Joshua 24: "Are you Hopelessly Wicked?"

Last week, in Joshua 23, we read what we thought were Joshua's last words. They were, really. Just, it was only first half of his farewell. And the focus of those words was on the warning. As a reminder, I'm going to reread verses 14-16:

14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things[a] that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, in the same way the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.” (ESV, slightly modified).

What Joshua did, in this speech, was basically set two choices before you. You can give your allegiance to God, and He will bless you. Or you can turn from him to other elohim, and he will destroy you.

Now, when you hear that, it should be really obvious that you are faced with a stark, black and white choice. But what Joshua 24 does, basically, is set out this choice for you, and encourage you to be deliberate in choosing one or the other. You can't go through life making this up as you go; you either intentionally choose to serve Yahweh, or you intentionally choose someone or something else. But... make the choice. And understand what you are choosing.

Verse 1:

(1) And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem,

and he called to the elders of Israel, to its heads and to its exercisers of authority, and its officers,

and they presented themselves before the Elohim/God,

(2) and Joshua said to all the people,

"Thus Yahweh the Elohim/God of Israel said,

"On the other side of the river your fathers dwelled long ago-- Terakh the father of Abraham, and the father of Nakhor,

and they served other elohim,

Let's pause here. The very first thing that Yahweh says about their fathers, is that they served other elohim. We don't expect that. But Yahweh is very straightforward about what their fathers were like.

As we continue, in verse 3, I want to you to pay attention to what Yahweh says he did for you. Listen for the "I":

(3) and I took your fathers, Abraham, from the other side of the river,

and I brought him into all the land of Canaan,

and I multiplied his seed/descendants,

and I gave to him Isaac,

(4) and I gave to Isaac, Jacob and Esau,

and I gave to Esau the hill country of Seir to possess it,

while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt,

(5) And I sent Moses and Aaron,

and I struck/plagued Egypt just as I did in his midst,

while afterward I brought out you,

(6) and I brought your fathers from Egypt,

and you went to the sea,

and Egypt pursued after your fathers with chariot and with horsemen to the Sea of Reeds,

(7) and they cried out to Yahweh,

and He put darkness between you and between Egypt,

and He brought against/upon it (Egypt) the sea,

and He covered it (Egypt),

and your eyes saw what I did against Egypt,

and you lived in the wilderness many days,

(8) and I brought you to the land of the Amorites-- the ones dwelling on the other side of the Jordan--,

and they fought with you,

and I gave them into your hand,

and you took possession of their land,

and I destroyed them from before you,

(9) and Balak the son of Tsipor king of Moab rose,

and he fought with Israel,

and he sent,

and he called to Balaam son of Beor to curse you,

(10) and I wasn't willing to heed/listen to Balaam,

and he surely blessed you,

and I saved you from his hand,

(11) and you crossed over the Jordan,

and you came to Jericho,

and they fought against you-- the lords of Jericho, the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittitues and the Girgashites the Hivites and the Jebusites,

and I gave them into your hand,

(12) and I sent before you the hornets,

and they drove them from before you-- the two kings of the Amorites, not by your sword and not by your bow,

(13) and I gave to you (the) land

that you hadn't labored in it,

while/and cities

that you hadn't built,

and you dwelled in them.

Vineyards and olive groves that you hadn't planted them, eating,

What Yahweh does in these verses is look back across the entirety of Israelite history. And He explains to the people how He, at every single point, has proven his faithfulness to his people. It's not a fluke that Israel is here, now. It's not random. Yahweh, at every point, made this happen. He has blessed them with a land, with cities, with vineyards and olive groves. He's protected them from every enemy.

When you read the OT, it's quite likely that you tend to focus on yourself, and ethics. You're looking for promises, or commands, for yourself. But if you take this speech seriously, understand that when you read OT narratives, you are very much reading God's story. God is good. God is faithful. God is powerful. And so when you read the OT, think about God.

Starting in verse 14, Joshua applies this history to you:

(14) and so then, see Yahweh!,

and serve him perfectly/completely/wholly,

and in faithfulness,

and remove elohim

that your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt,

and serve Yahweh,

Joshua says, See Yahweh. Look at your lives. Look at your history. Understand what Yahweh has done. See him!

Also, serve Yahweh wholly. Give him everything; be faithful. Get rid of the elohim that are among you, and serve Yahweh.

Verse 15:

(15) and if evil [it is] in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourself today who you shall serve.

If the elohim who your fathers served,

who [were] on the other side of the river,

or if the elohim of the Amorites

who you are living in their land,

while I and my house shall serve Yahweh,

In verse 15, Joshua tells them that it's not too late to serve other elohim. If you want to abandon Yahweh, today is a good day to do so. If serving him is an evil-- if it's undesirable-- you can make the choice to serve the elohim of your ancestors. Or, you can serve the elohim of the Amorites.

But half-hidden in these two alternatives are two truths. You can choose to serve the elohim of your ancestors-- but those elohim did nothing for their fathers. Those elohim didn't give them the land of Canaan. They served those elohim from the other side of the river.

Or, you can choose to serve the elohim of the Amorites. But where are you right now? You're living in their land. So, you should be asking yourself, how powerful are these elohim? Were they able to protect the Amorites against you, and against Yahweh?

So Joshua sets out these alternatives. He says, if following Yahweh is an evil for you, choose someone else.

But for him? Joshua says, I and my house shall serve Yahweh.

In verse 16, we get the people's response:

(16) and the people answered,

and they said,

"May it not be, that we should forsake/abandon Yahweh to serve other elohim,

(17) because Yahweh our Elohim-- He is the one bringing up us and our fathers from the land of Egypt-- from the house of slavery,

and who did for our eyes these great signs,

and he guarded/kept us on every road that we walked on it,

and with all the peoples who we passed through in their midst,

(18) and Yahweh drove out all the peoples and the Amorites dwelling in the land from before us.

What is more, we shall serve Yahweh, because He is our Elohim,

The people say, we do see Yahweh. We see our history. We see what Yahweh has done for us. Yahweh has been good to us. Yahweh is our Elohim. We will never forsake him.

The people respond beautifully here. This is great.

But this is how Joshua replies, in verse 19:

(19) and Joshua said to the people,

"You aren't able to serve Yahweh,

because a Holy/Dedicated Elohim is He.

A jealous El/God is He.

He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins,

(20) For you will forsake Yahweh,

and you will serve foreign elohim,

and He will turn

and He bring evil against you,

and He will consume/finish you after He has done good for you,

Joshua's response is deflating. He sounds just like Moses in Deuteronomy 31-32. He says, you can't serve Yahweh. A dedicated Elohim is he. A jealous Elohim is he. And when you sin and rebel, he won't forgive you. He will bring evil on you; he will consume you.

You can't say "yes" to God, without understanding the cost. When God commits to a people, he does so completely, totally. He dedicates himself. And he expects people to come to him mirroring that. You come to God, comitted to him alone. You can't serve other elohim. You can't rebel.

And Joshua knows the people's hearts. He knows they can't, or won't, do this. He knows this is hopeless.

In verse 21, we hear the people's response:

(21) and the people said to Joshua,

"No! For Yahweh we will/shall serve,"

The people refuse to accept this. Yahweh is who they shall serve.

Verse 22:

(22) and Joshua said to the people,

"Witnesses are you against yourselves,

that you have chosen for yourselves Yahweh to serve Him,"

and they said,

"Witnesses,"

In these verses, it's like Yahweh is a judge, already preparing a trial against them. The people are their own witnesses, that they have chosen Yahweh. And they accept this. "We are witnesses, that we made this commitment to him."

This brings us to verse 23, which is a little weird. What we've seen throughout this section, is AJ helps us transition from one group's speech to the other. It's been very clear who is speaking. The flow of this conversation has been straightforward.

But in verse 23, that's missing. Let me read verse 22 again, read 23, and then throw out a possibility:

(22) and Joshua said to the people,

"Witnesses are you against yourselves,

that you have chosen for yourselves Yahweh to serve Him,"

and they said,

"Witnesses,"

(23) and so then, remove the foreign elohim

that are in your midst,

and turn aside your hearts to Yahweh the Elohim of Israel,

We are supposed to hear verse 23 as Joshua's words, right? But I think what's happening here, maybe, is that AJ is directly addressing his readers. He's talking to you.

If you've chosen Yahweh as your Elohim, if you've committed to serving him alone, then this is what you do next: you remove the foreign elohim from among you. You turn aside your heart from where it's been pointing, and you turn it back to Yahweh the Elohim of Israel.

In verse 24, everything returns to normal.

(24) and the people said to Joshua,

"Yahweh our Elohim we shall/will serve,

while his voice we shall hear/obey,

(25) and Joshua cut a covenant with the people on that day,

and he made with them a statute and a judgment at Shechem,

The people insist that they will serve Yahweh alone, and that it's his voice that they will obey. And so Joshua makes a covenant with the people on that day between Israel and Yahweh. This should be a joyous occasion-- an entire nation reaffirming its commitment to Yahweh alone, and renewing its covenant vows. But does it feel this way? This feels scary. It feels impossible.

Verse 26:

(26) and Joshua wrote these words in the book of instruction/Torah of Elohim,

and he took a great stone,

and he set it up there under the oak that is in the sanctuary of Yahweh,

(27) and Joshua said to all the people,

"LOOK! This stone shall be against us as a witness,

because it heard all the words of Yahweh that He spoke against us,

and it shall be against us as a witness, so that you shall not disavow/deny your Elohim,

There is one final thing Joshua does as part of this, to help make sure they people don't rebel against Yahweh their Elohim. He finds a giant rock, and sets it up under the oak tree in the sanctuary of Yahweh. And every time the people came to offer sacrifices, they will see that rock, and (hopefully) remember Joshua's warnings, and their pledge of allegiance.

Verse 28:

(28) and Joshua sent the people, each one to his inheritance,

(29) and then, after these words, he died-- Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yahweh, 110 years old,

(30) and they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serakh

that is in the hill country of Ephraim north of the hill country of Gaash,

(31) and Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua,

and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and who knew all the deeds of Yahweh that He did for Israel,

As a leader, verse 31 is all you can hope for. You have no control over what your people do after you die (or quit or retire or change jobs). You can warn them, with tears (Acts 20). You can set up an enormous rock as a reminder to them of their commitment. But after you're gone, what happens next? You can't know.

And so every leader who has given this kind of farewell feels this anxiousness for his people (2 Cor. 11:28). They worry about them, hoping the people will continue to be faithful.

But all you can do, is be as faithful as you can be, as long as you are in that position. And leave them with the warning ringing in their ears.

And when we look back on Joshua's life, what we see is that Israel served Yahweh as long as Joshua lived, and as long as the other elders lived who knew all of Yahweh's deeds.

This is the mark of good leadership. Moses was convinced that this would all end badly for Israel (Deut. 31-32), and it very easily could have. But so long as Joshua lived, Israel was faithful.

And if you're a leader, your hope, and prayer, is that the people will serve Yahweh as long as you serve Him and them. This will have to be good enough.

Verse 32:

(32) while the bones of Joseph that the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt they buried in Shechem in a plot of the field that Jacob purchased from the sons of Khemor the father of Shechem for 100 kesitah,

and they became for the sons of Joseph as an inheritance,

(33) while Eleazor son of Aaron died,

and they buried him at Gibeah of Phineas his son who gave him in the hill country of Ephraim.

And so here, at the end of the book of Joshua, everyone who is anyone is dead. All the leaders are dead. And we find ourselves thinking, what happens next?

At the end of Deuteronomy, it was very clear that Joshua was going to be Israel's next leader. Everyone was worried about him, but you could point to him and say, "That's Yahweh's new servant."

Here?

What will happen next? We find ourselves worried. We find ourselves hoping Joshua is wrong-- that the people will continue to serve Yahweh faithfully. We wonder who will lead, if there's no replacement for Joshua.

But we will just have to read the book of Judges to find out.

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I'd like to close today with two thoughts.

(1) God still expects this same level of commitment from his people. If you want Yahweh-- the Triune God-- to be your God, you have serve him alone. You can't have other gods. When Yahweh commits to you, he commits. And he expects you to reciprocate. He is a jealous God. A dedicated God. If you are going to enter into a covenant relationship with God, understand that there is a cost. God expects you to give up everything (Luke 14:25-33)-- but what he offers in return, is immeasurably better (Matt 13:44-46).

(2) Moses, and Joshua, and Yahweh all understand that Israel's disobedience is a sure thing (Deut. 31-32; Josh 23-24). Israel will rebel. They will serve other elohim. It's hopeless. And the book of Joshua is the high point in Israel's history. Truthfully, it all goes mostly downhill from here.

Does that mean it's hopeless for you? Are you like Israel in this? God recognizes in the OT that there is a basic problem with people. They have hard hearts. They have no natural ability or desire to obey. What's the solution to this? Yahweh has an answer, but it's radical. What He promises to do is pour out His Spirit into people. God will give himself. He will put himself inside of people.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV):

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Ezekiel 36:22-32:

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a] 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

What does Yahweh promise? Yahweh will make a new covenant with people, where he gives them new hearts. He will put his instruction inside their hearts. And he will pour his Spirit on his people. Then, they will be able to obey. Then, they will look at their sin, and loathe it.

One last verse. Galatians 5:16:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The "secret" to obeying God is not found in knowing the Bible really well. It's not found in memorizing verses. The Bible doesn't keep you from sin. If the Bible kept you from sin, Israel wouldn't have sinned. Because they knew their Bible, far better than you.

God enabled you to live rightly through His Holy Spirit. If you learn to walk in step with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18), to sow to please the Spirit (Gal. 6:8), you will obey.

Paul is clear: if you walk in/by the Spirit, you won't gratify the flesh.

And so you have an enormous advantage over Israel. Your advantage isn't that your Bible is bigger. It's not that you understand God better. It's not that God has changed, and expects less from you.

What is your advantage? It's that God lives in you. He has put his Holy Spirit inside of you.

So I will never tell you that it's hopeless. I will never tell you that God's judgment is inevitable, because you are surely going to fall away. I will never set up a rock in this room as a reminder to you, that God's judgment is going to come on you because you committed to something you can't keep. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Learn to listen to Him, and you won't sin.