Israel thought their assessment of the Gibeonites was accurate. We would tend to look at a situation like that and think along the same lines. We would wonder what else Israel could do. From our perspective, what else can be done? After all, we live in a material world, and God has given us senses by which to make judgments. So if we look at bread that’s dry and moldy, it must be old.
As we come to Joshua 9, we’re told about another group of people living in Canaan. It's hard not to admire the Gibeonites because, after all, what would you do if you were in their position? They were residents of Canaan, the country that the Jews were attacking. They came from one of the mountain strongholds, the city of Gibeon, from whence they get their name. And they had heard about what the Jews had been doing. The Jews had come in out of the desert and had attacked Jericho, and when they did, the walls of the city of Jericho fell down. They then killed everyone in the city—except, of course, for Rahab and her family. After that, they went on to Ai. Even though they had a momentary setback there, they eventually overthrew that city also. And they killed everyone in that city as well.
The other reason why this passage is tremendous is because this altar of uncut stores was not constructed, as we might suspect, in the valley between the two mountains. Rather, they were told to build it on Mount Ebal, the mountain of the curses. Why was it built on the mountain of the curses? It was built there because that was the mountain upon which sinners stood. It was a way of saying that if you’re going to come to God by means of the sacrifice, you come not as one who views himself as righteous, but as a sinner. Jesus Christ said, "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The altar was for anyone part of the community of Israel who sinned. That's the meaning of the story.
There is also something else we need to see. This matter of the reading of the law at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim was not only given to teach the principle that blessing follows obedience and judgment follows disobedience; it was also given to explain the way of finding God’s favor when we do disobey. If you’ve read this section of Joshua 8 carefully, I’m sure you’ve noticed that the portion of it that deals with the reading of the law is preceded by a section which tells about the setting up of an altar of uncut stones on the mountain. This, too, was in direct fulfillment of the words that Moses had given and which are recorded in Deuteronomy.
This is precisely what we have recorded as being fulfilled in Joshua 8. All Israel were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing the priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel. Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses just as it is written in the Book of the Law.
