Results of Discipline

BUT to return to Joshua and the people. Israel had learned in the pathway of humiliation not to trust in themselves, and this expression at once bears fruit. Henceforth if controlled by the word of God, and trusting in its perfect guidance, they would escape further falls. In verses 27-35, we see Joshua and the people obeying the Lord's commandment (vers. 27, 31, 33, 35), and depending on what is written in the book of the law.. (Vers. 31, 34.) The effect of being humbled is that Joshua and the people are reminded in heart of the statutes laid down in Deut. 27
More than this: the hanging of the king of Al shows that Joshua is informed as to the details of his conduct by the word of God. " As soon as the sun went down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree." (Cf. Deut. 21:22,23.) To all human appearance this would be a detail of no importance, but a heart fed by the word of God could not overlook it. To neglect it, would have been to lose sight of the holiness of God, and Joshua would then have failed in the very point which brought down chastisement on the people. "His body shall not, remain all night upon the tree.. for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deut. 21:23.) And again:- Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel." (Num. 35:34:) In a word, a holy God could not dwell in the midst of defilement; this was the blessed lesson which Joshua received from the Lord of hosts, before Jericho, which he learned amidst tears in the valley of Achor, and which, with a conscience exercised in the school of God, he blessedly realized in the day of victory.
We learn another lesson in the judgment of the king of Ai. The bringing together in Deut. 21:18-23 of the two events contained in Josh. 7 and 8., the cutting off of the wicked person and the judgment of the enemy, is not without significance. This is practically always the case. The assembly must purge out the evil from its midst before it can silence and bring to naught the evil outside. You will find, where evil is tolerated in the assembly, a total absence of that decision and firmness which deals-with the enemy as such, without coming to terms, and puts him at the outset in the only place assigned to him of God, according to the scripture: " He that is hanged is accursed of God."
There is one more striking coincidence in the, verses we are considering. The gibbet of the king of Ai was the place of the judgment and curse of Israel's enemy. But here the people are obliged to stand themselves on Mount Ebal,, where the curse of God is pronounced upon them.. This terrible conclusion of: the law which Israel could not escape, God had brought to naught by the cross of Christ.
Christ bore on the cross” the curse which was pronounced at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it.. Israel could see in type on the gibbet at Ai, what, we see in the cross of Christ, Satan, our chief' enemy, defeated and annihilated; but we see-also, as has been already remarked, all the curse. Under which we lay at Ebal, forever gone in the actual judgment of Him who took this place for us. In Gal. 3:10,13,, we find the same: blessed connection between Ebal and the cross. "For it is written " (Deut. 27:26), " Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'"
`The curses at Ebal close with these words, but the apostle adds: " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: -for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." This is the hanging of the king of Ai.
A further result of discipline was that Israel, now humbled, were in a state to worship. " Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal and they offered thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace-offerings." With us likewise, there can be -no communion without self-judgment, and no -worship without communion. The altar in Mount Ebal was the provision in grace for the curse of the law on transgressors. In the altar we have -propitiation, which is the basis of all true worship; only here it is in presence of a people threatened by the curse if they do not obey. The cross -which has put an end to the curse for us, is the starting-point or center of our worship, and sheds upon us the full light of divine grace.
But grace itself never weakens our responsibility as God’s children. There are conditions under which the land is taken possession of. A duplicate of the law was to be written upon great stones set up and plastered with plaster. (Deut. 27:2,3; Josh. 8:32.) This same law was read aloud " before all the congregation of Israel." (Ver. 35.) Let us never forget that Jesus Christ is at the same time our Savior and our Lord, the One who has pardoned us, and the. One who has every claim over us. The knowledge of His grace fills our mouths with praise in worship; the sense of our responsibility leads us-to persevere in holiness and truth, to fight the good fight, to take possession of the promise& land.