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Meditation this evening by reading from Holy Scripture, but tonight let us make our reading serve the practical purpose of showing us how the book of Deuteronomy is put together. In other words, what its major structure is, so that we may learn a lesson from the emphasis that the very structure of the book delivers to us. The title of this fifth book of Moses is in English versions Deuteronomy.
It is taken from the title given to it in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, called generally, popularly, the Septuagint. It is not the title given to it in the Hebrew. The Hebrew simply calls the book after the first two words in the Hebrew, Elehe dabarim, these are the words. The translators chose to entitle the book Deuteronomy, which appears they intended to mean the second law, or a second law.
If they meant it so, the title is somewhat misleading. Well, the book of Deuteronomy isn't a second law, it is a repetition of the first law. Now, it is true that in chapter five, the Ten Commandments are repeated by Moses as he addresses the people. But the substance of the law, the repetition of the law in its detail and accompanying exposition, is to be found concentrated in chapters twelve to twenty six.
That, strictly speaking, is the repetition of the law. What I would like us to do now as we read is to notice the paragraph at the end of chapter eleven. for this concludes this groupings of Moses' sermons and comes immediately before the repetition of the law. And when we've read that passage, we shall turn to chapter twenty seven and read the first paragraph that comes immediately after the repetition of the law. And if it should turn out that even at this late hour in the evening, you see a certain similarity between those two paragraphs, then your sight hasn't deceived you, and the similarities will invite us to ponder the significance.
Well, then here we go. This is chapter eleven and verse 26. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if ye shall hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day. And the curse, if ye shall not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day. For to go after other gods which you have not known. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.
Are they not beyond Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites which dwell in the Araba, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? For you are to pass over Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you shall possess it and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and the judgments which I set before you this day. So much for the last paragraph that immediately precedes the repetition of the law.
Now let's turn to chapter twenty seven. And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day, and it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up a great s- up great stones and plaster them with plaster, and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord the God of thy fathers has promised thee.
And it shall be, when you are passed over Jordan, that you set- shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster, and there thou shalt build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt not, thou shalt lift up no iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of unhewn stones, and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God, and thou shalt sacrifice peace offerings, and thou shalt eat there, and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very painly.
Moses and the priests, the Levites, spake unto all Israel, saying, Keep silence and hearken, O Israel. This day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Moses charged the people the same day, saying, these shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you are passed over Jordan. Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebul, and Dan, and Naphtali.
And the Levites shall answer and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that maketh a graven image or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and set it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. And thus for all the remaining curses that are listed there down to verse twenty six. Ver- chapter twenty eight goes on to say, verse two, all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice, uh, o- o- o- of the Lord thy God.
Blessed be thou in the city, blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and thus and thus it is said all the way down to verse fourteen, the blessing. But verse twenty five, but it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. And now once more come the curses. Dark, sinister, terrible. And they fill the chapter, that long, long chapter of sixty eight verses, describing the almost indescribable sufferings that will come upon Israel for their disobedience to God's law.
Suffering so terrible that we could hardly credit them, did we not know the recent history of the last century. These two passages then tell us what lay at Moses' heart as he repeated the law in the presence of the people before they went over Jordan to inherit their country. Objective number one. They were as soon as possible to establish the law in the land of Canaan.
And what a triumph it would be in that pagan society that had insulted Almighty God by its idolatry, had filled the land with accursed styles of living, till the land was polluted to the point where it was about to spew them out. What a triumph. When the evil was driven out, there in that very land, to establish the law of God, and to establish it with the full-throated agreement of the gathered and assembled people of God.
For each time when the Levites pronounced the law against this or that, and its accompanying curse, if anyone should practice such a practice. Then the full-throated voices of the assembled thousands of Israel made their reply, Amen, they said, to the curse pronounced. When the blessings for obedience to God were pronounced by the Levites, then once more the full-throated response of the assembly was this, Amen. It was to be done with a deliberate ceremony, with an altar built, with noted thanksgiving offerings and much rejoicing, and the law written out on the plaster and read in the ears of the people, and the Ark of God in attendance.
This was no little, uh, personal response after a particularly moving meeting. This was the grand ceremony of the establishment of the law in the land of Canaan. Moses, understandable, prime. Not just to get the people into their inheritance, but to get the people to agree to the establishment of the law. But now I have to tell you a little thing about Moses. I suspect you have noticed it.
Moses was very good at framing objectives, as you see here. And Moses was very good at telling other people to carry them out. Moses wasn't quite so good at actually carrying them out himself. I expect you have noticed that. And it is especially so with this objective. His great objective to see the law of God established in Canaan. But they'd have to do it without him. But he couldn't go over Jordan with them because he himself, on an occasion, had broken God's holy law.
Though forgiven, he had to bear its consequence and was now summoned to the top of Nebo, there to be taken home. Therefore could not bring the thing to completion and see the law established. And that would have been a melancholy tale if it had ended there. Oh, but thank God. What Moses couldn't do, let me tell you, Joshua did get hold of that, because I'm biased, you know.
Well, I oughtn't to be, but a little bit about Moses. He talks to you so roughly, does Moses, on times, do you see? I get a little bit biased in favor of this Joshua because his very name is a Hebrew form of Jesus. And when I repeat the historical fact that what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did, I as a Christian, of course, can't help myself, and you mustn't blame me. I can't help thinking that what Moses couldn't do, Jesus our Lord has done and does still.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. So indulge my little fancies, won't you? And read with me now the story in Joshua, where it tells you straight that what Moses commanded but couldn't do, that Joshua did.
The story comes in the book of Joshua chapter eight. Comes after Joshua had destroyed Jericho and had eventually defeated the king of Ai and destroyed that city too. This is Joshua eight and verse thirty. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones upon which no man had lift up any.
And they offered their unburnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as the homeborn, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in the front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded that they should bless the people of Israel first of all.
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. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read, not before all the assembly of Israel, uh, and the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them. God bless his word to our understanding that his purpose in us likewise be fulfilled, that the law of God shall be established in our lives. But my takeoff point is this that I've already mentioned.
It was Moses' grand objective that the law be established by the ceremony at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, but Moses could not attend it. And then the glorious message that what Moses could not do, Joshua did. It is common knowledge from our reading of the New Testament that the law of God as given by Moses was good, holy, spiritual, but it had its weakness. As Romans eight remarks, what the law could not do, not that there was anything wrong with God's holy law.
It wasn't just a mechanical thing, it was a spiritual thing. What the law could not do because of the weakness of our flesh, that God has done through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So let us turn to thinking how our Lord, through the gospel of Christ, establishes the law. We gather from what Paul says towards the end of chapter three of Romans, that when he preached that justification is not by the works of the law, but through faith in God through Jesus Christ our Lord, many people accused him of undermining the of the law, so that he argues towards the end of chapter three, Uh, you'll see.
Let me read from verse twenty seven. Where then is glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? Nay, but a law of faith. We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. If so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make the law of God of none effect through faith?
Here comes the criticism. He's heard it a thousand and one times, particularly in the synagogues of the Jews throughout the Roman Empire, when he had preached his doctrine of justification by faith. You are making the law of none avail, said they. You are undermining the law. And Paul's constant answer was this, indeed we are not. We are in fact establishing the law by the doctrine of justification by faith. How is that? How does the doctrine of justification by faith establish the law?
For a detailed answer to that, I ask you to turn to Galatians, Epistle to the Galatians, chapter three. And we shall begin the argument in verse ten. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed is every one which continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law. To do them. Christ upholds and establishes the law by insisting on the curse of the law to its fullest extent.
You will have noticed, perhaps particularly as we were reading from Deuteronomy chapter twenty seven, the almost pessimism of Moses. At the great ceremony, they were to pronounce the blessings on those who kept the law and the cursings on those who broke it. But in the actual comment by Moses in chapters twenty seven and eight, there is no doubt where he put the emphasis as he looked forward down the centuries to how Israel would behave. Poor old Moses, I suspect he had gray hairs beyond his age.
He'd given his life to them, brought them by the Passover out of Egypt, stood them under the mount of God until they'd heard the very voice of Almighty God coming out of the fire and the smoke and the flame. Brought them as far as he could get them to their promised land. Hope there to establish the law, but saw it plainly enough. Some few sentences of blessing, and then those terrible chapters of cursing. Moses, a realist, knew in his heart that even the law of God by itself would not be enough to save or to guarantee the establishment of the law in the hearts of the people.
But now comes our Joshua, Jesus Christ. Pray, notice what he does to establish the law. He does not begin by saying, take no notice of the law. That was over severe, and God, you know, is love. Christ begins by establishing the law and insisting on the putting into effect its curse. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things.
Notice that little all. A seventy five of performance will not be enough. A ninety nine percent performance will not be enough. It must be a hundred percent of all. Else the law must curse us. The law, ladies and gentlemen, is not just advice. Though the Hebrew word Torah means teaching. It is direction and very good and healthy advice, but it's more than advice.
It doesn't come along and say to us, now look here, a good way to go, uh, through life is, uh, if if you can make it, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. But of course, I mean, nobody expecting perfection off you, uh, really, but, uh, I mean, uh, sixty five percent will do. I mean, any respectable university, if a student does his best and gets sixty five percent, you give him a degree, don't you? Goodness me. If he gets seventy five percent, we used to give him a first class. You say it all depended on what you mean by first class, of course. Eh, but uh, some people have that notion of God's law, that so long as your intention is good, uh, a fifty one percent is good enough to see you into God's heaven, and a ninety nine percent is worthy of sainthood and canonization.
Not so Christ? Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the law to do them. Christ insists on establishing the law's authority and demanding its curse. How then could he possibly save us? You say he came with his Sermon on the Mount, didn't he, to help us, to give us a helping hand to reach the standard of the law and avoid its curse.
He did no such thing. He knew he could never come up to the standard, but then he must insist on the law's curse, and so he did. How then did he free us? Oh, hear it again, with bated breath. He became a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
Oh, my brothers and sisters, this very moment, pause in your heart and see what is transpiring as Jesus Christ was hung upon a tree for you and for me. Having faced us realistic, realistically, nor allowing his love for us to hide or to gloss over our failures. Knowing as none other else knew the holiness of God and what it would mean to be cursed of God, he took our place and was made the curse for us.
To its last drop, lifted up, was he to die. It is finished, was his cry. Now in heaven, exalted high. Say it with me. Hallelujah! What a savior. Christ then has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. It is not, therefore, the doctrine of justification by faith apart from the works of the law.
It's not that doctrine that undermines the law. The doctrine that undermines the law is the doctrine that says, of course you have to work to earn your place in God's heaven. You cannot be sure of salvation, because in the end it depends upon your works. That's the doctrine that undermines the law. You say, how does it manage to do that? Because it sounds, when you first meet it, as if it were maintaining the law, but quite the contrary. I remember in my youth helping in a gospel, uh, tent campaign outside, well, uh, the city of Cambridge in the outskirts.
And, uh, a friend of mine, we worked together to help in the chores. My friend had a business friend, and she was a chemist in the town and fairly wealthy. She invited us around to tea one afternoon, Josie, and, uh, uh, over the tea, and as we sat in the cushions, and the pile up on the carpet was thick, and the teapot was silver, and the maids had lace around their wrists. She turned to my friend and said, William, she said, what do you preach to people in this tent? She hadn't come anyway. Uh, it'll say, so he told her, and in the course of his telling her, he happened to say he was sure he was saved.
You'll see. So she said, William, you can't be sure you're saved. And turning to me, she said, and what about you, young man? For I was very young and handsome. And she said, uh, what about you? Are you sure you're saved? I said, yes, ma'am. How can it be? Well, I said I'm saved, as the Bible says, not of works, but through faith in Christ. Yes, but you can't be sure. I mean, you're only a young man, she said, and you're a very good living young man, but you never know you might go on and do a big sin, mightn't you? Then what will become of your being saved?
And I wasn't much of a theologian, of course, and I said, uh, you won't madam, I should still be saved, shouldn't I? Oh no, she said. No, you couldn't. Well, I said, is that so? So I can't be sure about salvation. I said, tell me, madam, uh, what about yourself then? What do you think God will say to you when you stand before God? So she thought. And she said, I don't know, but I think he'd say, well, my dear, you did go wrong there, and you did rather bad things there, you'll see, but you were so provoked, and uh, on the whole, I think God will be merciful to me, you'll see, and let me through.
And I was brash, terrible. I said, ma'am, he won't say anything of the sort. She said he, how do you know what he'll say? I said he's already said it and published it for the world to read. And I read her those famous words from Romans three. We know that what things soever the law says. It says to those that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world be brought under the judgment of God. And I can see the dear woman's face now.
She turned a deathly pale. God will never damn me, she said. Well, it was cruel of me, and the wiser head would have done better. But you see, this notion that we can earn our way to heaven, and thus we are honoring the law and keeping it up, depends on this, that in the end God will say, you broke the law, but it didn't really matter, come in. That undermines the law. God will never say it.
We know that what things the law says, it says that all the world be brought under the guilty verdict of God's law. That upholds the law. That is what repentance means. It doesn't mean just being sorry that you insulted your maiden aunts on one occasion or cheated here or there, though those things are sin. Repentance means repentance before God and knowing the justice of his claim against us, that when all is said and done, we have come short and deserve his curse.
That's repentance. And if we come there, then God has his majestic gospel. That the curse of the law and its sanction shall not be just dismissed, but shall be and has been fulfilled as Christ paid the penalty and was made a curse for us. Yea, we uphold, we establish the law.
But of course, there is another way in which we establish the law, and that is the verse I have already quoted. For Romans chapter eight says, and I repeat it once more, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin as a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that in order that the righteous requirement of the law shall be fulfilled in us, to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Oh, thank God. Being saved by faith does not mean that thereafter we go on disregarding the law, and it doesn't matter if we can sin. Christ is determined that the law be fulfilled, be established in the life of a believer, and the righteous requirement of the law be fulfilled in them who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. But between those two terms, fulfilling under the principle of law, uh, doing our best to keep it, and fulfilling the law through the power of God's Holy Spirit, between those two things, there is a mighty difference.
Paul, referring to it, says in Romans chapter seven, that doleful chapter of the New Testament where Paul records his sincere attempt to keep God's law and his constant failure. And what God's answer to it is, he says like this, you'll see, this is Romans seven and verse four. wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, and that we might bring forth fruit to God. Verse eight: but now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that which were- wherein we were holden, so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Well, let me tell you first what it doesn't mean, and what sometimes it is popularly taken to mean, that we do okay if we don't keep God's word to the letter but keep the spirit of it. That is not what it means. That's a nice principle in its way. You can see it in action on every American city road whenever you like. You'll see, take the traffic law, thou shalt not go over thirty miles an hour. You'll see. Every American keeps it, of course, always. Except on occasions. You'll see the point of the law, the spirit behind it, is to save life.
If people drive too quickly, they're liable to have accidents and kill people. So the purpose behind the law, the spirit of the thing, is to save life. But here comes an ambulance driver. He has a case of heart attack in the back, and he knows if he doesn't get him to the hospital within the next five minutes, the man could be dead, and he comes across the speed limit. What's he going to do now? If he takes notice of the speed limit, it will take him I don't know how long to get to the hospital, and the man might be dead. So to save life, he breaks the speed limit, but in breaking the law, he keeps the spirit of it.
For the point and spirit of the speed limit was to save life. So he at this time breaks the outer letter of the law to keep the spirit of it and save the life of the patient in the ambulance. Nice that, isn't it? That's not what it means in Romans. You say, what did you waste the time for then? Well, just to emphasize that that isn't what it means. You say, what does it mean? Ah. It's contrasting the law of Moses and God's way through his Holy Spirit of getting the law fulfilled.
The law of Moses was written by the finger of God and written on two tables of stone and made the law very clear as to what it expected and what it prohibited. The only trouble was it told you what to do and couldn't give you the puff and the strength to do it. It told you what not to do and similarly couldn't give you the puff nor the strength not to do it. It was good, but it was just letters written on stone. The gospel does something infinitely superior.
And in two Corinthians three, Paul describes it in some detail, using a beautiful metaphor. He points out that the law was written on tables of stone, and that's moderately easy if you've got a sharp enough chisel. But he says, my brethren, when I came to Corinth and you got saved, do you know what was happening? When you came to Christ, repented of sin, and trusted the Savior, this, whether you knew it or not, was what happening. Christ took me as his pen. As a man might take a pen and write in ink, so God, Christ used me as his pen, and the equivalent of ink now was nothing less than the Holy Spirit.
And he wrote, he wrote the very laws of God, not on stone, but on the flesh of your hearts. The metaphor is not exaggerated. This is the wonder of the new birth. But when a man or woman comes in repentance to Christ and is forgiven the penalty of the law, simultaneously does the Holy Spirit put into that person a new life? The newness of the Spirit, not just the outward letter of the law, so that now the outward letter of the law has chance of being fulfilled, because there is the very Spirit of God within the human heart.
It doesn't thereby mean that every believer is that once perfect, of course not. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And we are urged as believers constantly to sow to the spirit, and let ourselves be led of the Spirit. It means that there is no condemnation, for we are free from the curse of the law. Don't mistake it. There's no penalty. But there are consequences, aren't there? If we live according to the Spirit and sow to the Spirit, we shall reap of the Spirit eternal life.
For eternal life is not a something you can put in a box and keep it safe until the Lord come, and then say, half a minute, Lord, I just have to go and fetch my eternal life from the bank. Uh, do you see? It's not one of those things. Eternal life is a life. And like life in babyhood has a potential which has to be developed, so the life of God's spirit in the believer has a be- has a potential that has to be developed. But as we sow to the spirit, we reap of the spirit the full, ever increasing fullness of eternal life. If we sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption, not eternal perdition.
This is consequence, not penalty. Here is a Christian farmer, and he has a conviction in his heart. He feels from the Lord that this year he ought to sow wheat in his field. But then the price of barley goes up, and he decides to grow barley instead of wheat, knowing in his heart he's disobeying the Lord. But when the barley begins to come up and begins to form on the ear, and he can see it's barley, he's smitten in his conscience. Yes. The Lord, I believe, wanted me to sow wheat, and this is barley.
And conscience stricken. Confesses it before the Lord. I've done wrong, Lord. Prophet motive got out on top of me, and I've gone and sown barley instead of wheat. Forgive me, Lord. And of course, the Lord forgives him. And there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, and the man will be in heaven. But, what about the old barley? Do you suppose if the man gets down and say, Lord, now do a miracle, please, and turn this barley into wheat, that the Lord will do it?
Fancy not. He sowed barley. He'll reap barley. And if you, sir, get drunk and fall out of your bedroom window and break your leg so it has to be amputated, and confess your sin to the Lord for getting drunk, he'll forgive you, of course. And there's no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus. Do you suppose you'll grow a new leg overnight? Consequences will be there, won't they? But oh, thank God for the wonder of new life in Christ, born of God's spirit.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Thus does the Christian gospel establish the law in both ways. And it is a serious mistake if Christians fluff the gospel. It happens once, so Paul tells us in the epistle to the Galatians, there was a conference, and Peter himself was there along with Paul. And at the start of the conference, Peter was quite happy to sit and eat with Gentile believers.
They were justified by faith without circumcision, without the works of the law, and even though he was a circumcised Jew, he knew that salvation for him depended solely through faith in Christ and not on account of his circumcision, you see. And he was happy to eat at the conference meal tables with the Gentiles. And then some of the tough boys came down from Jerusalem. They didn't approve of this, Christian Jews eating with Gentiles. And Peter suddenly found, well, I don't know what he found, but he withdrew. Whether he felt coggly wobbles in his stomach, I don't know.
Peter was given to feeling coggly wobbles in his stomach when panic situations occurred, as we know from other history. And as he made for the door, go to his bedroom or something, uh, Paul stood in the way. He says, no, you don't, Peter. No, you don't. You're not walking straight according to the gospel, Peter. You are guilty of dissimulation. You're pretending not to believe what you do believe. You do believe that Jews and Gentiles are justified exactly on the same ground, and therefore you are free to eat with Gentiles. But now you're behaving as if you didn't believe it, Peter.
That's acting an untruth. You mustn't fluff the gospel, Peter. Be careful, Peter, he said, lest you build again the things that we have, you have destroyed. Do you know, I can't help, when I read that phrase, thinking of my old friend Joshua. Does it ring a bell with you? If we build again the things that we have destroyed. Anyway, in the closing moments, the dying moments, not yours, but of this conference, uh, you see, let me just rehearse what you know so very well, that's the story of Joshua and how he established the law in Canaan.
He did, didn't he? We read it, end of chapter eight. He established the law, he took the forces up to Mount Ebal and Gerizim, he stationed the Levites, some on this mountain, some on that mountain. He built an altar, he plastered the stones, he wrote out the law, he had the Levites pronounce the blessings, and the people said, amen. He had them pronounce the curses, and the people said, amen. He established the law. Yes, but the question is, how did he do it? It's no easy thing, was it, to take an army across the Jordan and go up, woof, like that, to like that, up to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, round about the present Nablus.
Before he could establish the law, he had to do two things. He had to destroy Jericho, and then he had to destroy Ai. And what was the significance of the destruction of Jericho? Some dear believers, and they remain dear believers in spite of it, like to think of Jericho as their besetting sin, which they have traveled around incessantly for many years and have not yet managed to get the walls down. Well, okay, if that's helpful, carry on thinking that. But Joshua's destruction of Jericho was far more serious.
You'll see, according to the covenant that God made with Abraham, God promised to give Abraham and his seed inheritance of Canaan, but said at that very moment, not yet. Why not yet? Why? Because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. The years went by. Moses brought the people out of Egypt, brought them to Sinai, brought them to the very border of Jordan, but Moses couldn't bring them in. And the promise of the covenant would have remained unfulfilled had it depended on Moses. It was Joshua who was used to fulfill the finest final, uh, promise in that covenant to bring them in.
And you notice when he did it, it was at the time by God's ordering that the Gentile iniquity was filled, full. Joshua came, led by the captain of God's host, a pre-incarnate vision of our Lord, with his sword drawn, to execute the judgments of God on that evil world that was the Canaanite so-called civilization. That's what it was.
As the people of Jericho looked over their wall, they so fortified the city, they said, it'll never come in here. The ark went round it. It had been through Jordan, it had come up the other side. You couldn't keep the ark of God with God sitting on the cherubim. You couldn't keep him and his ark out of Palestine. And for six and seven days it went round, the ark with the cherubim and the Lord of the whole earth sitting upon the cherubim. You'll not keep him out of Jericho. Walls or no walls. And the ark came.
For the judgment of God to fall. And Joshua, in God's name, pronounced the curse upon the city. It must be utter destruction and nothing salvaged from it. That was the demand of the law. Oh yes, Rahab was saved. Lovely story. She turned to God from idols, didn't she, to serve the living and true God and put her faith in God, the God of Israel, and trusted his oath. Yes, salvation for her, as she looked through her window and saw the armies led by Joshua, they were coming to execute the wrath of God on this guilty world.
But as Joshua came with the armies, she looked, she had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for Joshua, her deliverer from the coming wrath. And she was saved, but not the city. This was Joshua and the angel of the Lord executing judgment. And the curse was that nothing may be salvaged. You mustn't try and salvage anything from what God has cursed. And there was a man called Achan, and he saw a Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold, and he coveted them, and secretly, as he thought, he tried to salvage something from that accursed system.
And he troubled Israel and brought the curse upon himself. And when Israel went to fight against the next city, Ai, they were unexpectedly defeated because of Achan's sin had polluted the people in trying to salvage something out of that system that lay under the curse. When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he said, my dear brethren, I preach the gospel of the cross of Christ to you. How is it you've moved away from it, unless there be some that trouble you, like Aha- Achan troubled Israel.
Yes. What were they doing? They were the false teachers, but pure dear old Peter, oh dear Peter, let's forget it as soon as we can. He knew it, that all they who take their stand upon the law are under a curse, as it is written. Cursed is he that doesn't continue in that law. And yet, Peter, you're trying to salvage a bit of circumcision out of that system and say it's necessary for salvation. Are you, Peter? My dear Peter, says he, you're trying to salvage something out of that kind of Judaism as a condition for salvation, you come perilously near.
Doing what Achan did. You know, when Jericho was destroyed, Joshua said, cursed is anybody that builds it again. And Paul reminded Peter, didn't he? If we build again that which we have destroyed, we make ourselves transgressors. Israel repented before God. It led to their victory at Ai. I wish I could tell you how they did it, but then you know all about military strategy in the ancient world, and I leave it to you.
The dear Lord's people recovered, and then under self-discipline they went forward, and under Joshua's leadership they turned defeat into victory, and Ai too was destroyed. It was on those terms that Joshua established the law in Canaan. And now may God bless our studies, chiefly to turn our attention on our blessed Lord and the wonder of his sacrifice for us. And so filling our hearts with gratitude to remind us of the great reality of God's Holy Spirit.
Come, that the full, the righteous requirement of the law be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Shall we pray? Our Father, not merely our words, but any words, come they from the Archangel himself, could express the wonder of this, that the Son of God, for our sakes, gave himself for us and was made a curse for us.
We tremble, Lord, at the thought of it, at the responsibility it puts upon us now to live to thy glory. And in our weakness, we pray thee, Lord, fulfill thy promise and thine objective within us, that by thy spirit dwelling within, the righteous requirement of the law shall be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And use thy word, we pray, to clarify our thinking, but not only ours, that we might find suitable words to explain the wonder of thy gospel to those who toil with religion of one kind and another, hoping to find their way of acquittal in a way that can never be successful.
Oh, give us grace and understanding and the persuasive words of thy spirit, that we may bring them this liberating news of the gospel, that they may know themselves freed from the curse of the law and enter into the reality of rebirth by thy spirit and realistic potential for living to thy glory. Bless us, we pray, and all that has been done at this conference to the ever increasing glory of thy son, for whose namesake we ask it. Amen.
