In the case of Israel, we see their leader expressing considerable discomfort when he was about to hand control of the people over to others.  Joshua the successor to Moses, is at the end of a long, vibrant, dedicated, and full life, and in this lesson he will express great concern about his people and their relationship with the Lord. 

It is surprising that he took this line, for his life was lived in the high watermark of success in Israel's history, when things were generally very good.  One might have expected Joshua to be optimistic about the future, but like a good leader, he had his eyes wide open and looking ahead.  He knew his people and under the leadership of a Holy Spirit knew what lay in the future. 

He was not like some leaders who close their eyes to reality, who constantly preach continued success and tell their followers that things would always be good.  He understood human nature.  

He knew the people of God were in a state of spiritual warfare with a deadly and well organized enemy that sought to destroy them.  He knew that if Satan could have corrupted Adam and Eve at the peak of human power and ability, he would have much less difficulty seducing their descendents, who were weaker in every respect. 

Joshua knew that the people faced the difficult problem of indecisiveness. He was not really concerned about his salvation, but since he understood the believers tendency to indecisiveness, he was concerned about his people and their relationship with God.  

This issue still stands before us today and is a most difficult one for believers.  The more faithful God is, the more indecisive believers seem to be. 

The book of Joshua records for us the steady faithfulness of God and what happens to believers when God is faithful to them. 

God’s faithfulness notwithstanding, Joshua constantly warned that Israel would suffer the consequences if they did not obey God and remain faithful.  He saw a need for constant exhortation. So in this lesson, he would bring Israel together before him and challenge them to be in total allegiance to God. Joshua doubted that they would remain faithful after his death and he was certainly right. 

It seems that believers always lean toward embracing the behavior and beliefs of the world and they often make decisions and choices without reference to the Word of God. 

In fact, anyone who constantly reminds people of the need for whole-hearted obedience to the Word of God and the necessity to behave as covenant people, will almost, always face opposition, derision, contempt and hostility.

 Joshua was not afraid of his people and was a loving, capable, faithful and determined leader.  He knew what was required to serve a holy and jealous God. He was not afraid to stand up and challenge his people and if necessary, to throw cold water on the words of assurances to do right, that came out of their mouths. 

Believers know that it's easy to talk, to praise God with our mouths, to make promises to God but it's quite another thing to walk the talk. 

This lesson should teach us several things and we state them up front.

First, Israel’s successes had come from the hand of God and they could not take the credit. Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 4:7 warn us that we should be very careful and we should learn not to take credit for our successes.  We should constantly remember who we are and lean on God. 

Second, we should not foolishly presume that we will be faithful no matter what.  Only God is completely faithful and if we do not trust in His faithfulness, we will sink and then live with a lot of guilt. 

Third, remember that the failure of a church, a tribe, or a nation is only a generation away.  Every generation in the church has to choose whether or not they will serve God.  For that reason we must be diligent in teaching the ways of God to our children and encourage them to follow the Lord.   

Fourth, God is to be loved, for He loves us and cares for us.  But He is also a God to be feared, for He is a consuming fire.  There are terrible consequences for unfaithfulness and disobedience. 

Fifth, it is important that the elderly men and woman who have experienced the power and grace of God, who are considered to be key people, pray that God will have a Joshua waiting in the wings, so that God's work would continue uninterrupted.  

Those prospective new leaders who hint at disobedience and unfaithfulness must be set aside, even if this is painful. 

Sadly, when the older and somewhat faithful generation passed on, Israel plummeted from the glory days of Joshua to the sad, dark days, the very low times that we will study in the Book of Judges. 

We must remain optimistic about the future, for we know that God is in control. Let us prepare ourselves for the bad times that might come.  Let us not close our eyes, looking only at the ‘golden years’ of Israel, of our church or of our nation.  Let us be determined, vigilant, and obedient to the Word of God.   

We have been warned that we face three separate but related enemies. 

First, we face “Satan the devil”, second, the problem of the “flesh”, and third, the problem of “the world”. 

Israel faced choices, so do we.  Israel had to grapple with the issue of indecisiveness, so do we.  Israel was challenged to commitment to the covenant and so are we. 

Israel faced the challenge of renewal of the Covenant and so do we. 

The Context

Chapter 23 informs us that God had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them.  Joshua was now old and showed it, the statement being made that: “Joshua waxed old and stricken in age”.

He was clearly near to death. 

Most of Israel’s major enemies had been defeated and so Joshua assembled the leaders and officers of Israel for a final message, which was strikingly similar to Moses’ final message. 

The message in chapters 23 and 24 repeated the things that God had done for the nation.  This was a history of God's faithfulness to Israel. They were reminded that they had seen what God had done with their own eyes. 

Joshua then urged them to remain unswerving in obedience to the law of God.

They were not to enter into associations with the Canaanites among whom they lived. They were not to participate with them in their idolatry.

They were to remember that if they did not obey God's commands, they would never escape the judgments He had promised. God had faithfully kept all these promises.  

His next step was to address the congregation and give them a final message.  This he did in chapter 24.

THE TEXT

Joshua 24

Verse 1.   Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to a place called Shechem.  We are not told whether this was on the same occasion as the farewell described in Joshua 23, for that chapter did not mention a specific gathering place. 

Shechem was a very significant place, for it, like no other, would bring memories of God and his promises from the time of the patriarchs.  It was here that Abraham received the first promise from God, after his arrival in Canaan. Genesis 12:6-7 tells us that it was here that Abraham first built an altar to God in Canaan. 

There God appeared to him when he was first in the land and repeated the core of his previous promises, namely, that the land would belong to him. 

It was here that Jacob settled when he returned from Mesopotamia.  He then immediately purified his house, cleaning his house of all the strange gods and burying them under an oak tree. ( See Genesis 33:19 and 35:2-4).

 Abraham selected this place as a sanctuary to God, and Jacob selected it to sanctify his house. 

Joshua now uses this spot to renew the Covenant and to lead Israel to renounce all idolatry.  His exhortation to purify themselves would affect the people in a deep way, for it was here their chief and honored head patriarch had done the very same thing. 

It emphasized that he now spoke to all the people, calling on them to re-examine themselves, evaluate their status with God and renew their love relationship with God. All the leaders of Israel; the elders, their heads, their judges and all other officers were assembled, so that they could jointly, as one group, face God’s anointed leader. He could challenge the united people to continue to serve God and to remain true to God and the covenant He has set up with them.   

Some believe the force of the text indicate that this goodbye was not the same goodbye Joshua had given to the people in Joshua 23.  God most likely had continued Joshua’s days a little bit longer than he had expected and so he felt the need when the time did come again, that he should leave them with another word of encouragement. 

This speaks volumes about the man that Joshua had become.  It is clear that throughout his life. he had served God to the best of his ability.  God had prolonged the life of Joshua a little further and Joshua knew that each moment of his life was another opportunity to do good for his Lord.  As long as he was among his people, Joshua strove to improve and strengthen their spiritual and civil well being, exhorting them to serve the Lord and assure their allegiance to God. 

Verses 2-13.

It is interesting to note that Joshua begins his address with the reminder that the roots of the Israelite nation was in idolatry.  Their roots had predisposed them toward idolatry and so they had to be very careful.  The patriarchs had grappled with this problem and in this very spot had renounced that sin.  They had collected all the strange gods and disposed of them, obviously in a meaningful and solemn ceremony. 

God had taken their forefathers out of this idolatrous situation and given them a possession in the land of Canaan. He had sent Moses and Aaron to them, plagued Egypt, brought them out of bondage and destroyed the pursuing Egyptians in the Red Sea, right in front of their eyes. 

In this amazing history lesson, Joshua was challenging and reminding Israel of God's faithfulness. Surprisingly, there was no mention of their failures.  He seemed to have forgotten the past sins of the nation. 

Joshua continued to remind the people of how the promised land of Canaan had been given to them, the descendents of Jacob. On the other hand, Mount Seir had been given to Esau. 

The people of the land had been terrified by the news of the power of God, that had been displayed on behalf of the nation and they were reminded of the incident involving the attempts by Balaam and Balak to curse the people of God. God had compelled Balaam to instead, bless them. 

In spite of the attacks, whether by prophet or by kings, God had blessed the people.  In the fight against their enemies, God even used the forces of nature, hornets, to drive out the Canaanites. 

They would remember that in addition, God had miraculously destroyed Jericho.  Then, in the war against the Amorite alliance, He rained hailstones on the enemies of Israel and when the approaching darkness threatened complete victory, God made the to Sun stand still and the moon stand motionless for a full day, while God gave Israel the power to destroy the Amorite alliance of warriors.  It was not the weapons that they had which enabled them to drive out the Amorites and other nations.  (See this idea developed in Psalm 44). 

The Canaanites had build up the country and were powerful and numerous, but though Israel was no match for them militarily, God had delivered these powerful nations into the hands of Israel.  

God had again given them another gift. They had come in to inherit a well developed country. They had not built the houses or planted the fields in the land.  They had simply walked in and possessed them.   

The gracious God had previously delivered them from idolatry in Mesopotamia, then saved them from starvation in Canaan, taking them out of the bondage in Egypt, provided for them during the forty years in the wilderness and had given them Canaan on a platter. 

Their God had been faithful in every respect and He had delivered all the blessings of the Covenant as he said he would.

Verse 14 – 24

After giving this history lesson, summarizing the good that God had done for Israel and why they should be glad as a people to have God on their side, Joshua calls on them to declare, in a public and solemn manner, whether they would be faithful and obedient to their God.  In response to the overwhelming displays of God's grace, they should serve the Lord with gratitude and sincerity. They would, like all others before them, have to give up the strange gods that they had among them. 

He avowed this to be his own unalterable resolution and urged them, if they were sincere in making a similar avowal: "to put away the strange gods that were among them"

This requirement which seems to imply that some were suspected of a strong hankering for, or concealed practice idolatry, whether in the form of Zabaism, the fire-worship of their Chaldean ancestors, or the grosser superstitions of the Canaanites. 

It is interesting to note that there are many Jewish legends which tell us that Abraham worshipped the true God from his youth and smashed all the idols in his father's house.  There is no biblical basis for these legends and it is perfectly possible that Abraham himself had worshiped idols before God called him.  Abram’s call was derived from the free unmerited grace of God.

Verse 14.   It seems as though Joshua was pleading with the people of Israel to give their hearts, devotion and commitment to God.  As he recounted all that God had done for them and would do for them, this was not a call on them for a “blind” leap of faith.  

They had seen God’s works and experienced His blessings, so it made sense for them to exclusively serve a God who had done so much for them.   

Note, if we count their blessings, we will realize that being faithful to God is a very logical and sensible step. 

Because his time was short with them, he sincerely desired them to confirm their obedience and trust in the Lord.  The influence of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians were still being felt as Joshua was about to die.  So Joshua went all the way back before the ‘Flood’ to show that idolatry had been a serious problem before the days of Noah and continued to be so, even among the chosen people of God while they were in Egypt. 

He likely knew with insight given him by the Holy Ghost, that idolatry would eventually cause Israel to fall back into sin, sooner rather than later.  Given all that God had done for His people, Joshua was imploring them that they should learn by the examples of what had been done to other nations. Israel would be wise to fear and serve God with an upright conscience. 

He struck the note that they should fear this powerful God who had performed many miracles, showed His power over all the forces of nature, the Sun, the moon, the hornets, the hailstones and reject the heathen gods that had held a firm grip on their ancestors.  They should serve God with integrity.  Joshua demanded exclusive service to Yahweh as was befitting those in the Covenant. 

It appears that it is so easy to stray from our faithful God, despite the blessings we receive from Him and despite our seeing His great mercy and kindness with our own eyes.  When we like Israel of that time are given many material blessings, ease and comfort seem to make it difficult for us to pass the test of continued faithfulness to God. 

We note that Joshua's words in this verse addresses this spiritual unsettledness, this double- mindedness, this continued indecision, this unwillingness of the very blessed people of Israel to make a definite choice to follow their God wholeheartedly. 

This is amazing and troubling.

Verse 15.   This was blunt honesty on Joshua’s part, for he said God had done nothing but good for the house of Israel.  He had kept promises to Abraham and the rest of the forefathers, promises of which the children of Israel are well aware.   

How could it be necessary to challenge people who had been given so much, to consider whether or not it seemed evil to serve the Lord? 

Note that if one is to truly worship the living God this must come from the heart.  It cannot be forced by commands, demands and prohibitions. 

Joshua’s general thrust was that the people had alternatives.  They must choose who they will serve.  He strongly advised them to embrace God's covenant. But they were to choose.  If they did not choose God, then they were siding with the devil and are hence enemies of God and they had seen what God had done to His enemies, before and after the Flood. 

Joshua said that if they could be better off somewhere else, then they should go.   Why would they wish to stay with God, when some other gods are providing them with something better?   

When Joshua referred to the people who had chosen not to worship God, the Israelites would remember that the people on the other side of the Flood had been destroyed.  Those on this side of the Flood who worshipped the gods of the Amorites had obviously lost all their possessions to the people of Israel.  So logically why would anybody want to be as stupid as any of those two parties and worship any god besides the one true God Yahweh! 

Joshua stood in the Valley of Shechem, which incidentally is right near Mount Gerizim, and near Jacob’s well, and made the intelligent choice, urging this on the people of Israel. 

Still, he knew there was no other God, and the children of Israel knew the same thing too.  Joshua decided to first declare where he stood.  He set the bar as the leader, as the one to give guidance and council to the rest, that he and his household was not afraid to serve God.  Joshua, it seems was quite prepared to serve God on his own and forsake all of Israel if they did not choose the right path, i.e. serve God. 

Let us look again at what Joshua did.  He was sensible.  He was the priest of his family and represented his family before God, since he had the responsibility to see that his entire house serve the Lord.  All men should note that fact about themselves. 

Joshua was determined to live up to his responsibility no matter what others would do.  He would serve God even if everyone else turned their back on God. He would serve the Lord alone.  He would not serve Yahweh plus other gods.  There was one God in his life and that was Yahweh. Neither would he forget his responsibility to ensure that his family stayed with the truth. 

Do we really hear and understand Joshua's challenge?  Have we chosen the relationship with God that He wants, or have we sold out to another?  Have we mixed the worship of God with the worship of ‘other gods’?  What choices have we made?  Are we in whole-hearted service to Yahweh? 

Indecision is a terrible thing.  It will destroy. 

Note that Joshua wanted the people to make an informed choice, to have a reasoned, thoughtful evaluation of themselves and their status before making this decision.  So he told them that they could go back to the gods of Terah and Abram if they wanted to. They had options.  Or if they did not like those gods, they could continue to flirt with the gods of the Chaldeans and the Canaanites. 

Remember that Egypt was a superpower in those days and culturally, educationally, economically, militarily and aesthetically, they had gods that were obviously attractive and impressive to these very successful people. Even nowadays, the Egyptian gods hold tremendous fascination for us. 

Satan covers all the bases.  If they did not like the impressive and attractive gods of Egypt, that people thought had given that nation so much power, there were the fertility gods of the Canaanites. 

These gods were sensual gods, attractive, emotionally fulfilling.  They offered sexual orgies, all kinds of sexual perversions to suit every taste, feasting, music, and everything that the ‘flesh’ could desire.  The Israelites were easily attracted to these gods. 

On the other hand there was the serious, full of responsibility, full of good behavior, demanding Word driven Covenant of Yahweh; offering no sexual perversion, no orgies, but relatively austere worship.  In this worship a man should only have one wife, and work hard, teaching his children the ways of God. 

What a choice for the flesh! 

Israel also knew that this Yahweh, the God of Israel, was totally committed to his people and was willing to do everything good for them.  Hence Joshua recited the history to highlight all the actions God had taken for his people. 

Before we go on we should look at ourselves and see what Ephesians 2 tells us about our salvation history. 

That passage reminds us that God loved us from the very beginning, and even when we were dead, and were helpless to change anything, and were his enemy, he loved us. 

Satan controlled us, and we were in bondage as real and destructive as the Israelite bondage in Egypt.  He sent his Son to live among us, to die for us and to bring us to salvation.  He baptized us, raised us to newness of life, took away the fear of death, gave us His Holy Spirit, and the power to do his good work.  He has been so faithful to us.  He did delivers us, does not often remind us of our sins, but often forgives us, faithfully keeping his Covenant with us. 

Should we then not reject idolatry in our lives, the idolatrous attractions of false religions, forbidden relationships, things of the world that we think will give meaning to our lives, and bring security and protection? 

These idols include spouses that often pull us away from God.  So also does family, country, career, education, technology, money, pleasure, and all the many things that we think cause us to enjoy life and give us peace.

Verse 16.   The people under Joshua’s leadership felt compelled to serve God. They responded positively in repentance and loyalty. To the man they confessed to fearing God and said that they would serve the Lord.  They looked at God's past dealings with them and they committed themselves to serve this great God.  They were horrified at the thought that they could continue in idolatry, given the great mercies of God. 

Joshua, like many good leaders, focused the people’s attention to serving the Lord.  Bad leaders quite simply lead people on the path to destruction.  Since Joshua openly declared his preference, the people of Israel followed suit and all said that they would also serve God.   

Joshua’s declaration had some weight behind it, because over the time he led Israel, he had proven that he trusted in God.  The children of Israel, who from time to time had wandered in and out of their loyalty to God, now seemed determined to make the attempt to be faithful and renew the Covenant with him. 

The adults all declared that it was inconceivable that they could forsake the Lord and serve other gods. 

Verse 17-18.   They themselves now repeated the history that Joshua had just told them.  They gave reasons for their declaration.  They now recounted God's past dealings with them, showing that they were paying attention to what Joshua had been saying. 

They made it clear that it was the Lord “their” God that had brought them and their fathers out of Egypt, from the bondage of terrible slavery.  Their God had done all kinds of miraculous things before them, the people `of Israel, for their own good.   

Their God had preserved them wherever they traveled in the wilderness years and protected them from the hostile people through whose land they traveled.  

Their God had driven out the powerful nations that had dwelt in Canaan.  These nations had been no match for the power of their God. 

It was obvious then that they would serve the Lord, for he was their own personal God, the God of Israel, not an impersonal divinity, but a God committed to them, his people.  This God was a God of personal relationship, a personal leader and they were willing to trust Him. 

Notice the words used  “God preserved us”. The people were repeating the words of Joshua, who had counted himself with the people, when he was witnessing to them about the good that God has done for them.   

Note that these people knew God.  They also knew their history and so they had no excuse for ever sinning. 

Sounds like us, doesn't it?

Verse 19.   Most leaders would now have started clapping, shouting, and praising God that the people had responded in that fashion.  They would have congratulated themselves that the people had been listening to what they were saying and would have been thrilled that the people would confess their faith in God.  The people's response would have warmed their hearts. 

The clapping, praising, and shouting in the congregation does that to us, doesn't it? 

Instead of doing like what we do nowadays, Joshua threw cold water on the enthusiasm of the people.  He was not trying to discourage their faith, but was obviously trying to tell them that it was not good to have a ‘light’ commitment to follow God. 

He knew that it is easy for people to promise to obey God, but he knew it is a very different thing to actually follow through and obey Him.  One well-known quote says, “talk is cheap”. 

Actually, what Joshua was doing, was to turn the people around to again look at the Covenant.  He wanted them to note that they were serving God under a Covenant.  In this Covenant there were tremendous blessings, but there were powerful curses for disobedience. 

This is so because of the nature of God.  He is holy, that means separate, and as one prophet says, his eyes are too holy to behold evil. 

To serve God there must be spiritual transformation.  Only God can spiritually transform a person, from the heart and outwards, so that one can truly serve God. 

Hard work will never reform us and will never make us consistently love God and trust him.  So Joshua warned the people not to be overconfident, but to look honestly at their own hearts. 

It is often said that the Scriptures warn us against “cheap grace”, and easy-believeism.  Decisions for God are not to be taken lightly, but there must be understanding of what is involved. 

It was good that they committed themselves, but they should understand fully the consequences of that commitment, Joshua was saying.  To serve God they would have to depend on God for that power, for he wanted absolute holiness, a walking in the light.

Verse 20.   So the terms of the Covenant were stressed. Joshua warned that if they turned away from God and went into the idolatry of their fathers, following the idolatrous ways of the Canaanites and their strange gods, then God would damage them and destroy them; rather than continue doing the good that he had previously done to them.

Verse 21.   Confronted with the terms of the Covenant and the total holiness and jealousy of the Supreme God, as well as the vivid reminder that they should not vow what they were not prepared to do;  the people said that this will never be.  

How many of us make promises to God and then end up falling short.  God never falls short in His promises made to His children.  We can be sure that it is not possible to succeed in keeping any promise made to God, without having God in our lives; without having God to guide us, give us wisdom, knowledge and the strength to act. 

They tell Joshua that without a doubt that they would serve God. 

That was the response Joshua wanted. They had made a total commitment, fully understanding the consequences.  

One can interpret the people's response as them not willing to accept Joshua’s words of caution.  They insisted that they were willing and would remain faithful to God.

Verse 22.   Joshua said that since the people were so adamant about it and since he had done his job to warn them of God’s expectation, telling them of his personal desire and his family’s desire to serve God, their blood was on their own heads.   

He knew they had a tendency to lean toward idolatry, but the real question remained.  Were they committed to serving God and remaining under the guidance of the Holy Ghost? I believe he knew the answer.   

Joshua acknowledged that they all were witnesses to themselves that they had chosen to serve the Lord, to which they agreed that they were.   

So Joshua drew up of an agreement between the people and their God, warning them again that the agreement would stand as a witness against them. 

The people again affirmed that they would serve God and agreed that they were happy to witness against themselves, that is, to make an oath that could conceivably come back to haunt them.  Clearly then they were in full agreement with renewing solemnly the Covenant made at Sinai under the leadership of Moses.

Verses 23-24.   The condition that they put away strange gods among them, and turn their hearts toward the Lord, the Lord God of Israel was now demanded. 

There was no additional analyzing of their confessions of faith. The people with one voice affirmed their intentions to follow God.  This was the third time in this section that they affirmed that they would serve only the Lord and Joshua took them at their word. The Covenant was renewed.

CONCLUSION

God will also require us to choose.  Serve Him or the world( mammon). 

To confirm their agreement Joshua wrote everything about their Covenant in a Book and in line with the practice when making a Covenant, a permanent witness to the agreement was established. 

We note that rededication to God is a beautiful and powerful event.  We often fall short in our life and it is sometimes necessary to re-establish our covenant with God. 

At the same time we should be careful not to keep on rededicating ourselves in solemn ceremonies and then just as frequently breaking our vows to God. That kind of pattern shows that we are not really serious and it will attract the disciplinary action of God. 

Let us remember that covenants are extremely important.  We should not make vows to God and then break his commandments, treating them as things that are flexible, things that we can simply void because that suits our convenience. 

The book of Joshua is a book of success, for the people went to war in faith.  Generally they obeyed God and followed Joshua’s orders and God's commands. We must note however that it is God's faithfulness that brought blessings to the people, and not their faithfulness to God. 

Joshua knew that the people would soon forget what God had done for them and turn to their old ways. 

Let us learn a lesson from them. Stop compromising, stop treating our decision for Christ lightly, be willing to publicly stand for our faith and do not be indecisive in following Christ.  Be prepared to influence others. Our God is faithful, powerful, merciful and most loving.  He requires holiness and separation from the world.  He still remains a God of judgment. 

Do not think that being close to the people of the world and those who disobey the commandments of God will help us in our Christian walk.  It did not help Israel and it will not help us.  It will simply corrupt us and make us comfortable in straddling the fence.  Israel is a lesson to us.