as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which iron had not been lifted up. And they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace-offerings.
Joshua has just taken Jericho and Ai, and before pressing on with the conquest he stops to build. He follows Moses' command to the letter, and every detail carries meaning: the uncut stones, and the offerings laid on them.
The altar was not Joshua's idea. It answered a command Moses had already given. The timing matters too.
It is refreshing to see how quickly Joshua obeyed God's command in Deuteronomy 27:2-8 and built an altar on Mount Ebal, an altar of uncut stones... God did not have Israel rush at once into further conquests. Instead He wanted them to weigh their relationship to Him carefully, to give Him the worship His name deserves, and to be found depending on Him and obeying His law.
Victory over the two cities cleared the ground for something else.
The judgment and overthrow of the pagan powers brought in God's worship and His rule.
There was a reason no tool could touch the stones.
If men were to lift up their tools upon the stones to shape them according to their thoughts, they would pollute it. An altar of earth or of rough, unshaped stone might look very crude and ugly to a trained eye. But it was a picture of death — the death of Christ. So God meant it to stay rough as it was, with no art or human invention added to it.
Applied to this altar, the rule guards the person of Christ Himself.
"An altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool," was set up. No human tool was to touch that sacred altar, for to shape its stones with human hands was to "pollute" it. Christ is the altar, and He is perfect. The working of man's hands — man's thoughts about Him — only produce unbelief and dishonour to His Name.
The altar went up on the mountain of curses, not the mountain of blessings.
We are told that blessings for the people were to be proclaimed from Mount Gerizim and curses from Mount Ebal. Why was the altar not put on Mount Gerizim? Because God knew that Israel would not keep the law, and were thus left under a curse (Gal. 3:10). God would meet them in the place they were, not where they ought to be. The altar tells us that God is able to redeem those under the curse by means of the sacrifice of Christ. This is pure grace.
That placement also sets the order of true worship.
With us too, 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, and propitiation is the basis of all true worship. Here, though, it stands in front 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 centre of our worship.
Burnt offerings come first in the verse, then peace offerings. The order matters.
Our first thoughts about the sacrifice of Jesus come from our sense of need of Him. But God's first thoughts are about the perfection of the Lord's work, and about what He is to God and the Father. This is wholly a sweet savour to Him.
The second offering brought the worshipper in.
The fire consumed the burnt offerings completely... But the one who brought a peace offering ate part of it, for in the peace offerings he had communion with God. In them man had his portion to feed on; he ate of the animal that had been sacrificed.
Commentators differ on the mood of this scene. One writer weighs what the record does not say.
The people heard every word of the law read out, the blessings and the curses. Yet there is no word of their rejoicing before the Lord. How could there be any real rejoicing with the curses of the law read to them? The altar of Ebal was a witness to Israel's bondage to a law. They could not keep it, and they could not free themselves from it. Only what the sacrifices pointed to, the death of Christ, could free them from this bondage.
- Altar first. Joshua stopped the conquest to build. Israel had to weigh their relationship to God before taking more ground.
- Altar untouched. No iron on the stones: man's shaping would pollute what stands for the death of Christ.
- Altar on Ebal. God set the place of sacrifice on the mountain of the curse. He meets people where they are, not where they ought to be.
- Altar as worship. Burnt offering speaks of what Christ is to God; peace offering gives the worshipper a portion to feed on.
- Altar and freedom. The law read at Ebal left Israel in bondage. Only the death of Christ, which the sacrifices pointed to, could break it.
And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written before the children of Israel.
After Ai fell, Joshua paused the war and gathered Israel at Mount Ebal to cut the words of Moses' law into stone. Why write a law on rocks in the middle of a war, and why choose that mountain?
The writing was not Joshua's idea. He was obeying a command God had already given.
It is refreshing to see how quickly Joshua obeyed God's command in Deuteronomy 27:2-8. He built an altar on Mount Ebal, an altar of whole stones... Besides this, Joshua wrote a copy of the law of Moses (v. 32). God did not have Israel rush straight into more conquests. He wanted them to think carefully about their relationship with Him, to give Him the worship His name deserves, and to live in dependence on Him and obedience to His law.
The timing matters. Israel had just destroyed two cities, and this was their first formal act on conquered ground.
After the record of the end of the king of Ai comes the great event: the land is placed under the law of the Lord... This action means a great deal, coming as it does after the overthrow of Jericho, Ai, and their kings. The judgment and overthrow of the pagan powers brought in God's worship and His rule.
Two mountains had roles in the law. Gerizim was for blessings, Ebal for curses — and the stones went on Ebal.
Mount Ebal, as we already know, and as the text says again, is the mountain where the curses of the law were to be announced. The blessings were to be announced on Mount Gerizim. How telling about the true power of the law, that it was to stand there tied for ever to the curse and not to the blessing!... Reverse that, and the power of the law is lost, for its true power is to destroy self-righteousness and humble people to the gospel.
The blessing mountain carried no such stones, and Ebal carried more than stones.
On Gerizim there were no stones with the law written on them. How strikingly this shows the true work of the law! It cannot give blessing; it must curse man. But, thank God, on Mount Ebal there stood more than the great plastered stones with the words of the law on them. There was also an altar to the Lord, for burnt offerings and peace offerings, for rejoicing before the Lord. And this speaks of Christ, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
The altar beside the writing used whole stones that no tool had shaped.
"An altar of whole stones, over which no man has lifted up any iron," was set up. That sacred altar was not to carry the touch of man's tool, for to shape its stones by human hand was to "pollute" it. Christ is the altar, and He is perfect. The work of man's hands, and man's thoughts about Him, only produce unbelief and dishonour to His Name.
Israel did not keep the law as a private memory. Joshua carved it where anyone could see it, then read it aloud.
"It is written" was the banner of victory that Israel raised in the centre of the land of Canaan. The words of the Lord stood carved on the stones for all eyes to see. The written word was read aloud for all ears to hear, and the nation agreed to it.
Joshua's own writing says something about the books he was copying.
Joshua also was a writer. "And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written." Afterward he read out all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses. It is hard to imagine a clearer testimony to the inspiration and divine authority of the books of Moses.
One thing is missing from the record of that day.
All the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, were read to the people, but there is no word of their rejoicing before the Lord. How could there be any real rejoicing with the curses of the law read to them? The altar of Ebal was a witness to Israel's bondage to a law they could not keep and could not escape. Only what the sacrifices pointed to, the death of Christ, could free them from this bondage.
- Written — Joshua cut the law into stone, just as Moses had commanded. The war stopped so Israel could first face God.
- Planted — the stones put the conquered land under God's rule. Victory led straight to worship.
- Cursed — the stones stood on Ebal, the mountain of curses, not on Gerizim. The law's real work is to strip away self-righteousness.
- Covered — an altar of unshaped stone stood on that same mountain. It points to Christ, whom no human hand can improve.
- Freed — the law could bind Israel but never release them. Only the death the altar pictured could do that.