JOSHUA 23
Read Joshua 23
Joshua is coming to the end of his life and he wants to prepare the Israelites for the future. He does this by calling everyone together and reminding them of how they got there.
First of all, he shifts responsibility from himself as leader to them as God’s people. “I am old and well advanced in years” he says in v3 and “I am about to go the way of all the earth” (v14). Then, “You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done”. The shift from “I” to “you” puts the responsibility on to the people. What are they to do? They must remember – and we have seen several times how importance remembering is. They are to remember his faithfulness; that the Lord has given them the land; that he fought for them, and will continue to do so.
Secondly, they are called to be obedient. Joshua uses the same language to the people that the Lord spoke to him in Chapter 1, “Be very strong, be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law”. There is another reminder here that the word of the Lord is paramount and that it is to be obeyed in all its fullness, “without turning aside to the right or to the left”. Particularly, they must not associate with the pagan society around them – they are not to worship their gods (v7) or to intermarry with the members of that society (v12). Paul said something similar in the New Testament ijn Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of his mind”. As God’s people, we live to a different standard than that of the society around us. We are to be distinct from those around us and a prophetic voice that stands up for God’s word in a world that rejects God’s word and lives by its own standards. One of the tragedies of the modern church is that so often church leadership is more concerned with adopting the world’s standards and ‘fitting in’ rather than being separate and upholding the word of the Lord.
Joshua does not mince his words here and in verses 14-16 he makes it clear to the Israelites that if they are disobedient to the Lord’s command them judgement will follow. This sort of language is not popular these days but the Bible is insistent that we will be judged. Our great consolation is that when we, who believe and trust in Jesus as our saviour, are judged, the Lord will not see the sinful people that we are but he will see the sinless son of God Jesus, That is the result of the work of Jesus on the cross, taking our place as sinners and leaving us without sin at the time of judgement.
For this we give thanks and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ.