“Y’hoshua wrote these words in the book of the Torah of God. Then he took a big stone and set it up there under the oak next to the sanctuary of Adonai.”-Joshua 24:26
We encounter a problem when we read verse 26 where it says the standing stone was placed under a tree “next to the sanctuary of Adonai”.
The question that comes to mind is…
“What?! Did the Tabernacle just get moved from Shiloh to Shechem?”
Or…
“Was the Ark temporarily moved to Shechem just for this Covenant Renewal Ceremony and then returned back to Shiloh?”
The real answer is neither and much more troubling.
Brace yourself cause this is gonna be a bit shocking.
In fact, the real answer goes to the heart of what I’ve been discussing recently about why it’s an abomination to take a practice of the pagans and incorporate it into our own worship of Hashem.
So here’s what’s going down.
It was well known that in this same area where the Israelites are now chilling, there was a pagan sanctuary dedicated to the pagan god BA’AL.
It was run by the local Canaanite residents in the area and called BA-AL BERIT which means the “Covenant of Ba’al” in English.
So what most likely happened is that the Israelites took over this heathen sanctuary and just willy nilly turned it into a sanctuary to the Lord.
In those days it was a common for a victorious army (Israel in this case) to take over a sanctuary that belonged to their enemies and just re-dedicate it to their own god, gods or goddesses.
It was totally par for the norm and was just accepted that that’s what would happen.
Obviously, this would have been a wrong thing for Joshua and his men to do, just like it was a wrong thing for him to erect the standing stone under the tree.
Yet, as I just mentioned it was a common practice at this time.
Actually, let me rephrase that.
It was not only a common practice back then.
It was a common practice throughout all of history up until even our modern times.
Recall the events that led to the birth of the holiday Hanukkah (during the time of the Maccabees).
The temple of God in Jerusalem was conquered by Syria and then turned into a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus.
When Israel recaptured it, they re-dedicated their temple back to Hashem.
In the 7th century, when Muslim invaders conquered much of Spain, they converted many of the Catholic cathedrals into mosques and re-dedicated them to Allah.
And then when the Christians (yes, I’m making a distinction between Christians and Catholics here) retook Spain, they converted the mosques into Protestant Christian churches.
And in our modern times today, it’s normal for Muslims to buy up buildings that used to be churches back in the day and turn them into mosques.
Apparently the same thing is happening in the USA as well.
The big takeaway here is that turning a place of worship dedicated to one god into a place of worship dedicated to another god, gods or goddesses was as normal as ordering fries with burgers is in our day.
It happened thousands of years ago and is still going on today.
Yet it is horrifying to think that Joshua took the most holy item in Israel’s possession, the Ark of the Covenant and placed it in front of all the leaders of Israel at Shechem.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s NOT what happened because it would have spelled instant destruction for all those present.
Some folks theorize the Ark was carried to that pagan Ba’al temple and placed behind a protective curtain.
You know, I don’t think that’s really what happened because it was just too dangerous.
Carrying around a holy item like the Ark of the Covenant as if it was some common homie’s piece of baggage was just too risky and could result in the death of many.
More likely what probably happened is that the Ark stayed where the Tabernacle currently was at Shiloh and Joshua just re-rededicated the pagan shrine to the name of Hashem.
And that’s what the phrase at the end of verse 26 is all about.
Of course, I’ll admit I’m theorizing too, but hey, is there a more plausible explanation?
Over and out.
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