Joshua 24:19-33.  We come to the end of the book of Joshua and it seems to end on a very harsh note.  Joshua has all of the people gathered and has challenged them to choose who will be their God.  They are quite loud about choosing Yahweh.  They will serve Him.  But Joshua warns them that they will not serve God (v. 19) and that if they do not, if they are unfaithful to God, then God will punish them.  We have seen this type of warning before, in fact the whole ceremony at Shechem earlier in Joshua (Joshua 8:30-35) was just such a reminder.  Now they are back at Shechem being reminded again.  Of course that was at least 5-7 years before and possibly 25 or more years before.

Some Bible experts think that Joshua end on a good note, they see peace and harmony with the people settled in the land.  But the people are only partially settled, there are Canaanites still in the land or back in the land, and in verse 23 Joshua has told the Israelites to “put away the foreign gods which are in your midst.”  After only a few years and with the some of the people still around who witnessed God’s miracles in bringing the Israelites to the land they were already cheating on God.

I think that both ideas are present here in the end of the book.  There is both hope and warning.  Joshua had been faithful and lived a good long life and was buried on his inheritance.  Eleazar also was buried in the inheritance of his son Phinehas.  And God had even honored Joseph’s faith as we see his bones being buried in the land (See Genesis 50:25-26 which happened over 400 years befoe).  God is faithful but he is also holy and will not allow sin to go unpunished (See Exodus 34:7).

But Exodus 34:7 not only teaches that God will punish sin it also teaches that He is faithful and forgiving.  The two have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus who took our punishment and satisfied God’s holiness and justice but also made possible forgiveness.  Just like the Israelites we must choose who we will serve and we must be careful not to let the foreign gods creep back into our lives.  Even with good leaders around we need to continue to focus on what God has done.  We need to set up “witnesses” in our lives and keep going back to them.  I think the experts are mostly right the book ends pretty hopefully, but mostly because it shows us God’s faithfulness.  The people had their land, Joshua had his land, even faithful Joseph had his dying wish fulfilled.  We need to learn to be faithful.  Hebrews tells us that the men of faith in the Old Testament were looking for a heavenly land.  That is our hope too.  We may get things here and now but we need to keep our real hope on an eternity with God in heaven.  Joshua was 110 when he died, Joseph too, but most of us will never reach that age.  Life is short but eternity is forever.  Keep your eyes on the witnesses so you don’t forsake God.  Lord help me always remember.  Help me keep the right focus, on eternity.  Keep me each day from the things which I might replace you with.  Thank you for your love and forgiveness.  Thank you for your faithfulness.  Teach me to be faithful to you.

Joshua 24:1-18.  Today we start the final speech by Joshua to the people.  He knows he is about to die.  Before this the people have usually gathered together at either Gilgal or Shiloh.  Those have been the two places where the Tabernacle has been.  But on one occasion they did gather at or near Shechem.   In Joshua 8:30-35 after the victory at Ai Joshua took the people about 25 mile north and assembled them between two mountains (hills really) Ebal and Gerazim.  On Mount Ebal he set up stones and wrote the Law of Moses on them, which he then read to the people.  He also built an altar there where he made an offering to God (See 3/4/12 post for more). This was all in obedience to a command that God gave to Moses.  During that earlier ceremony the Israelites were divided into two groups which stood on the two hills.  The Levites (which were on Mount Gerazim) then recited a series of blessings and curses all related to obeying the law written on the stone monuments. These events were commanded by Moses in Deuteronomy 27-28 and were carried out by Joshua in Joshua 8:30-35. Shechem was a town between these two hills and the meeting probably took place near Shechem.

So Joshua gathered the people in or near that same place for one final speech.  In the first thirteen verses he reviews the history of Israel from God choosing Abraham to be the guy who will give birth to the people who will show God to the world up until the present situation of those people living in a land in cities which they did not build from farms they did not plant.  All of this history was a witness of God’s involvement in their lives.

Based on the involvement of God in their lives Joshua encouraged them to serve God wholeheartedly and truthfully.  That second word, “truth”, translates a Hebrew word that comes from the same root word as the word Amen.  Amen means “let it be so” or “so be it”.  It’s like saying isn’t it the truth” or “let it be true”.  The Israelites were to worship God because of and in a way that honored the reality of who God is and what He had done.  Joshua then challenged the Israelites.  This challenge is interesting because he tells them if they don’t want to honor God then choose between the gods that Abraham’s fathers worshipped or the gods of the people they had just beaten.   Then he tells them that he and his house will serve Yahweh.  It almost seems like sort of a taunt.  To this the people affirm the activity of God in their lives so far and that they will serve God.

There are a couple of things that interested me in this reading.  In verses 7, during the part of the speech that Joshua says is directly from God, God says,  “And your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt”.   Anyone that was 20 or under when they came out of Egypt could still be living.  The ones who might remember would be at leas 55 or older (it all depends on how much time has passed since the division of the land).  Clearly Joshua was old enough to remember, and Caleb if he was still alive.  The point to me is that the story could be checked out.  I like it that the Bible is not “once upon  a time” or “in a galaxy far far away”.  This is real history and it was passed down by people who were there.  Another way of looking at it is our beliefs are rooted in truth.  Another ting I noticed is that the word serve or served is used 10 times in today’s reading.  The word appears 6 times in tomorrows reading.  The word was used only 5 other times in Joshua, once in chapter 16, twice in the story about the altar of remembrance (chapter 22) and twice in the speech Joshua gave just before this speech.  The word means to do work, usually for another person.  It seems that the point of the reading was about who they were going to serve, the fact that they would serve someone, and that they needed to actively choose.  In the words of Bob Dylan, “you’ve got to serve somebody, it may be the Devil or it may be the LORD but you’ve got to serve somebody.”  And they need to make the choice.  One last thing that interested me about today’s reading was the place.  Shechem not only was the place.  When I reread the two chapters in Deuteronomy I realized that the altar and the stones were on Mount Ebal, the mount that represented the curse.  I don’t know if that was because the Law reminds us that we are fallen, cursed (Romans 3:19-20) or because when we are cursed it is then that we need the sacrifice to make things right (Romans 3:20-22).  But the mount certainly represented that there is trouble when we disobey God.  I guess if you are honoring God you will be blessed and you don’t really need the law and the sacrifice.  Jesus said it is the sick who need the doctor and that he did not come for righteous people but for sinners (Mark 2:17) of course we are all sinners and all need Jesus (Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:23).  Shechem was also the place where Joseph body was buried when his bones were brought back from Egypt (Acts 7:16).  The place had a lot of history and was a real reminder of the truth of Israel’s history, the truth of God’s involvement.

I am thankful that God puts us where we need to be to remember, like in real places where He has really acted,  and that God put things to help us remember where we are, like His law and His sacrafice right where we are blowing it.  God was there and God is here.  God acts and He acts for us, it’s real.  We should live for Him whole-heartedly based on that truth.  But we need to decide.  Otherwise we can choose to return to the dead useless “gods” of our ancestors.  As for me, I choose Jesus!  Lord, thank you for showing up and thank you for showing yourself.  Lord help me remember.  Help me live appropriately.  Help me live for you with all that I am.  Amen!  So be it.