Joshua, the mighty warrior (retired), was “stricken in age,” actually around 110 years old, and knew that the time of his departure from this world was imminent. He was comfortable in the knowledge that he was soon to go “the way of all the earth” because he had had a living relationship with his God. He had no regrets.
He had led a full life, one which had taken him from slavery in Egypt to the leadership of his nation, Israel. It had included servitude, military service, espionage, and rendering assistance to Moses the man of God. He had been used by the Lord to conquer many nations and, by way of Jericho and its amazing fall, to lead his people into the Promised Land—a full life indeed, and one lived in happy fellowship with the Lord.
But this thrilling chapter of his life was now over and, after some quiet years, he was concerned that after his departure the nation should continue to serve God and wholly follow the Lord. He was therefore—in spite of personal debility, being “stricken in age”—determined to address the people through their representatives and also directly.
In chapter 23, he summoned the leaders and officials of the nation together; in chapter 24 he spoke to all the nation, thus discharging his own personal exercise in this matter and challenging the people to a spiritual enjoyment of the things of God with a variety of dire warnings and rousing encouragements.
In chapter 23 all the elders, heads of families, judges and officers were summoned and gathered together to hear what Joshua had to say to them. They represented the legal, social and political aspects of society and provided a good cross-section of the nation as a whole. The words of this speech, together with those of the one following in chapter 24, were to comprise the last words of Joshua. Therefore both he and the people took them very seriously indeed. His passing would bring to a close a successful era in the things of God and who knew what the future would hold?
Certainly Joshua was aware of many potential pitfalls for the Lord’s people and he sought to warn them. The emphasis of Joshua’s words was to remind his hearers of God’s goodness in bringing them out of a land where they were strangers, to an inheritance in the Promised Land. While Joshua himself had been the warrior-leader in the conquering and subduing of the nations already in the land, he unreservedly put the secret of those victories down to the activity and power of God Himself. “The Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you,” he exclaims. God had driven out from before them those nations great and strong. Continued allegiance to Him was required if future victories were to be assured.
Aware that they were listening to the last words of a great leader, the people were impressed with the truth that whoever was their earthly leader it would be the Lord who would continue to fight for them in driving out the remaining inhabitants of the land. Only in this way would they enjoy peace and security, and not be adversely influenced or debilitated by the lifestyles of those around them.
Such influence would start in a minor way by simple friendships which, unrestrained, would grow into intermarriage and an eventual toleration of their gods and, in extreme cases, the worship of them, too. Friendship with them would bring snares, traps, scourges and thorns until ultimately they would be overcome. With God on their side, however, Joshua affirmed, one of them could put even a thousand men to flight! Thus encouraging them in God’s continuing goodness, Joshua urged them to be “very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside…to the right hand or to the left.” This could only be achieved by separating themselves from the nations and their false gods. Failure to do so would result in their own expulsion from the good land and that without having fully entered into its blessings.
The call is therefore to obedience and separation. These principles still hold good, even in the twenty-first century. Disobedience, and fellowship with the world, leads to debility in the things of God. We are urged by Scripture to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing (see 2 Cor. 6:17). This is much more difficult than it at first seems. However this should not be only an ambition, but a reality. Those who mix with the world or tolerate the way worldlings live find that their own enjoyment of the land is diminished and they are in danger of losing what they now have. The result is expulsion from the land, not from salvation, but from losing the joy of it, as David discovered.
In chapter 24 we have Joshua’s national “farewell” speech, delivered at Shechem where all the people had gathered. While invited to come to listen to Joshua, it is clear that they really heard the voice of God through His aged servant. In fact God speaks directly to the people, using Joshua as His mouthpiece.
God recounts the actions He took on behalf of His beloved people: “I took…” (v. 3); “I gave…” (v. 4); “I sent…” (v. 5); “I brought…” (v. 6), “I brought…I gave…I destroyed…” (v. 8), “I delivered…” (v. 10). His goodness in calling Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, preserving the children of Israel in Egypt from famine and persecution, providing for their needs during forty years of wilderness journeying, bringing them into the land and settling them in that place of milk and honey, is detailed before them. They were now inhabiting a land for which they had not labored, resting in cities they had not built, and enjoying the fruit of vineyards they had not planted. Thus, the goodness of God and His ample provision was evident and the continuing benefits to His people clear.
Such blessings now, as then, call for recognition, reverence and committed service, but it is important that corporate fervor is directed into individual lives, so Joshua throws down the gauntlet with the challenge, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,” and like the leader he was, he set the example by saying, “As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord” (v. 15).
Rising to the challenge and following Joshua’s example, the people cry out that they too will serve the Lord, and they articulate their reasons in verses 16-18. They are a virtual repetition of the words of Joshua, but were honestly meant and were not just a vain repetition of what they had so clearly heard.
Joshua faithfully points out in the midst of this enthusiastic response that there is a downside to committing oneself to serving the Lord in this way. It is that He is a holy and jealous God and any unfaithfulness will be dealt with, as He will not look lightly on any departure to serve other gods. Nevertheless, they insist that they will indeed serve the Lord and they resolve to obey His voice. This covenant between them and their God was recorded for them and for posterity by the setting up of a great stone under an oak tree by the sanctuary of the Lord.
Shortly afterwards, Joshua died as did some other leaders too, but the people keep the covenant by God’s grace for a least a generation. Their children fell away, however; they had not known the great leaders, nor their God and so fell into the trap so eloquently explained by Joshua earlier.
Joshua was a great man and his influence lived on even after his death until destroyed by the ravages of time, disobedience and a lack of separation resulting in debility and a drifting away from the good things of the land once enjoyed by Joshua and his contemporaries.
In the things of God simple lessons need to be learned and relearned. God is still the same as He ever was: He is generous, providing blessings; He is holy, requiring separation of His people; He is jealous, longing for an ongoing relationship with us. Are we living up to these expectations by His strength? Are we still enjoying the benefits of the good land in our spiritual lives? We need to constantly remember that without the Lord we would still be wandering “on the other side of the flood,” trapped in Egypt, fighting enemies already defeated and standing only on the fringe of the deep things of God.
Everything is in our favor. God is for us. As one, we can chase thousands. Let us therefore renew our commitment to serving the Lord. In the words of Joshua, we say with enthusiasm and sincerity. “As for me… I will serve the Lord.”