Joshua 24:24-33 - We will serve the Lord

24:24-28

The people declare their intention to serve and obey the Lord. Joshua made a covenant for the people. So they were solemnly promising to live according to the ways of the Lord. A large stone was set up as a reminder of the covenant they had made. The people happily tied themselves to this covenant, Joshua reminded them that it would stand against them if they failed to hold true to it. The people were then dismissed.

24:29-33

The time of Joshua is now at an end. He died at the age of one hundred and ten and was buried in the land of his inheritance. The people of Israel did serve the Lord throughout the time of Joshua’s leadership, and of the elders who outlived him, and had experienced the things that God had done. Experience matters, and part of the Christian life should be an ongoing experience of the reality of God’s love for us. In accordance with his instructions, Joseph’s bones had been carried up from Egypt and were buried at Shechem. It is noted that Jacob had bought this land many years ago. Eleazar also died.

Joshua 24:19-23 - You are not able to serve the Lord

24:19,20

The people were deluded about themselves, but Joshua knew what they were really like. “You are not able to serve the Lord”. This is the state of every human being.  Joshua then reminds them that God is a holy God, and a jealous God. When he says “He will not forgive ...” he means that God will not overlook the sins of idolatry. Sin matters. Israel would suffer for her disobedience. We are going way off line when we forget that the Lord is a holy God, or we think that sin does not matter.

24:21-23

The people still vehemently insist that they will indeed serve the Lord. In response Joshua declares that they will be witnesses against themselves. The very next book in the Bible proves beyond doubt that it was Joshua who knew what he was talking about. The people readily accept their words as a witness. Joshua then tells them to follow up their words with actions. It seems that the people still had “foreign gods” amongst them. They are also urged to “yield their hearts to the Lord”.

Joshua 24:15-18 - Far be it from us to forsake the Lord

24:15

Strangely Joshua offers them an alternative, seeming to say if you are not going to worship the Lord properly don’t worship Him at all. Worship your rotten idols! Mind you, there are some churches today to which one would like to say, “stop pretending to be Christians”. Joshua then declares that he and his household will serve the Lord.

24:16-18

The people react in horror to this, indignantly declaring that they would never worship idols. Saying that they know it is the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, it was the Lord who looked after them through the wilderness, and it was the Lord who drove out their enemies before them to give them the Promised Land. A great mistake of humanity, one to which we are all prone, is to think that we are basically good. If we have failed badly, we will just try harder next time and everything will be OK. We are so reluctant to admit that the root problem lies within us.

Joshua 24:5-14 - Now fear the Lord and serve Him

24:5-10

We then get mention of the release from Egypt, and various other events that followed. The mention of Balak and Balaam is significant. Balak called on Balaam to curse Israel, but God would not listen to him, so instead of cursing, he blessed Israel, repeatedly. The other nations may declare curses on Israel, but they would have no effect, because God would not listen. It is God who decides the outcome of events, no one and nothing else.

24:11-13

Finally they crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, which they defeated, and this was followed by various other victories.The earlier events mentioned are ones that the people did not have first hand experience of, but these latter ones they had experienced.

24:14

The deep rooted tendency of all humans to worship idols is highlighted here, with reference to Israel’s ancestors' proclivity for worshipping idols. Joshua urges them to “fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness”. This is like Jesus’ saying the greatest commandment is to worship the Lord with all that we have.  At the same time they are to “throw away the gods of your ancestors”.

Joshua 24:1-4 - They presented themselves before God

24:1

The chapter falls into three main parts. It begins with God recounting what has gone before, then there is the renewal of the covenant, and finally the death of Joshua and Eleazar, along with the burial of Joseph’s bones.

Joshua had summoned all of Israel to Shechem, and they presented themselves before the Lord.

24:2-4

The history of Israel is then recounted. It is presented as Joshua giving the word of the Lord. Most of what is said we are already familiar with, though one or two things are made more explicit. The first of these is that the nation was founded out of a people who worshipped other gods. Abraham’s ancestors worshipped false gods, but God took him out of that. God rescues people out of the world. The world’s ways are not good, and we need to be taken out of them.

Joshua 23:12-16 - But if you turn away

23:12,13

The warning becomes more explicit. Joshua tells them what will happen if they ally themselves with the survivors, and intermarry and associate with them. Now this is very strange, why would they think that they could learn something from a defeated enemy? Why would adopting their ways be a sensible thing to do? Yet Israel frequently did this very thing. And the church is forever wanting to adopt the world’s ways, and it never ends wll.

23:14-16

Joshua knows that soon he will die. He reminds them again that God’s promises have never failed. So they know that the word of the Lord is true. This also means that God’s words of judgement if they abandon His ways are equally true and reliable. Israel had conquered the land, but not for her own sake. She had done this for the Lord’s sake. If she remained true to the Lord all would go well. But if she abandoned the Lord, nothing would go well. They were tenants in the land, not freeholders. Sadly, as we know and will read, Israel never kept the word of the Lord for long.

Joshua 23:6-11 - Be very strong and careful to obey

23:6-8

Joshua had been urged to be strong and courageous, and he now passes this encouragement, indeed this command, to the people. They must also be careful to obey the Law of Moses, not turning to the right nor to the left. They were not to associate with the nations. This was not because of racist reasons, but so that they would not adopt the ways of the nations, in particular worshipping false gods. Instead they were to hold fast to the Lord.

23:9-11

Joshua reminds the people of what God has already done for them. The nations they defeated were “great and powerful”, naturally speaking they presented a threat to Israel, but because the Lord was with them these nations could not withstand Israel. In our own lives we should not fear when we face problems or situations which are more powerful than us, for our lives are not based just on what we can do, but on what God can do through and with us. But these victories come with a warning. The danger is that while we may start off trusting in the Lord, after success we may start to trust in ourselves. Instead we need to “be very careful to love the Lord”.

Joshua 23:1-5 - I am very old

23:1,2

Another key phase of Israel’s life comes to an end. “After a long time had passed ..” We are not given much information of what happened after the conquests and now, except that God had given them rest from all their enemies. Joshua was now very old and knew that his time was nearly up. So he gives Israel a charge for how they should continue to live, summoning all the various leaders of the nation.

23:3

The basis for what Joshua has to say is to remind them of all that they have seen, how they have seen the Lord work among them and give them victory. We all have a tendency to forget what the Lord has done, and it is good to remind ourselves. Note that it says the Lord did these things “for your sake”, and “fought for you”. It is amazing how committed to us the Lord is.

23:4,5

In Joshua’s time there were still peoples that had not been conquered, land that still remained to be taken. Yet Joshua had still allotted this land to the various tribes. I wonder why Joshua did not set about taking at least some of these remaining lands? We find the phrase “between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea”. With the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, the phrase “from the river to the sea” has chilling undertones. Joshua assures them that the Lord would drive out the nations before them. 

Joshua 22:15-34 - A witness between us

22:15-20

The delegation arrived in Transjordania and had harsh words for the tribes there. They thought they had broken faith with the Lord, and so exposed the whole of Israel, not just themselves, to the wrath of God. They cited the sin of Peor (Num 25), and Achan’s sin as evidence of the danger. Achan was just one man, yet the whole community suffered.

22:21-34

The Transjordanians declare that they built the altar not as a place of worship, but as a reminder, or a witness, to future generations of what God had done for them. The altars were often reminders of God’s work, rather than a thing to worship (i.e. an idol). It was also to remind future generations that they were part of the whole nation of Israel. The explanation seemed to satisfy Phinehas and the tribal leaders. They reported their findings to Israel, and everyone was happy! 

Joshua 22:1-14 - You have done all that Moses commanded

22:1-8

The book closes with three separate tales, all dealing with commitment to the Lord. The first involves the Transjordanian tribes, the Reubenites, Gadites and the famous half-tribe of Manasseh. Joshua summoned them and declared that they had fulfilled the requirements laid upon them by Moses, i.e. fighting with their fellow Israelites until the land was conquered. The Lord had given the people rest, so the tribes were free to return home. Joshua reminds them that they must keep the Law of Moses, living in obedience to God “with all your heart and with all your soul”. The tribes were blessed by Joshua. They also took with them a great deal of plunder, obtained during the various conquests. 

22:9-14

It didn’t take long for trouble to arise. The Transjordanian tribes built an “imposing altar”. Now this was not an idol, but an altar. It seems clear that there was suspicion between the Israel tribes and Transjordanian tribes. For the Israel tribes feared that they had built an idol, and their recent history had demonstrated beyond doubt that this was a very bad idea. Phinehas along with a representative from each of the tribes was sent to investigate the matter. It was Phinehas who had brought the plague after the Moab debacle to an end (Num 25), so he was a trusted man, as well as being a priest. So if there was something wrong he would spot it. The whole of Israel was ready to go to war with their brothers.

Joshua 27:1-45 - Not one of God's promises failed

21:1-42

Having dealt with the cities of refuge, we now come to towns for the Levites. These were the priests, and we have repeatedly been told that they had no permanent place in the land allocation because their inheritance was in the Lord. However, the tribes had been commanded by Moses to make provision for the Levites. It seems that the Levites were concerned that Joshua had forgotten about this, so the Levite leaders approached Eleazar, Joshua and the tribal heads about the matter.

However, the matter had not been forgotten, and appropriate allocation was made, for which we get all the details. So the allocation of land was now complete.

21:43-45

It is the end of the chapter which has the most interesting part, and the part which promotes the most debate. These verses imply completion of the takeover of the land. However, we know, and the book has explicitly stated, that while there had been a lot of conquering, there were still some areas that had not been properly conquered, and some peoples who had not been entirely defeated (Josh 13:1). However, the emphasis of these verses is one what the Lord has done. He had given them all the land, when they faithfully went into battle and got on with the work, they won. But if they were less than diligent, problems still remained. It was not the Lord’s promises that failed, but Israel. The same applies to all of us in our Christian lives. Christ’s work of redemption is complete, but we have not yet “taken all the land”. 

Joshua 20:1-9 - Cities of refuge

20:1-9

The general allocation of the land has been dealt with and we now come to some of the finer details, with this chapter dealing with the cities of refuge. These cities have had several mentions already, the first being in  Numbers 35:6-34, though the principle was mentioned in Ex 21:12-14. The object was to distinguish between the case where someone had deliberately killed someone, and where he had accidentally killed someone. In both cases the victim’s family would feel greatly aggrieved and maybe liable to exact vengeance. The cities of refuge concept was designed to deal with this latter case. If someone fled to one of these cities they were to present their case at the entrance to the city. There would be a trial to determine the truth of the matter, but the man claiming it was accidental was to be allowed to have a fair hearing. Even if it was shown that the death was indeed accidental, he would still have to pay compensation, but he would not lose his life. Six cities in total were set aside for this purpose, three each side of the Jordan. The rule applied to Israelites and foreigners alike.

Joshua 18 & 19 - More allotments

18:1-3

The battles were almost at an end with “the country brought under their control”. However, seven of the tribes had yet to receive an inheritance. Joshua was not pleased with the situation, and was not pleased with the seven tribes, for the reason they had not received their inheritance yet was that they had not taken possession of it! There is an obvious parallel that can be drawn with the Christian life here. There are aspects of life that God has done His part, but we have failed to do our part. God does not have passive partners.

18:4-10

So Joshua gave the recalcitrant tribes instructions on what to do. These instructions were quite clear. The problem was not that the lands had not been conquered, but that the tribes hadn’t done anything about it. The Levites get their usual mention. The relevant tribes finally got on with the job, doing as Joshua had instructed them and the areas were allotted by lot.

18:11-19:51

We then get the allotments for the various tribes. The lists are not very exciting. There are only a couple of points of note (which I can see, which doesn't mean that there aren’t more). One is that part of the inheritance for Judah was given to Simeon. The other is that Joshua had his own allotment. Eleazar the priest and Joshua were in charge of assigning the land to the tribes (Num 34:17).

Joshua 16 & 17 Equality and Diversity

16:1-10

A short chapter, with more land allotments, this time to Ephraim and Manasseh. These were sons of Joseph. This chapter gives details of the land allocation to Ephraim. It concludes with the statement that “they did not dislodge the Canaanites ...” It doesn’t say why, whether it was because they were unable to, or because they didn’t try hard enough. It is also strange because they were able to make them do forced labour. This would later cause problems for Israel.

17:1-18

Chapter 117 deals with the land allocation for Manasseh. This was the tribe of Joseph’s firstborn. Perhaps the most interesting part of this chapter is the part relating to the daughters of Zelophehad. Numbers 27 deals specifically with Zelophad’s daughters and their receiving an inheritance, and Numbers 36 deals more generally with the female heirs. Feminists in particular will sometimes criticise the Bible for being “patriarchal”. The actual picture of the Bible is that men and women are equal and share in the inheritance. Worldly views seek to divide, the Bible is concerned with unity. And there is diversity, for men and women have different roles (which may sometimes overlap). So when the inheritance went to the man, it implicitly went to the man and woman. If the man had died, then special rules, as outlined here and the chapters in Numbers, applied. I would rather have Biblical equality and diversity than the corrupted worldly version.

Again, there is mention of the failure to drive the Canaanites out, and more explanation of their being made to do forced labour. It seems in 17:16-18 that some of them wanted a “free” inheritance. Joshua was having none of it. The Lord would enable them to take possession of the land, so they had to get on with it.

Joshua 15:1-63 - Give me also spings of water

15:1-12

We are now into a number of passages which give exhaustive details on the land allotment, starting with Judah. Maybe we can draw a parallel with the Christian life in that we are given clearly defined areas of life which are ours. Within those areas we are to live as Christlike people. These areas include our role as husbands or wives, parents, children, employees, bosses. There can also be areas of ministry.

15:13-19

Caleb is mentioned again. Joshua was the clear leader of Israel, but Caleb receives a lot of attention. Caleb was a man of faith and exercised that faith, that is clearly considered as valuable by the Lord. He was also concerned for the man whom she married. 15:18 seems a little odd. It starts with Aksah urging her husband to ask her father for a field, but then Caleb asks his daughter directly “What can I do for you?”, so the first part seems a little pointless.

15:20-63

We finish with a whole bunch of details. If anything, it does show that God takes account of everyone in His plans. 15:63 mentions that the Jebusites could not be dislodged. The Jebusites were not dislodged until the time of David. They were an enemy of Israel, Adoni-Zedek was a Jebusite (Josh 10:5), and again in Josh 11:3.

Joshua 14:1-15 - Caleb

14:1-5

We now get information on the division of the land west of the Jordan, i.e. to the nine and a half tribes who did not take the Transjordan land.  Eleazar the priest was the son of Aaron. There is mention again of the Levites. The point of all this is to emphasise that things were carried out in accordance with the commands of Moses. I.e. all this is a continuation of what began when they came out of Egypt (or what began with God;’s promises to Abraham, to go further back).

14:6-15

The first detail of the allocation is to do with Caleb. Caleb was, along with Joshua, one of the two spies who brought back a good report, and said that God would enable them to take the Promised Land. Caleb had been faithful while most of Israel was unfaithful, and he was rewarded for his faith. He entered the Promised Land, and he remained in excellent health. Calen asked for “this hill country” and was ready to drive out the Anakites. He continued to live by faith. Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him Hebron. Caleb is referred to as a Kenizzite. There is some doubt as to who exactly were the Kenizzites may have been a Gentile people (i.e. not Jewish by birth) who had joined with Israel and become part of them (https://www.gotquestions.org/Kenizzites.html) Whether or not this is the case, the emphasis here is on the faithfulness of Caleb, of his belief in the Lord. 

Joshua 13:1-33 - There is still land to be taken

13:1-7

In the previous two chapters we have read how Joshua conquered lands in the north and the south, however, there was still much to do. Joshua was now very old. Remember that we first read of Joshua in Ex 17. We then get a list of the lands still to be conquered. While there was still much to do, God declares that “I myself will drive them out before the Israelites”. The work would be completed. God’s work in our own lives is incomplete, there is still much to do, but we can be confident that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6). Moreover, the as yet unconquered land was to be allocated. God bases His plans on the completion of His work.

13:8-33

The rest of the chapter deals with the Transjordanian tribes. I.e. the Reubenites, Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh. There are just two points I would like to draw out. One is that all the land given, not just the Transjordanian lands, was conquered territory. It was land previously occupied by godless peoples. Our lives are occupied by sin, but in Christ God gives these areas of our lives back to us, but that involves us conquering areas of our lives. The second point is that there are two mentions of the tribe of Levi (13:14; 13:33), and the fact that they had no inheritance in the land, for “the Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance”. In Christ we are all priests, and our inheritance is in the Lord. Just as God made provision for the Levites, He was their inheritance. So, God provides for our needs, but our inheritance is in Him, not in possessions.

Joshua 12:1-24 - Here is a list of the kings

12:1-6

This is a list chapter, and those of you who have read a lot of my blog will know that I don’t like them! Or at least I have little of worth to say about them, so I’ll cover the chapter in a single post.

It is essentially a list of the various victories of Israel, both under Moses and under Joshua. 

It begins with the transjordan victories under Moses, where Sihon and Og were defeated. It mentions the kings who were defeated, and areas of land that they ruled over. These lands were given to the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

12:7-24

This section includes many more defeated kings, and is even more of a list.The kings are all listed, with their territory, rather than their name, being listed. These lands were given by Joshua at the tribes of Israel.

Thrity one kings in all were defeated.

Joshua 11:20-23 - Joshua took the entire land

11:20

“For it was the Lord Himself who hardened their hearts ....” This does not mean that the various kings were not responsible for their actions. Rather it means that the Bible sees all this as part of God’s plan, happening according to His will, so that all these kings and their peoples would be destroyed. The simplistic view that it is either human freewill or the sovereignty of God is naive and not in line with the Bible. The Bible clearly portrays human responsibility and the divine decree as both working.

11:21-23

We get a brief mention of somemother towns being destroyed, but then a statement that “Gaza, Gath and Ashdod” remained. The chapter finishes with the announcement that Joshua took the entire land.  Joshua fulfilled the directions given by Moses, and the land was then allotted to Israel according to the tribal divisions. “Then the land had rest from war”. There are times of battle in our lives, but also times of peace. We need to fight when it is the time to fight, and to enjoy the peace when it is time to rest.

Joshua 11:7-19 - They totally destroyed them

11:7-9

Joshua and his whole army made a sudden attack against the forces at the Waters of Merom. “And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel”. Joshua and Israel had to do stuff, but it was the Lord who gave them victory. They pursued the defeated armies relentlessly. Joshua followed the instructions of the Lord and hamstrung the horses, and burnt the chariots.

11:10-15

Hazor was the organising force behind the northern armies, and Joshua turned back and captured him, and then killed him. They put everyone to death, and burned the town of Hazor. The emphasis is on Joshua’s following of Moses’ commands. They carried off plunder. Jericho, Ai and Hazor are the only sites to have been burned by Israel. The Lord commanded Moses, Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua completed the task.

11:16-19

The rebellious battle had taken a short length of time, but in 11:18 we read that fighting against the kings mentioned in this section took a long time. Some battles are short, some are long. None of the cities, except for the Gibeonites (or Hivites,see 11:19), made a peace treaty with Israel. None of them wanted to, and none of them would have been allowed to. It was only because of their deception that the Gibeonites managed the feat.