Re-commitment
After He had addressed Joshua's petulance and revealed Achan's breaking of the covenant, the Lord gave Joshua instructions for the defeat of Ai. After Ai was defeated, Joshua gathered the people together for a covenant renewal.It is a rich and beautiful passage that describes how Joshua gathers the people, builds an altar and inscribes the law on two standing stones in commemoration of the original giving of the Law to Moses.
Then he reads the law to the people again...
This covenant renewal is important. Joshua has learnt the tough lesson that success can go to our heads and we can charge headlong into failure. They had succeeded at Jericho because they had been completely dependant on God. They failed at Ai, because they had been presumptuous - they had assumed that God would bless their plans.
The covenant renewal was a reminder that their relationship with God was like walking on a pathway - it was all too easy to reach a fork in the path and choose the wrong path. And there were consequences to taking the wrong path...
Joshua's leadership is marked by these moments of commitment and rededication: Circumcision at Gilgal, the heap of stones at the Jordan, this covenant renewal and the one we see at the end of the book in ch 24 to mention a few.
Joshua realised a great truth: We need to be re-minded (things need to be brought to the front of our minds again) We need to re-dedicate ourselves. We need to re-commit. We have to re-fill our tanks, not only because of the mileage we do, but because we have leaks.
Brenda's mom used to put in little bits of petrol at a time. Then, one day, she filled the tank completely only to discover that the top of the tank had rusted and the petrol came spilling out. This is why moments of re-commitment are really important. They remind us what full tanks feel like and they sometimes show us where the unrealised leaks are.
When last did you do a full re-commitment?
| Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law--the blessings and the curses--just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 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 and children, and the aliens who lived among them. (Joshua8:34-35) |
