Joshua's Farewell Address

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it. Joshua 23-24 is where we will be at this evening. By the time of Joshua 23, we see that a long period of time has passed from chapter 22 to 23. Joshua is old and getting close to passing away and the Lord has given rest to the people of Israel from their surrounding enemies. These chapters serve as a tremendous reminder to the people of Israel that the peace that they have, the comfort that they have won, comes solely from the benevolent hand of God. As Joshua is about to pass away, he gives one final message to the people and that is what we are going to read about tonight. The message that Joshua gives is a message that is designed to challenge not just his generation, but all generations. His message is a message of great challenge and greater application because unless one applies the message, the challenge doesn’t accomplish much of anything. What we are going to do tonight is respond to the challenge of Joshua 24. We have 2 options always before us: We can either serve the Lord or we can serve ourselves. Those are the only options in life. We either choose God or would live entirely for ourselves and choose only that which we think is beneficial to us even if it is not that which is best for us. C.S. Lewis said

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."

What does Lewis mean by this? He means that as long as one is focused on their own desires, own will, own choices in life, they will never have their eyes set on that which really matters. If all we do is live for ourselves, there will be a time when the mercy and patience of God reaches its limits and God says, “if all you want is yourself, that’s what I’ll give you.” In Hell, there is no injustice, only perfect justice. The question then comes down to this: whose will shall be done? God’s will endures to the end and it shall be done. It is our responsibility to recognize and live in pursuit of it. Let’s pray and then we will dive into Joshua 23:2-3.

The Lord’s Faithfulness

Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. 3 And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.

Chapter 23 is a testimony to the Lord’s enduring faithfulness to the people of Israel. As Joshua calls the people to him, he reminds them that all the goodness that the Lord has shown them, it has been done for their sake. We see that in verse 2.

What is the key to the people’s success? The Lord fights for His people.

Who can stand against the God of all creation? No one. If the Lord is for us, who can be against us? Joshua presses into the people the reality that they have accomplished something truly remarkable. They have witnessed firsthand something that is completely unheard of: The God of the Universe fights for the people of Israel. Moving into verses 4-5, Joshua tells the people that the Lord has given the people an inheritance and that He himself will see to it that the people prosper, peace is secured, and that the promises of God will not fail. But there is a requirement that is connected to this promise.

Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.

Notice that the people are challenged to do the very thing that Joshua was challenged to do at the beginning of Joshua 1. Joshua has lived a life that has shown the necessity of clinging to the Lord our God. He himself has seen the importance of not departing from the Word of God. He has seen firsthand the consequences that come when man moves outside of God’s commandments (Achan’s sin, Gibeonites example). God does not give us commands to keep us from “having fun.” The purpose of God giving us his commands is so that we may pursue that which is greatest for us. God ultimately does not take good things from us! He supplies us only with that which is for our greatest good.

Does a child know what he really needs? Is it wise for a parent to give their child a real monster truck just because they want it? If a parent gives their child a loaded gun because they want to play cops and robbers and that child ends up shooting their brother, did the parent make a good choice? No! A good parent would not give the child something that could harm them just because they wanted it.

Are we asking God for what we think is best for us or are we pleading for Him to continue giving to us that which He knows is best for us? Tim Keller said,

God will either give us what we ask for in prayer or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything God knows.

God knows that which is best for His people. You cannot give up anything in this earth that God is not readily able to make up for. Do we ask for that which sounds good for a moment or that which is best for eternity? Do we take God’s goodness for granted?

But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so 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.

We serve a patient and merciful God. 2 Peter 3:8 says,

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The Lord is so good to us. Not a single soul in here deserves anything other than wrath and judgment but God is so good. The words that Joshua records here reminds us that God is just as able to bring good gifts as He is able to bring justice. If we deny the Lord now, He will deny us. If we choose sin and self over Savior, we can only blame ourselves when God leaves us to our sins. What lives then should we live? God presents 2 options to the people of Israel: A life that embraces the goodness of God and faithfulness to Him or a life that is devoted to ourselves and the gods of this world? Joshua presses the people and he presses us today to make this choice now while there is still time.

Joshua’s Challenge to the People

The most popular verse in the book of Joshua comes at the very end of the book. Joshua 24:14-15 says,

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Let’s dwell on that for a little bit. Two things that I want to bring up with Joshua’s words and how they apply to us.

The first is this: What the world decides to do in terms of whom they will serve should not in anyway impact your decision to follow Christ.

We know that their are options available of whom we serve. Joshua lists four in total but really it comes down to just two: the Lord or ourselves/false idols. We put so much pressure on how we may be viewed by the world around us. What does the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of others have to do with your obedience to Christ? It doesn’t matter! There is a moment in the Gospel of John that I absolutely love that I want to share in regards to this.

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Are you picking up on what Jesus says here? A little bit of context, there was a rumor that was being spread that the Apostle John wouldn’t die or that he would remain until Christ’s second coming. Peter sees John walking behind him and Jesus so he asks Jesus about what they should do about that. The answer that Christ gives is what we need to hear every day of our lives. If this person or that person is going to do this or that or the other, what is that to you? Your duty is to follow me first. That’s the command of our Commanding officer. But you say, “Brady, the world desires this of me! This is what’s popular, this is what’s cool!” I say the same thing Christ says, “What is that to you? Follow Him!” What if bombs fall to the ground, what if war breaks out, what if the world ends today? What is it that to you? We follow Christ! R.C. Sproul writes,

The Lord has jobs for each of us to do, and what others do is ultimately none of our business. Each of us must do what God has given him or her to do, and fulfill the mandate of Christ.

Joshua recognized the options the people had. Every day we face options. What matters is what we choose to do with those options. I do not care if other people think the Gospel is sexy enough for them to follow or relavent enough or practical. I don’t care if people tell me that I’m an idiot for following the commands of God. Your task and my task in this life is not to please others but to follow Christ to the best of our abilities. This brings us to the second principle that I want to mention from Joshua 24:15.

The second is that we do not choose faithfulness to God once and then sit down and coast to eternity. We make decisions for Christ every single day. Every day we are to say, “I chose Christ then, I am choosing to follow Christ now, and I choose to serve the Lord my God to the very end.”

We are saved to serve. Devotion to Christ is ongoing. We wake up each day and we say, “Today, I will live with the sole purpose of bringing honor and glory to the Lord my God” and our actions reflect that reality. We love others as Christ loves us. We serve others as Christ served us. Every day is a day to grow closer to our Savior. Every moment of our lives is a moment where we can say, “I will live for Christ now or I won’t.” So, what will it be for you? Like Joshua, I am calling out to you the same thing that he called out to people in his day. What are you going to live for? What is the identity of your life? I know the one that I have served, am serving, and will continue to serve. What about you? I am going to serve the Lord. Will I make mistakes? Absolutely. Will there be good days and bad days? You bet. Am I going to being living a life that seems contrary to the world? I pray that I do. I get it, Christianity isn’t easy. Like Paul in Romans 7, I struggle with the things that I know I should do but don’t. The very things that I don’t want to do are the things that I seem to always end up doing. What do I do then? I take each moment and say, “God, I’m gonna try. I’m gonna fall flat on my face sometimes but I’m gonna try.” How do we navigate that then? Well we look back to the start of Joshua 23 and recognize that if all we rely on for our spiritual success is our own strength, we won’t be able to stand. We need Jesus from beginning to end. Look at the response of the Israelites in Joshua 24:16-18

Joshua 24:16–18 ESV

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

Serve God? You Can’t!

This seems like a good answer. On paper, it looks like the exact type of answer that Joshua would want. But notice how Joshua responds to the people in Joshua 24:19-20

Joshua 24:19–20 (ESV)

But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”

Doesn’t this seem like a slap in the face to the people? They say, “Never! We will never forsake the Lord our God!” And Joshua says, “You aren’t able to.” What does Joshua mean by this? It could be that he knows the history of this people. They weren’t perfect. They are making promises that they won’t be able to keep.

Top Gun- Ego writing checks that the body won’t be able to cash.

It’s easy to say in a moment of spiritual bliss and physical prosperity that we will follow the Lord. Keep in mind what the people had just gone through. They had seen God crush their enemies, they are now living in peace and prosperity, of course at this moment it is easy to say, “Yeah, we’re going to serve God!” But what happens when hard times come? What happens when faith becomes hard?

Example of “Christians” (Kailey 2.0) who say they will follow Christ and maybe do for a bit but stumble at the first sign of trouble.

It was not Joshua’s intent to scare people away from following the Lord but to make them aware of what true faithfulness to God looks like. Calvin writes,

It was not to terrify the people and make them fall away from their religion, but to make the obligation more sacred by their having of their own accord chosen his government, and betaken themselves to his guidance, that they might live under his protection.

What does Joshua mean then when he says that the people would not be able to follow the Lord? He means that if all they do is rely on their own appearance of religion and self-confidence that they are going to fall short. I’ve shared with you that I think I am more desperate for God’s grace now than I was before I became a Christian. What do I mean? I can’t serve God if He does not renew me day by day. I won’t be a faithful witness if I only rely on myself. Every time I come up to the pulpit to preach, I need the Holy Spirit. I will never succeed as a preacher, a parent, a husband, or a Christian without the Lord renewing me moment by moment, day by day. We cannot serve God on our own. We must never be so confident in our appearance of religion that we lose sight of just how desperately we need Christ.

How do we apply what we have learned from the book of Joshua? I want to remind us of three things that we have learned from our last 3 months with Joshua.

Great leaders must be great and faithful followers. If you want to lead well, you must follow God and His Word.

Never lose sight of how dearly you need God’s grace and presence.

Every day we make decisions. Make ones that reach into eternity. It doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing, you must serve the Lord.

Let’s pray.