Daily Devotional for

Friday: Blessing by Grace through Faith

The other reason why this passage is tremendous is because this altar of uncut stores was not constructed, as we might suspect, in the valley between the two mountains. Rather, they were told to build it on Mount Ebal, the mountain of the curses. Why was it built on the mountain of the curses? It was built there because that was the mountain upon which sinners stood. It was a way of saying that if you’re going to come to God by means of the sacrifice, you come not as one who views himself as righteous, but as a sinner.

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Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal

Friday: Blessing by Grace through Faith

The other reason why this passage is tremendous is because this altar of uncut stores was not constructed, as we might suspect, in the valley between the two mountains. Rather, they were told to build it on Mount Ebal, the mountain of the curses. Why was it built on the mountain of the curses? It was built there because that was the mountain upon which sinners stood. It was a way of saying that if you’re going to come to God by means of the sacrifice, you come not as one who views himself as righteous, but as a sinner.

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Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal

Thursday: Setting Up the Stones

There is also something else we need to see. This matter of the reading of the law at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim was not only given to teach the principle that blessing follows obedience and judgment follows disobedience; it was also given to explain the way of finding God’s favor when we do disobey.

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Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal

Wednesday: An Important Principle

This is precisely what we have recorded as being fulfilled in Joshua 8. All Israel were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing the priests who carried it. 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. Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and the aliens who lived among then. It must have been a most stirring moment.

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Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal

Tuesday: Curses and Blessings Fulfilled

Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are in the high country about 25 miles north of Ai and a little bit to the west. Now Ai, as we saw when we were studying these initial battles, was at the high end of the approach road that Joshua and the armies used as they moved into the country from the Jordan. Jericho, that great fortified city, stood at the lower, eastern end of the road. And Ai, a smaller fortified city, stood at the higher western end. After they had taken Ai, the Jewish armies possessed the high country. And they were free to proceed either to the north or to the south in establishing an even stronger hold upon the country. That’s what they would have been expected to do.

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Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal

Monday: Curses and Blessings Prophesied

It’s agreed by most Old Testament scholars that the heart of the Old Testament law is the book of Deuteronomy, and that the heart of Deuteronomy is the list of blessings and curses that are found in chapters 27 through 30 of that important book. Deuteronomy presupposes an eternal covenant established by God with His people. But it goes on from that fixed point to discuss the principle of blessing and lack of blessing which is based on either the obedience or disobedience of the people to the revealed law of God, which is where this list of blessings and curses comes in.

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Friday: The Key to Victory

So when we look at this battle of the Jewish troops at Ai, we learn a great deal from the fact that there was no miracle this time. But notice that even though it was won by non-miraculous means, the victory was every bit as complete and every bit as much of a triumph as the victory that had been won at Jericho.

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Thursday: The Normal Christian Life

The real growth in the Christian life does not come by a miracle, or even by what we might call a “mountain top experience.” Instead, growth comes by both good and bad times, when we feel like we are high on a cloud and down in the pit of discouragement. Obedience in all circumstances is how we grow and make progress in the Christian life.

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James Montgomery Boice

About Think & Act Biblically

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) was a successful inner city pastor and articulate spokesman for the Reformed faith in America and around the world. He was the pastor of Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church (1968-2000) and his teaching continues to be aired on The Bible Study Hour radio and Internet broadcast. In 1996 he brought The Bible Study Hour, God’s Word Today magazine, Philadelphia Conference of Reformation Theology, and other Bible teaching ministries under the umbrella of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals

About the Alliance

The Alliance is a coalition of believers who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith and proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today’s Church.

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