Our meditation notes this week: ' Leaving Paganism Behind '
JOSHUA 24::25
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws. 26 And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD. 27 "See!" he said to all the people. "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God." Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
A COVENANT RENEWAL
A HOLY PLACE (SHECHEM)
DECREES & LAWS
A STONE
A TREE
Joshua is near the end of his life. Just as Moses did, he prepare the people for the next episode of God's unfolding purpose. The people are to look back and look forward and hopefully like Joshua look up to the One, True and Living God..
Abraham did so here…..at the
Oak at Moreh, at Shechem. He left
his parental gods and rejected the Canaanite gods.
He confessed the One Living and true
God.
GENESIS 12:6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Some time earlier Joshua had gathered the people to this same spot Joshua 8and in obedience to Moses Deuteronomy 27 the people had rejected the Canaanite gods. They had confessed the One Living and true God.
Now prior to his death, Joshua re-emphasises this.
The Terebinth / Oak tree possibly pre Abraham had been the focus of divination, sorcery and pagan polytheistic pursuits. Trees offered strength, length of life, height, source of wood and a presence which pointed to other beings
Stones too offering a sense of the other and the enduring ….. standing stones.
So trees and stones act as visible reminders and memorials of contracts like the wedding ring, the landmark, the war memorial the plaque. People however put more into these things ….garnish them, shape them, worship them, focus their ignorance and imagination leading to idolatry
In Abraham and the people we see a movement from idolatry at the place of idolatry
Choice ……..Coming to know the One true Living God
Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, is another example of what happens at this place. Joshua 24:34 burial ground Joseph
Genesis 33:18 Other things
happened here Genesis 35:1-4 Jacob left his parental gods and rejected the
Canaanite gods.
He confessed the One Living and true
God. / gods
SHECHEM…10miles to Shiloh…less than 20miles to Bethel. Here at the heart of paganism, Divine revelation takes place
Later history Judges 9 …….1Kings 12....the battle for the heart of the worshippers would continue here.
The significance of Shechem in Israel’s history continued into the period of the Divided Kingdom. Rehoboam, successor to King Solomon, went to Shechem to be crowned king over all Israel (1 Kin. 12:1). Later, when the nation divided into two kingdoms, Shechem became the first capital of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kin. 12:25). Samaria eventually became the permanent political capital of the Northern Kingdom, but Shechem retained its religious importance. It apparently was a sanctuary for worship of God in Hosea’s time in the eighth century b.c. (Hos. 6:9)
Years later another will come to this place now known as Sychar: Jesus …..thirsty and tired ……would lead a woman away from external, symbolic and at heart pagan worship…..not now a tree? or a stone? but water would be the symbol.
God is Spirit she would learn and to worship Him requires change of heart and no earthly temple.
But then she would learn of
a TREE ……man made to destroy God ……..God’s triumph at the cross
a STONE…..man made to conceal God………God’s testimony at the tomb ……Dare we turn again to relics!!!!
Spirit…written on the heart
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