Reflections on Joshua 24

Joshua 24 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Joshua called the tribes of Israel together for a meeting at Shechem. He had the leaders, including the old men, the judges, and the officials, come up and stand near the sacred tent.
   
2. Then Joshua told everyone to listen to this message from the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates River, and they worshiped other gods. This continued until the time of your ancestor Terah and his two sons, Abraham and Nahor.
   
3. But I brought Abraham across the Euphrates River and led him through the land of Canaan. I blessed him by giving him Isaac, the first in a line of many descendants.
   
4. Then I gave Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau. I had Esau live in the hill country of Mount Seir, but your ancestor Jacob and his children went to live in Egypt.
   
5. Later I sent Moses and his brother Aaron to help your people, and I made all those horrible things happen to the Egyptians. I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, but the Egyptians got in their chariots and on their horses and chased your ancestors, catching up with them at the Red Sea.
   
6. (SEE 24:5)
   
7. Your people cried to me for help, so I put a dark cloud between them and the Egyptians. Then I opened up the sea and let your people walk across on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, I commanded the sea to swallow them, and they drowned while you watched. You lived in the desert for a long time,
   
8. then I brought you into the land east of the Jordan River. The Amorites were living there, and they fought you. But with my help, you defeated them, wiped them out, and took their land.
   
9. King Balak decided that his nation Moab would go to war against you, so he asked Balaam to come and put a curse on you.
   
10. But I wouldn't listen to Balaam, and I rescued you by making him bless you instead of curse you.
    
11. You crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho. The rulers of Jericho fought you, and so did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. I helped you defeat them all.
    
12. Your enemies ran from you, but not because you had swords and bows and arrows. I made your enemies panic and run away, as I had done with the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River.
    
13. You didn't have to work for this land--I gave it to you. Now you live in towns you didn't build, and you eat grapes and olives from vineyards and trees you didn't plant.
    
14. Then Joshua told the people: Worship the LORD, obey him, and always be faithful. Get rid of the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived on the other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt.
    
15. But if you don't want to worship the LORD, then choose right now! Will you worship the same idols your ancestors did? Or since you're living on land that once belonged to the Amorites, maybe you'll worship their gods. I won't. My family and I are going to worship and obey the LORD!
    
16. The people answered: We could never worship other gods or stop worshiping the LORD.
    
17. The LORD is our God. We were slaves in Egypt as our ancestors had been, but we saw the LORD work miracles to set our people free and to bring us out of Egypt. Even though other nations were all around us, the LORD protected us wherever we went.
    
18. And when we fought the Amorites and the other nations that lived in this land, the LORD made them run away. Yes, we will worship and obey the LORD, because the LORD is our God.
    
19. Joshua said: The LORD is fearsome; he is the one true God, and I don't think you are able to worship and obey him in the ways he demands. You would have to be completely faithful, and if you sin or rebel, he won't let you get away with it.
    
20. If you turn your backs on the LORD and worship the gods of other nations, the LORD will turn against you. He will make terrible things happen to you and wipe you out, even though he had been good to you before.
    
21. But the people shouted, "We won't worship any other gods. We will worship and obey only the LORD!"
    
22. Joshua said, "You have heard yourselves say that you will worship and obey the LORD. Isn't that true?" "Yes, it's true," they answered.
    
23. Joshua said, "But you still have some idols, like those the other nations worship. Get rid of your idols! You must decide once and for all that you really want to obey the LORD God of Israel."
    
24. The people said, "The LORD is our God, and we will worship and obey only him."
    
25. Joshua helped Israel make an agreement with the LORD that day at Shechem. Joshua made laws for Israel
    
26. and wrote them down in The Book of the Law of God. Then he set up a large stone under the oak tree at the place of worship in Shechem
    
27. and told the people, "Look at this stone. It has heard everything that the LORD has said to us. Our God can call this stone as a witness if we ever reject him."
    
28. Joshua sent everyone back to their homes.
    
29. Not long afterwards, the LORD's servant Joshua died at the age of one hundred ten.
    
30. The Israelites buried him in his own land at Timnath-Serah, north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim.
    
31. As long as Joshua lived, Israel worshiped and obeyed the LORD. There were other leaders old enough to remember everything that the LORD had done for Israel. And for as long as these men lived, Israel continued to worship and obey the LORD.
    
32. When the people of Israel left Egypt, they brought the bones of Joseph along with them. They took the bones to the town of Shechem and buried them in the field that Jacob had bought for one hundred pieces of silver from Hamor, the founder of Shechem. The town and the field both became part of the land belonging to the descendants of Joseph.
    
33. When Eleazar the priest died, he was buried in the hill country of Ephraim on a hill that belonged to his son Phinehas.
    

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    The book of Joshua concludes with a renewal of God's covenant with Israel involving a recommitment by the people to worship only God and to get rid of all idols. This last chapter begins with an overview of Israel's history beginning with God calling Abraham out of a land beyond the Euphrates and from worship of other gods and bringing them to the present. This review also told how God had given them victory over the people of Canaan thus giving them "a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant." (24:13)
    
    With this reminder of what God had done for them, Joshua then challenged the people to "fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the LORD." (24:14) Joshua had lived through the exodus from Egypt and the whole wilderness experience and conquest of Canaan. He had seen it all. He knew of the fickleness of the people. So he spoke bluntly with them telling them to make a clear choice. If they weren't going to worship and serve the Lord then choose what god they would worship, whether the gods of their fathers beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they were living. The choice was theirs, but they should be up front about it. He made it clear, though, that he had already made his choice, and he, along with his family, would worship the Lord. The people affirmed that they certainly would not abandon the Lord to worship other gods.
    
    But Joshua wasn't finished. He had heard such commitments from the mouths of these people before only to see them fail to live up to the commitment. So he said to them, in effect, "You say you will not abandon God, but you are actually unable to worship Him. "He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not remove your transgressions and sins." (24:19) Then he warned them, "If you abandon the LORD and worship foreign gods, He will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after He has been good to you." (24:20) But the people insisted that they would worship the Lord.
    
    With this commitment from the people to worship only the Lord, Joshua pressed them further saying, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen to worship the LORD." (24:22) Then he recorded this commitment in "the book of the law of God," and he set up a large stone under the oak next to the sanctuary as a witness against them should they be tempted to deny God. Having done this, he sent them home to enjoy their inheritance.
    
    The chapter and the book conclude with three burials. After all these events Joshua died and was buried. Then Joseph was buried. His bones had been carried with them all of the time since they left Egypt. Finally, Eleazar, the high priest, died and was buried.