God gave me this word for all of us who have heard His promise to us yet seem to be living in only loss and heartache, not even close to the word He had spoken over our lives. God led me to Joshua 24 which took me on a journey of reminding my own heart to hold onto hope when all seems lost.
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. (Joshua 24:1)
Joshua gathered the entire nation of Israel at Shechem. The nation of Israel had been freed from Egypt over four decades earlier. Due to sin, they wandered in the wilderness for over forty years. Then for seven years they fought to conquer the land. It was after this time when the land had been settled that Joshua gathered the people before God.
Hundreds of years before, Shechem was the place of significant events in the lives of the early patriarchs of Israel. The city of Shechem is a place of promise and devastation. We first discover Shechem with Abram, the father of the Jewish people. Abram had been called by God to leave the land of Ur and come to the land of the Canaanites. He had been promised to become a father of nations, even though at the time Abram had no children. Once Abram came to the land, God renewed His promise to Abram.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:6-7)
Shechem was the place of a future promise. Abram, whose name was later changed by God to become Abraham, was promised that one day his children would have all the land. In response to this amazing promise, Abram built the first altar to God in the Promised Land at Shechem. Twenty-five years later, Abraham had a son named Isaac. Abraham held the first baby of promise, born in the land of promise, which one day become a nation of the promise.
Isaac had a son named Jacob, who grew up and had twelve sons and one daughter. Jacob was the first to buy usable property in the land. (Abraham had bought a burial site for Sarah.)
After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel. (Genesis 33:18-20)
This purchased piece of property seemed to be the beginning of answers to the promise given to Abraham. They were starting to own pieces of the land. Once again, an altar is built at Shechem. Jacob’s name had been changed by God to Israel. Here he builds an altar to the God of Israel which seems to even further indicate the closer fulfillment to the promise.
However, it was here at Shechem that devastation came upon the family. Jacob’s daughter is raped by a man named Shechem. In response, two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, killed all the men of the town and took captive all the women, children, and animals. The place of promise turns to a place of defilement which led to evil attacks, to utter loss, and to eventually overwhelming fear.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” (Genesis 34:30)
The altar Jacob had built on this land, before all the terrible events of his daughter, had been called “El Elohe Israel”. God, the Supreme or Mighty One of Israel, now seems to be unfaithful as the enemy had now violated his house and his sons had retaliated by killing even the innocent with the guilty in such terrible and wicked violence. The place of promise is now defiled. Even now the name Shechem, which had been attached to the place of altars built by Abram and Jacob in the land, becomes a painful reminder of the name of the man who raped Dinah.
Jacob moved away from Shechem but this city would play a part in another crime against one of his children. This time it would be upon his son, Joseph. The ten older brothers of Joseph hated him due to Jacob’s favoritism. The older brothers had gone to Shechem for their sheep. Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”
“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” (Genesis 37:15-17)
When Joseph arrived in Dothan, the brothers decided to get rid of Joseph and sold him to slave dealers who later sold him in Egypt. The last city that Joseph experienced freedom was in Shechem. It would not be for many years that Joseph would regain his freedom and rule in Egypt.
Through a series of events, his family leaves the Promised Land and come down under the care of Joseph in Egypt and stay for the next 400 years. The family had become a multitude by this time. God delivered the people through Moses, they escaped Egypt, wandered in the wilderness due to sin, and then conquered the Promised Land under Joshua. It was here, at Shechem, that Joshua had the people renew their covenant with the Lord.
Joshua brought the people to the place where the promise had been given to Abram, that his descendants would possess the land. They could look around and see that the promise had been fulfilled. They were the fulfillment of that promise, hundreds of years later. The pain, turmoil, attacks, loss, enslavement, and sin did not have the final say in Jacob’s family. El Elohe proved faithful and true.
It was here at Shechem that Joshua renewed the covenant between God and the people.
25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. (Genesis 24:25)
Joshua reminded the people of hundreds of years of history from Abram to the time of conquering the Promised Land.
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago…I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob… 5 “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you…but I gave them into your hands (Genesis 24: part of verses, 2-5, 11)
A multitude stood where Abram stood alone. A multitude was set free from bondage where Dinah had been taken captive and abused. A multitude conquered the people of the land where Jacob had feared retaliation and attack. A multitude knew that Joseph who was sold into slavery became the leader of Egypt which set into motion the growth of the nation. When Joseph was on his death bed, he made them promise that his bones would be returned to his last place of freedom before he was forced into slavery.
And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants. (Genesis 24:32)
Everything promised at Shechem, invested at Shechem, lost as Shechem, stolen at Shechem, is restored at Shechem. God is faithful to His promises.
Shechem means “back” or “shoulder” in Hebrew. The ultimate promise of redemption spoken in the Garden of Eden when man first fell into sin was given to mankind. Jesus bore on His back the lashes for our sin. Jesus bore on His shoulder the cross that He carried. And when He bore the fullness of our sin, the “Back” of the father was turned on Him. The Promise died. The innocent was violated. The enemy of fear was unleashed on His followers. Freedom was lost, hope was gone. Then, three days later, Jesus triumphed over the grave. The place of loss and pain became the place of eternal hope and life. The grave of Joseph proved God faithful over the hundreds of years in Egypt, the wilderness and fighting in the Promised Land. The empty grave of Jesus proves God faithful for eternity.
His promise is guaranteed! He will take every heart ache, every loss, every violation and work it for a greater good for even more people.
And Joshua…took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD. “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” (Joshua 24:26-27)
The stone was to serve as a witness of the covenant between God and His people. We also have a stone of remembrance of our covenant. Our stone was rolled away from an empty grave! Praise be to El Elohim! He is mighty to save.
Hold onto your promise. God is faithful. He has seen the ways the enemy has violated you, harmed you, sold you into slavery, defiled, and devastated you. It is not the end! The promise will be fulfilled. You will stand in your Shechem and declare the victory of God!