Joshua and Judges: Mt. Gerizim and Ebal, part 8 - typology and the burnt and peace offerings; Jos 8:30-35.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Mt. Gerizim and Ebal, part 8 - typology and the burnt and peace offerings; JOS 8:30-35.  

 

Announcements  / opening prayer:

 

Peace (plural) offering = reconciliation and its natural result, fellowship. It might be rendered the offering of completion since it always followed the other sacrifices.

 

In other words, now that everything is completed, we are free to walk in intimate fellowship with God without any fear of any barrier re-emerging that could break that fellowship. The only thing that can break that fellowship is our own sin, which is quickly remedied by recognition and adjustment to God's will in total and complete grace. This is peace.

 

In the church, God’s peace is personified as the very peace of Christ. It will not exist apart from the ministry of God the HS.

 

JOH 14:25 "These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.

 

JOH 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

 

JOH 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

 

A believer can’t know Jesus' peace unless he knows Him. The Spirit  is sent by Christ for this purpose. The Spirit within makes the word of God, the mind of Christ, understandable and so He teaches us who Christ is and in so doing opens the eyes of our hearts to knowing Christ’s peace.

 

JOH 15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,

 

JOH 15:27 and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

 

ROM 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

 

ROM 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

 

ROM 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

God shows us here that life and peace are only found when we please Him. So let’s continue the chain.

 

The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Inner peace is found when we are pleasing God. What else does God say about pleasing Him?

 

Read this as if God just gave you a contract in which was guaranteed a life for you and the description of that gift of life was as follows:

 

COL 1:9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

 

COL 1:10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

 

What pleases the Father is that we enjoy walking in the manner of His Son. This is by far the most prosperous life imaginable and hence our gracious Father longs for it. He longs for the true worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

 

COL 1:11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

 

COL 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

 

COL 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

 

COL 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

As your peace finds more frequency, despite circumstances, God will allow greater attacks against it. It is one of the greatest rewards in life to have peace in the midst of great adversity.

 

COL 1:15 And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.

 

COL 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities —  all things have been created by Him and for Him.

 

COL 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

 

COL 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.

 

COL 1:19 For it was the Father's good pleasure [the Father was well pleased] for all the fulness to dwell in Him,

 

COL 1:20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

 

During His great sufferings leading up to the cross, our Lord revealed that He had perfect peace.

 

ISA 53:7

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth.

 

Christ had peace for many reasons, one of which was His total agreement with the Father’s plan. This agreement led Him to willingly go to the cross to be forsaken and judged by His Father. None of us would even have a plan to agree with if it weren’t for the blood of His cross. “Having made peace” means that He reconciled man (vs. 22). The burnt offering made for the peace offering. Propitiation and reconciliation mean justification and now since we are, God the Father has fashioned a plan that is personally fit for all of us. It fills your day to day walk in this world and it is perfect for you. It contains many times of adversity as well as prosperity with a healthy sprinkling of the mundane, but in all of it, God is working to your blessing and His glory. Trust in this perfect plan, your predestination, brings perfect peace in all of those circumstances, just as our Lord had.

 

COL 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,

 

COL 1:22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach — 

 

COL 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

 

Due to the finished work of Christ there is peace within ourselves as well peace with God.

 

The two are intricately and inseparably linked.

 

ROM 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

ROM 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.