessings, but it ultimately rolls up into that. His power and presence at work in our life. So Moses reminds the people and he says choose life and not death. By the way, Joshua is going to echo this charge at the end of the book in Joshua 24 and we’ll study that Lord-willing, when he says choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. As for me and my house we are choosing life. So you have a choice to make. You have a responsibility with your actions. With how you live.
Let’s get back to this ceremony. Not only does the Lord direct them on how to build the altar, not only does the Lord tell them, you have a choice to make, He tells them exactly what this worship service is going to entail. This is in Deuteronomy 27. Of all of the times of worship in the books of the bible, this is actually the most carefully prescripted worship service in all of the bible. It very clearly lays out how He wants His people to come before Him and renew the covenant and to praise Him. Verse 11-15 say:
That day Moses charged the people, saying, 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice: 15 “‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
So picture this, you have all the people, let’s say 2-3 million strong in this one mile amphitheater and he splits them up, six tribes at Gerizim for the blessing, six tribes with Ebal for the curse. The Levites are the ones who are leading the reading and when they read the curses, all the people respond by saying amen. Now how many of you like to say Amen to a curse? Guess what? There’s no amen to blessings. They’re not told to do that. They’re told to amen the curses. We’ll talk about why in a moment. I’m not going to read all the curses but you can find them in Deuteronomy 27:15-26. They all relate back to the ten commandments, but these are clear expressions of the consequence of sin. And they all respond amen to each of the curses. They have to acknowledge sin before the Lord and walk in the blessing. Why do we say amen to curses? The Lord’s making all His people recognize there’s consequences to sin. You all recognize that. Amen? That was really weak. We don’t want consequences to sin. Why aren’t you amen-ing blessing? Because everyone wants blessing, but blessing comes through obedience. Blessing comes through choosing life as we submit to the Spirit of God working and moving. Then blessing comes. You don’t get to choose to just stay in blessing all the time. You need to recognize the consequence of sin, that there will be sin, and what we do is we walk in the presence and power of God and therefore, He brings blessing as we focus on Him, not the blessing. We get that? Not saying amen to blessing-ya, I just want those blessings. What I say amen to is I want you Lord. I want Your presence and Your power.I don’t need to amen the blessings. I want to be with the Blesser I choose life. I choose You, Lord. God is life. Amen?
All the law does is show us our failures, our shortcomings, our inability to actually live up. We need God who is life to save us from the consequences and the curses, the death that would otherwise await us. There is no salvific blessing without first acknowledging consequences of sin. Did you know that? There is no blessing surrounding salvation without first acknowledging the consequence of sin. That’s why the order is this way. Now the rain falls on the just and the unjust. That’s a blessing. But that’s not a salvific blessing. Get the difference? After the curses are amen-ed to, the blessings were read and that’s in Deuteronomy 28. We’ve read verse 1-6:
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
You can read through the rest of the chapter. There’s all kinds of blessings, but then he goes back to curses. Lest you get all taken up with these blessings here’s some more curses to remember and chapter 28 goes back and forth between the blessings and the curses. And all of these things were read to every single person in Israel. They were all without excuse. What was in the center of all of it? The ark of the covenant. The representation of God’s presence in their midst. As they said amen to those curses, it was not only an acknowledgement of the consequence of sin, it was actually a covenant, a contract, a vow they were making. That’s why this is called a covenant renewal. They are pledging to the Lord that they acknowledge the consequence and will receive it and there’s also blessings.
Now, God knows that every single one of them will break that covenant and those promises. How do we know that? Not only does His word say I know you’re going to break my covenant, but very practically in this scenario at Mt. Gerizim (blessing) and Mt. Ebal (curse), what did God have them build? An altar. What is an altar for? Sacrifice. What is sacrifice for? The shedding of blood. What is the shedding of blood for? The remission of sin. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. That’s just how God’s economy works. Sin demands death. God knows they’re going to mess up, even in the midst of them saying amen to these curses and listening to the blessings that could be theirs as they walk in obedience, He knows they’re going to mess up and He says build an altar because you’re going to be making lots of sacrifices. He provided a way of escape, salvation, and forgiveness as the people come to Him in repentance.
There’s three things that by God’s grace we can pull out of here. (There’s so much!) But there were three things that struck me. The enemy wants you to forget. This is all about remembering and recalling the promise that is now literally fulfilled in their presence. There are three things that the enemy of our souls is constantly working to get you to forget. There are lots of things. But his lies that he is speaking to you and the situations that occur that he wants you to try to miss God’s hand or to blame God for, they are all calculated to work on your sin-wracked brain to get you to forget.
- The number one thing he wants to get you to forget is how bad you are and that you are in need of a relationship with God. How many of you can remember when God’s saving work through Jesus Christ really grabbed your soul for the first time? Wasn’t that such a joy-filled time? Praise God that You have saved me from myself. Lord, I’m broken and I’m messed up and You have saved me. Praise God. Maybe you were raised in the church and you were taught that all along the way and then one day—boom—it clicks that I’m a dirtball. Praise God for His Mr. Clean power to take away that dirt! And then you go through your walk. You go through life and it becomes so easy to forget that apart from Christ I can do nothing. That apart from the mercy and grace that is new every morning in my life I am nothing. It is God’s mercy that makes us anything. His adoption into His family as sons and daughters and that we have an inheritance and a future and a hope that gives us value and purpose and yet we can so quickly make ourselves into something apart from God. And if you are hearing this today and have not turned to the Lord, it’s probably because you think you have things figured out. It’s probably because you think you’re a pretty good person and the enemy of our souls has successfully deceived you into forgetting how broken you really are. Every single one of us is broken and in need of a relationship with God and the enemy wants us to forget that or never come to that realization in the first place. We see this all through the bible. I won’t even reference any examples, just read the Word of God. Satan just puffs up our pride. Guess what God did first thing in this ceremony? He had them recite the curses first and that there are consequences to sin and that they are broken people. The first thing that they were reminded of and if that wasn’t enough, two memorials before this was the heap of stones over Achan to remind them of their sin. The memorial right after that was a memorial of God’s mercy. They need Him.
- The enemy will always try to get you to forget how good our God is and how much He loves you. He wants to be involved in your life and He wants to bless you with His presence and power. He wants you to walk in the fulness of all He has to offer. He delights in giving good gifts to His children. Amen? The enemy wants you to forget that. If the enemy can’t make you think that you’re too hot to trot, then he’ll try to make you think that you’re unlovable and that no one would be able to care about you, east of all, God. You are just so messed up and so broken and you have no shot. That’s a lie from the devil. Or that there is no God and you have no shot anyway. You’re just going to die and go into nothing. Sorry, let’s just have fun with our nihilism. The second thing we do in the ceremony is read God’s blessing. He does want to love you, he does want to pour out His blessings and life out for you and upon you and pour His Spirit out. He is not far off, He is near. He is for you, not against you. He wants you to draw to Him so that He can draw near to you.
- The third thing that the enemy will always try to get you to forget is that God can and will save you and it’s going to happen through absolutely no merit on your part. There is absolutely nothing you can do to earn God’s blessing or favor or make Him love you more. He loves you and He wants to save you and He will save you. And God reminded His people of this in building the altar. Where was the altar to be built? The mount of blessing or the mount of curses? The mount of curses on Mt. Ebal. That is not a detail to be lost. The a;tar for sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins goes on the mount of curses. Why? Because God’s even going to redeem that mountain. The lost and sinful need saving, not the blessed. What did Jesus say? I came to save those who are lost, those who are broken, those who are suffering (I’m paraphrasing.) I came to heal the sick and not the healthy is what he told the Pharisees, themselves not realizing that they were sick. How many of you remember Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4? He starts talking to her (which was a big deal) and they start talking faith and theology and she asks the Jewish guy why the Samaritans have a temple where we worship on Mt. Gerizim—it’s on the mountain of blessing. She thinks she’s pulling out a trump card by going all the way back to the covenant renewal ceremony. She’s saying (I’m still paraphrasing, go read the word for yourselves) we’re with the six tribes who had the blessings. What does Jesus do? He doesn’t answer her question about the temple, he says, did you go worshiping there with your first husband, or your second husband, or your third, fourth, fifth, or the guy you’re sleeping with now? He puts her in her place real quick. You think you’re walking in blessing? What were all those curses that were read? Half of them about sexual sin. Now, you may be hearing a very harsh and judgemental tone. I can assure you that was not how Jesus said that. Jesus was moving her in her heart toward repentance and faith, not my condescending tone. But the point is, recognize how big of a deal this whole thing is to all of Judaism. This is a massive moment in Jewish religious history and culture. But the mindset of a Samaritan woman is one that is so easy to fall into, “I’m in the blessing!” My temple! My church it’s pretty awesome, look at all this stuff, we have whose-its and what-its galore! Thingamabobs we’ve got twenty. But who cares we want more! (Little Mermaid was a samaritan woman.) We have this mindset within religious folks that are self-righteous, we have it all together, I’m on the mountain of blessing. That’s where I worship. And Jesus wants us to get back over here where the altar is. The Lord will bless you but let’s never forget the mountain of sacrifice. That is where life begins, recognizing that we are dead apart from Christ. We are dead in our sin apart from the intervention of Christ. Amen? There’s nothing we can do other than to turn to Jesus. Did you notice that no tool was to touch the altar? Why? No effort of man goes into the place of sacrifice. It is only the work of God and upon those uncut stones, that is where the sacrifice shall take place. No effort of man, it is all God in every way and he will save you. He will do it as we turn to him in repentance and humble submission.
God desires to take you from curse to blessing. Go back to Deuteronomy 27:12. Remember I noted that Shechem was the cause for curse for Simeon and Levi. Where are Simeon and Levi now situated in this ceremony? They have gone from a place of cursing to the mountain of blessing. Our God is a God who redeems. That’s what He does! He takes what was broken and vile and evil and He redeems and gives life. In fact, the Levites are the ones who are leading the entire ceremony! There are reasons for that. You can read in the book of Exodus where it’s the Levites who stand up with Moses and deal with the worship of the golden calf, but the Lord desires to take us from curses to blessings. Go back even further to Genesis 12, all the way back to Abram and the oak of Morah and the first time God said I’m going to give your offspring this land. They fixate on the land? No, go a little earlier in that chapter to verse 3, this is the true promise to Abram when He says that through Abram all of the families of the world will find their blessing. Who is that talking about? Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. That’s the true blessing and to the Christian when we read this and when we see this ceremony and when we see God is faithful, that God will do what He says He’s going to do, that God is a God who brings us from curse to blessings that we would not forget that we are in need of a savior, that we would not forget that we have a good God who loves us. That we would not forget that our God has made a way through His son Jesus. When we remember all of those things it brings us right back to His promise of Christ. Amen?
That is why we do this [communion]. This is our own ceremony of remembrance. We remember what our Lord has done for us. He is the culmination of all of the promises. He is the end of all the curses and the blessings. He took the curses upon himself, praise God, and in him we receive all of the blessings, praise God. Once and for all it is finished. Tetelestai! Amen! In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 when Paul writes the very famous lines we have heard many times about the bread and the juice, he writes, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Praise God that our God is a God who wants us to remember. That work in the Greek means literally to relive it, to replay it in your minds, pretend that you were right there watching it, pretend that you were at the memorial, at the cross, with all of the horrific and evil intents of man’s heart on display. You think Yad Vashem was something that was terrible, showing the Holocaust, how about crucifying the God of the universe who was fully and completely innocent? That’s what we remember. And we remember it with solemnity because it was terrible, but we remember it with thanksgiving and joy because he loves you and he willingly did that because it’s the only way to receive blessing through him who has taken the curse, who has shed his blood for us.
[Prayer and Lord’s Supper ceremony]