JOSHUA 24
Read Joshua 24:
Joshua has said goodbye to the leaders of Israel and has made all the necessary preparations for his death. There is just one thing to do, and that is to lead everyone in a final worship service to confirm and renew the covenant relationship that the children of Israel have with God. The covenant is crucial to the understanding of the Old Testament. It is the formal, almost contractual, relationship that God established with his chosen people and is often expressed by God as ‘I will be your God and you will be my people’ – God made promises (of land, descendants, blessing) and the required response was obedience. God established his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12, 15 and 17, and it is noticeable that Joshua held his covenant renewal service at Shechem, where God met with Abraham all those years ago. The covenant relationship was passed down through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and then to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20. Now we have a solemn, sacred occasion (they all presented themselves before God) in which Joshua leads God’s people in the formal re-affirmation of this covenant relationship.
The first element is a review of what God has done for his covenant people (vv2-13). And we have noted before how important remembering is. Joshua speaks God’s word here and look how many times the word “I” appears. It was God who, in his grace, called Abraham and gave him many descendants (v3), it was God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt (v6), it was God who brought them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land and it was God who fought for them and gave them the land. All that they had accomplished was not due to their own abilities and efforts; it was entirely through the grace, the power and the love of God for his people. And that holds true for us today as well. Without him we have no good thing.
From Verse 14 Joshua calls the people to whole-hearted and faithful commitment to the Lord. Given what God has done for his people (vv2-13), then to worship him seems a logical response. But the commitment must be exclusive; there is no room for other gods alongside the Lord. Joshua gives them a stark choice in v15. Either serve God or chose one of these other “gods” to serve and he makes it clear what he is going to do. ‘As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord’. The sense is, ‘it is your choice, but choose wrongly and you will suffer the consequences’. Joshua also stresses the importance of being a witness, of declaring which choice you have made and making a commitment to serve the Lord.
As the New Testament people of God, we are in a slightly different relationship with God the Father because we come to him through God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. But many aspects of the Old Testament covenant are relevant to us. We are called to remember what God has done for us, particularly in redeeming us from sin and death and leading us into the Promised Land of eternal life with him in the New Jerusalem of Revelation 20 and 21. This we do most powerfully through the Lord’s Supper. And we are called to exclusive worship of the Lord, and like Joshua’s people, to throw away our foreign gods and idols. And how easy it is these days to put other things before God and treat them a idols: money, possessions, work, fame, drink, drugs etc etc. The list is endless.
And so ends the Book of Joshua. Starting with God’s promise to be with Joshua it ends with the promise of the people to be faithful to God. How that works out we will see in the Book of Judges.