Choose Whom You Will Serve.If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Jos 24:15
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
INTRODUCTION
Though there are evident traces of the hand 33of an editing scribe, probably Ezra, there are many indications that the substance of this book was written while the events were still recent. There is therefore no good reason for doubting that the book in its original form was written by, Joshua as Jewish tradition alleges.
This book is to the Old Testament what the Acts of the Apostles is to the New. The name “Joshua” is equivalent to Jesus, and means “he shall save,” Heb_4:8. The Jericho of the early Church was Jerusalem, which they compassed through ten days of prayer as Israel compassed Jericho in seven days of marching. At Pentecost the walls of prejudice fell flat. Ananias and Sapphira were the Achan of the first days. The victories of the Church at Samaria, Antioch and elsewhere recall the conquests of Joshua. And the failure of the Church to go forward to the conquest of the nations finds a bitter parallel in the story of Israel’s apathy toward driving out the Canaanites.
Possessing the Promised Land
IV. SETTLEMENT AND ESTABLISHMENT, Joshua 22-24
3. The Covenant Renewed at Shechem; Joshua’s Death, Jos_24:16-33
31. What great lesson did he draw from Israel’s national
THE COVENANT RENEWAL AT SHECHEM
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers; they presented themselves before God.
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, lived beyond the [Euphrates] River in ancient times; and they served other gods.
Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the [Euphrates] River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants, and I gave him Isaac.
To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave [the hill country of] Mount Seir to possess; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.
Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
When they cried out to the LORD [for help], He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time (forty years). [Jos_5:6]
Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived 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 before you.
Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.
But I would not listen to Balaam. Therefore he had to bless you, so I saved you from Balak’s hand. [Deu_23:5]
You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite; and so I gave them into your hand.
I sent the hornet [that is, the terror of you] before you, which drove the two kings of the Amorites out before you; but it was not by your sword or by your bow. [Exo_23:27-28; Deu_2:25; Deu_7:20]
I gave you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you live in them; you eat from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
CHOOSE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; remove the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the [Euphrates] River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Joshua 24:1-15
THE LESSON OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY
The previous chapter contains Joshua’s own last words of warning to Israel; here he is God’s mouthpiece: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.”
There is, first, the recapitulation of past mercy. From time to time we should definitely recall, for our children’s sake, the divine interpositions in our national and domestic life.
It is interesting in the opening words to learn that Abraham was called out of an idolatrous family. This was the pit whence he had been digged, Isa_51:1. He was a Gentile before he became a “Israelite”; and was familiar with all the seductions of a lower religious type before he definitely stood for the only true God. It took long to eradicate this evil strain from Israel. During their sojourn in Egypt they had yielded to the fascinations of idolatry, Jos_24:14. Joshua at least had made his choice! What a blessed thing for a family, when the parents make the avowal of Jos_24:15. Why not from henceforth?
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