Joshua 23:1-16.  So “after many days” Joshua gathers the Israelites together for some final words.  According to verses 14 He realizes that his time to die has come.  He gives two speeches before he dies to the Israelite people one is here in chapter 23 and we will read the other tomorrow and the next day in chapter 24.  As we will see in chapter 24 Joshua was 110 when he died.  The youngest he would have been when he went as a spy under Moses would have been 20.  We know this because anyone under 20 was not cursed to die in the wilderness before the new generation took the land.  He was a part of that generation but was exempt from the curse because he was faithful to God, like Caleb was.  We also know at the time of the division of the land that Caleb was 85 and that it had been 45 years since the rebellion that led to the curse (Joshua 14:7-10).  That means that it took about 5 years to do the major conquering of the land.  The division of the land included at least one survey of the territory (Joshua 18:4) and perhaps another before the first allotments to Caleb and Judah and to Ephraim and half on Manasseh, Joseph’s descendants.  So at least some time passed during that process.  The youngest that Joshua would have been then, at the end of the allotments, was about 66.  Many people assume he was the same age as Caleb making him about 86.  He could have been older though.  So the “many days” In Joshua 23:1 could have been any where from 44 years to the smallest number of days that you might call “many”.

In verse 3 Joshua reminds them that they have “seen” God’s presence because of the outcome of the many battles.  We have also seen several times as we have read through the book that there were a number of places where the Canaanites and others of the original inhabitants remained.  We have seen that the Israelites would not or could not or did not eliminate these people.  Now Joshua deals with the presence of these “nations”.  We have just read about the division of the land, here in this speech Joshua uses the same language that he used about “dividing” the land as an “inheritance” (Joshua 13:7, 32; 14:1; 19:49) but with respect to these other people groups.  Just like the other people who were gotten rid of under Joshua’s leadership God would help the Israelites get rid of these people.

But there were conditions.  In verse 6 Joshua told the people to “be firm to keep and do” what is written in the laws of Moses.  In verse 8 he told them to cling to Yahweh.  In verse 11 he told them to be diligent about loving Yahweh their God.  If they were not careful to drive out the remaining nations those nations would become a trap to them.  They would tempt them to follow their gods.  And the Israelites would eventually lose the land (Joshua 23:13, 15).  We saw that happen several times in the book that follows Joshua historically, Judges.

This reminds me of the words that God said to Joshua at the beginning of the book to be courageous (Joshua 1:6-8, 18).  Each generation needs to remember and be careful to follow God.  God has made certain promises, sometimes those promises are unconditional and sometimes they have conditions.  Sometimes they are both.  The land had both conditional and unconditional aspects to it.  The promise to Abraham was unconditional, the land would belong to his descendants forever, but any particular generation might not possess it.  We have seen that the ability to take over the land helped the Israelites and the world (remember Rahab, for example) see God.  In verse 14 Joshua wants the Israelites to keep seeing.  Unfortunately verse 16 hints that they will not stay faithful.  It is scary how easy it is for us to forget what God has done and turn away from Him.  Not just from generation to generation but in our own lives.  Remember the generation who was not allowed to enter the land, they had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and then saw the Egyptian army destroyed as the ocean fell in on them.  Or what about Achan who at the very least would have seen a similar miracle when they crossed the Jordan and then seen the walls of Jericho fall down.  We need to be firm and diligent and cling to God so we do not lose blessings of God (like what happened in Judges).  We also need to set a good example for the generations which come after us.  The picture of disobedience in verse 13 is not a good one, whips on your sides and thorns in your eyes.  It is also not very comforting that it seems certain to happen according to verse 16.  I am glad that we read Judges first because I know from that book that God is there to help and fix things when we turn back to Him.  I am glad that he is forgiving and faithful.  Lord help me be faithful.  Help me remember.  And when I fail help me quickly turn back.  Thank you for your patience.  Thank you for being forgiving.  And thank you for your help. 

Joshua 22:21-34.  Today’s reading finishes the story of the altar that the 2 ½ tribes built on their side of the Jordan River.  It was a copy of the altar used at the Tabernacle to make sacrifices to God on.  In today’s reading they explained that their altar was never intended to be used for sacrifices.  It was a symbol of unity between the tribes on opposite sides of the river.  In verses 22-23 they actually invoke a curse upon them selves.  If they were guilty of rebellion or unfaithfulness, the very things the rest of the Israelites were worried about (see vv. 17, 20), then they wanted to be killed immediately.  They even asked that God do it personally.

When the other Israelites saw that they were serious about honoring God only at the Tabernacle and that they wanted this altar to just be a reminder to everyone for all generations of the unity of the Israelite people, they were pleased and approved of the situation.  The eastern tribes called the altar, Witness, since it was a witness of the unity of the twelve tribes.  Notice too in the response by the leaders of the ten tribes (v. 13) that they said that the 2 ½ tribes had actually saved them from “the hand of the LORD”.  They could have meant that because the 2 ½ tribes were faithful and not unfaithful (like the Peor or Achan incidents) that a plague or other judgment did not come.  I think there is more, though, I think they recognized that a memorial to the unity of the tribes would help them stay together as a nation.  Remember too that this memorial was to remind all the tribes to only worship at the Tabernacle (v. 29).  Ultimately what made the Israelites different from other people groups was their faithfulness to God and His faithfulness to them.

In Deuteronomy 4:16-18 the Israelites are warned not to make carved images of various creatures.  In Exodus 20:4 they are also warned not to make idols or carved images.  But in both cases the warning also includes warnings about worshipping these images and the things that they represent.  Later in Israel’s history many many altars were constructed and condemned because they were used to worship false gods or sometimes they were even used to worship Yahweh, but not when, where and how God had commanded.

Through out church history there have been many images made to represent things in the Bible, from crosses, to crucifixes, to little plastic Jesus’ to put on your dashboard.  There have also been a lot of images of the apostles and Mary as well as other famous Christians.  There have also been Christians in church history that made a point of entering churches and destroying all of these images.  The thing I think we can learn from this story is that it’s not the image but what you do with it that counts.  In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Solomon describes all sorts of human activities.  He says that they all have a right place and time.  He even says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that they are all appropriate or beautiful in their time.  This comes after 2 chapters of telling us how worthless life is.  The key is in how he puts it though, it’s worthless “under the sun”.  In verse 11 he says that not only has God made the activities of life appropriate but he has “put eternity in the hearts of men”.  These two things “beauty of life” and “sense of eternity” are gifts from God (Ecclesiastes 3:13) and the gifts have a purpose, so we will respect God, honor Him appropriately (Ecclesiastes 3:14).  Even in the original worship of God there were carved images of angles on the top of the Ark of Promise.  The point is worship God, his way, in his place.  According to 1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that we are the temple of God.  Our lives are where God is to be honored.  Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to give our lives to God as a living sacrifice, that is our reasonable spiritual service to God.  So there is God’s place and God’s way.  Reminders are good we just have to be careful not to make them god in our lives.  We need to be careful not to run around trying to tear down other people’s reminders too.  Maybe they are just trying to remember, if not we need to encourage them to worship the Creator not the creation.  God thank you for allowing us to have reminders in our life.  Thank you for life, which is a reminder in and of it’s self (John 1:4).  Thank you for beauty which speaks of You and those little voices inside of us that make us look for eternity.  Help me look and listen.  Help me see and hear and do.  But most of all thank you for allowing us to know your presence and for allowing us to honor you.