“The Altar On Mount Ebal” Josh. 8:30

“Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal.” Joshua 8:30

Abraham, “The Altar Builder” was the first one to build an altar here in Gen. 12:7-8 after leaving Haran and going on his journey to Canaan following his father’s death, making him the family patriarch. Mount Ebal is between ‘Bethel – The house of God’ and ‘Ai – a ruin, heap, or pile of rocks, a cairn. We had a ‘Cairn Terrier’ a small Scottish dog trained to go into a pile of rocks to hunt rodents. Mt. Ebal means bald and bare or Mt. Bald or Mt. Ey Bald, and it sits between Bethel and Ai. Some of my children attended ‘Philadelphia College of Bible,’ which was originally ‘Philadelphia Bible Institute’ started by C. I. Scofield and William Pettingill as ‘Philadelphia School of the Bible’ in 1914. Then in 2000 it became ‘Philadelphia Biblical University’ and in 2012 after a mixed response it became ‘Cain University.’ A name which their website says, “adopts the concept of memorials and trail markers” or a pile of rocks, like Ai, a heap of ruins!

Moses also built an altar after his battle with Amalek in Rephidim in Exodus 17:15-16. He was told by the LORD to write that event in a book and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, so he would never forget it. So, Moses built an altar (miz-ba-akh; from the word to slaughter, kill, sacrifice). An altar had only three purposes, ‘Prayer, Worship, Sacrifice’ and Abraham was known as the ‘Altar Builder’ because everywhere Abraham went, God had an altar. Maybe that is why he is the only person specifically called, “The Friend of God!” Moses is referred to as being a friend of God and talking ‘face to face’ with God, but he is never called, “A Friend of God” in Scripture, Never!

However, Moses built this altar and named it. I don’t know of many altar’s that are named, this one is called ‘YeHoVaH-nissi.‘  YeHoVaH is my banner, in commemoration of the victory in battle over the Amalekites.  Interesting, Ex. 17:16 says, “Because the LORD has sworn, that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”  (and forever).  They will keep coming back – who are they?  Arab’s, Palestinians, Muslims; Amalek is the son of Eliphaz by his concubine Timnah, the grandson of Esau.  Gen. 14:7 is their first mention; and in Gen. 36:16 Amalek is called a duke or chief.  Have fun with this one it is a good study.

Now back to Joshua 3:30, where he builds an, ‘Altar on Mount Ebal’ like Moses did after his victory, and where Abraham did when he entered the promised land like Joshua, are you getting the picture?  Good!  Now, remember the altar is for ‘Prayer, Worship, and Sacrifice,’ and I trust you have one in your home; ‘A Family Altar‘ that is.  I believe he is following the instructions Moses recorded for him in Exodus 17:1-16 and rehearsed in his ears over and over.  He built the altar out of whole stones, offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to God on them, and wrote the law of Moses on it.  What did he write?  The whole Torah, I don’t think so, probably the ‘Ten Commandments.’  Then in v. 34 he read the whole law to them, all of it, every word, v. 35.  He read all the law, to all the people, men, women and children.  How long did that take?  All day I suppose and then some.  What does that say to us as a Church or Christian family?  Neh. 8:1-8, says, they stood and read from morning till noon the word of God.  We need to read the Word of God to our people and families and put it on the walls of our homes and on the walls of our hearts.  Churches used to have two pulpits, one for reading the Scriptures and one for preaching the Scriptures, now we don’t even bring our Bibles to church anymore, shame on us!  They have removed them from our schools, our hospitals, our libraries, and now our church pews, next our homes!  What’s that old saying, “We don’t miss it until it’s gone!”

With sales in excess of five billion, it is considered the best seller of all time, selling approximately 100 million copies every year and the Bible has been a major influence on our literature and history, especially in the West.  Around 200 bc the Jewish people referred to the books of the Bible as, “The Holy Scriptures,”  and Christians now call both the ‘Older and Newer Testaments’ the “Holy Bible.”  On November 17, 2017 “The Museum of The Bible” opened in Washington, D.C. and they have over 3,150 items on display.  It is one of the largest assemblies of Biblical artifacts and texts in the  world.  It’s goal is, “to reacquaint the world with the book that helped make it, and let the visitor come to their own conclusions, they don’t exist to tell people what to believe about it, “states Cary Summers, it’s president.  Worth a visit?  I would say so, and while you’re there visit the ‘Holocaust Museum.’  Better yet, why not read it every day with your family.  There are 7,099 languages spoken in the world today; 2,584 Bible translations in the works right now in different languages; 1,521 New Testaments have been translated into world languages thus far; and only 670 entire Bibles have been translated thus far since it was written thousands of years ago.  So, we have a lot of work to do and yet you hold in your hands one in your language, but do you read it?  How often, how much, how long, how intently, how sincerely? John Knox read his Bible through every month, cover to cover for over forty years. I read 250 words/minute which is considered slow and it takes me 90 hours to read the Bible cover to cover, Genesis through Revelation. An hour a day would be three months, try it some time. I had a friend in Chicago that read her Bible eight hours/day every day. She was retired and had a bad heart and was from Yugoslavia and wow, did she know her Bible!

Joshua learned a principle from Moses and he put it into practice but did it stick?  Did he stay focused on those principles and how long did they last?  One chapter, and along came the ‘Hivites.’  Do you have any Hivites in your life or neighborhood?  Till next time I’ll see you, “…Between The Lines…”

“The Altar On Mount Ebal.” Joshua 8:30 5/24/18