Joshua 24

 Read Joshua 24

Who? Joshua and the people of Israel

What? Joshua’s final address to the people

Where? Shechem - where they later buried Joseph’s bones and where Jacob had originally purchased land, building an altar, El-Elohe-Israel (God, the God of Israel); Note that this is in the hill country of Ephraim who was Joseph’s son.  Joseph was the oldest son of Jacob’s favorite wife and he received the birthright of the oldest, the double portion.

When? At the end of Joshua’s life, after they have been in the land for a while

Why? Joshua is already seeing disturbing trends among the people, including much idolatry (see 24:23) and needs to remind them and encourage them concerning the covenant God made with them once again.

How? Joshua gathered the people, especially the leaders, and addressed them all

The final chapter of Joshua gives us the last words of Joshua, himself.  He reminds the people of all the things that God has done for them, starting in Ur of the Chaldeans with Terah, traveling to Haran where Terah dies, and then continuing on to Canaan, Egypt, the wilderness, and back to Canaan.  Verses 2-4 are a summary of Genesis, verses 5-7, of Exodus, verses 7-10, of Numbers, and verses 11-13 of the earlier part of Joshua.  Only the line of the covenant is followed here.  Abraham had other children, but Isaac was the child of promise, the only child of his wife, Sarah.  Abraham’s other children include Ishmael from Sarah’s maid, Hagar (Genesis 16) and at least six other sons from his second wife, Keturah (Genesis 25).  Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob.  Jacob is the line of the covenant, while Esau is not.  Esau lived in the land of Edom and his descendants are known as the Edomites.  

Remember that 400 years pass between verses 4 and 5, between Jacob going to Egypt and Moses being sent to Pharaoh to gain Israel’s freedom.  From their, all the generation of adults that left Egypt, except for Joshua and Caleb, die in the wilderness as they wander for 40 years because of their unfaithfulness.  Many of the children who left Egypt may even be dead because of the punishments in the desert and the time that has passed.  We do not know if Caleb is still alive from the text here, but Joshua is 110 years old and will soon die.  

After Joshua sums up the conquest, including the land east of the Jordan that Moses led them to conquer, he exhorts the people to be absolutely loyal and faithful, to fear the Lord and keep His covenant.  Joshua wants the people to choose once and for all who they will serve.  He gives them the choice of old idols or new idols, but tells them that he and his household will serve the Lord God.  The people seem to be shocked that Joshua would suggest that they would serve idols, but they have clearly already turned to idols (see 24:23).  They claim to be committed to the Lord.  Joshua again confronts them, letting them know that he does not believe it is possible for them to be faithful.  He tells them of God’s character  - His holiness, and His jealous nature (see also 1 Peter 1:14-16 and Nahum 1:2).  Note that “jealous” here is not used as “envy” but as “fiercely protective or vigilant of one’s rights.”  God is fiercely protective of His right to be worshipped and His right to our faithfulness.  Joshua reminds them of God’s promise of destruction if they choose idolatry (see Deuteronomy 4:25, 26), but the people insist they will be faithful.  They have promised this before and then turned to idols (see Exodus 19:8, 24:3,7, Deuteronomy 5:27).  Joshua begs them to “incline your hearts to the Lord,” (24:23).  This means to lean toward, to bend in order to get closer to God.  Joshua writes down their pledge and sets up a monument (the seventh heap of stones in Joshua) to help them remember.    Verse 31 is a testament to Joshua’s leadership.  The elders who helped the people to serve the Lord saw God’s work and learned from Joshua, but did not continue to teach as Joshua did (see Judges 2:6-10).

Question 1: Has Israel been faithful to God throughout their history?  What examples in this chapter illustrate that this is a continual problem?  What idols do we have the most trouble permanently doing away with in our lives?

No.  Even though they are pledging faithfulness (again), they still have to clean out their idols to do it (24:23).  Joshua tells them that they cannot be faithful, but they insist.

We have trouble with different idols depending on the person - wealth, power, fame, attention, food, TV, phones, social media, books, drugs, alcohol, chocolate, sugar, the list goes on and on.  Each of us must destroy our idols as God points them out to us.

Question 2: How does Joshua’s challenge show us that faith is based on a choice we make each moment rather than feelings or situations?

He kept asking them to choose, then challenging them that they wouldn’t stick with it.  We have to choose - and every choice of every moment is either to bring God glory or to bring ourselves glory.

Applications:

We, too, need to choose.  Each moment of the day we make choices and we need to make choices that glorify God and keep us away from idols.

We need to remember and teach the future generations so that we are faithful and they will be as well (and they will teach their future generations).