WORSHIP AT SHECHEM

After wandering in the Wilderness for forty years, the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan and began the conquest of the Promised Land. Their famous first battle was at Jericho, where God miraculously toppled the walls and defeated the enemy. Their second battle, against the smaller, less fortified city of Ai, included sin, defeat, repentance, and finally, victory.

Before another battle, God led the nation to Shechem, situated between two bald hills, the place where Jacob had dug a well. Moses didn’t lead the Jews there to fight, but to worship.

Imagine a congregation of two-million pilgrims. “Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal” (Joshua 8:33). The whole nation gathered on the two opposing hillsides, and every individual directed his or her attention to Joshua and the Levitical Priests standing in the valley.

“Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites… Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it” (Joshua 8:30–31). The burnt offering ceremony, or worship service, required the people to offer highly valued lambs, to slit the throats of the innocent animals, and then to consume them with fire. It required blood. It required sacrifice.

The worship service was just getting started… “Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings as well as the curses—according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, the dependents, and the resident aliens who lived among them” (Joshua 8:34–35). Standing on the hillside, Jewish families huddled together to hear God’s Word… every Word.

Public worship today isn’t so different. (Although, I’ve never been in a service where Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy were read from beginning to end.) We gather to remember and reflect upon the blood of the innocent Jesus… “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). We give thanks to the God who leads us from slavery to the land of promise, we worship by giving, and we worship by listening to the proclamation of His Holy Word.

We worship because He is worthy.

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).