Joshua now gathers together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem and summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God, Joshua 24:1.
He reminds them of what God said long ago to their ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods, Joshua 24:2. Notice that Abraham is also included in idol worshipping, Joshua 24:2.
Whilst in Ur, Jewish tradition says that Abraham’s father, Terah, was an idol-maker. Once he had to travel, so he left Abraham to manage the shop. People would come in and ask to buy idols.
Abraham would say, ‘How old are you?’ The person would say, ‘Fifty,’ or ‘Sixty.’ Abraham would say, ‘Isn’t it pathetic that a man of sixty wants to bow down to a one-day-old idol?’ The man would feel ashamed and leave.
One time, a woman came with a basket of bread. She said to Abraham, ‘Take this and offer it to the gods.’ Abraham got up, took a hammer in his hand, broke all the idols to pieces, and then put the hammer in the hand of the biggest idol among them.
When his father came back and saw the broken idols, he was appalled. ‘Who did this?’ he cried. ‘How can I hide anything from you?’ replied Abraham calmly. ‘A woman came with a basket of bread and told me to offer it to them. I brought it in front of them, and each one said, ‘I’m going to eat first.’
Then the biggest one got up, took the hammer, and broke all the others to pieces.’ ‘What are you trying to pull on me?’ asked Terah, ‘Do they have minds?’ Abraham replied to his father, ‘Listen to what your own mouth is saying? They have no power at all! Why worship idols?’
There must have been something in Abraham that God saw as unique for Him to call him, Genesis 15:7. God asked him to leave his home and extended family in order to go to a country that God would show him, Genesis 11:31 / Acts 7:3 / Hebrews 11:8.
Imagine someone asking you to leave your home but you don’t know where you’re going? That’s faith, Hebrews 11:6. The text says, ‘The LORD had said’, Genesis 12:1; this is past tense.
Although we don’t know exactly how long-ago God spoke to Abraham, we do know that He did speak with him whilst he was in his homeland, Joshua 24:3 / Genesis 12:1 / Genesis 15:7 / Acts 7:2.
We also know from the previous chapter that Abraham is the father of the Israelites, Nahor and Haran were his brothers, and his father was called Terah, Genesis 11:27-31.
God is different from idols, men created and worshipped images they could see. Sometimes in animal form, sometimes in human form and sometimes in a combination of both forms, yet these so-called gods were not gods at all.
God cannot be seen; however, He created the universe, He gave His law, and He rules in the affairs of men. God is better than idols. God blessed Abraham and took him from idolatry. He gave him a land, multiplied his descendants, and provided a lineage.
It was God who gave him many descendants, Joshua 24:3. He also gave him Isaac, Genesis 17:15-17, and to Isaac, He gave Jacob and Esau, Genesis 25:19-26 / Joshua 24:3-4.
It was God who assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, Genesis 36:8-9 / Deuteronomy 2:5, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt, Joshua 24:4 / Genesis 46:1-4.
There are seven promises given to Abram.
1. A People, Genesis 12:2.
2. A Name, Genesis 12:2 / Genesis 15:5.
3. Protection, Genesis 12:3.
4. Prosperity, Genesis 12:2.
5. A Universal blessing, Genesis 12:3.
6. A Homeland, Genesis 12:7 / Genesis 15:18-21.
7. A Son, Genesis 12:3 / Genesis 3:15 / Genesis 17:16.
It was God who sent Moses and Aaron, Psalm 105:26, and afflicted the Egyptians by what He did there, Exodus 7-12, and them brought them out, Joshua 24:5 / Exodus 6:6 / 1 Samuel 10:18.
When God brought them out of Egypt, they came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea, Joshua 24:6. Israel cried to God for help, and He put darkness between them and the Egyptians and brought the sea over them and covered them, Joshua 24:7 / Exodus 14:28.
In other words God also blessed the Israelites by providing leaders, He provided passage, and He provided protection from the Egyptians. The Israelites who were living at that time saw with their own eyes what God did to the Egyptians and then they lived in the wilderness for a long time, Joshua 24:7 / Joshua 5:6.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Notice that there is a PRESUMPTION on the part of Joshua here that his audience were in possession of accurate and trustworthy records of all that he mentioned, ‘rendering it unnecessary to enter into detail.’
It was God who brought them to the land of the Amorites, who lived east of the Jordan, and they fought against them, but God gave them into their hands, Joshua 24:8 / Exodus 3:17 / Deuteronomy 20:17-18. It was God who destroyed them, and Israel took possession of their land, Joshua 24:8 / Numbers 21:21-30.
When Balak, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam to put a curse on Israel, but God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, so he blessed Israel again and again, Numbers 23:1-4 / Numbers 14:29-30, and God delivered them out of his hand, Joshua 24:9-10 / Joshua 13:22.
When Israel crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against them, Joshua 6:1-27, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, Acts 13:19, but God gave them into their hands, Joshua 24:11.
It was God who sent the hornet ahead of Israel, which drove them out and the two Amorite kings, Joshua 24:12 / Exodus 23:28-33. Israel didn’t do it with their own sword and bow; God did it, Joshua 24:12 / Joshua 1-12.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning the hornet, Joshua 24:12.
‘The word is used figuratively for a cause of terror and discouragement. Bees are spoken of in the like sense, Deuteronomy 1:44 / Psalms 118:12.’
Trapp, in his commentary, says the following concerning the hornet, Joshua 24:12.
‘Understand it either literally, as in Joshua 24:12, or figuratively, of the stinging terrors of their self-condemning consciences.’
It was God who gave them a land on which they didn’t toil and cities they didn’t build and Israel live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that they didn’t plant, Joshua 24:13 / Isaiah 37:30 / Jeremiah 29:5 / Jeremiah 29:28 / Ezekiel 28:26 / Zephaniah 1:13.
In other words, God blessed the Israelites by provided protection from the Egyptians, the Amorites, Balak, and the Canaanites and He provided a possession.
The Israelites are told to fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, Joshua 24:14. Joshua tells them to put away false gods their ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve God, Joshua 24:25 / Joshua 24:2.
Joshua asks them to choose between their ancestors idol gods or the God of Israel whom Joshua serves, Joshua 24:15. Joshua has already made his mind up and speaks on behalf of his and says, as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD, Joshua 24:15.
Plummer, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Joshua invites the people, as Elijah did on an even more memorable occasion, to make their choice between the false worship and the true, between the present and the future, between the indulgence of their lusts and the approval of their conscience. No desire to stand well in the eyes of Israel, no temptation of this lower world to pervert his sense of truth deters him. The experience of a life of service to Jehovah has convinced him that Jehovah is the true and only God, and from that conviction, the venerable warrior does not intend to swerve.’
And the people respond by saying, they won’t forsake God by serving other gods, Joshua 24:16. They agree that God delivered Israel from Egypt, He preserved them during their travel, Joshua 24:17, and He drove out the enemy from before them, Joshua 24:18. In short, they agreed to serve God and God alone.
So, they all agree, but there is a severe warning for the Israelites. Joshua tells them they shouldn’t take their commitment too lightly because they won’t be able to serve God because He is a holy God, He is a jealous God, Joshua 24:19.
If they forsake God, then God will not forgive their sins, and He will harm and consume them. It would be under the new covenant that their sins and our sins would be forgiven, Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Despite the warning, the people make the commitment and say, they will serve God, Joshua 24:21, and so they are witnesses against themselves, Joshua 24:22, and therefore they must put away the foreign gods, Joshua 24:23. They say, they will serve God, and they will obey Him, Joshua 24:24.
And so, a covenant is made by Joshua for the people and at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws, Joshua 24:25. Joshua records the words in the book of the law of God and a memorial stone was set up, Joshua 24:26, which would serve as a reminder to the people, Joshua 24:27. It will be a witness against Israel if they are untrue to their God, Joshua 24:27.
Once again, we see memorials being erected. There was one at Gilgal where they crossed the Jordan, Joshua 4:20, and another at Mount Ebal, where the law was readout, Joshua 8:30-10:43. Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance, Joshua 24:28.
If Joshua died, then who wrote this last part?
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The last six verses in this chapter were, doubtless, not written by Joshua; for no man can give an account of his own death and burial. Eleazar, Phinehas, or Samuel might have added them to bring down the narration so as to connect it with their own times and thus preserve the thread of the history unbroken. ’
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following concerning the words, ‘servant of the LORD, Joshua 24:29.
‘The title, ‘Servant of Jehovah’ is used of Moses frequently in the Book of Joshua, as in Joshua 1:1-2 / Joshua 1:13 / Joshua 8:31 / Joshua 8:33 / Joshua 9:24 / Joshua 11:12 / Joshua 11:15 / Joshua 12:6 / Joshua 13:8 / Joshua 14:7 / Joshua 18:7 / Joshua 22:2 / Joshua 22:4-5. But this is the very first time the title is given to Joshua.’
At the age of one-hundred and ten, Joshua died and was buried, Joshua 24:29-30. He had lived a full life, and he had lived a faithful life. He has such an influence on the people that they served the Lord all the days he lived and for the lifetime of the elders who survived him, Joshua 24:31 / Judges 2:6-10.
Joseph’s bones had been carried by the Israelites from the time of their Egyptian bondage, Exodus 13:19, and they buried them in Shechem in the land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, Joshua 24:32 / Genesis 33:19.
We are told this became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants, Joshua 24:32 / Joshua 16:4. Eleazar, son of Aaron, died, Numbers 3:32, and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim, Joshua 24:33 / Numbers 25:11-13. Joshua, Joseph, and Eleazar came out of a land of bondage and are buried in a land of rest.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The death and burial of Eleazar saw the transfer of the High Priesthood to his son Phinehas. Thus, just as the death of Aaron and Moses closed Deuteronomy, so the death of Eleazar and Joshua closed this book.’
Plummer, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The additions to this chapter that are found in the Septuagint (LXX) should be rejected. Their mention of Astarte and Ashteroth as separate deities is alone enough to discredit it.’
The Book of Joshua is essentially a book of choices. Joshua himself, in the beginning, had to make a choice; the people chose to enter the land. Rahab and the Gibeonites made a choice, Achan chose badly, Caleb, the two and a half tribes and the cities of refuge, and we too must choose.
And here are our choices, whose benefit am I seeking? Who will be affected by it? How will they be affected? Does God’s Word forbid it? Will it help the cause of Christ?
Will it benefit me spiritually? Have I sought wise counsel? Have I prayed about it? Am I willing to follow the right way? I pray you choose wisely and choose what Joshua chose, ‘as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD,’ Joshua 24:15.