FROM INSPIRATION POINT

#9 THE CONGREGATION AT MT. GERIZIM AND MT. EBAL

Perhaps the largest congregation that ever met for one single worship service gathered at the foot of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. This meeting took place because Moses had long ago instructed Joshua to assemble all of the Israelites at these two mountains to hear the reading of the law that was given at Mt. Sinai. Joshua's forces had finished conquering Jericho and Ai and were ready to conquer the rest of the land when Joshua ordered all of the Israelites to assemble at the valley below these two mountains. In this valley, Jacob had lived and dug his well which is still there today. Joseph was buried nearby, and this area was given to his son, Ephraim. But all of Israel, aliens and citizens alike, gathered in the valley below, half of them in front of Mt. Ebal and the other half in front of Mt. Gerizim, with the ark of the covenant in between, facing those who carried it, with the priests who were Levites.

Joshua had copied the law on stones. "Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law (the blessings and the curses) just as it was written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them."

I stood on Mt. Gerizim and looked at the valley below. I could see Jacob's well and the road running through the valley. I could easily hear the sound of cars running on the road below and it was not difficult to picture Joshua standing at the top of that mountain reading the law and the people in the valley shouting "Amen."

The only worship that I can think of that competed with the size of this crowd might have been from Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, at the feast of Pentecost. "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven." (Acts 2:5) There for the first time men heard the good news of Jesus Christ. That a sacrifice had been made for the sins of all the people, and that sacrifice was Christ Jesus, who was now seated on David's throne at God's right hand. Mt. Gerizim was in Samaria and there the law was read, but from Mt. Zion, in Jerusalem, God's grace and mercy was first extended to all of mankind.

-John Young