Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 23:1
And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old [and] stricken in age.
Ch. Jos 23:1-16. Joshua’s first Farewell Address
1. had given rest ] Comp. Jos 21:43-44; Jos 22:3-4.
waxed old ] Comp. Jos 13:1, “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years.”
stricken in age ] Heb. come into days; “of ful eld age,” Wyclif.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This and the next chapter contain the last addresses of Joshua. These addresses were no doubt among the closing acts of Joshuas life, but were evidently given on different occasions, and are of different character and scope. In the former Joshua briefly reminds the princes of the recent benefits of God toward them and their people, declares that God had fulfilled all His promises, and exhorts to faithfulness on their side to God that so His mercies may not be withdrawn: in the latter he takes a wider range, rehearses the gracious dealings of God with the nation from its very origin, and upon these as his grounds, he claims for God their sincere and entire service. But he grants them the option of withdrawing from the covenant if they so choose; and when they elect still to abide by it, it is solemnly renewed by the free consent of the whole people. Joshuas reproofs and warnings are in sum and substance identical with those with which Moses closed his career (Deut. 31, etc.). Compare throughout the marginal references.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jos 23:1-16
I am old and stricken in age: and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done.
Old age
As in the snowy realms of the Alps lovely flowers open their cheerful petals to the sky, so, notwithstanding the weight of years and cares, many a sweet flower of hope, and trust, and love, and disinterested friendship, and faith may continue to blossom in the aged heart, and to send out an attractive fragrance for the happiness of others.
Jehovah the champion of Israel
The last two chapters of Joshua are very like each other. Each professes to be a report of the aged leaders farewell meeting with the heads of the people. In our judgment, both reports bear on the same occasion; and if so, all that needs to be said as to their origin is, that the author of the book, having obtained two reports from trustworthy sources, did not adopt the plan of weaving them into one, but gave them separately, just as he had received them. The circumstance is a proof of the trustworthiness of the narrative; had the writer put on record merely what Joshua might be supposed to have said, he would not have adopted this twofold form of narrative. What was the burden of Joshuas address? You have it in the words–The Lord your God is He that fighteth for you; therefore cleave unto the Lord your God. You owe everything to the Lord; therefore render to Him all His due. God is expressly set forth as the champion of Israel, fighting for him against the Canaanites, and driving them out. He is here the God of battles; and the terrible desolation that followed the track of Israel is here ascribed to the championship of the Most High. There are some expositors who explain these sayings in a general sense. There are great laws of conquest, they say, roughly sanctioned by Providence, whereby one race advances upon another. Nations enervated through luxury and idleness are usually supplanted by more vigorous races. We cannot vindicate all the rule of the British in India; greed, insolence, and lust have left behind them many a stain. Still, the result on the whole has been for good. The English have a higher conception of human life than the Hindus. They have a higher sense of order, of justice, of family life, of national well-being. There is a vigour about them that will not tolerate the policy of drifting; that cannot stand still or lie still and see everything going wrong; that strives to remedy injustice, to reform abuse, to correct what is vicious and disorderly, and foster organisation and progress. In these respects British rule has been a benefit to India. There may have been deeds of oppression and wrong that curdle the blood, or habits of self-indulgence may have been practised at the expense of the natives that shock our sense of humanity, as if the inferior race could have no rights against the superior; but these are but the eddies or by-play of a great beneficent current, and in the summing up of the long account they hold but an insignificant place. When you survey the grand result; when you see a great continent like India peaceable and orderly that used to be distracted on every side by domestic warfare; when you see justice carefully administered, life and property protected, education and civilisation advanced, to say nothing of the spirit of Christianity introduced, you are unable to resist the conclusion that the influence of its new masters has been a gain to India, and therefore that the British rule has had the sanction of Heaven. Now, in this case, as in the conquest of India by Britain, a process went on which was a great benefit on a large scale. It was not designed to be of benefit to the original inhabitants, as was the British occupation of India, for they were a doomed race, as we shall immediately see. But the settlement of the people of Israel in Canaan was designed and was fitted to be a great benefit to the world. Explain it as we may, Israel had higher ideas of life than the other nations, richer gifts of head and heart, more capacity of governing, and a far purer religious sentiment. On the principle that a race like this must necessarily prevail over such tribes as had occupied Palestine before, the conquest of Joshua might well be said to have Divine approval. God might truly be said to go forth with the armies of Israel, and to scatter their enemies as smoke is scattered by the wind. But this was not all. There was already a judicial sentence against the seven nations of which Israel was appointed to be the executioner. Loathsome vice consecrated by the seal of religion; unnatural lust, turning human beings into worse than beasts; natural affection converted into an instrument of the most horrid cruelty–could any practices show more powerfully the hopeless degradation of these nations in a moral and religious sense, or their ripeness for judgment? Israel was the appointed executioner of Gods justice against them, and in order that Israel might fulfil that function, God went before him in his battles and delivered his enemies into his hands. And what Israel did in this way was done under a solemn sense that he was inflicting Divine retribution. We cannot suppose that the people uniformly acted with the moderation and self-restraint becoming Gods executioners. No doubt there were many instances of unwarrantable and inhuman violence. To charge these on God is not fair. They were the spots and stains that ever indicate the hand of man, even when doing the work of God. If it be said that the language of the historian seems sometimes to ascribe to God what really arose from the passions of the people, it is to be observed that we are not told in what form the Lord communicated His commands. No doubt the Hebrews were disposed to claim Divine authority for what they did to the very fullest extent. There may have been times when they imagined that they were fulfilling the requirements of God, when they were only giving effect to feelings of their own. And generally they may have been prone to suppose that modes of slaughter that seemed to them quite proper were well pleasing in the sight of God. For God often accomplishes His holy purposes by leaving His instruments to act in their own way. But we have wandered from Joshua, and the assembly of Israel. What we have been trying is to show the soundness of Joshuas fundamental position-that God fought for Israel. The same thing might be shown by a negative process. If God had not been actively and supernaturally with Israel, Israel could never have become what he was. Moses and his bevy of slaves, Joshua and his army of shepherds–what could have made such soldiers of these men if the Lord had not fought on their side? The getting possession of Canaan, as Joshua reminded the people, was a threefold process: God fighting for them had subdued their enemies; Joshua had divided the land; and now God was prepared to expel the remaining people, but only through their instrumentality. Emphasis is laid on expelling and driving out (verse 5), from which we gather that further massacre was not to take place, but that the remainder of the Canaanites must seek settlements elsewhere. A sufficient retribution had fallen on them for their sins, in the virtual destruction of their people and the loss of their country; the miserable remnant might have a chance of escape, in some ill-filled country where they would never rise to influence and where terror would restrain them from their former wickedness. Joshua was very emphatic in forbidding intermarriage and friendly social intercourse with Canaanites. He knew that between the realm of holiness and the realm of sin there is a kind of neutral territory, which belongs strictly to neither, but which slopes towards the realm of sin, and in point of fact most commonly furnishes recruits not a few to the army of evil. Alas, how true is this still! Marriages between believers and unbelievers; friendly social fellowship, on equal terms, between the Church and the world; partnership in business between the godly and the ungodly–who does not know the usual result? In a few solitary cases, it may be, the child of the world is brought into the kingdom; but in how many instances do we find the buds of Christian promise nipped, and lukewarmness and backsliding, if not apostasy, coming in their room! (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXIII
Joshua, being old, calls for the rulers and different heads of
the Israelites, 1, 2,
to whom he relates how God had put them in possession of the
promised land, 3, 4;
from which all their remaining enemies should be expelled, 5.
Exhorts them to be faithful to God, and to avoid all connections
with the idolatrous nations, 6-8.
Encourages them with the strongest promises, that no enemy
should ever be able to prevail against them, if they continued
to love the Lord their God, 9-11.
Lays also before them the consequences of disobedience, 12, 13.
Shows them that as all God’s promises had been fulfilled to
them while they were obedient, so his threatening should be
fulfilled own them if they revolted from his service; and
that if they did so, they should be utterly destroyed from
off the good land, 14-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII
Verse 1. A long time after that the Lord had given rest] This is supposed to have been in the last or one hundred and tenth year of the life of Joshua, about thirteen or fourteen years after the conquest of Canaan, and seven after the division of the land among the tribes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A long time; about fourteen years after it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. a long time after that the Lordhad given rest unto Israel from all their enemiesaboutfourteen years after the conquest of Canaan, and seven after thedistribution of that country among the tribes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass a long time after,…. Or “after many days” o, that is, years:
that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about; the greatest part of the land of Canaan was subdued, the whole divided by lot to the tribes of Israel, and they quietly settled in the respective portions assigned them, the Canaanites that remained giving them no disturbance, in which state of rest and peace they had now been for some years; and this may be reasonably supposed to be the last year of the life of Joshua, see Jos 23:14.
that Joshua waxed old [and] stricken in age; and became feeble and decrepit, and greatly declined; for though he was ten years younger than Moses when he died, yet not so vigorous, strong, and robust as he, but was pressed and bore down with the infirmities of age.
o “post dies multos”, Pagninus, Masius, Tigurine version; “exactis maltis diebus”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Exhortation to the Tribes of Israel to Remain Faithful to their Calling. – Jos 23:1, Jos 23:2. The introduction to the discourse which follows is attached in its first part to Jos 22:3-4, and thus also to Jos 21:43-44, whilst in the second part it points back to Jos 13:1. The Lord had given the people rest from all their enemies round about, after the land had been subdued and divided by lot (Jos 21:43-44). Joshua was already an old man at the termination of the war (Jos 13:1); but since then he had advanced still further in age, so that he may have noticed the signs of the near approach of death. He therefore called together the representatives of the people, either to Timnath-serah where he dwelt (Jos 19:50), or to Shiloh to the tabernacle, the central sanctuary of the whole nation, as the most suitable place for his purpose. “ All Israel ” is still further defined by the apposition, “ its elders, and its heads, and its judges, and its officers.” This is not to be understood, however, as referring to four different classes of rulers; but the term elders is the general term used to denote all the representatives of the people, who were divided into heads, judges, and officers. And the heads, again, were those who stood at the head of the tribes, families, and fathers’ houses, and out of whose number the most suitable persons were chosen as judges and officers (Deu 1:15; see my Bibl. Arch. ii. 143). Joshua’s address to the elders of all Israel consists of two parts, which run parallel to one another so far as the contents are concerned, Jos 23:2-13 and Jos 23:14-16. In both parts Joshua commences with a reference to his age and his approaching death, in consequence of which he felt constrained to remind the people once more of all the great things that the Lord had done for them, and to warn them against falling away from their gracious covenant God. Just as Joshua, in this the last act of his life, was merely treading in the footsteps of Moses, who had concluded his life with the fullest exhortations to the people to be faithful to the Lord (Deu 1:30), so his address consists entirely of reminiscences from the Pentateuch, more especially from Deuteronomy as he had nothing fresh to announce to the people, but could only impress the old truth upon their minds once more.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Joshua’s Charge to Israel. | B. C. 1427. |
1 And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. 2 And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age: 3 And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you. 4 Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. 5 And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you. 6 Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; 7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: 8 But cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day. 9 For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. 10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
As to the date of this edict of Joshua,
I. No mention at all is made of the place where this general assembly was held; some think it was at Timnath-serah, Joshua’s own city, where he lived, and whence, being old, he could not well remove. But it does not appear that he took so much state upon him; therefore it is more probable this meeting was at Shiloh, where the tabernacle of meeting was, and to which place, perhaps, all the males that could had now come up to worship before the Lord, at one of the three great feasts, which Joshua took the opportunity of, for the delivering of this charge to them.
II. There is only a general mention of the time when this was done. It was long after the Lord had given them rest, but it is not said how long, v. 1. It was, 1. So long as that Israel had time to feel the comforts of their rest and possessions in Canaan, and to enjoy the advantages of that good land. 2. So long as that Joshua had time to observe which ways their danger lay of being corrupted, namely, by their intimacy with the Canaanites that remained, against which he is therefore careful to arm them.
III. The persons to whom Joshua made this speech: To all Israel, even their elders, c. So it might be read, <i>v. 2. They could not all come within hearing, but he called for all the elders, that is, the privy-counsellors, which in later times constituted the great Sanhedrim, the heads of the tribes, that is, the noblemen and gentlemen of their respective countries, the judges learned in the laws, that tried criminals and causes, and gave judgment upon them, and, lastly, the officers or sheriffs, who were entrusted with the execution of those judgments. These Joshua called together, and to them he addressed himself, 1. That they might communicate what he said, or at least the sense and substance of it, to those under them in their respective countries, and so this charge might be dispersed through the whole nation. 2. Because, if they would be prevailed upon to serve God and cleave to him, they, by their influence on the common people, would keep them faithful. If great men be good men, they will help to make many good.
IV. Joshua’s circumstances when he gave them this charge: He was old and stricken in age (v. 1), probably it was in the last year of his life, and he lived to be 110 years old, ch. xxiv. 29. And he himself takes notice of it, in the first words of his discourse, v. 2. When he began to be old, some years ago, God reminded him of it (ch. xiii. 1): Thou art old. But now he did himself feel so much of the decays of age that he needed not to be told of it, he readily speaks of it himself: I am old and stricken in age. He uses it, 1. As an argument with himself to give them this charge, because being old he could expect to be but a little while with them, to advise and instruct them, and therefore (as Peter speaks, 2 Pet. i. 13) as long as he is in this tabernacle he will take all opportunities to put them in remembrance of their duty, knowing by the increasing infirmities of age that he must shortly put off this tabernacle, and desiring that after his decease they might continue as good as they were now. When we see death hastening towards us, this should quicken us to do the work of life with all our might. 2. As an argument with them to give heed to what he said. He was old and experienced, and therefore to be the more regarded, for days should speak; he had grown old in their service, and had spent himself for their good, and therefore was to be the more regarded by them. He was old and dying; they would not have him long to preach to them; therefore let them observe what he said now, and lay it up in store for the time to come.
V. The discourse itself, the scope of which is to engage them if possible, them and their seed after them, to persevere in the true faith and worship of the God of Israel.
1. He puts them in mind of the great things God had done for them, now in his days, and under his administration, for here he goes no further back. And for the proof of this he appeals to their own eyes (v. 3): “You have seen all that the Lord your God has done; not what I have done, or what you have done (we were only instruments in God’s hand), but what God himself has done by me and for you.” (1.) Many great and mighty nations (as the rate of nations then went) were driven out from as fine a country as any was at that time upon the face of the earth, to make room for Israel. “You see what he has done to these nations, who were his creatures, the work of his hands, and whom he could have made new creatures and fit for his service; yet see what destruction he has made of them because of you (v. 2), how he has driven them out from before you (v. 9), as if they were of no account with him, though great and strong in comparison with you.” (2.) They were not only driven out (this they might have been, and yet sent to some other country less rich to begin a new plantation there, suppose to that wilderness in which Israel had wandered so long, and so they would only have exchanged seats with them), but they were trodden down before them; though they held out against them with the greatest obstinacy that could be, yet they were subdued before them, which made the possessing of their land so much the more glorious to Israel and so much the more illustrious an instance of the power and goodness of the God of Israel (v. 3): “The Lord your God has not only led you, and fed you, and kept you, but he has fought for you as a man of war,” by which title he was known among them when he first brought them out of Egypt, Exod. xv. 3. So clear and cheap were all their victories, during the course of this long war, that no man had been able to stand before them (v. 9), that is, to make head against them, so as to put them in fear, create them any difficulty, or give any check to the progress of their victorious arms. In every battle they carried the day, and in every siege they carried the city; their loss before Ai was upon a particular occasion, was inconsiderable, and only served to show them on what terms they stood with God; but, otherwise, never was army crowned with such a constant uninterrupted series of successes as the armies of Israel were in the wars of Canaan. (3.) They had not only conquered the Canaanites, but were put in full possession of their land (v. 4): “I have divided to you by lot these nations, both those which are cut off and those which remain, not only that you may spoil and plunder them, and live at discretion in their country for a time, but to be a sure and lasting inheritance for your tribes. You have it not only under your feet, but in your hands.”
2. He assures them of God’s readiness to carry on and complete this glorious work in due time. It is true some of the Canaanites did yet remain, and in some places were strong and daring, but this should be no disappointment to their expectations; when Israel was so multiplied as to be able to replenish this land God would expel the Canaanites to the last man, provided Israel would pursue their advantages and carry on the war against them with vigour (v. 5): “The Lord your God will drive them from out of your sight, so that there shall not be a Canaanite to be seen in the land; and even that part of the country which is yet in their hands you shall possess.” If it were objected that the men of war of the several tribes being dispersed to their respective countries, and the army disbanded, it would be difficult to get them together when there was occasion to renew the war upon the remainder of the Canaanites, in answer to this he tells them what little need they had to be in care about the numbers of their forces (v. 10): One man of you shall chase a thousand, as Jonathan did, 1 Sam. xiv. 13. “Each tribe may venture for itself, and for the recovery of its own lot, without fearing disadvantage by the disproportion of numbers; for the Lord your God, whose all power is, both to inspirit and to dispirit, and who has all the creatures at his beck, he it is that fighteth for you; and how many do you reckon him for?”
3. He hereupon most earnestly charges them to adhere to their duty, to go on and persevere in the good ways of the Lord wherein they had so well set out. He exhorts them,
(1.) To be very courageous (v. 6): “God fighteth for you against your enemies, do you therefore behave yourselves valiantly for him. Keep and do with a firm resolution all that is written in the book of the law.” He presses upon them no more than what they were already bound to. “Keep with care, do with diligence, and eye what is written with sincerity.”
(2.) To be very cautious: “Take heed of missing it, either on the right hand or on the left, for there are errors and extremes on both hands. Take heed of running either into a profane neglect of any of God’s institutions or into a superstitious addition of any of your own inventions.” They must especially take heed of all approaches towards idolatry, the sin to which they were first inclined and would be most tempted, v. 7. [1.] They must not acquaint themselves with idolaters, nor come among them to visit them or be present at any of their feasts or entertainments, for they could not contract any intimacy nor keep up any conversation with them, without danger of infection. [2.] They must not show the least respect to any idol, nor make mention of the name of their gods, but endeavour to bury the remembrance of them in perpetual oblivion, that the worship of them may never be revived. “Let the very name of them be forgotten. Look upon idols as filthy detestable things, not to be named without the utmost loathing and detestation.” The Jews would not suffer their children to name swine’s flesh, because it was forbidden, lest the name of it should occasion their desiring it; but, if they had occasion to speak of it, they must call it that strange thing. It is a pity that among Christians the names of the heathen gods are so commonly used, and made so familiar as they are, especially in plays and poems: let those names which have been set up in rivalship with God be for ever loathed and lost. [3.] They must not countenance others in showing respect to them. They must not only not swear by them themselves, but they must not cause others to swear by them, which supposes that they must not make any covenants with idolaters, because they, in the confirming of their covenants, would swear by their idols; never let Israelites admit such an oath. [4.] They must take heed of these occasions of idolatry, lest by degrees they should arrive at the highest step of it, which was serving false gods, and bowing down to them, against the letter of the second commandment.
(3.) To be very constant (v. 8): Cleave unto the Lord your God, that is, “delight in him, depend upon him, devote yourselves to his glory, and continue to do so to the end, as you have done unto this day, ever since you came to Canaan;” for, being willing to make the best of them, he looks not so far back as the iniquity of Peor. There might be many things amiss among them, but they had not forsaken the Lord their God, and it is in order to insinuate his exhortation to perseverance with the more pleasing power that he praises them. “Go on and prosper, for the Lord is with you while you are with him.” Those that command should commend; the way to make people better is to make the best of them. “You have cleaved to the Lord unto this day, therefore go on to do so, else you lose the praise and recompence of what you have wrought. Your righteousness will not be mentioned unto you if you turn from it.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Joshua – Chapter 23
Reminded of God’s Blessing, vs. 1- 5
The period of time which had elapsed between the departure of the two and a half tribes to their trans-Jordanic homes and the end of Joshua’s life cannot be exactly determined. Commentators have figured the time of Israel’s conquest of Canaan to have taken some five to seven years. Calculating Joshua’s age to have been eighty to eighty-five then, in comparison with his contemporary, Caleb, and noting that Joshua died at age 110 (Jos 24:29), the period would be twenty-five to thirty years. The Scriptures simply say it was a long time.
During this time Israel had enjoyed peace; there was no further war ;with the Canaanite tribes during Joshua’s lifetime. At this time Joshua called for a gathering of the chief men of Israel to come to him. These included elders, heads, judges, and other officers. When they had gathered their aged leader called their attention to the fact that he had grown very old among them. Now he wished to call to their remembrance the great campaigns which they had waged together and won by the power of the Lord. It was mainly, it seems, to emphasize how it was they had come into possession of the land.
It was an evident fact, easily seen even then, that the land had passed from Canaanite possession to Israelite inheritance. It was theirs because the Lord had given it to them. He had fought the battles for them and had given them victories, miraculous, and against over-whelming odds. They must not forget this fact or fail to acknowledge it. Joshua repeated to the gathering the promise of the Lord, that He has given them all the land from the Jordan to the great (Mediterranean) sea. Already they had allowed the Philistines to infest the coastlands, yet God had promised to expel them all from before them. He would drive them out of Israel’s sight, so that they would possess their land as the Lord God had promised. They needed always to remember it, (Num 33:53).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here we have a narrative of the solemn protestation which Joshua used towards the time of his death, that he might leave the pure worship of God surviving him. But although the peace and quiet which the Israelites obtained among the nations of Canaan is described as an excellent blessing from God, it is necessary to keep in mind what I formerly taught, that it was owing to their cowardice that they dwelt among their enemies, whom it would not have been difficult to rout and destroy. But thanks are justly rendered to God for his goodness in pardoning their ingratitude.
The pious solicitude of Joshua is here also set forth, for the imitation of all who are in authority. For as the father of a family will not be considered sufficiently provident if he thinks of his children only till the end of his own life, and does not extend his care farther, studying as much as in him lies to do them good even when he is dead; so good magistrates and rulers ought carefully to provide that the well arranged condition of affairs as they leave them, be confirmed and prolonged to a distant period. For this reason Peter writes, (2Pe 1:15) (189) that he will endeavor after he has departed out of the world to keep the Church in remembrance of his admonitions, and able to derive benefit from them.
From its being said that he invited all Israel, and its being immediately after added that he invited their elders, and heads, and judges, and prefects, I understand the meaning to be that all were indeed permitted to come, but that the summons was addressed specially to the heads and prefects. And thus the last clause appears to me to be explanatory of the former. And, indeed, it is not at all credible that the whole people were invited; for no such meeting could possibly take place. The sense, therefore, in which the people were invited was simply this, that the elders, judges, and others were commanded to come, and might bring as many persons as were disposed to come along with them.
The speech of Joshua, as quoted, is double; but it appears to me that the historian first, as is often done, gives a brief summary of the whole speech, and then follows it out more in detail, introducing the particulars which he had omitted. (190) In the one which is first given, Joshua briefly animates the people, and exhorts them to sure confidence in the continued and unwearying grace of God. For, seeing they had experienced that God is true in all things, they could have no doubt for the future, that they might safely hope for the same success in vanquishing and destroying the enemy. The partition also by which he had distributed the remainder of the land, he set before them as an earnest or pledge of their undoubted fruition, because it was not at random but by the order of God he had marked out the seat, and fixed the boundaries of each tribe.
(189) The original text had the reference to 2Pe 1:25, an obvious typesetting error. — fj.
(190) According to this view, the details given in Jos 23:0 and Jos 24:0 refer only to one meeting. It may be so, but certainly the impression produced by a simple perusal of the chapters is, that they refer to two distinct meetings, between which some interval of time must have elapsed. It is only by means of labored criticism, accompanied with a degree of straining, that some expositors have arrived at a different conclusion. But why should it be deemed necessary to employ criticism for such a purpose? There is surely no antecedent improbability that Joshua, after all the turmoil’s of war were over, should have more than once come forth from his retirement, and called the heads of the people, or even the whole body of them together to receive his counsels, when he felt that the time of his departure was at hand. Observe, moreover, that each meeting is ushered in by its own appropriate preamble, and has its own special business. In the one, Joshua speaks in his own name, and delivers his own message; in the other, all the tribes are regularly assembled, and are said to have “presented themselves before God,” because, although Joshua was still to be the speaker, he was no longer to speak in his own name, but with the authority of a divine messenger, and in the very terms which had been put into his mouth. Accordingly, the very first words he utters are, “Thus said the Lord God of Israel.” The message thus formally and solemnly announced in Jos 24:2, is continued verbatim and without interruption to the end of Jos 24:13. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE CONCLUDING DAYS OF JOSHUA
Joshua 23, 24.
THE life of even the great man must draw to a close. We speak of Joshua as a great man, and with good occasion. The mentions made of him in the Pentateuch, namely, Exo 24:13; Exo 32:17; Exo 33:11; Num 11:28 and Chapter 13, are not elaborate references, and, in fact, they appear as almost minor incidents in the history. And yet, from these we learn that he was the companion and minister of Moses; that he was absent from the camp when Aaron permitted its molten-calf idolatry; that he stood with Caleb in a minority report on the promised land, and in each of these instances the glimpse given into his life indicates its soundness, its essential worth.
The man who can be loyal to his superior can be loyal to the Lord. The man who refuses to participate in idol worship is commonly the man who knows the true God; and the man who does not fear before the face of giants, but believes God with him, he can conquer, he is fit to become the captain of the Lords hosts.
It was no amazement, therefore, when Moses fell that Jehovah spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, and placed him in instant command.
In the twenty-two chapters over which we have passed, he has proven the wisdom of that appointment and revealed afresh that God never makes a mistake in the management of men. It would be easy, by reading the chapters of this Book, to misjudge the character of this commander. There are those who charge him with inhumanity and who would have us believe that his whole conduct in war was that of a blood-thirsty slaughterera being that must have been repugnant to any loving and compassionate God. But such judges overlook two essential facts. First, the customs of Joshuas time; and second, the essential character of war itself.
Abraham Lincoln was the leader of anti-slavery sentiment, when thousands and tens of thousands of his own brethren, many of whom were absolutely of blood kin, were slaughtered. And yet, so far from being inhumane, Abraham Lincoln was the tenderest and most compassionate of men. It is told that he turned back from urgent duties of State that were calling him, to pick up two fledglings that had been flung from their nest by a furious wind, and when chided for this loss of time to the affairs of government, he answered, But I could not have slept tonight had I known the little things were out of their nest, chilled and dying. In fact, it was Abraham Lincolns sympathy with the black man that made it possible for him to endure the slaughter of his white brethren. Such are the paradoxes of life; and consequently, superficial are the judgments of men.
Old age often reveals the true traits of character as neither youth or middle life have done; and if one would know this man to the depths and understand and appreciate both his personal motives and his aspirations for Israel, he will discover it in the last chapters of this Book, and in
THE CLOSING COUNSELS OF THIS MAN
Let us attend, then, to the character and importance of these counsels.
And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age.
And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you (Jos 23:2-3).
It is a declaration of dependence upon Divine power. The young man is tempted to trust his own strength, but when age reveals life, it is not difficult to see how often the arm of flesh faileth, and how constantly we are saved, sustained and made victorious by Divine intervention. It was this conviction that led Joshua to encourage Israels leaders with the words,
And the Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you (Jos 23:5).
It was on this basis that he counseled further, Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left (Jos 23:6). Never a commander more clearly comprehended the danger to his people than did Joshua understand the approaching tests of Israels character. He knew that test to be an essential one, and yet, it would take on dual forms: First, to forget what God had spoken; and second, to consort with idol-worshipers.
Does humanity change in any essential? Is not that the two-fold temptation of the present time? Is it not true that ignorance of Gods Word, or indifference to what God has spoken, combines with the worlds temptation to undo the souls of men? And is it not when we forget the Word that we fellowship with the world and lose God? Is, then, the language of Joshua in the least out of date? Does the fact that it is the counsel of an old man detract from its essential wisdom, and is not what men call the swan-song often the summum bonum of intellectual and moral worth? Is it not constantly true that the younger generation despise the counsels of age and suffer in consequence? And is it not a fact that men and women, who are enduring judgment before the day of judgment has come, are merely reaping whereon they themselves have sown; and by having served other gods and bowed themselves to them, they have lost the Divine favor and fallen on experiences of affliction?
THE INTENSITY OF JOSHUAS APPEAL
Joshua, Chapter 24.
With mere counsel the old man was not content. His days were numbered and he knew it, and his people were unstable and he feared it. So he
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; and they presented themselves before God.
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel (Jos 24:1-2).
Therein is a new note. In the previous chapter, Joshua, using his own memory, rehearsed the history in which Divine guidance had been evident, and pled for an appreciation that would influence conduct. In this chapter he is not dealing in his own words, but in the Lords words. He is reminding them of the call of Abraham and of the promises made to him and his seed, and of the Divine fulfilment through his son, Isaac, and his grandchildren, Esau and Jacob; also of the rise of Moses and Aaron, and the redemption out of Egypt, and of the multiplied manifestations of the Divine hand in Israels affairs, in a history brought down to date.
It takes an old man to mark providential movements; it takes an old man to understand the sequence of events. His observation has been sufficient, in time, to link one thing with another and see the Lord in them all.
His knowledge reaches back to the beginnings of things. He makes note of where and when God enters into human affairs. I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood; thats the beginning for Israel, and multiplied his seed; thats the fulfilment of prophecy. I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt; thats the providential care of Israel in her early and Egyptian experience. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt; when did redemption ever take place without God? And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; thats a reminder of the early conquest. And at Jericho I delivered them into your hand; and I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
Now, in all of this, Joshua is the spokesman of Jehovah. When he uses the language of the first person here, he is not employing his own speech, but quoting from speech Divine. But the conclusion of it all represents the profound convictions of the old man. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord (Jos 24:14).
Joshua faced them with a fair challenge. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Jos 24:15).
The effect of this grand old mans words can be readily imagined. In fact, it is not even a matter of imagination; it is a matter of certainty, for the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods (Jos 24:16). And, then they admitted the truth of all that Joshua had said, and rehearsed for themselves the same history over which the old man had passed in review.
But even with that, Joshua was not yet content. He wanted to deepen the impression, and so he said unto the people,
Ye cannot serve the Lord: for He is an, holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that He hath done you good.
And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses (Jos 24:19-22).
Then he put them to the true test,
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.
And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey.
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.
So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance (Jos 24:23-27).
This is the end; this is the last time that Israel will ever listen to this mighty manthis monarch among his fellowsthis true prophetthis loyal priest. Let us hope that Israel, then living, never forgot this day, and while we shall find them declining from his words, it is doubtful if they could ever divest their memories of the same.
There are some occasions that make an indelible impression upon all that experience them. You cant be called to the fathers bedside and feel his old trembling hand on your head, and listen to his words about God and righteous living, and the result thereof, and never forget it. Nor can you sit in the church and hear the man who has long been your pastor, who has held a high place in your hearts affections, preach his last sermon, and when he lifts his hand to pronounce the benediction, see his knees bend and his stalwart form slump, and mark the excitement of the audience as they stir to his assistance, and have the doctor rise out of the crowd, and, after carefully hunting for his pulse, say, He is dead, and ever forget that discourse. It will live in you. The very manner of its completion will burn the words into your soul as the hot brand burns letters into the flesh of cattle. We are not surprised, therefore, that it is written,
And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel (Jos 24:31).
The Book of Joshua concludes with the record of the
DEATH OF JOSHUA
Some one says, Who wrote the Book of Joshua? We do not know. If Joshua had written this Book, could he have put on the record with which it concludes? Certainly not! Then do not those facts: First, that we do not know who wrote the Book, and second, that Joshua could not have concluded it had he written the early part, disprove its claim to inspiration? Not at all!
There may be Books in our Bible whose authorship is unknown, but that only casts a reflection against all other authors in the minds of those who prefer to doubt. That is to say, if we admit that Joshua may not have written the Book of Joshua, but that some other inspired penman gave us the last letter of it, that in no wise raises a question as to the authorship of the Pentateuch; that in no wise raises the question as to the authorship of Job, or the Psalms. The simple annals of Joshuas death and burial, as recorded in these last verses, has in it the very similitude of truth,
And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash (Jos 24:29-30),
There is not a thing in this record that raises any question. If it is a faithful and true record, then it can retain its place in the inspired Book, for inspiration is truth.
And the bones of Joseph, which the Children of Israel brought up out of Egypt buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
And Eleasar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim (Jos 24:32-33).
With these plain statements the Book concludes; and what a Book it has been. Practically every feature of human life has been touched upon, and while war has been the chief theme, the building of a nation that should be loyal to God is evidently the Divine objective that runs through it all.
And now, just to refresh the mind, let us return and review.
In Chapter I we have Joshua made successor to Moses.
In Chapter II we have the history of Rahab and the spies.
In Chapter III we have the passages of Jordan. In Chapter IV we have the memorials erected.
In Chapter V we have the ordinance of circumcision renewed.
In Chapter VI we have the Fall of Jericho.
In Chapter VII we have the sin of Achan.
In Chapter VIII we have the conquest of Ai.
In Chapter IX we have the league with the Gibeonites.
In Chapter X we have Israels victory at Gibeon.
In Chapter XI we have the final conquest of Canaan.
In Chapter XII we have the captured kings.
In Chapters XIII to XXII we have the division of the land.
In Chapter XX we have the cities of refuge, and, in Chapters XXIII and XXIV we have the final counsels and the conclusion of Joshuas life.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
JOSHUAS FIRST FAREWELL ADDRESS
CRITICAL NOTES.
Jos. 23:1. A long time after that the Lord had given rest] Probably the beginning of this period is to be reckoned from the time indicated in chap. Jos. 21:44, to the similar phrase of which the historian looks back. The long time, after the second division of the land, appears to have been about sixteen years (cf. on chap. Jos. 13:1).
Jos. 23:2. Called for all Israel and for, etc.] Omit and. The gathering was a representative one, and the four clauses which follow are meant to stand in explanation of the words all Israel. Joshua called all Israel, i.e., their elders, their heads, etc.
Jos. 23:3. Because of you] Heb., mippnychem =from before you. It is not said that God slew the Canaanites because of the Israelites, but before their faces, i.e., before the Israelites in battle. The figurative meaning, on account of, though frequently admissible, would here obviously alter the sense of the passage. Calvin translates by in conspectu vestro, but Tremellius and Junius have propter vos. The same form in Jos. 23:5 is rendered, from before you, with which in both places, agree the LXX.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 23:1-5
THE DOMINATING INTEREST OF A GODLY MAN IN HIS LAST DAYS
Almost everything about a man gets old and stricken in age, saving the desires of the godly towards God and godly things. The body decays, let it have been ever so vigorous. Appetites fail, one by one, till the choicest dainties and even necessary food no longer tempt. Beauty wanes and vanishes. The problems which have kept a mind active for half a century presently fail to command more than a passing thought. The love of pleasure and wickedness is no exception to the general rule. The things which once so seductively won and delighted the life that chose to revel in them, sooner or later, not only fail to please, but are found absolutely nauseous. Many other preachers than Solomon, whether publicly or only to themselves, eventually cry, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It says something, at least, for the spiritual mind, that as long as other minds can watch it, it shews no sign of decay. When everything else gets stricken with many days, the love of the heart towards God and goodness is strong as ever. Nay, this is the time when it renews its youth. (Cf. Psa. 73:26.) Infidelity finds its strongest foe in the life most stricken with weakness. The roughest camping ground for unbelief is on the margin of the grave. It is there, more than anywhere else, that faith is unencumbered by doubt. It does us good to see this venerable servant of God so stricken without, and yet so strong within. The ruling desire of the failing veteran was to see idolatry banished, Israel holy and happy, and Jehovah glorified.
I. Here is an aged man diligently setting himself to complete the work of his life. Hoping that Israel would feel the appeal that came from one whose life had been given to them in so simple and thorough a manner, Joshua tried to say words that might make his past service an abiding help to his people.
1. Many useful lives are left to drift down to posterity as best they can. Our aged men are too prone to retire. Then, what they have done well through many years is apt to retire from the public mind also. A few broken words from an aged man with a great life behind him, are words which no one else can speak. Such a man should try and say them. They are very beautiful from such lips. Power goeth forth from them. Many lives are like nails well driven home, but unclenched. There are aged men just gone from us, and some among us now, whose broken words of weakness compel our faith and fervour as did none of the more eloquent utterances of their younger days.
2. A life which has been for others all through, can only end nobly as it continues for others to the last. Joshua did not call the elders to get them to aid him in perpetuating his own fame. Not a word falls from the dear old man which takes the slightest tinge of self-admiration or self-concern. The pain of the bodily effort was all for the people. Love for them and love for God was moving the aged man to this effort. It was not self-love. Joshua does not even impress us with the feeling that he was trying to prepare to die well. All that had been settled long ago. He was working with his last strength to try and get others to live well. A godly life has no room for selfishness even on the borders of the grave.
3. However nobly a life may continue and end, only one life is completethe life of Jesus Christ. Joshua was but the supplement of Moses. The purposes of Moses, like those of Job, were broken off. He died looking into the land which he failed to reach. And even Joshua had left many Canaanites still unconquered. There remained, still, very much land to be possessed. The best lives are only a segment. We are all only arcs, some longer and some shorter, in the circle of Gods plan. Only the life of Jesus represents a completed idea. Probably His were the only lips which ever tried to frame for their dying utterance the august words, It is finished. Paul said, I have finished my course, but he had no such fulness of meaning in his mind as He who declared, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. The Lord, who was so separate from sinners in His life, is no less alone in His death.
II. An aged man hiding the work of a great life behind the greater work of God. Ye have seen all that the Lord hath done for the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you. To the people, Joshua had seemed to have done much. They probably both honoured and loved him. It would have been easy for Joshua to have magnified his own work. Instead of this, and with a beautiful freedom from affectation in his humility, the veteran soldier treats himself as a mere subordinate, and extols God as the real leader of the army. John the Baptist was willing that his own light should wane before the greater brightness of the Rising Sun of Righteousness. Thus, also, Joshua conceals his own fame by bidding the people gaze on the incomparable glory of Jehovah.
1. To extol God is due to truth. (a) God had wonderfully and visibly interposed in times of Israels greatest difficulties. The dividing of the Jordan. The fall of the walls of Jericho. The hailstorm at Beth-horon, and the phenomenal staying of the sun and moon. (b) God had guided Joshua. The plans of battle had been from the Captain of the Lords host (chap. Jos. 5:13-15, Jos. 6:1-5). (c) God had encouraged Joshua in almost every battle where his own heart might have failed him. The gracious fear not of Jehovah was continually anticipating Joshuas trembling and depression (chap. Jos. 3:7-8; Jos. 6:2; Jos. 8:1; Jos. 8:18; Jos. 10:8; Jos. 11:6). (d) When God had once withdrawn from His servant, then Joshua had been utterly defeated (chap. Jos. 7:1-12). (e) God had maintained, every day, Joshuas health and strength. It would have been false to truth if Joshua had exalted himself. Every triumph of ours might be as truly traced to the help of the Lord.
2. To extol God is due to God. If His own right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory, shall a man rob God of the glory due unto His name? Let us rather imitate Joshua here, and sing with the pious Israelite of a later generation about these same triumphs: In God we boast all the day long (cf. Psa. 44:1-8).
3. To extol God is due to men. Those about us should not be drawn from God by our own personal vanity, but rather be led to God by our adoring praise. When the king passes by, he is but a mean citizen who tries to attract attention to himself.
4. To extol God is due to ourselves. The man who seeks to appropriate the glory due to Jehovah does but rob himself. He gains nothing, and loses all the joy of fealty and childhood.
III. An aged man reviewing Gods goodness in the past, and finding therein an assurance of Gods help in difficulties yet to come. The Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you, etc. Many years of experience had taught Joshua that he might unquestionably trust in Jehovah. Looking into the future of the Israelites, no doubt troubled his clear faith on that side of things which related to God. Of the people, Joshua had many doubts; of God, none whatever. He was far from assuming that Divine help had been given on his own account. He saw that hitherto Divine help had been given because of Divine love to the nation, and that if the people continued faithful, God would continue to bless them. The aged warrior felt that he was fast going the way of all the earth; he did not therefore think that victory must fail the people. He could no longer lead them to the battle; God would be as able and as willing to cause them to triumph notwithstanding. With such a life of prowess behind him, it is very beautiful that Joshua in no way considered himself essential to victory. The thought of his own absence did not so much as begin to obscure his faith in the sufficiency of Gods presence. The triumphs of the Church in our day have all been of the Lord. No individual servant of God is a necessity. True faith dwells altogether above men, resting only in God.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos. 23:1 -THE LORDS GIFT OF REST.
I. The Lords gift of rest in spite of great difficulties. The bondage in Egypt; the pursuing Egyptians, and the confronting sea; the swellings of Jordan; the enemies within the land itself: under Divine leading, and before Divine power, all these hindrances were as nothing. So far from preventing the gift of rest, they only exalted it. They became, as it were, the emphasis of the rest. Witness the after songs of peace which these conflicts only served to provoke. If God be for us, who can be against us?
II. The Lords gift of rest, notwithstanding many sins. Sin in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in Canaan. Sin in the leaders of Israel, as by Moses and Aaron. Sin among the people: prominent sins, as at the return of the spies, as by Korah, Zimri, and Achan; secret and unrecorded sins. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
III. The Lords gift of rest unto Israel.
1. Rest given to the children of many promises. See the covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2. Rest given to a people whom God sought to make a praise in the earth. The Lord was preparing them to sing, Thy gentleness hath made me great.
3. Rest given to the people of God as a witness against idolatry. The penalties of sin are to forfeit everything worth keeping, and to inherit only desolation and pain. The reward of serving God is to be made heirs of God.
4. Rest given to the people of God, but given only in instalments. All the enemies were not yet subdued; if Israel only kept the faith, they would be. If the people served Jehovah truly on earth, Canaan would be merely the portico to heaven. He who serves the Lord faithfully may always say, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. The children of the King of kings ever have some estate in possession, and much in reversion.
IV. The Lords gift of rest to Israel the prediction and beginning of a higher rest to be offered to all the world. God began to teach the world in one place. Israel was only a concentrated view of mercy which God was ready to offer to all men. Canaan was never intended to be other than Gods preface to a Christian world. Local blessing stands here as a preamble to the epistle of Gods universal love. Canaan was Gods preparation for Calvary, and Israel did but make way for the fulness of the Gentiles. The rest of God was never meant to rest.
Jos. 23:2.THE PROVIDENCE OF A FATHERLY SPIRIT.
The pious solicitude of Joshua is here set forth, for the imitation of all who are in authority. For as the father of a family will not be considered sufficiently provident if he thinks of his children only till the end of his own life, and does not extend his care farther, studying as much as in him lies to do them good even when he is dead; so good magistrates and rulers ought carefully to provide that the well-arranged condition of affairs, as they leave them, be confirmed and prolonged to a distant period. For this reason Peter writes (1Pe. 1:25), that he will endeavour after he has departed out of the world to keep the Church in remembrance of his admonitions, and able to derive benefit from them.[Calvin.]
Jos. 23:3.THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND OF MEN.
I. Men may seem to hold the sword, but it is ever God who fights against the enemies of truth. The Israelites were simply instruments in the Divine chastisement of idolaters. This is continuously insisted on throughout the book. It is the same in many other instances. The overthrow of Tyre, Nineveh, Jerusalem, and other places, let the instruments vary as they may, is spoken of as Gods punishment of transgression. Thus also a godly man of the last generation said of his trials, My sins are reappearing to me in the form of men.
II. Men may seem to win prowess, but in all true victories the battle is the Lords.
1. The Lord is He who really fights. The Lord your God is He that hath fought.
2. The Lords fighting is for His people. He hath fought for you.
3. The Lords fighting is for the truth, that through it many may become His people indeed.
III. Men may seek praise for themselves, or give glory to the Lord, but only he who honours God is really exalted. Joshua has come to far more exaltation through his humility than could ever have been possible through a foolish vanity. It is ever thus. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. If that is Gods word, it is also mans resolute dogma. Many men are weak enough to be vain; no man will tolerate foolish conceit outside of his own heart. This history shews us that:
1. Temptations to self-glorying are numerous.
2. Inducements to praise God are more numerous.
3. To give glory sincerely to the Lord is to receive lasting honour from men.
Jos. 23:3-5.THE LORDS WORK AND MANS WORK.
I. The Lords work affording a glorious retrospect. What has been done, He has done. Ye have seen all, etc. (Jos. 23:3).
II. The Lords work the foundation of all that seems done by men. I have not fought, but He. I have divided unto you, but I have done even that by the guidance of the Lords lot, God had been both power and light.
III. The Lords work the only hope for the future.
1. In the casting out of enemies. He shall expel them.
2. In the possession of an undisturbed inheritance. As the Lord your God hath promised you.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
A Review of Joshuas Work Jos. 23:1-5
And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.
2 And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age:
3 And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you.
4 Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the Great Sea westward.
5 And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you.
1.
How much time had elapsed between the settling of the land and Joshuas last address? Jos. 23:1
The Scripture says that a long time had elapsed after the people of Israel had finished their conquest before Joshua gave his address to the leaders. Joshua was at least sixty years of age when he came into the Promised Land, since he was numbered at Sinai among those who were twenty years of age and over. After the people left Sinai, they wandered for forty years in the wilderness; and Joshua would therefore have been at least sixty when he came into Canaan. Caleb said that he was forty years of age when he was sent out as a spy (Num. 14:17). We may assume that Joshua was about the same age. Joshua was one hundred and ten years of age when he died. No more than twenty-five years would have elapsed between the end of the conquest and the death of Joshua if Joshua was of the same age as Caleb. Twenty years would have certainly been a long time.
2.
To what point did Joshua call the leaders? Jos. 23:2
Joshua must have called the leaders to Shiloh. This is where the tribes had assembled when they received their final allotments. His final address was delivered at Shechem, but there is a special mention of their assembling there in Jos. 24:1. Since there is no mention here of their moving, it is assumed his address to the smaller group of leaders was given at Shiloh.
3.
How did Joshua call for all Israel? Jos. 23:3
The address consists of two parts which run parallel to one another so far as the contents are concerned. Part one is Jos. 23:2 b Jos. 23:13, and part two is Jos. 23:14-16. In both parts Joshua commences with a reference to his age and his approaching death. In consequence of this impending event, he felt constrained to remind the people once more of all the great things which the Lord had done for them and to warn them against falling away from the gracious covenant of God. Joshua, in the last act of his life, was treading in the footsteps of Moses, who had concluded his life with the exhortations to the people to be faithful to the Lord (Deu. 1:30). Joshuas address contains reminiscences from the Pentateuch, more especially from Deuteronomy. He had little new to announce to the people, but he wished to impress the old truth upon their minds once more. He called for all Israel by asking their leaders to assemble.
4.
Who were the officers? Jos. 23:2
The term elders is the general term used to denote all the representatives of the people, who were divided into heads, judges, and officers. The heads were those who stood at the head of the tribes, families, and fathers houses; and out of their number the most suitable persons were chosen as judges and officers (Deu. 1:15). Some had jurisdiction over thousands, hundreds, and fifties (Exodus 18). Others served in different capacities.
5.
How had Joshua divided the remaining nations by lot? Jos. 23:4
Joshua had not assigned different tribes to attack separate nations. There is no record that he told Reuben, for example, to drive out the Ammonites. We find no mention made of his telling Benjamin to drive out the Jebusites. Incidental references are made to certain people such as the Perizzites who lived in the midst of the children of Joseph (Jos. 17:15). Since he had divided all the remaining territory by lots and these Canaanite nations lived in the territories, it was assumed that the different tribes would drive out those foreign nations which were in the land assigned to them. In this way, it could be said that Joshua had divided by lot the nations which remained.
6. What general boundaries of the Promised Land did Joshua mention? Jos. 23:4
Joshua gave the eastern boundary as being the Jordan. He called the western boundary the great sea westward. This was a reference to the Mediterranean Sea. Although Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh lived east of the Jordan, it was reasonable to speak of the Jordan and the land which pertained to it as the eastern boundary. There was no land for them to possess beyond the Mediterranean Sea.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXIII.
JOSHUAS LAST CHARGE.
(a) To the rulers (Joshua 23).
(b) To the people (Joshua 24 to Jos. 24:25).
(a) To THE RULERS.
(1) Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.The same expression employed in Jos. 13:1. It is possible that we ought to translate thus: It came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest . . . and (after) Joshua had grown old, advanced in days, that Joshua called . . . Or it may be that we have here, as it were, the two evenings of Joshuas life: the early evening, when his sun began to declinethe afternoon; and the late evening, just before its glorious setting in the service of Jehovah on earth, to serve Him day and night in His temple.
(Our Lord fed the five thousand between the two eveningsMat. 14:15; Mat. 14:23. So Joshua gave Israel their inheritance between the two evenings of his life.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JOSHUA’S ADDRESS TO ISRAEL, Jos 23:1-16.
[“The closing records of the history of Joshua show us a solemn pause and crisis in the career of Israel. They had now attained that first success which is always a trial of human power and endurance, and which, in their case, was the test of their faithfulness to Jehovah. In Joshua they had a leader equal to the crisis. He lived long after God had given them rest from their enemies, and he was now going the way of all the earth. His last care was to set clearly before the people their true position, and to bind them to Jehovah by another solemn covenant.” Smith’s O.T. Hist. ]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. A long time About fourteen years after the conquest and seven years after the allotment of Canaan, in the one hundred and tenth year of his life, Joshua uttered this speech.
Stricken in age Literally, as in the margin, come into days; that is, far gone in years.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 23 Joshua’s Speech to the Nation.
Joshua grew old and, possibly at the central sanctuary when Israel gathered together, or at Shechem, called the people together to give an address to the nation. He did not know how long he had to go and he wanted to pass on his final words in case he died before the next gathering. No doubt as he grew older he gave many such addresses. This was one selected to give the gist of what he said in them.
In his address to them he observed what God had done for them, and would do, and exhorted them to keep the commandments of God, and cleave to Him, and not to mix with the Canaanites, and join with them in their idolatrous practises. Then, he said, it would be well with them. But should they join with the Canaanites, and depart from YHWH, Who had so faithfully and in such a timely way performed every good thing He had promised them, they might expect many evils and calamities, and utter ruin and destruction, to fall on them.
Jos 23:1-2
‘ And so it was after many days, when YHWH had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and well stricken with years, that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, “I am old and well stricken with years.” ’
Clearly after much effort all the tribes of Israel had found somewhere to settle. Some were well established, others like Dan were finding things more difficult and had had to settle in hill country because the enemy would not allow them on lower ground. There life would be hard, water would be short and the land would be rugged and unyielding to the plough.
But at least they were at rest. They were established in the land without fear of being driven out, and the next phase lay ahead, the gradual subjection and driving out of the Canaanites.
The phraseology is taken from elsewhere. ‘After many days — given rest — enemies round about’. For these expressions see Jos 21:44; Jos 22:3-4; Deu 12:10.
But Joshua was aware that he was very old and that he had not long to go. And he wanted to enthuse them as much as possible for the task that lay ahead. And so, possibly when the tribes gathered at the central sanctuary, he called their leaders together for a speech to the nation which he knew might well be his last (although it probably was not).
“All Israel” is immediately defined as their leaders, ‘their elders, their heads, their judges, and their officers’. The elders were those in authority as a result of their distinguished background or the talents that they had revealed, from ‘the seventy’ who were over all Israel, down to the general councils at various levels. These would be largely composed of ‘the elders’, who would be mainly, but not solely, the older men who had learned wisdom, who would give guidance to the rulers. The heads would be the princes and suchlike, those who were seen as having more specific authority as rulers from aristocratic families, the judges were those who passed judgment according to the Law, and the officers were those responsible for administration or for military matters and leading in time of war. In essence the titles were intended to cover all in authority.
As the one who had led them for so long he was conscious that they looked to him, but he wanted to direct their thoughts beyond himself. They must not stand still but go forward. So he drew attention to his age and then pointed ahead to the future.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jos 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
Jos 23:10
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Urgent Exhortation to be Faithful to the Lord
v. 1. And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, v. 2. And Joshua called for all Israel, v. 3. and ye have seen all that the Lord, your God, hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord, your God, is He that hath fought for you, v. 4. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, v. 5. And the Lord, your God, He shall expel them. from before you, v. 6. Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, v. 7. that ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you, v. 8. but cleave unto the Lord, your God, as ye have done unto this day, v. 9. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong, v. 10. One man of you shall chase a thousand, v. 11. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, v. 12. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, v. 13. know for a certainty that the Lord, your God, will no more drive out any of these nations from before you,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
JOSHUA‘S SOLEMN CHARGE.
Jos 23:1
Waxed old and stricken in age. Literally, was old, advanced in days (see Jos 13:1). But this refers to a more advanced age still, when the patriarch felt his powers failing him, and desired, as far as his influence went, to preserve the Israelites in the path in which they had walked since their entrance into Canaan. Calvin has some good remarks on the “pious solicitude” shown by the aged warrior for those whom he had led in time of war and guided in time of peace. He seems to have sent for the chief men in Israel to his home at Timnath-Serah, where apparently he had led a retired and peaceful life, only coming forward to direct the affairs of the nation when necessity required. His address is simple and practical. He reminds them that they will soon lose the benefit of his experience and authority, and of the work that he had done, under God’s direction, in settling them in the land. Then he proceeds to urge strict obedience to the law of God, reminding them that victory is assured to them, if they will but be true to themselves and their calling as the servants of God, but that as certainly as they neglect to do so, wrath and misery will be their portion. He emphasizes his words by reminding them how amply God had fulfilled his promise, and concludes with a picture of the evil which will befall them if they rebel against God.
Jos 23:2
All Israel. By their representatives, as subsequently mentioned. For their officers (see Jos 1:10). In the original the pronoun is in the singular throughout (see note on Jos 6:25). And said unto them. This speech is not, as Calvin, Maurer, and others have suggested, the same as that in Jos 24:1-33. (see notes there). Maurer believed that he was the first to entertain this idea, but he has been anticipated by Calvin. It consists largely of quotations from Deuteronomy.
Jos 23:3
Because of you. Literally, before you.
Jos 23:4
Divided unto you by lot. Literally, caused to fall, the lot being of necessity understood. These nations that remain. Israel had therefore not driven them out. This, however, need not of necessity be imputed to them as a sin. For, as we have seen, the conquest was to be gradual. No doubt there was enough to be done in consolidating the conquests already made, in settling the tribes in their possessions, to occupy all the days of Joshua, and even possibly a longer period. At least we may he sure that, as long as Joshua lived, the heathen settlements were kept distinct from the Israelitish community, that intermarriages were not allowed, nor rights of citizenship granted to any but the Gibeonites. Cut off. Joshua’s speech here exactly agrees with the statements in Jos 6:21; Jos 8:26; Jos 10:28-41; Jos 11:11, Jos 11:14, Jos 11:21. Here at least, if Joshua’s speech and the history were taken from two different sources, neither of them precisely accurate, the first postulate of the destructive criticism, we might have expected some slight discrepancy. But Joshua uses a word which implies total extermination, a feature, be it observed, of the campaigns of Moses and Joshua only, and not of the later Israelitish history. Westward. Literally, the going down of the sun.
Jos 23:5
And the Lord your God, he shall expel them. Or, Jehovah your God, He shall thrust them out. Joshua here uses the unusual word found in Deu 6:19; Deu 9:4, another instance of quotation from Deuteronomy. The word occurs in the sense of thrust in Num 35:20, Num 35:22. From out of your sight. Rather, from before you.
Jos 23:6
Be ye therefore very courageous. The original is stronger, Be ye exceedingly courageous (see note on Jos 1:6). That is written in the book of the law of Moses. A yet more distinct intimation that the words of Moses had been collected into a book at this early period, and that it was known as the Book of the Law of Moses. It seems incredible that such a book should have been invented at a time when the precepts it contained were lightly regarded, and should have been represented as the proper standard of conduct when every one knew that it could never have been anything of the kind.
Jos 23:7
That ye come not among these nations (see note on Jos 23:4). We can here perceive that the Israelites, though living among these nations, held no intercourse with them. Neither make mention of the name of their gods. Cf. Psa 16:4, which however is not a verbal quotation of this passage. The LXX. here has, ; the Vulgate simply, “ne juretis in nomine deorum earum.” The Hebrew has the signification
(1) to bring to remembrance,
(2) to praise or celebrate.
The former is the better idea here, “let them not be named among you, as becometh saints,” let them be quite forgotten, as though they had never been heard of; and this not with a purely theological, but with an ethical purpose, since “fornication and all uncleanness and greediness” (; see Eph 5:3) were the first principles of their rites (see Introduction). Nor cause to swear by them. These words are found in connection with what follows in Deu 10:20. So with “serve” and “bow down” (see Exo 20:5; Deu 4:19; Deu 5:9; Deu 8:19, etc). Here again we have Joshua quoting Deuteronomy as the book of the Law of Moses. According to the “Deuteronomist” theory, the quotation is an audacious fiction, manufactured by the person who was at that moment forging the book from which he pretended to quote.
Jos 23:8
But cleave unto the Lord your God. Or, ye shall cleave unto Jehovah your God. The phrase denotes the intimate union between God and the soul (see above, and Gen 2:24).
Jos 23:9
For the Lord your God hath driven out. So the Masora and the LXX. The Vulgate and the margin of our version translate by the future. So Luther also. The next verse is undeniably future. An appeal to their experience, which did not fail (see Jos 24:31) to be effective as long as the memory of these things was fresh in their minds. So in the Prayer Book of the Church of England we find the appeal, “O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them.” And the passage (Psa 44:1-3), from which the idea of this petition is taken, is an allusion to this speech of Joshua. And we often, in times of faintheartedness or sloth, need to be thus reminded of the moral and spiritual victories of the true Israel, under the true Joshua the Saviour, over the enemies with whom we are forbidden to make a compromise.
Jos 23:10
One man of you shall chase a thousand. A quotation from the song of Moses (Deu 32:30).
Jos 23:11
Take good heed to yourselves. This is quoted from Deu 4:15, word for word. The Hebrew is, take heed exceedingly to your souls; but the meaning is either “as you value your lives” (Gesenius), or “with all your soul” (Keil). The former appears preferable. A third interpretation, however, “guard your souls diligently,” is suggested by a comparison of Deu 4:9, Deu 4:15.
Jos 23:12
Go back. Literally, return. Cleave. A word (see Jos 23:8) signifying close and intimate relationship. And the intimacy of the relationship is indicated, as in Jos 23:8, by the use of the preposition . Make marriages with them. No closer or more intimate relationship is possible than this. Nothing, therefore, would be more certain to draw the Israelites away from their allegiance to God, and to seduce them and their children into the false and corrupt worship of the nations around them. “Unde deprecor vos qui fidelis estis, ut ita vitam vestram et conversationem servetis, ne in aliquo vel ipsi scandalum patiamini vel aliis scandalum faciatis; sit in vobis summi studii, summaeque cautelae, ne quis in hanc sanctam congregationem vestram pollutus introeat“. Go in unto them. Rather, go among them. Spoken of the familiar intercourse of friendship. It is equivalent to our words “associate with them.”
Jos 23:13
Snares and traps. Perhaps, rather, nets and snares. The LXX; where our translation has snare, has , and for traps has incorrectly . The snare or pach was evidently (Amo 3:5) laid upon the earth; but there is no evidence for Gesenius’ idea that the mokesh which follows, there as here, means the stick of the trap, which when displaced involved the bird in the net. As the primary signification of this latter word, which is akin to a bow, seems to mean something curved, it is probably a noose or springe. And the word and its cognates are used of involving, or catching, people by its use. Furst’s Lexicon confirms this view, which has been independently arrived at. Scourges. The Hebrew word is in the singular. It is translated , nails, in the LXX; and offendiculum in the Vulgate. In your sides. Rather, on your sides. The words here are very similar to those in Num 33:55. Moses, however, does but use two of the similes of which here we have four. He has, moreover, a different word () for thorns, and the word here translated thorns is there substituted for scourges; “thorns in your sides.” Joshua crowds together his similes “to describe the shame, and trouble, and oppression which they would bring upon themselves by joining in the idolatry of the Canaanites” (Keil). The Lord your God. Here, as elsewhere in this and many other passages, we have in the original, Jehovah your God. It is important to remember that the sacred writer is calling the God of Israel by His own proper name, that by which He was distinguished from the gods of the nations round about.
Jos 23:14
And not one thing hath failed thereof. This is a good instance of the habit of repetition so common to Hebrew writers. It is to be remembered that they had no italics, no stops, and, owing to the want of copiousness in their language, a great want generally of the means possessed in more modern languages of emphasizing their words. They, therefore, had recourse to what is still a favourite rhetorical artifice, the practice of repetition.
Jos 23:15
All good things. Literally, all the good word. That is to say, the prophecies of good had been fulfilled. Joshua uses this as an argument that the evil also will not fail to follow, if Israel provoke God to inflict it. But the memory of these words, and of the great deeds of Jehovah, faded quickly from their minds. And then, like the people of the earth before the flood, like the men of Sodom before it was destroyed, and like many other people since, they turned a deaf ear to the prophecies of evil which faithful souls foresaw and foretold. The warnings of the prophets are but a variation upon the predictions of Moses in Le 26:14-33, Deu 28:15-68, Deu 29:14-28, and of Joshua, here addressed to a generation who had brought some of the predicted evil upon themselves, and would not see that by refusing to listen, they would bring upon themselves yet more. How terribly have these predictions been fulfilled! First, the Babylonish captivity; then the disorders and anarchy in a territory which the Jewish people inhabited, but which they were not strong enough to rule; then the siege of and destruction of Jerusalem under Titus with its accompanying horrors. Then the dispersion of the Jews among all the nations, the barbarous and inhuman persecutions they met with in the Middle Ages from priest and monarch alike: the Inquisition in Spain, the contempt and hatred which continued to be felt for them among more enlightened nations, as evidenced in Marlowe’s ‘Jew of Malta,’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice,’ in the days of our own Queen Elizabeth. Only in our own age has a brighter day begun to dawn on them, and three thousand years of oppression, relieved only by the brief glories of David and his dynasty, are beginning to be compensated by a share in the world’s rewards and honours. All evil things. Literally, all the evil word; or thing; every evil thing, that is, which had been foretold.
Jos 23:16
Transgressed. The English is the precise equivalent of the Hebrew, which signifies to “pass over,” with the idea of going beyond bounds which had previously been prescribed in the covenant between God and His people. Other gods. See Jos 23:7. Here again we have the usual repetition for the sake of emphasis. Ye shall perish quickly. A verbally accurate quotation of Deu 11:17. The original is even more emphaticwith haste.
HOMILETICS
Jos 23:1-16
The last words of the aged servant of God.
The influence gained by a long and successful life is immense. It was so in Joshua’s case, for it outlasted his life, and continued as long as any of his former colleagues and companions in arms were alive. It was only when a fresh generation arose who knew him not, save by the report of the younger men, such as Othniel, that Israel declined from the true path. Joshua’s last charge, therefore, is full of interest and profit.
I. HOW A LONG LIFE OF USEFULNESS MAY BEST BE CLOSED. When Joshua felt his life drawing to an end, he assembled those who had been partakers of his toils, reminded them of the great things God had done during his leadership, and warned them of the danger of departing from the course which had been marked by such signal and uninterrupted success. So may those who, by God’s grace, have been the means of improvement or usefulness to others, parents to their children, pastors to their flocks, men who hare won for themselves a moral influence in the religious or even the social, philosophical, or political world, when they feel their powers failing, assemble those who have worked with them, review the past, and draw a moral from it for the future. The last words of any one we deeply respect have a weight with us which no others have, and live within us when those who uttered them have long since passed away. This is even the case with the last words our Lord and Master spoke before His crucifixion, though in His case they were not His last, for not only did He rise from the dead, but He hath since spoken to us by His Spirit. Yet His dying command concerning the bread and wine has touched the heart more than any other; and His last speech in Joh 17:1-26. has always had a peculiar interest for Christians. Perhaps His followers have too much shrunk, from Christian modesty, from the most powerful means of influence they have. Forms of belief vary. The religious earnestness of our age is replaced by a different form of religious earnestness in another. The new wine has to be put into new bottles. Thus exhortations to maintain a particular form of doctrine or organisation may fail of their effect, or when (as is very often the case) they do not fail, they may be undesirable. But exhortations to love, joy, peace, zeal, energy, self restraint, indifference to the world, may derive a vast additional force when they are the farewell words of one whose life has been a life-long struggle to practise them.
II. WE MUST OBEY THE WHOLE LAW. We are not to pick and choose either in doctrines or precepts. There is an eclecticism now, as there was in the apostle’s day, which rejects particular doctrines or precepts of Christianity as “unsuitable to the times.” We are of course to distinguish between doctrines and development of doctrines, the last being, perhaps, the product of a particular age, and unsuitable or impossible for philosophic or scientific reasons in another. So again, the form of a precept (e.g; those touching almsgiving) must be altered from time to time, as Christian principles are transforming society by permeating it. But the spirit of a precept is for ever binding. And, we may observe, excess is as bad as defect. It was said of the law, that men should “add nought to it,” as well as “diminish ought from it;” and we know what Christ thought of those who “taught for doctrines the commandments of men.” Yet there has been in all ages a spiritual Pharisaism which has turned aside to the right, as there has been a Sadduceeism which has turned to the left. Every age has had its teachers who added to the essentials of religion as well as those who would explain them away. And the tendency has been to magnify these positive precepts of particular religious parties, until it has Been held more criminal to disobey them than to offend against the first principles of the Christian religion. For their sake the fundamental law of love has been laid aside, and transgression against a law Christ never imposed has been visited with a bitterness and a fury which He has expressly forbidden. Whether excess or defect have been more fatal to the cause of Christianity is a point which must be left undecided. But that grievous evils to the cause of religion in general and the souls of individuals have arisen from the practice among Christians of insisting upon what Christ has never enjoined cannot be denied. Let it be our case, then, to observe the whole law of Christ, neither to turn to the right nor to the left, but to keep all, and no more than all, that He has commanded. For “His commandments are not grievous.” His “yoke is easy and His burden is light.” There is the more reason, therefore, why we should keep it to the very letter.
III. WE ARE EXPRESSLY EXHORTED TO AVOID COMPLIANCE WITH THE WORLD. This is a more difficult precept now than ever. Once there was a broad line of demarcation between the religious and the worldly man. Now Christianity has so far externally leavened society that the conflict has been forced inward. Decency and propriety of behaviour is everywhere enforced where education has penetrated. Cursing and swearing are banished at least from general society, and open profaneness is seldom met with. Yet the conflict must be continued, and continued within. St. Paul’s advice in 1Co 5:10 must be kept. A Christian must go into society and mix with the people he finds there, though he must not choose them for his intimates. But he must be more on the watch than ever to detect the tone of his associates when it jars with the gospel precepts. Still, as ever, there are false standards of right and wrong set up, false doctrines of honour and morality inculcated, principles laid down which Christ would have abhorred, conduct tolerated which He would have emphatically condemned. The worship of rank and fashion and wealth; the polite depreciation of all enthusiasm; the utter failure to recognise the glory of self sacrifice, except it be for tangible rewards, such as glory among men; the absence of all reverence; the veiled selfishness of a life of indolence and ease, the cynical indifference to the welfare of even the existence of others, except so far as it contributes to the pleasures of our ownthese are habits of mind utterly repugnant to the spirit of Christ. They must not be tolerated, they must be steadily and openly resisted by the Christian. And yet, so insidious are they, that they frequently creep into the souls of those who imagine themselves to be uncorrupted soldiers of the Cross. They have made mention of the names “of these gods of the nations around them,” have “served” them and “bowed down” to them without knowing it, though they could have known it, had they been on the watch. And then they become “snares and traps,” “scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes”the causes, that is, of manifold cares and troubles and annoyances which to the Christen are unknown. And if unrepented of, they poison the Christian life at its source, till the once believer “perishes from off the good land which the Lord his God has given him.”
IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE. “Neither shall ye make marriages with them,” says the sacred writer; and the precept has been continually repeated. It is surprising how little the New Testament says on this important point of the selection of a partner for life. It would seem as though Christ and His apostles thought it so obvious that it were superfluous to speak of it. “Only in the Lord” (1Co 7:39) is the only precept given on this important point, unless 2Co 6:14 be held indirectly to include it. But the Old Testament, which is, equally with the New, a guide of life, is full of such cautions, from Isaac, Esau, and Jacob downwards. Moses perpetually warns the children of Israel against contracting such alliances with the idolatrous Canaanites. Ahab is a standing warning of their danger, and the taint invaded the kingdom of Judah through the weakness of the otherwise pious Jehoshaphat, and ended in the ferocious treachery of Athaliah. What Nehemiah thought of it in the reviving fortunes of Israel after the captivity may be read in his own words (Neh 13:1-31). There is no difficulty, therefore, in gathering from Scripture a condemnation of marriage between those who are not of one mind on the most essential point of all, that of religion. The Roman Catholic Church has forbidden mixed marriages, and wisely. It were well if Churches of the Reformed faith were as outspoken in their condemnation of them. Yet unwise as are unions between those who differ in religious views, they are far worse when contracted between Christians and unbelievers, between those who are “conformed to this world” and those who hope to be “transformed by the renewing of their mind” into the image of Jesus Christ. There can be but one result to such unions. They must ever be “snares and traps,” “scourges in the side and thorns in the eyes” of those who contract them, even though the end be not the destruction from out of the” good land which God has given.” Those whom “God hath joined together” ought not to be “put asunder” by a discordance of opinions on all the main duties and objects of life. No temptations of beauty, of wealth or prospects, or even of personal preference, can outweigh the misery and danger of a condition like this, especially when it is considered that the results are not confined to those who are parties to such marriages, but that those whom God has sent into the world to be heirs of eternity will be considered by one, perhaps eventually by both their parents, as the creatures of a world that is passing away. The words “only in the Lord,” though spoken but once, and then incidentally, ought nevertheless to be well pondered. They constitute the only ground upon which a Christian can enter into the most sacred and enduring of human ties; the only one that can ensure a blessing; the only one possible to those who are pledged to order all their actions by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jos 23:6-8
Cleaving unto the Lord.
I. THE DUTY.
(1) Personal devotion. God seeks the devotion of our hearts. It is inward and spiritual, and not merely a fact of visible conduct. It implies drawing near to God in prayer, walking with God, delighting in Him, seeking to be like Him, aiming at pleasing Him.
(2) Active obedience. Joshua exhorts the people to “be very courageous,” “to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.” Devotion of heart is a mockery unless it leads to obedience in conduct. We must cleave to God in action as well as in feeling.
(3) Purity. The people are exhorted to avoid the contamination of heathen society and the sin of idolatry. Anything that takes the place of God in our heart is an idol. All sinful pleasures and worldly interests that are not consistent with pure devotion to God separate us from Him and vitiate our service. God cannot accept our sacrifices while we approach Him with sinful affections (Isa 1:18).
II. THE DANGER. Joshua saw that there was a danger that the people should cease to “cleave unto the Lord.” This arose from various causes:
(1) Prosperity. It was now “a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel.” In times of prosperity we are often off our guard, and become indolent, and hence are in danger.
(2) Bad example. The Canaanites who remained in the land would be a source of temptation to idolatry and immorality. We need to be especially careful if we are surrounded by those who live worldly and unholy lives. The influence of an ever present example is insidious and powerful.
(3) The inherent difficulty of duty. The people were exhorted not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left. The path of duty is narrow (Mat 7:18, Mat 7:14). There are many wrong ways, but only one right way.
(4) The loss of an old leader. Joshua was about to die. He feared for the people after his guiding hand was removed. When trusted leaders are called away the Church is thrown back on the individual responsibility of its members to preserve its fidelity.
III. THE MOTIVES FOR OVERCOMING THE DANGER AND FULFILLING THE DUTY. The great source of devotion is love to God. Joshua says, “Take good heed, therefore, unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.” We cannot cleave to the Lord out of a mere sense of duty. We must feel attracted by the influence of His love to us, rousing our love to Him (Hos 11:4). This influence will be realised as we reflect upon the goodness of God in the past. Joshua appeals to the experience of the people and theft memory of God’s great goodness and powerful help. We have not only the providential grace of God to reflect upon, but also the wonderful love He has revealed in the sacrifice of Christ (2Co 5:14). If we have been at all faithful in the past, the thought of this fact should stimulate us to maintain our fidelity. Joshua says, “Cleave unto the Lord your God as ye have done unto this day.” Past devotion is no security against future unfaithfulness. But it is a motive to fidelity, because, failing this, the fruits of the labour and sacrifice of the past will be lost; because the habits of the past will make it easier to be true in the futurethe greater difficulties being overcome, it would be foolish to yield before the lesser; and because the experience of the blessings which accompany fidelity should make us see that our joy and peace are in “cleaving unto the Lord.”W. F. A.
Jos 23:10
Victory assured through the help of God.
I. VICTORY IS ASSURED.
(1) The people of God are few and weak in comparison with the host of theft enemies. This was the case with the Jews. It is so in the comparison of the Church with the great godless and heathen world. It is true of our own spiritual resources and the dangers which beset our inner life. The comparison is as one to a thousand.
(2) It is a Divine law that success shall not turn on questions of numbers and visible strength. God is not always “on the side of the big battalions.” Even in material warfare there are possible “accidents” and “mistakes” which vitiate arguments drawn from statistics. In spiritual warfare visible superiority counts for very little. Paul the tent maker was stronger than the Sanhedrim. The monk Luther was victorious over the Pope and the whole Roman hierarchy. Nothing could have looked feebler than Christianity when it appeared in the upper room at Jerusalem; yet in three centuries it conquered the Roman Empire, and it is now the most powerful factor in the life of the foremost races of mankind.
(3) God assures victory to His people. The victory is not only possible in spite of apparent weakness; it is certain. It is promised by God. Anticipations are constantly seen, as in the successes of Israel, the triumphs of Christianity, the victory of the Christian over his old sins, etc. Therefore let us see that we are on the side of right and truth and God, and then let us be trustful and hopeful.
II. THE SECRET OF VICTORY IS THE HELP OF GOD. Israel must be brave and faithful, and must labour and fight. Yet victory is not secured by these means alone. Joshua points to the true ground of assurance: “The Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you.” How does God fight for us?
(1) He fights for us in His providence.
(a) God so overrules events that they shall minister to the victory of His people; His complete government of all things renders it certain that no calamities or temptations can fall upon His people against His will, and He can regulate and temper those that He permits.
(b) God guides the thoughts and inner lives of men. Pharaoh the oppressor and Nebuchadnezzar were led by God to do His will, though unconsciously. Even the bitterest opponents of God’s will cannot shake off this unseen control.
(2) God fights for us by innspiring us with strength to fight.
(a) He leads the mind to those thoughts which help us to resist evil and advocate truth and right with enthusiasm.
(b) He is the source of direct spiritual influences which strengthen the will in the determination to brave all for the right.W.F.A.
Jos 23:11
Love to God.
We are called to love God. It is not enough that we discharge our duty to our neighbour; we have a distinct duty to God (Mal 1:6), This duty is not fulfilled by the most scrupulous devotion to external service alone. God claims the affection of our hearts.
I. THE NATURE OF LOVE TO GOD.
(1) It has all the qualities of genuine love.
(a) It is personal. We love God in loving goodness and all things Godlike; but the perfect love of God implies a personal relation between our soul and His. We love Him as our Father.
(b) It is seen in the delight we have in God, the attraction He is to us, our desire to be in His presence, and the greater brightness of our lives as we grow nearer to Him. True love finds its greatest joy in loving. The love which is merely benevolent, which wishes well without feeling delight, is cold and faint.
(c) It is proved by sacrifice. Love sacrifices itself to death, and prefers the person loved to its own joy. So our love to God must lead to self devotion and willingness to suffer loss for His sake.
(2) It has special features of its own. There are different kinds of love, determined by the different relations of men, as friends, brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives. Our relation to God is unlike any other relation, and the love which flows from this must have a peculiar character. God stands to us in the ideal of all relations, as the friend, the father, the husband of His people, and our love to God should be the perfection and ideal of all love. Still God needs no help from us; therefore the element of pity which characterises the love of the strong to the weak does not belong to this love. God is unseen and spiritual; therefore our love to Him does not naturally take the form of sensuous rapture, but rather that of calm and rational devotion. God is infinitely above us; therefore our love to Him must be inspired with reverence and humility. In its perfection it must become an all-absorbing devotion. Yet even then it will be characterised by strength and depth rather than by passion and visible emotion.
II. THE SOURCES OF LOVE TO GOD. We are to “take good heed “an admonition which implies that it rests with us to cultivate our own love to God.
(1) Consider the grounds we have for loving God:
(a) In His love to us, seeing that He has loved us before seeking for our love, and has proved His love by His goodness in creation, providence, and redemption;
(b) in His nature, He attracts by the “beauty of holiness;” He is love; the more we know of God the more do we see of His goodness.
(2) Realise the presence of God. Love is strengthened by communion. Contemplation of God with faith in His personal presence will draw the soul near to Him, and deepen the feeling of affection to Him as a real being”our Father”and not as the mere abstraction of perfect attributes which is all that the name of God suggests to some men.
(3) Live in His spirit. As we love what God loves, as we grow like Him, as we approach Him in sympathy, we shall learn to love God.
III. THE EFFECTS OF LOVE TO GOD.
(1) Obedience. We shall desire to serve and please Him, and shall do this more heartily than from fear, self interest, or a cold conviction of duty (Rom 13:10).
(2) Likeness to God. Love naturally assimilates by the influence of
(a) admiration and
(b) sympathy.
(3) Love to man. This is a direct fruit of love to God, because
(a) it pleases Him,
(b) it is Godlike,
(c) love to God must flow out in all forms of unselfishness and benevolence (1Jn 4:20).
(4) The highest blessedness. Heaven consists in the enjoyment of God through love. He secures, on earth, peace and satisfaction to the deepest yearnings of the soul.W.F.A.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE
Jos 23:11
A needed caution.
Whilst the words of the youthful sometimes claim our attention, none can forbear to give earnest heed to the advice of him whoso head is whitened with the snows of many winters. Respect is due to the aged, and never more so than when lessons taught them by a long and varied experience drop from their venerable lips. Let us bend our ears to listen to the counsel of Joshua, “old and stricken in age.” The period at which it was delivered was one of peculiar interest. The honoured leader of the Israelites felt the time to be drawing near when he must pass away from the people whom he regarded as a father does his children. Knowing how soon they would be deprived of his presence and control, he assembled the people, as Moses had previously done, and like Samuel and David afterwards, and addressed them in words of solemn exhortation, which may be summarised in the language of the text, “Take good heed,” etc. The purpose of most addresses is to strike a note of warning, to put men on the alert to guard against some danger. Our sleepy senses get so steeped in forgetfulness that there is constant need of the pealing alarm, “Take heed!”
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAUTION.
(1) It directs attention to the centre and substance of religion. Our Saviour endorsed “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God” as “the first and great commandment.” His condemnation of the Jews was expressed,” I know you that ye have not the love of God in you.” The first sin consisted in a turning away from God in consequence of the tempter’s insinuation that want of love was the motive of the seemingly harsh prohibition. Hence the incarnation and crucifixion were the stupendous exhibition of Divine love intended to regain the love of man. Affection alone can secure ready and earnest and constant obedience “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Love becomes “the fulfilling of the law.” It is the mainspring of a godly life, the fountain whence flow streams of holy activity. Striking is it to observe how love is demanded and insisted on even under the old dispensation. The law giver knew that the sternest threats and severest penalties could not ensure compliance with the commands of the Almighty, unless love were enthroned in the heart as the ruling passion of the life. All the attributes of God require correspending recognition on the part of His creatures; and love as His chief, all-embracing excellence challenges our love in response, and we are guilty if we withhold it.
(2) It is highly necessary on account of man’s nature and surroundings. He is engrossed by the senses and their gratifications, and is averse to what is spiritual. To worship God requires an effort of the mind, an abstraction from things carnal. The spirituality of the Divine nature was a source of difficulty to the Israelites. Even though they had seen the cloud, the fire, the Shechinah, they wanted to set up idols, visible images ever present. And as many of the miraculous elements had disappeared, there was the greater tendency to forgetfulness of Jehovah. Today men urge, “How can we love a Being whom we have never seen?” His laws appear in many instances stringent, and to obey is painful. Evidences of thoughtful, loving design seem rebutted by contrary appearances of disharmony and wrath. It is acknowledged to be difficult to hush the voice of passion, and to hear the “still small voice” that betokens the presence of God. The difficulty is increased by our surroundings. If Israel had been alone upon the earth, it might have maintained intact the worship of the true God. But, encircled by idolatrous tribes and abominable practices, there was constant liability to mix with the evil and catch its infection (see verses 7, 8). Our position is strictly analogous. We are “in the world,” and daily brought into contact with those who make self their aim and treat pure religion with contempt. Easily may the contagion spread. The smoke of the city obscures the heavens, and amidst its din the tones of the angels fall but faintly on the ear. If this applies to believers who know and serve God, how mighty the barriers that interpose between Him and His “prodigal” sons! What dire need of sounding aloud the caution that they may speedily “come to themselves,” and return to their Father!
(3) History confirms the necessity of attending to the caution. Joshua well knew how frequently the Israelites had already become estranged from God. Many were the mementos of rebellion left in the wilderness, many the stones which bore the traces of their stumbling. Thus reasoning had its conclusions verified by experience. And which of us has not memorials of folly? If a pillar marked each scene where was displayed absence of regard for our Maker, how thronged with such tokens would be the route by which we have travelled. Call up the remembrance of the acts of childhood and youth and manhood. Each sin was a step upon the path of enmity against God, for it evinced a liking for that which is displeasing to Him. His mercy checked us from utter aberration. The warning of Joshua was proved necessary by the actual event. Standing on the mountain top, he thence surveyed both the past and the future. In spite of the special covenant recorded in the following chapter, the Israelites ceased to love the Lord, and lapsed into idolatry and licentiousness. Would that no similar case could be pointed to amongst those who have been professing Christians! Of how many may it be said, “Ye did run well”? Let history shed its beacon light athwart the waves, reminding us of the rocks, and bidding us remain in the calm open sea of the love of God.
(4) Consider the risk incurred in neglecting the advice of the text. Folly is in proportion to the hazard which neglect involves. Scripture wisely employs every legitimate motive to urge men to adopt its plans. Threats are mentioned as well as promises, and punishments as well as rewards. Joshua declared that the spurning of his counsel would result in the withdrawal of God’s aid in battle (verse 13), and in their visitation with all manner of evil until destruction ensued (verses 15, 16). Who shall estimate the peril of encountering the wrath of God? Even with His smile resting upon us the trials of life are hard to bear, but what if we have departed from Him and trials partake of the nature of judgments? True, believers are “kept by the power of God.” Nevertheless, declension may cause the serious inquiry whether we have been really classed with believers. Hence the hypothetical statements and warnings of Holy Writ. It is not wise to swim on the verge of a whirlpool. Nor need we try how close to the edge of the cliff we can walk, lest we fall and there be no overhanging bough of Providence to arrest our awful descent.
II. PRACTICAL METHODS OF CULTIVATING THE HOLY AFFECTION ENJOINED. A preliminary objection may be raised respecting the inoperativeness of a command relating to the affections. Give an order with regard to the physical powers and it can be obeyed; the intellect will answer a call; but love is a spontaneous product, of internal not external origin, and cannot rise at will. Such an objection overlooks the fact that affection can be influenced, if not absolutely forced, by fixing its attention upon an object, by noting the qualities in it deserving of esteem and regard. Point one man to another whom he sees casually, and no emotion is excited. But describe the man, picture him as a loving friend, generous, noble, and true, and there will be created a desire to know more of him, and acquaintance will ripen curiosity into love. Accordingly we recommend
(1) Frequent meditation upon the character of God. He is the embodiment of every perfection. He is life, light, and love. If, when we observe traits of goodness in our fellow creatures, our hearts go out to them in loving sympathy, what must be the fervency of affection produced by contemplating the fount of goodness as it resides in the Almighty. In men it is but a shallow stream, often dry when most we need it, subject to widest fluctuations and to all changes of temperature, but in God it is an exhaustless perennial flood of all-powerful holiness and benevolence. We cannot let our minds dwell too much on the measureless perfections of the Deity. Let us stand upon the mount with Moses while God passes by, revealing His glory in His excellent name. To shut out the world for a season, and ascend in contemplation to the glorious temple, “where dwells eternal love,” will be like exchanging the murky atmosphere of the city for the pure, bracing, inspiring Alpine mountains. We shall return strengthened for work and warfare, less enchanted by the world’s allurements. And yet does the Almighty seem far removed from our ken, and do we need an assurance that He is one whom doubting finite minds can think of with delight? He has provided us with a clear portrait of Himself, His only-begotten son, “the brightness of His glory,” the lustre of Deity shaded, that our weak eyes may gaze uninjured, living amongst men, and displaying all the qualities that can command our highest, deepest reverence and love.
(2) A constant passing in review of favours bestowed. Joshua reminded the people that every promise had been fulfilled (verses 14, 15). The Lord had vanquished the enemy (verse 3), the land was partitioned, each tribe was enjoying its inheritance. If they adhered to God, memory would be prophetic. Surely gratitude would constrain them to yield loving service unto Him who had done and would do great things for them. And each has but to survey his present position, to let the eye light on many a proof of love Divine. Temporal prosperity, true-hearted friends, the delights of honest labour and rest, health and strength, knowledge and taste, for some of these or a hundred other blessings has every one to thank the author of “every good and perfect gift.” Be it noted that mercies augment love, since they teach us plainly the goodness of the Giver. They are to us the revelation of His character, and it must needs be that when we are brought into personal contact with Him, made personally the recipients of His bounty, then we understand Him better, appreciate more the warmth of heavenly rays than when we hear the testimony of others, or behold the sunlight flashing upon them from the throne of God. But what shall we say of God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ as the Father of our spirits, the forgiving God, who by His spirit hath quickened us from the death of sin, and is fitting us for the enjoyment of His immediate presence? And when we call to mind His providential care exercised over us, and the seasons in which He prevented the billows from overwhelming us in despair, and the fires of temptation from scorching us, what joy must it be to comply with the precepts of the text, to “arise and seek Him whom the soul loveth.”
(3) Watchfulness against sin. The “expulsive power of a new affection “is a two-edged sword that fights both for good and for evil. The tendency of sin is to blind the judgment, pervert the imagination, and to deaden spiritual emotion. If it were one and uniform we should know how to attack it, but it is insidious and wraps itself in disguises, and encroaches on every side, hence we must be ready to act on the defensive. Joshua cautioned the Israelites against mingling with the degraded inhabitants of the land (verses 12, 13). This is an entanglement to many a youthful Christian. First, on speaking terms, then follows familiarity, and lastly, participation in the very practices condemned. Not all at once did he rush into flagrant transgression, but gradually walked into the snare, until the love of God was stifled in his breast. Bodily sight depends on the state of the health, and the eye of the soul is dimmed through the indulgence of fleshly lusts. A traitor is admitted into the camp, and the true friend is ousted from his seat of honour. Guard, then, against sin; say not, “it is a little one;” cherish not a viper in your bosom, it will mar your peace, pollute your dwelling, and leave a sting which no palliative shall be able to soothe. But if you are now repenting of sin, be assured of God’s willingness to pardon, “believe in Him that raised up Jesus from the dead; who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification.” Then say, “I love Him because He first loved me.”A.
HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE
The Command and its Sanction
Joshua before his death twice calls together the people of Israel to urge on them one exhortation of supreme importance. On the first occasion he reminds Israel of its great mission, which is to be a holy nation, the priesthood of the Lord for all mankind, separated by this its high calling from all association with the pagan nations around, and bound to abstain from all contact with idolatry. Let us notice the command and its sanction.
(1) “The Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong; no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day.” “Take good heed, therefore, unto yourselves that ye love the Lord your God; lest ye in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations that remain among you and make marriages with them (verses 9-12). Israel is thoroughly to understand that it has not been put in possession of the land of Canaan, to lead the same unholy life as those whom it had expelled. There is a priesthood to be exercised. This priesthood implies separation from the ungodly and from idolaters. This separation, however, is to be for a time only, for all the nations of the earth are finally to be blessed in the seed of Abraham (Gen 12:3). Israel is separated from the rest of mankind for the good of the whole. This separation is not merely external, it is moral, for it is only realised by a life of holiness. Such is still the high calling of the people of God. They are to be priests of the most High, separated from the world by the elevation of their life and experience, even more than by privilege of position. The elect are a priesthood. Their election does not terminate in their own advantage, but seeks through them the good of the whole race, for which they are to prepare the way of salvation. Under the new dispensation, the people of God are no longer divided by material boundaries from the world. There is, therefore, all the greater necessity that the line of spiritual separation be bright, strong, and distinct.
(2) The commandment is enforced by a solemn sanction. “If ye go in unto these nations and they to you, know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you” (verses 12, 13). The punishment threatened has this notable characteristicthat it is to come by means of those very nations with whom Israel shall have entered into unholy alliance. These shall be made, in the hand of God, the scourge and the goad to His rebellious people, just as Israel had been, in the flint instance, the sword of Divine justice to visit the iniquity of the Canaanites. So is fulfilled the great moral law that sin brings its own punishment. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Every time that Israel entered into compact with the heathen nations it fell under the hand of the heathen. So whenever the Church allies itself with the world, the world entangles, corrupts, and destroys its life, though, it may be, stealthily and without violence. “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not” (Hos 7:9). The worldliness of the Church silently saps its spiritual power.E. DE P.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jos 23:15
Threats as true as promises.
There are those who deny God’s threats of punishment the same validity which they ascribe to His promises of blessing. Joshua here ascribes equal certainty to both.
I. GOD MUST BE TRUE TO HIS THREATS. God desires to bless, and He can only punish reluctantly, since His nature is love. Hence it might appear that He would not be so true to His threats as to His promises. But, on the other hand, note :
(1) To threaten without intending to execute would be deceitful; God is true and must be faithful to His word.
(2) It would be cruel; a merciful God would not terrify us with groundless alarms.
(3) It would be ineffectual; the emptiness of the threat would be ultimately discovered, and then the delusion would cease to be a terror and become a mockery.
(4) Punishment is ordained not to satisfy vengeance, but to establish justice and to vindicate and restore righteousness. It is a good sent for good ends, and to refrain from it would be a mark of weakness, not of mercy.
II. THE APPARENT UNCERTAINTY OF GOD‘S THREATS ADMITS OF EXPLANATION.
(1) They are conditional. The punishment does not always come because the conditions of the threat are altered. Repentance and faith in Christ are conditions on which God exercises mercy and refrains from executing His threat. The turning from evil is declared to be an alteration of circumstances which makes the threat no longer to apply (Eze 33:19). The force of gravitation is not suspended when we arrest the motion of a falling body. The law is not frustrated by the counteraction of the gospel.
(2) Threats are often misunderstood. The Church has added monstrous physical horrors to the threats of the Bible, against which men revolt. It is not our interpretation of the threat, but God’s meaning, that will be fulfilled.
(3) Threats apply to the future; because God is long suffering, men refuse to believe that He is just. The delay of punishment is no ground for disbelieving in the reality of it.
(4) Threats are unpleasant; many persons will not entertain unpleasant ideas. Yet a fact is not the less true because it does not please us.
III. THE APPLICATION OF GOD‘S THREATS SHOULD BE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED.
(1) It is dangerous to neglect them. We do not improve our health by ignoring the opinion of a physician simply because this is unfavorable. If the Divine warnings are true, they are terribly true, and no soul should be at rest till it has found safety in Christ.
(2) It is foolish to despair. Why are these threats recorded in the Bible? Surely not simply to torture us! If they were inevitable it would be most merciful to conceal our doom from us till the last moment. But they are warnings. The very fact that they are recorded implies that the evil they describe may be avoided. The threat is true, but it is conditional. Therefore let us flee the danger by escaping to the refuge which God has provided (Rom 8:1).W.F.A.
HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER
Verse 24
The old man eloquent.
With much in the detail of these chapters which is of interest, the final farewell of Joshua is worthy of our study in its entirety. The dignity and serenity of saintly ripeness, the vigour of his exhortations, and the assurance of his faith, are facts worthy of the study of every one of us. Consider a few features of this farewell, and observe
I. HIS GRACES ENDURE TO THE END. Bodily vigour leaves even his stalwart frame. Nervous energy begins to flag even with him. The mind loses elasticity and keenness. But his graces thrive. He chose God in his youth; he clings to Him in his age. His faith expected much in his manhood; it still enthrones God as the fountain of all that blesses a man or a people. His hope was bright, and still continues bright. His love of his God and of his country warm his whole being at an age when the chill of wintry age seems as if it must lower all warmth of interest. The outward man perishes; the inward man has been renewed day by day. What a sight to animate us! No regrets lament the early choice. No declension stains the early purpose. The bitter words of the elder D’Israeli, “Youth is a mistake, manhood a struggle, old age a regret,” are all of them contradicted here. They are too often true. They are so when the early choice is made by passion rather than by principle. But when we choose God, we go “from strength to strength until we appear before the Lord in Zion.” The perseverance of the saints is beautifully illustrated in such a case as this. Let the faint hearted be of good cheer. Grace, however feeble, is a “living and incorruptible seed; a living and deathless seed;” and whatever its varying fortunes, it will persist until it reaches its great reward. Connected with this, yet worthy of separate mention, observe
II. THE LONGER THE GOOD MAN‘S EXPERIENCE, THE LARGER IS HIS SATISFACTION WITH HIS CHOICE. A short experience sometimes leaves good people in doubt whether their goodness will be worth its cost. Moses, when he had to flee to Midian, was very much tempted to repent of the zeal with which he had taken up the cause of his oppressed people in Egypt, In the Slough of Despond Christian was tempted to regret his setting out on pilgrimage. Joshua was tempted, when they refused the advice of Caleb and himself and talked of stoning them, to wish he had not unsettled the minds of the people by avowing his dissent from the conclusions of the majority of those sent out to spy the land. And often we drift into a mood the reverse of that of Agrippa, and are “almost persuaded” to cease to be Christians. But a longer experience always means a stronger sense of the wisdom of our choice. The earlier doubts of a Moses or a Joshua all fade away, and the aged saint is only thankful for his early choice. This should hearten us, and keep us from attaching too much weight to temporary depression, or even failures. When we choose God we choose “the good part” which shall not be taken away from us. Observe
III. THE GOOD MAN‘S LAST SERVICE IS HIS BEST SERVICE. He had done illustrious service throughout: as the faithful spy; as the faithful helper of Moses; as the heroic warrior; as the wise and upright divider of the land. But here he conquers not the arms of enemies, but the hearts of friends: infuses the energy to win not an earthly, but a heavenly kingdom: leads them into covenant with God: secures that deepening of conscience and strengthening of faith which will give them, in the degree in which it endures, the power to keep all that they had conquered. There is something characteristic of grace here. The last service may always beand perhaps almost always isthe best. As it was said of Samson so, in a different sense, it may be said of the Saviour Himself and of all God’s saints, “The dead he slew in his death were more than all they that he slew in his life.” The progressive usefulness of the saintly life is a very marvellous feature of it. Rejoice and hope in it. Lastly observe
IV. HOW FIT FOR IMMORTALITY THE OLD MAN STANDS. There may be a physical theory of another life which convinces some of the truth of the Christian doctrine of immortality; but the great argument for immortality lies in men’s meetness for it. The Enochs and the Joshuas were in early agesand such spirits are todaythe great arguments of immortality. Such ripeness of spirit cannot be wasted by Him who gathers up the fragments even that nothing may be lost. For such power to serve and faculty for enjoyment men could not help feeling there must be some provision and some scope beyond the grave, The other world is hidden, but occasionally the entrance of a great soul brightens it. They, lifted up, draw our hearts and thoughts up after them. And when, like the men of Galilee, we stand gazing upwards after those who leave us, like them we see the angels, and receive the promise of a blessed heritage with those who have gone. The belief in immortality has existed ever since good men died; and while there are good men to love, the belief in a bright glory will survive. Joshua stood ready for heaven, proving the existence of a heaven by that readiness. Let us, like him, be fit for the other world as well as this, that, to the last, hope, propose, and usefulness may be rich and bright.G.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Ver. 1. And it came to pass a long time after, &c. That is to say, fourteen years after the conquest of the land of Canaan, and seven after the division of the country among the tribes. See ch. Jos 11:23 Jos 14:10. Dr. Wells is of opinion, that the assembly here mentioned met at Shiloh before the tabernacle. Joshua is before spoken of as being old and stricken in years, chap. Jos 13:1. He was now, probably, in the last year of his life.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. Joshuas Parting with the People. His Death and that of Eleazar
Joshua 23, 24
a. The First Parting Address
Joshua 23
. Promise that Jehovah will still fight for his people, and help them to the complete possession of the land
Jos 23:1-11
1And it came to pass, a long time [many days]1 after that the Lord [Jehovah] had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed
2old and stricken in age. And2 Joshua called for3 [omit: for] all Israel, and [omit: and] for their elders, and for their heads, and for their officers [overseers], and said unto them, I am old and [omit: and] stricken in age [far gone in years]: 3And ye have seen all that the Lord [Jehovah] your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord [Jehovah] your God is he that hath fought 4for you. Behold [See], I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance [as a possession] for your tribes; from [the] Jordan, with [and] all the nations that I have cut off, even unto [and] the great sea westward 5[toward the going down of the sun]. And the Lord [Jehovah] your God, he shall expel them from before you,4 and drive them from out of your sight;4 and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord [Jehovah] your God hath promised [spoken] unto you. 6Be ye therefore very courageous [And be ye, or, ye shall be, very strong] to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or [and] to the left; 7That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among [with] you; neither make mention of the name5 of their gods, nor cause to swear by them [it], neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: 8But cleave unto the Lord [Jehovah] your God, as ye have 9done unto this day. For [And] the Lord [Jehovah] hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for [and] you, no man hath been able to stand [hath stood] before you unto this day. 10One man of you shall chase [chaseth] a thousand: for the Lord [Jehovah] your God, he it is that fighteth for 11you, as he hath promised [spoken] unto you. Take [And take] good heed therefore [omit: therefore] unto yourselves [your souls], that ye love the Lord [Jehovah] your God.
. Warning against Apostasy from God
Jos 23:12-16
12Else [For] if ye do in any wise go back [return], and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even [omit: even] these that remain among [with] you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you [and come among them, and they among you]:6 13Know for a certainty that the Lord [Jehovah] your God will no more drive out any of [omit: any of] these nations from before you: but [and] they shall be snares [a snare] and traps [a trap] unto you, and scourges [a scourge] in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land [ground ] which the Lord [Jehovah] your God hath given you.
14And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing [word] hath failed of all the good things [words] which the Lord [Jehovah] your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and [omit: and] not one thing [word] hath failed 15thereof. Therefore [And] it shall come to pass, that as all good things are [every good word is] come upon you, which the Lord [Jehovah] your God promised [spoke to] you; so shall the Lord [Jehovah] bring upon you all evil things [every evil word], until he have destroyed you from off this good land [ground] which the Lord 16[Jehovah] your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed [transgress] the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah] your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served [go and serve] other gods, and bowed [bow] yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord [Jehovah] be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
b. The Second Parting Address. Renewal of the Covenant. Conclusion
24
a. The Second Parting Address
Jos 24:1-15
. 1And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for [omit: for7] the elders of Israel, and for their heads and for their judges, and for their officers [overseers]; and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood [river] in old time, even [omit: even] Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods. 3And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood [river], and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
4And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess 5it; but [and] Jacob and his children [sons] went down into Egypt. I sent [And I sent] Moses also [omit: also] and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 6And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. 7And when they cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen [saw] what I have done [did] in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season [many days]. 8And I brought you into the land of the Amorites [Amorite], which [who] dwelt on the other side [of the] Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess [or, and ye possessed] their land; and I destroyed 9them from before you. Then [And] Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred [fought8] against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 10But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore [and] he blessed you still:9 so [and] I delivered you out of his hand. 11And ye went over [the] Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites,10 and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I delivered [gave] them into your hand. 12And I sent the hornet before you, which [and it] drave them out from before you, even the [omit: even the] two kings of the Amorites: but [omit: but] not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 13And I have given you a land for [or, in] which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the14[omit: the] vineyards and olive-yards [trees] which ye planted not do ye eat. Now therefore [And now] fear the Lord [Jehovah], and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood15[river], and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord [Jehovah]. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord [Jehovah], choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood [river] or the gods of the Amorites [Amorite] in whose land ye dwell: but as for me [and I] and my house, we [omit: we] will serve the Lord [Jehovah].
. The Renewal of the Covenant
Jos 24:16-28
16And the people answered and said, God forbid [Far be it from us] that we should forsake the Lord [Jehovah], to serve other gods; 17For the Lord [Jehovah] our God, he it is that brought us up, and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt, from [out of] the house of bondage [lit. of bondmen], and which [who] did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people [peoples] through whom we passed: 18And the Lord [Jehovah] drave out from before us all the people [peoples], even [and] the Amorites [Amorite] which [who] dwelt in the land: therefore [omit: therefore] will we also [we also will] serve the Lord [Jehovah]; for he is our God.
19And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord [Jehovah]: for he is an holy God: he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions, nor20[and] your sins. If [when] ye forsake the Lord [Jehovah], and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord [Jehovah].
22And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord [Jehovah], to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.23Now therefore [And now], said he, put away the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel. 24And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord [Jehovah] our God will we serve, and [to] his voice will we obey [hearken].
25So [And so] Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an [the] oak that was by [in] the sanctuary of the Lord [Jehovah]. 27And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness [for witness ] unto [against Jos 24:22] us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord [Jehovah] which he spake [hath spoken] unto [with] us: it shall be therefore [, and shall be] a witness unto 28[against] you, lest ye deny your God. So [And] Joshua let the people depart, every man [one] unto his inheritance [possession].
. Death of Joshua and Eleazar. The Bones of Joseph
Jos 24:29-33
29And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord [Jehovah] died, being an hundred and ten years old. 30And they buried him in the border of his inheritance [possession] in Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of [of mount] Gaash. 31And Israel served the Lord [Jehovah] all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived [lit. prolonged days after] Joshua, and which [who] had known [knew] all the works of the Lord [Jehovah] that he had done for Israel.
32And the bones of Joseph, which the children [sons] of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground [portion of the field] which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver [kesita]; and it became the inheritance of [they were for a possession to] the children [sons] of Joseph.
33And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to [in Gibeah of] Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
These two closing chapters of the book are intimately related, containing the two farewell addresses of Joshua to the people, an account of the renewal of the covenant in connection with the latter of those addresses, and the report of the death of Joshua and Eleazar. They give information also concerning the last transactions of Joshua, and the closing circumstances of his life so full of activity, and so significant with reference to the establishment of the religious character of the people of Israel.
Particularly to be considered here, from the first, is the relation between the two farewell addresses in respect to differences and agreement of their subject-matter; and manifestly, the first presents to the Israelites what Jehovah mil do for them to bring them into full possession of the land, while the second in powerful words calls to mind in detail what Jehovah, since the time of the patriarchs, has already done for them. Admonitions to fidelity towards Jehovah, warnings against backsliding from him, are found in both addresses (Jos 23:6-8; Jos 23:11-13; Jos 23:15-16; Jos 24:14-15), and are repeated, at the renewal of the covenant, in a lively dialogue between Joshua and the people (Jos 24:19-20; Jos 24:27).
a. Ch. 23. The First Farewell Discourse. This, after the introduction, Jos 23:1-2, falls into two sections, Jos 23:3-16. . In the first section Joshua announces that Jehovah will continue to fight for his people, and help them to the entire possession of their land; . in the second he warns them vehemently against apostasy from him, lest, instead of help, the judgment of God, consisting in their expulsion from Canaan, shall come upon them.
Jos 23:1-2. Introduction, recalling Jos 13:1, as well as Jos 21:42. Where Joshua held this discourse, is not said; perhaps at his residence in Timnath-serah (Jos 19:50), perhaps, and this is more probable, at Shiloh. He first begins by reminding them that he is become old, but that they have seen all that Jehovah has done to all these nations before them, for he has fought for them. Of his own merits toward Israel the modest hero boasts not a word. He only remarks (Jos 23:4) that he has divided by lot for them the remaining nations also, from the Jordan, and all the nations which I have cut off, and the great sea toward the going down of the sun. The sense is, In the country lying between the Jordan on the east and the great sea on the west, have I distributed to you by lot as well the still remaining peoples, therefore to be driven out (comp. Jos 17:15), as those already destroyed (comp. Jos 11:12), that you may possess their land.
Jos 23:5. These nations, viz., the , will Jehovah himself expel, thrust out (, comp. Deu 6:19; Deu 9:14, likewise used of the expulsion of the Canaanites) before them, and drive them off (), and they (the Israelites) shall possess the land (Jos 1:15) as Jehovah has spoken (Jos 13:6; Exo 23:23 ff.). That will Jehovah do, as is afterward repeated in Jos 23:10. But they must, as Joshua admonishes, Jos 23:8, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, etc., comp. Jos 1:7.
Jos 23:7-8. Especially they are warned against all intercourse with those nations, and above all, against participation in their idolatry. On , to mention any one by his name, i.e., to make him the object of a call and proclamation, comp. Isa 48:1; Psa 20:8; , Isa 12:4; Isa 41:25 (Knobel). Keil appositely remarks further, that, to mention the names of the gods (Exo 23:13), to swear by them, to serve them (by offerings), and to bow down to them (call upon them in prayer), are the four expressions of divine worship, see Deu 6:13; Deu 10:20.
Jos 23:9. A fresh reminiscence of Gods help, who has driven out before them great and strong nations, cf. Jos 23:3. And youno man hath stood before you unto this day. Meaning: and you were so powerful through his assistance that you conquered everything before you, comp. Jos 21:44.
Jos 23:10. To be understood neither with the LXX., who render by , of the past, nor with the Vulg., which translates persequetur, of the future, but rather of the present; one man of you chaseth a thousand, for Jehovah your God, he it is who fighteth for you ashe hath spoken to you. So De Wette rightly translates, for it must be the actual present state of the people, and their actual present relation to Jehovah, in which the sure guarantee of their future complete extirpation of the Canaanites will consist. Deu 32:30; Num 26:8, should be compared.
Jos 23:11. A repeated admonition to love Jehovah their God. There follows , in Jos 23:12-16, the warning against apostasy from God, which is closely connected by with the last words of the admonition.
Jos 23:12-13. For if ye do in any wise turn back (), and cleaveto the remnant of these nations, these that remain with you, and make marriages with them (contrary to the prohibition, Exo 34:16; , from , prop. to cut off, then = , to determine, make fast; to betroth, as in old Lat. festa for bridegroom [] or the father of the bride [], Exo 18:1 ff.; Jdg 19:4 ff. Hithpael: to intermarry, to contract affinities by marriage, and that either by taking anothers daughter, or giving him ones own, with as here (Deu 7:3; 1Sa 18:22-23; 1Sa 18:26-27; Ezr 9:14. Gesen.), and ye come among them and they among you, know for a certainty ( ) that Jehovah your God will no more drive out these nations from before you, and they will be for you a trap (, in the same tragic sense as in Psa 69:23 and Isa 8:15, where also is connected with , as likewise in the N. T., Luk 21:35, ), and a snare and a scourge (, commonly , e.g.,Pro 26:3; 1Ki 12:11) in your sides, and thorns (, Num 33:55, from , in the signif. to be interwoven, entangled) in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good ground () which Jehovah your God hath given you. The declaration of Joshua is much more severe than that of Moses, Num 33:55, which speaks only of (thorns), parallel to . But here Joshua threatens that the Canaanites shall be to them a trap and snare for their feet; a scourgein their sides; thornsin their eyes, so that they shall be endangered by them and plagued on every side of the body, as it were. Keil: Joshua multiplies the figures to picture the inconvenience and distress which will arise from their intercourse with the Canaanites, because, knowing the fickleness of the people, and the pride of the human heart, he foresaw that the falling away from God, which Moses had in his day predicted, will only too soon take place; as indeed it did, according to Jdg 2:3 ff., in the next generation. The words , repeat the threat of Moses, Deu 11:17; comp. Joshua 28:21 ff.
Jos 23:14. Joshua, as in Jos 23:3, calls to mind his approaching end: I am going the way of all the earth,i.e., on the way to death, which a man goes and returns not, into the land of darkness and the shadow of death (Job 10:21; 1Ki 2:2). This way all the earth, the whole world must take. The lesson which he connects with these words teaches them to perceive that, as was said Jos 21:45, God has fulfilled to them all his promises, in which Joshua thinks particularly of the conquest of Canaan.
Jos 23:15-16. Reiterated warning against backsliding (comp. Jos 23:13). As God has fulfilled the good words concerning them, so will Jehovah bring () upon them also every evil word (Lev 26:14-33; Deu 28:15-68; Deu 29:14-28; Deu 30:1; Deu 30:15; comp. Jos 8:34-35), until he destroys them (, as Deut. 7:34; 28:48, Keil). Nay, if they transgress the covenant of Jehovah, to serve other gods and worship them, then his anger will burn against them, and they will quickly () perish out of the good land, which he has given them. The second part of Jos 23:16 occurs word for word in Deu 11:17, the first in part.
b. Ch. 24. The Second Farewell. Renewal of the Covenant. Conclusion. a. Jos 24:1-15. The discourse, the general character of which has been described, falls, after the exordium, into two divisions; Jos 24:2-13 a recapitulation of what God, since the time of the patriarchs, has done for his people; Jos 24:14-16, a demand to abstain entirely from idolatry, and to cleave to Jehovah, whom Joshua, at all events, and his family, will serve.
Jos 24:1. The assembly gathered not in Shiloh but in Shechem, where the solemn transaction related Jos 8:30-35, had taken place. On this account particularly, to recall that transaction, were the people summoned thither. A second reason is found by Hengstenberg (Beitrge, iii. p. 14 ff.) and Keil, in the fact that Jacob had dwelt here after his return from Mesopotamia, here purified his house of strange gods and buried their images under the oak at Shechem (Gen 33:19; Gen 35:2; Gen 35:4). An opinion intrinsically probable, but neither in the context of our chapter nor elsewhere in the book is it mentioned. The , as Jos 1:10; Jos 3:2; Jos 8:33; Jos 23:2.
And they presented themselves before God [ , as in Job 1:6; Job 2:1, ]. Joshua had, Jos 8:31, raised an altar on Mount Ebal, on which at that time, before the building of the tabernacle, sacrifices were offered. Of offerings there is no mention here.
Jos 24:2. God of Israel; significant, so Jos 24:23. In this verse, as in Jos 24:3-4, Joshua, in the name of Jehovah, holds up to the people what He has done for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the first proof of his divine grace. The fathers dwelt of old () beyond the stream, i.e., the Euphrates, namely, in Ur in Chaldea, and then in Haran (Gen 11:28; Gen 11:31).
Terah (, LXX.: , from , in Chald. to delay, comp. also Num 33:27) the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and served other gods. And I took your father Abraham. Isaac. The gods which Terah reverenced were, as appears from Gen 31:19; Gen 31:34, Teraphim, Penates (see Winer, Realw. s. v. Theraphim, [Smiths Dict. of Bible, art. Teraphim.] It is worthy of notice that it is not said distinctly of Abraham that he served other gods, on which account we agree with Knobel, who says: Whether, according to our author, Abraham also was originally an idolater, is rather to be denied than affirmed, comp. Gen 31:53. Dangerous even for him certainly were the idolatrous surroundings, wherefore God took him () and caused him to wander through Canaan. According to a tradition preserved in the Targum Jonathan (Keil, Com. b. Jos. 169, Anm. 1), and which recurs in the latter Rabbins, Abraham had to suffer persecution on account of his aversion to idolatry, and to forsake his native country; while an Arabic story (Hottinger, Hist. or. 50 ap. Winer, Realw. s. v. Abraham) makes him wander as far as Mecca, and there lay the first foundation of the Caaba. According to this, therefore, it must be assumed that he was a Saban.
Of Abrahams life nothing further is mentioned, Jos 24:3, than that Jehovah caused him to wander through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.
Jos 24:4. To Isaac gave Jehovah Jacob, and Esau, who received Mount Seir (Gen 26:6 ff.) for a possession. Jacob alone was to have Canaan for himself and his posterity, of which, however, nothing further is here said. Rather, there is added only the remark, which leads to Jos 24:5, that Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt, as is told Gen 46:1 ff.
Jos 24:5-7. The second proof of the Divine favor: Israels deliverance out of Egypt, the chief incidents of which are succinctly enumerated, namely, (1) the sending of Moses and Aaron and the infliction of the plagues upon Egypt (Exo 3:4); (2) the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exodus 14 ).
Jos 24:5-6. The words in Jos 24:5, according to that which I did in the midst of them ( ), occasion some difficulty. The LXX., without doubt, read , for they translate the whole verse, freely it is true: , , . The Vulgate also, following them, offers no sure standing ground when it renders: Et percussi gyptum multis signis atque portentis eduxique vos. Knobel, appealing to the translation of the LXX., would read instead of ; but even , gives not a bad sense, if we paraphrase the very curtly spoken sentence thus: As you, according to all that which I did in the midst of them, sc. the Egyptians, perfectly well know. Bunsen: So as you know that I did among them. We retain , therefore, because it is the more difficult reading.
Red sea, see on Jos 2:10.
Jos 24:7. A poetical, noble description. The Israelites cried to Jehovah. Then he placed darkness (, LXX.: , from , to go down [of the sun], to become dark, . . In Jer 2:21, we meet again with the compound , as a designation of the wilderness, i.e., the pillar of cloud (Exo 13:1 ff; Exo 14:19 ff.) between them and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon the latter and covered them. But the eyes of the Israelites saw what Jehovah did to the Egyptians. The change between the third and the first person is to be noticed. While we find the first person in Jos 24:5-6, Jehovah is spoken of at the beginning of Jos 24:7 in the third person, and then proceeds in the first. Ye dwelt in the wilderness many days. Transition to Jos 24:8, comp. Jos 24:5 b.
Jos 24:8-10. The third proof of Gods favor Victory over the Amorites (Num 21:23), and turning away of Balaams purposed curse from Israel (Num 22:22-24).
Jos 24:8. They fought with you, namely, under the command of their kings, Sihon, who was slain at Jahaz (Num 21:23), and Og, who was slain at Edrei (Num 21:33).
Jos 24:9. When it is said of Balak that he, the king of the Moabites, warred against Israel, we learn from the following words, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to come and curse you, how this is meant by the author. Balak contended not with arms against the Israelites, but would have them cursed by the false prophet Balaam, the (Jos 13:22), in which the terrified king at least staked his gold (Num 22:7), although it did not win. He lacked the courage for warfare with arms.
Jos 24:11. The fourth proof of Gods favor: The passage of the Jordan, capture of Jericho, victory over the Canaanites. The are not, as Knobel supposes, appealing to Jos 6:2, the king and his heroes, since the author in this case would have chosen the same expression; but, according to the example of 2Sa 21:12; 1Sa 23:11; Jdg 9:6, the citizens of Jericho.
Jos 24:12-13. Summary conclusion of the first division of Joshuas speech, in which he again emphasizes the fact, that it was God who inspired the Canaanites, particularly Sihon and Og, with terror, and who has given the Israelites a rich and well cultivated land.
Jos 24:12. And I sent the hornet () before you. (So had it been promised by God, Exo 23:28; Deu 7:20, and now also fulfilled, comp. Wis 12:8). is not to be understood literally, nor of plagues generally, but with Knobel and Keil, and most of the recent authorities, in such figurative sense as to be compared with Deu 2:25; Jos 2:11, where it is stated that Jehovah began, on the day of the victory over Sihon, to spread among all peoples, fear and terror, trembling and quaking and anguish, on account of Israel. The swarm of hornets is a terror and consternation to those against whom it turns, to fall upon them; before it they cannot stand but hurry away in distress. Like this is the consternation which, after their first great battle, preceded the Hebrews, and, like a heaven-sent spiritual plague, fell upon the peoples so that they fainted before Israel. Elsewhere the bees appear as an image of terrible foes (Deu 1:44; Psa 118:12; Knobel, on Exo 23:28). It ought also to be considered that in Exo 23:27, the next preceding verse, terror is spoken of ( ). The same conclusion follows if we compare Deu 7:20 with Jos 24:19, Jos 24:21 (end), Jos 24:23-24.
Not by thy sword and not by thy bow. The same thought as in Psa 44:4.
Jos 24:13. Thus Israel has, through Gods goodness, without merit on his part, received a glorious land, a land which he has not worked with the sweat of his brow ( ), i.e., made productive, cities which he has not built, vineyards and olive-trees which he has not planted, but of which he shall eat. The LXX. render by , the Vulgate, by oliveta = olive plantations, olive-yards, as Luther and De Wette translate; rightly, no doubt, for the sense. If the Hebrew language had a special word for this, as it had in for vineyard, it would certainly have made use of it here. This all happened as Jehovah had promised, Deu 6:10.
Jos 24:14-16. A demand to forsake idolatry entirely, and cleave to Jehovah alone, whom Joshua at least with his house will serve.
Jos 24:14. And now fear Jehovah(cf. Psa 2:11; Psa 5:8; especially Pro 1:7; Job 28:28) and serve him ( , LXX.; , comp. Rom 1:25) in sincerity and in truth ( , cf. Jdg 9:16; Jdg 9:19, and on , in the N. T. , 1Co 5:8; 2Co 1:12; 2Co 2:17), and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt (comp. Lev 17:7; Amo 5:26; as well as Eze 20:7 ff; Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8), and serve Jehovah.
Jos 24:15. Finally, Joshua challenges the people to decide with the utmost freedom: if it seem evil in your eyes, if it please you not (LXX.: ), he calls to them, to serve Jehovah, then choose you (for yourselves, ) this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. He gives them the choice, therefore, between the old worship of the Penates practiced by their fathers and the Baal-worship of the inhabitants of the land, if they will not serve Jehovah. The latter will he for his part and his family do, in any case, for he adds: but I and my house will serve Jehovah.
. Jos 24:16-28. The Renewal of the Covenant. Struck by the words of Joshua the whole people with one consent reply, that they will not forsake Jehovah: We also will serve Jehovah, for he is our God (Jos 24:16-18). Being reminded further by Joshua how hard this is, since Jehovah is a holy and a jealous God (Jos 24:19-20), the people persist in their former declaration (Jos 24:21) whereupon the choice of Jehovah is, solemnly made (Jos 24:22-24), and the covenant renewed (Jos 24:25). All these things Joshua writes in the law-book of God (Jos 24:26), raises a monument of stone as a witness of what has taken place (Jos 24:27), and then dismisses the people (Jos 24:28) each to his possession.
Jos 24:16-18. The Peoples Reply to Joshuas Speech. Jos 24:16. The idea of forsaking Jehovah and serving other gods, is rejected with expressions of the deepest aversion ( ) to idolatry, comp. Jos 22:29.
Jos 24:17. The reason: Jehovah was their God, he who had brought them up (, for which, in Exo 20:2, we have ) out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage ( , as Exo 20:2), and had done these great signs, i.e., the wonders mentioned by Joshua (Jos 24:8-12) before their eyes, and had kept them in all the way wherein they went, etc.
Jos 24:18. Among the deeds of Jehovah they retail especially the expulsion of the original inhabitants of the land, and then add, in allusion to Joshuas last word, we also will serve Jehovah, for he is our God.
Jos 24:19-20. Joshua still calls the people to notice how difficult it was to serve Jehovah, by showing that he was a holy God ( as 1Sa 17:26; , where also the adject. is in the plural; in respect to the sense, comp. Exo 19:6; Lev 21:6-8; 1Pe 2:9, as well as the numerous passages in Isaiah, where God is designated as the , e.g., Isa 5:19; Isa 5:24; Isa 12:6; 30:11, 12; 41:14, 43, etc.), a jealous God ( ; Exo 20:5, ; Nah 1:2, , as here), who will not forgive transgressions () and sins, , spoken of the forgiveness of sins, is commonly construed with acc. rei; less frequently with rei, besides this passage in Exo 23:21; Psa 25:18, with slight modification of meaningto award forgiveness to sin (Keil).
Jos 24:20. This jealousy of the holy God will show itself in this, that if they should forsake him and serve strange gods ( , as Gen 35:4, while in Jos 24:16, as in Jos 23:16, we found ) he will turn () and do them harm and consume (, finish, abolish) them, after that he has done them good, i.e., without any regard to the fact that he had done them good.
Jos 24:21. The people adhere to their resolution to serve Jehovah. On , minime, comp. Jos 5:14.
Jos 24:22. Joshua calls them now to witness against themselves, that they have chosen Jehovah as their God, to serve him, i.e., they will, if they ever fall away, be obliged to admit that they once chose Jehovah, and that he now has a right also to punish them for their unfaithfulness. To this, too, they assent, replying, as with one mouth: witnesses (are we).
Jos 24:23. Still another exhortation of Joshua, resting on that assent, to put away the strange gods (as Jos 24:20, ) which were in the midst of them, and incline their heart to Jehovah, the God of Israel (as Jos 24:2). Keil, following the example of R. Levi ben Gerson, Augustine, and Calvin, takes , figuratively = in your hearts, because the people, with all their willing ness to renounce idolatry, yet deliver to Joshua no images to be destroyed, as was done in the similar cases, Gen 35:4; 1Sa 7:4. He thinks further, that although the people, as Amos represents to his generation (Amo 5:26, comp. (Act 7:43), carried about with them idols in the wilderness, yet with the dying out of the generation condemned at Kadesh, gross idolatry would have disappeared from Israel. We may grant that so long as Joshua lived, Israel publicly served the true God, but hold it very probable that, as he might full well know, many a one in secret worshipped the idols which he now demanded that they should put away, using the same word () which Jacob had used before, and Samuel used after him. As regards the actual removal of the images, this may have followed, although we are not so informed. Finally, here certainly is used precisely as much in the proper sense as in Gen 35:2, , and 1Sa 7:8, .
Jos 24:24. For the third time (Jos 24:16; Jos 24:21) the people aver that they will serve Jehovah and hearken to his voice.
Jos 24:25. Upon this, Joshua made a covenant with them that day, i.e., he renewed the covenant concluded on Sinai by God with Israel (Exo 19:20), in like manner as Moses had done (Deu 28:62) in the field of Moab. When it is said further concerning Joshua, that he set them a statute and an ordinance (or judgment) in Israel, these words are in allusion to Exo 15:25, where, in connection with the change (not by this, Keil) of the bitter water into sweet, God himself established for Israel a statute and right. Here, it was precisely through the renewal of the covenant that statute and right for the people were established and determined,what in matters of religion should be with Israel law and right (Knobel).
Jos 24:26-28. After this had been done, Joshua wrote these things, (prop. words, ), i.e., all which had happened there at Shechem, the whole transaction between him and the people, in the book of the law of God. He wrote a documenta protocol, so to speakconcerning the matter, and introduced it into the book of the law. At the same time he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak which was in the sanctuary of Jehovah ( ). The sanctuary is not the tabernacle (Exo 25:8; Lev 12:4; Lev 19:30; Lev 20:3; Lev 21:12; Num 3:38; Num 19:20 ap. Knobel), since this, according to Jos 18:1, stood in Shiloh, but a consecrated space, a sacred spot; and this place, indeed, within whose limits stood the oak, where the great stone was set up by Joshua (cf. Gen 28:18; Jos 4:20-22; 1Sa 7:12), had been hallowed by the altar which Abraham and Jacob had formerly built there (Gen 12:7; Gen 33:20). We may add with Knobel, that according to Jos 8:30, Joshua himself had built an altar on Mount Ebal, therefore in close proximity to Shechem, which, like Gilgal (Jos 4:20 ff; Jos 15:7), became a holy place.
Jos 24:27. Joshua finally explains the significance of the stone, which is to be a witness against the people in case they deny God, since it has heard all the words of Jehovah (Jos 24:2). In a vivid imagination the stone is regarded as a person, so to speak, which has seen and heard every thing, comp. Jos 22:34.
Jos 24:28 relates the dismissal of the people. Every one returns to his possession.
Jos 24:29-33. Death of Joshua and of Eleazar. Jos 24:29-30. It is probable that immediately thereafter Joshua died, one hundred and ten years old, at the same age precisely as that which Joseph reached, Gen 1:26. He was buried at Timnath-serah (Jos 19:50). The mountain of Gaash, mentioned here as well as in Jdg 2:9; 2Sa 23:30; 1Ch 11:32, cannot be identified. Its name, from to push, thrust, signifies, according to Gesenius, perhaps the same as fore-thrust, forespring.
Jos 24:31. So long as Joshua and the elders, who with him had led the people, lived, and those who had known (), i.e. experienced, all the works ( of Jehovah, which he had done for Israel, Israel served Jehovah, as is likewise related Jdg 2:11 ff.
Jos 24:32 contains an additional statement concerning the bones of Joseph, which suited the conclusion here, especially as the discourse in vers, 128 had been concerning Shechem, where they were buried, in the piece of ground which Jacob had once bought for one hundred kesita (Gen 23:19) of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem We learn from Exo 13:19, that the Israelites had, in conformity with a last wish of Joseph, recorded Gen 1:25, brought these bones out of Egypt, and this circumstance is mentioned by our author in the beginning of this verse.
Jos 24:33. After Joshua, died Eleazar also, the son of Aaron. How long afterward we cannot determine. They buried him at Gibeah-phinehas, the city of his son, which had been given to the latter on Mount Ephraim. Since it is expressly said that this Gibeah-phinehas lay on mount Ephraim, we agree with Robinson, von Raumer (p. 155), and Knobel, who regarded it as being the present Geeb in Maundrell, p. 87, or Jibia in Rob. iii. 80, 81, or Chirbet Jibia in Ritter, Erdk. 16. p. 559 f., the , villa Geba of Euseb. and Jerome. It stood five miles, i.e., two hours, north of Guphna, toward Neapolis or Shechem. Keil, however, thinks of the Levitical city Geba (Jos 18:24), to which view the position on Mount Ephraim need not, in his opinion, be an objection, because this mountain, according to Jdg 4:5 and other passages, reached far into the territory of Benjamin (?).
The Hebrew original of our book closes with this notice of the death of Eleazar. The LXX. have added a supplement, combining Jdg 2:6; Jdg 2:11; Jdg 3:7; Jdg 3:12 ff., which, however, is nowhere found in the MSS. and editions of Joshua. We give it according to the Polyglott Bible of Stier and Theile: , . . . , .
THEOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joshuas noble character, his deep insight into Gods leadings of his people, his accurate knowledge of the inconstancy of the human heart, his beautiful treatment of religious occasions, all appear in his last two addresses at parting with the people. As far as possible he keeps his own personal merit in the background. It is God who has fought for Israel (Jos 23:3) and will still further fight for him (Jos 23:10), the God of Israel (Jos 24:2; Jos 24:23), who from ancient times (Jos 24:2) to the present day has wonderfully manifested himself to his people, shown them much favor, and finally given them a beautiful dwelling-place (Jos 24:13). Of himself he says repeatedly that he is old and must go the way of all the earth (Jos 23:2; Jos 23:14), therefore a mortal man subject to the lot of all earthly existence, a man who, having fulfilled his task and distributed the land to the people (Jos 23:4), must now retire from the theatre of his activity, but who, as long as he lives, will with his family serve Jehovah (Jos 24:15). How nobly, on the other hand, he sketches in large features, particularly in the second discourse, the works of God; Abrahams call (Jos 24:2 ff.), the mission of Moses and Israels deliverance out of Egypt (Jos 24:5 ff.), the conquest of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, the turning away of the curse of Balaam, the capture of Jericho, the conquest of the land (Jos 24:8 ff.). Since he knew, however, the human heart in its fickleness, and in particular understood accurately the want of stedfastness on the part of Israel, he repeatedly admonishes them to fidelity towards God (Jos 23:6-7; Jos 23:11; Jos 24:14-15), warns them likewise, and in part with words of sharp severity, against all apostasy (Jos 23:12-16; Jos 24:14; Jos 24:20), and puts them a third time to the test whether they will really serve Jehovah (Jos 24:15; Jos 24:19-20; Jos 24:22). In this, however, appears at the same time Joshuas excellent understanding of the treatment of religious concerns, for he will employ no constraint, but leaves entirely to their own choice the decision whether Israel will serve Jehovah or the strange gods of whom they had knowledge (Jos 24:15; Jos 24:19-20). But then, after the people have decided for Jehovah, although Joshua has very emphatically pointed out that He is a holy and a jealous God (Jos 24:19), who will not forgive transgressions and sins, he demands of them also so much the more pointedly that they shall put away all strange gods.
2. In respect to this putting away of strange gods, we take the liberty of adding Gerlachs remark on Jos 24:23, which still more definitely supports our explanation of the passage. It is remarkable, he says, that, after Achans trespass in the matter of things devoted, and after the Israelites had not long before been ready to avenge so signally the supposed crime of their transjordanic brethren in erecting a rival altar, idolatry could still have been secretly practiced among them. In this, however, we must fairly consider how hard it was for the thought of the one, almighty, omnipresent God to find lodgment in the mind of the heathen-spirited people, how, with this faith they stood alone among the nations of the whole contemporary world, how they, therefore, were continually overcome anew and taken captive by the spirit of the world and of the age, and incessantly turned away to other helpers from the divinely appointed means of grace which seemed not to satisfy their carnal desires; how, in particular, they still afterwards worshipped partly the true God under images, partly the divining house-gods (teraphim) in secret; and how the judgment of God might indeed seize upon and hold up one example (Achan, ch. vii.), without, therefore, at a later period, in like manner, extirpating the sin. That in the wilderness the people in secret worshipped idols Amos declares (Amos 5:25; comp. Act 7:43), that there were household gods even in Davids house, is shown by 1Sa 19:13; 1Sa 19:16. No apostasy from the true God followed from that, but a partial and ever renewed corruption of his service through superstition. Analogous examples are found in Grimms Mythology, from the history of our German people.
3. Similar representations of the benefits of God to his people may be read in many passages of the Psalms, partly abridged, partly in more full accounts. Thus Psa 44:1-4; Psa 68:8 ff; Psalms 78; Psa 80:9 ff; Psa 81:11; Psa 99:6-7; Psalms 90; Psalms 106; Psa 135:8 ff; Psa 136:10-11; Psa 136:19. Touching the deliverance from Egypt the tenderly winning representation of Hosea (Jos 11:1 ff. [and of Jeremiah, Jos 2:1 ff.]) may be compared.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Joshuas first farewell discourse considered in the two sections above given, for comfort and admonition (Jos 23:1-15).As the Lord once brought Israel into rest, so will He also bring us to rest, for there remaineth a rest for the people of God (Jos 23:1).Joshua, in his humility and modesty, set before us as a pattern, that we should in all things give God alone the honor, while we know and feel ourselves to be weak and dying men.The Lord has fought also for you. (1) The Lord has fought; (2) the Lord has fought for you (Jos 23:3; sermon for victory).Depart neither to the right hand nor to the left from the commands of God; a text suitable for confirmation addresses.God gives victory only when the combatants most diligently keep their souls and love him.Bad men will be, as the heathen were for the Israelites, a trap and a snare and a scourge in the sides, and thorns in the eyes for those who live in intercourse with them.
Jos 23:14, a very beautiful text for a farewell sermon for a preacher who is obliged to lay down his office from advanced age, also for a funeral discourse when a father, for instance, to whose family God has shown much kindness, is deceased.
Jos 23:15-16. Suitable for a sermon on a day of fasting and prayer. (1) Think to-day of all the good which you have received, according to what God has spoken to you; but (2) be warned against the transgression of his covenant, lest his judgment come upon you.
Joshuas last congress at Shechem. (1) His discourse (Jos 24:1-15); (2) the answer of the people (Jos 24:16-18); (3) the final decision and renewal of the covenant (Jos 24:19-25).Joshuas second farewell discourse treated by itself, and that as a review of the history of Israel from the days of the patriarchs to his own, in its most important incidents as above stated (Jos 24:1-15).Of the terror of God upon nations doomed to destruction (Jos 24:12).Not by thy sword nor by thy bow!Gods surpassing benefits proved by what He bestowed upon Israel.Earnest exhortation to give up all the idolatry still remaining among them.In matters of religious conviction the decision must be altogether free; all constraint is to be condemned. That Joshua teaches once for all.I and my house will serve the Lord!A text of inexhaustible richness for weddings; yet rightly employed only when the individual dispositions correspond,a thing which in occasional services should never be wanting. That Frederick William IV., king of Prussia, at the opening of the United Diet in 1847, declared this word of Joshua to be his own maxim, is well known.Such deep horror of all idolatry becomes us also, as it once became Israel. Only our aversion must be more permanent than it was with that people.We also will serve Jehovah, for He is our God.God a holy, and a jealous God.How the thought that God is holy, pure from all evil, and jealous, zealously intent on his proper glory, should restrain us from all evil, and especially from all idolatry.When does God not spare (forgive)? (1) When transgression and sin is wilfully committed, and when (2) forgiveness would, as He foresees, lead to no amendment.When we forsake the Lord He forsakes us also, and turns away from us although He may have done us ever so much good.
Jos 24:22 also may be employed as a text for discourses at confirmation [and at all receptions into the church], in which it is to be impressed upon the candidates that their yes will testify against them if they prove unfaithful to the Lord.In what must the true and sincere conversion (repentance) of an entire people consist? (1) In their putting away their strange, often very secretly worshipped gods; (2) in the inclination of their hearts to the Lord God of Israel.The God of Israel (Jos 24:2; Jos 24:23).The repeated profession of the people that they will serve the Lord, regarded (1) in reference to its import, (2) to the responsibility which the people thus took upon them.It is easily said: I will serve the Lord and obey his voice; but actually to keep the promise when the world allures to its altars, is quite another thing.Israels resolution to serve the Lord was wholly voluntary. So should it be also with us. There should be no compulsion.Men may well hearken to Gods voice, for (1) it always warns against the evil, (2) always admonishes to the good.O! how peaceful is it in the heart when we really serve the Lord our God in sincerity, and hear nothing in preference to his friendly voice, that we may joyfully obey it.The renewal of the covenant at Shechem; to be treated in such a way that (1) Joshua, (2) the people, (3) the matter of the covenant (law and rights of God), (4) the place where it was accomplishedkeeping in view the historical recollections so richly associated with Shechem, (5) the memorial of the covenant, shall all receive due attention.Joshuas death, the end of a faithful servant of the Lord who had proved himself such (1) already in Moses time (Numbers 13; Num 27:15-23); (2) in the conquest and partition of the land, in which (a) his trust in God, (b) his bravery, (c) his unselfishness (Jos 17:14-18; Jos 19:49-50) are to be signalized; (3) even to the end (comp. Jos 23:1-11; Jos 24:1-15).
Jos 24:29-30. How beneficially the good example of a pious and true leader may influence a whole people, illustrated by the case of Joshua, Eleazar, Phinehas, and the other elders of Israel.The burial of Josephs bones, an act of grateful respect, and the conscientious fulfillment of a dying wish.Eleazars death the end of a priest after Gods heart (Exo 6:23; Exo 6:25; Exo 28:1; Lev 8:24; Num 3:32; Num 20:26; Num 27:18 ff; Num 34:17; Jos 14:1).
Starke: Peace and rest is also a favor from God, therefore we may well pray: Graciously grant us peace, etc., and, From war and bloodshed preserve us, merciful Lord God, etc. Although God alone, in all things which happen, deserves the honor, and He it is also who is and remains the one who effects all good, yet we must not leave anything wanting in our own fidelity.A Christian must not walk in his own way, but order all his conduct by Gods word.Soul lost, all lost! Therefore watch, make haste and save thy soul!God demands not merely an outward but an inward obedience to his law.By our might nothing is done, by Gods might everything.To serve the true God is the highest propriety and our duty; O that all might recognize it as such and serve God from the heart!The service which one renders to God must be unconstrained.
Cramer: Faith is an assured confidence and excludes doubt (Heb 11:1; Jam 1:6) even where one cannot see (Joh 20:29).The promises of the law are conditioned on obedience (Deu 28:1).There is, however, none other who could fight for us, etc., Psa 53:6; Psa 79:10 (Jos 23:10).With the froward God is froward.Death knows no difference in person, age, sex, condition, or country.By repeating and meditating on the great deeds of God we should strengthen ourselves in faith, and press on towards obedience to his commands (Psa 44:2; Psa 85:2; Psa 105:5; Psa 106:6).
Osiander: Whoever desires to live in accordance with the prescribed word of God, so as to add nothing thereto and take nothing therefrom, he is on the right road and walks most safely.It is not enough to have made a good beginning, but he who perseveres to the end shall be saved, Mat 24:13.To God must we ascribe the victory, and not to our own might and strength.The church of God is never without hypocrites and apostates.God can put up with no mixed religion; with him it is all mine or let it alone altogether, Mat 4:10.
Bibl. Tub.: The precious covenant which we have made with God we should have constantly before our eyes.
[Matt. Henry; on Jos 23:1-2 : When we see death hastening toward us, that should quicken us to do the work of life with all our might.On Jos 24:1 : We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done; and if He lengthen out our days beyond what we thought, we must conclude it is because He has some further service for us to do.Ibid. Jos 23:15 : When we cannot bring as many as we would to the service of God, we must bring as many as we can, and extend our endeavors to the utmost sphere of our activity; if we cannot reform the land, let us put away iniquity far from our own tabernacle.Those that lead and rule in other things, should be first in the service of God, and go before in the best things.Those that resolve to serve God, must not mind being singular in it, nor be drawn by the crowd to forsake his service.Those that are bound for heaven, must be willing to swim against the stream, and must not do as the most do, but as the best do.Ibid. Joshua 23:2933: This book which began with triumphs here ends with funerals, by which all the glory of man is stained.How well is it for the Gospel church that Christ our Joshua is still with it, by his Spirit, and will be always, even unto the end of the world!]
Footnotes:
[1][Jos 23:1. , prop. after, or following, many days. This is taken by our version rather as modifying the following clause, at the end of many days after, etc., than as parallel to it (De Wette, Fay), and meaning the same thing: after many days, after Jehovah had given, etc. The latter is preferable.Tr.]
[2][Jos 23:2. should introduce the apodosis to Jos 1:1, and the translation be (Jos 1:1), and it came to pass after that Jehovah. and Joshua was old, far gone in years (Jos 1:2), that Joshua called all Israel, etc.Tr.]
[3][Jos 23:2. Lit. called to, but the to is superfluous in consistency with the usage generally; so that for should be omitted throughout this verse.Tr.]
[4][Jos 23:5. Our version rightly, although perhaps too strongly marks the variety in and , which De Wette and Fay neglect.Tr.]
[5][Jos 23:7. . To indicate exactly the construction of the prep. with both verbs, is scarcely possible in English. We have to adopt some such substitute as, and not make mention of, and not cause to swear by the name of their gods.Tr.]
[6][Jos 23:12. The idea is that of general intercourse. The verb come is used for brevitys sake, instead of saying fully: and you go among them and they come among you.Tr.]
[7][Jos 24:1. Omit for throughout this Terse as Jos 23:2.Tr.]
[8][Jos 24:9. although capable of meaning to war, wage war, is, with one exception, translated throughout our book, to fight.Tr.]
[9][Jos 24:10. The emphatic force of the infin. abs. here might be variously expressed: he kept blessing you; he must fain bless you; he did nothing but bless you. Equivalent is the intent of he blessed you still.
[10][Jos 24:11. These names are all singular in the Hebrew throughout the verse, and are best so read in English.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
In this chapter we are drawing towards the close of Joshua’s ministry. Like all the other servants of the Lord, his work being finished, his death succeeds. He is represented here as convening the Lord’s heritage together, to make his farewell discourse to them. This chapter hath the leading heads of his sermon; and it should seem by what follows in the next chapter, that this is closed before that he ends his discourse.
Jos 23:1
There is somewhat very interesting in the close of life, of the more immediate servants of the Lord. The dying frames of faithful ministers are of singular use to be recorded for the comfort and encouragement of living members of Christ’s mystical body. Hence it should seem, that the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to have his servants held forth to view in the church in their last hours. The representation here made of Joshua, is truly engaging. We are not told of the precise time when it was, but only it is in general said, to have been a long time after Joshua ‘ s victories were ended. Probably as Joshua died at the age of one hundred and ten years (see Jos 24:29 .) it was just before his death.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
After Rest
Joshua 20-24
THE twentieth chapter deals with the Cities of Refuge. A very beautiful expression is that “City of Refuge.” Very suggestive, too. But there is a great black shadow in the middle of it: for why should men want refuge? The term is noble in itself, but what is it in its suggestion? Surely it means that there is a pursuing storm. We have heard travellers say that by making haste they will just be in time to escape the impending tempest; so they quicken their steps, and when they gain the threshold of the sanctuary they were aiming at, they breathe a sigh of relief and thankfulness. The sanctuary is doubly dear to them. Home is always sweet, or ought to be; but how sweeter than the honeycomb when it is reached under circumstances which try the spirit, exasperate the sensibilities, and weigh heavily on the soul! In this case there is a pursuing storm, but not of weather a social storm. The man who is running has killed a man, and the one who is following him is “the avenger of blood.” Who will be first in the city? God will help the first runner, if it be but by one step he will be in before the pursuer can lay hold of him. There is a wondrous ministry of helpfulness operating in the world. We are helped in a thousand ways, not always in the one way in which we want to be helped, but in some other way; yet the help always comes. Was the refuge then for the murderer? No; there was no refuge for the murderer. But is it not said that the man who is fleeing to the city of refuge has killed some person? Yes, it is so said; but a definition is given which clears up all the moral side of the mystery:
“The slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither” ( Jos 20:3 ).
“And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.” ( Jos 20:7-9 )
Now Joshua proceeds with his valedictory speech. Here and there he records a sentence which belongs to all time. The twenty-first chapter has little or nothing to say except to the people to whom it specially related; but in summing up the twenty-first chapter Joshua says,
“There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel” ( Jos 21:45 ).
A noble testimony this, too, borne by the old man. It is not youth that anticipates, it is age that reviews. Old men never become infidels. We say sometimes that seldom is an old man converted to Christianity. How far that may be true we cannot tell; but did ever an old pilgrim who had once seen heaven opened, turn round and say, in his wrinkled old age, that he was going to the city of Negation, or to the wilderness of Atheism? Old men ought to be heard upon these subjects; they have lived a lifetime; they have fought upon a thousand battlefields; they know all the darkness of the night, all the sharpness of winter, all the heat of summer, and they have a right to be heard upon his question; and their testimony on the side of the Bible is united, distinct, emphatic, and unanswerable.
Another point is found in chapter Jos 22:5 :
“But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” ( Jos 20:5 )
“Return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession…. But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law” ( Jos 22:4-5 ).
It would seem as if some interviews in life could not be satisfactorily closed but with the language of benediction. An ordinary word would be wholly out of place. There is a fitness of things in human communication as in all other affairs and concerns of life. It is fitting, too, that the benediction should be spoken by the old man. Joshua was “old and stricken in years,” and he concluded the audience fitly by blessing the children of Israel:
“So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went unto their tents” ( Jos 22:6 ).
Now the children of Israel go to their tents: They are to be at peace. Ceasing war they are to be students of war. We shall hear no more of controversy; every man having received the blessing is a good man, and there is an end of a tumult which at one time threatened never to cease. So we should imagine, but our imagining is wrong:
“Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them. And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren. And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses” ( Jos 22:7-9 ).
“And the children of Israel sent unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was an head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel” ( Jos 22:13-14 ).
“Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: but that it may be a witness” ( Jos 22:26-27 ).
This being settled, a very tender scene occurs. Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, calls for the children of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and talks to them historically and grandly. He called the people themselves to witness what God had done for them:
“And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you” ( Jos 23:3 ).
Not only so, but he uses a very searching expression:
“And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof” ( Jos 23:14 ).
“Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;… But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day” ( Jos 23:6-8 ).
What is the call of these verses? It is a call to moral courage. The people were soldiers; when they saw that an altar had been reared to heaven which they did not like, and which they misunderstood, instantly they sped from their tents and challenged the builders to battle. That is the rudest courage; there is nothing in it. Many men can fight who cannot suffer; many are brave in activity who are cowards in waiting. Joshua calls the people now to thought, study, quiet and consistent and continuous obedience namely, “Cleave unto the Lord.” Without this, growth would be impossible. Men cannot grow in the midst of continual or unbroken excitement. We grow when we are at rest; we grow not a little when we are in the shade; we advance when the burden is crushing us, and we are not uttering one complaining word because of its fatal weight. When the history of the land is written as it ought to be written, many a battle which now fills pages and chapters will be dismissed with a contemptuous sentence; and sufferings at home, quiet endurances, Christian manifestations of patience, will be magnified as indicative of the real dauntlessness, the heavenly bravery, the lasting courage. Let every man examine himself herein. To say “No” to a tempting offer is to win a battle: to receive a blow from an enemy and not return it, is to reach the point of coronation in Christ’s great kingdom; to hear a rough speech and make a gentle reply is to evince what is meant by growing in grace. So the history rolls on, from battle to battle, from mistake to mistake, from point to point, until at last the moral displaces the material, questions of the soul put into their right place questions of rank; and moral courage simple, loving, unquestioning obedience is set at the head of all the virtues; and the quiet, meek, submissive, patient soul is crowned and throned, and stablished amid the hierarchy of heaven. We cannot dazzle the world by our greatness, but we can please God by our goodness; we cannot harness the winds and make them bear our names far and wide, but we can so live, so suffer, so speak, as to constrain the enemy to say, Verily, this man is a prophet; verily, this man has been with Jesus and learned of him; verily, there is in this supposed weakness a wonderful and enduring strength.
We cannot but be struck by the equality of the divine way as it is marked by the venerable leader. The fifteenth verse is very expressive upon this point:
“Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you” ( Jos 23:15 ).
“When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you” ( Jos 23:16 ).
Joshua having gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and delivered unto them his final speech. Again we are thrown upon the grand truth that men must bring all their history into one view at certain periods, that thereby they may renew their covenant and revive their best hope. The work of the Lord is not of yesterday; it goes back through all the generations; and he is the wise scribe, well instructed in holy things, who brings into one view all the course of the divine education of the world. This is what Joshua did in brief in the twenty-fourth chapter. Having given the historical outline, the old man began to exhort the people, saying:
“Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth” ( Jos 24:14 ).
” but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” ( Jos 24:15 ).
“God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods’ ( Jos 24:16 ).
Then they review and repeat the solemn history and say that all Joshua has said is true in fact. Then Joshua says unto the people “What you have now said amounts to little more than mere words; you forget that God is a holy God and a jealous God, and you are speaking from impulse rather than from settled conviction.” Then the people reply that Joshua himself is mistaken, and they have really made up their minds once for all to serve the Lord. So be it, then, said Joshua “Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him.” The people answered That is even so; “We are witnesses.” Then said Joshua, There is one final word to be spoken. If you have made up your minds to this course, you must put away the strange gods which are among you; no taint of idolatry must remain behind; not the very smallest image must be taken with you one day longer or one inch further; the expurgation must be immediate, complete, and final. The people answered unanimously: “The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.” It was indeed a solemn day; a day of covenant, a day of memorial, a day which condensed into its throbbing hours generations of history and strong and ardent pulsings of devotion and prophetic service. A covenant was made, and a statute and an ordinance were set in Shechem. To make, if possible, the matter inviolably permanent, “Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord” ( Jos 24:26 ). Then a very solemn scene occurs:
“And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God” ( Jos 24:27 ).
Then the assembly broke up. It broke up never to meet again under the same wise and valiant leadership. All pathetic occasions should be treasured in the memory; the last interview, the last sermon, the last prayer, the last fond lingering look; all these things may be frivolously treated as sentimental, but he who treats them so is a fool in his heart: whatever can subdue the spirit, chasten the sensibilities, and enlarge the charity of the soul should be encouraged as a ministry from God. Now Joshua dies, at the age of one hundred and ten. He was buried in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
“And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel” ( Jos 24:31 ).
Now the history is done. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, were buried in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem. Then men died quickly:
“And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim” ( Jos 24:33 ).
Death, death, death! The great man dies, and yet the work goes on. The minister ceases, but the ministry proceeds. The individual sermon closes, but the everlasting gospel never ceases its sweet and redeeming proclamations. Book after book is finished, but literature itself is hardly begun. Amidst all mutation there remains one everlasting quantity: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” All the new generations acknowledge it. They come up in great pride and strength, as if they themselves were to outlive God, and behold in a few years their pith is exhausted, their hope dies, and they know themselves to be no better than their fathers. When we are touched by the death of those whom we have known best, and wonder how light can ever shine again upon the circle in which we move, we should give the mind free scope to range over all the noble and marvellous history of the world, so shall we see that how great soever have been the men who have led us, the world could do without them; God knew how to supply their places, and amidst all change and fear and dismay the purpose of Heaven went steadily forward in all the grandeur of its strength and all the tenderness of its beneficence.
In coming thus far in our Bible studies let us pause a moment to consider how many illustrious men with whom we have companied have passed away. Truly the dead are quickly becoming the majority. Adam died, but, though his years were many, how few are the deeds which are recorded of him! He stands in history as the very Gate of Death. “By one man came death.” We feel as if we might say “But for thee, O Adam, all men would now have been alive; no grave would ever have been dug; no farewell would ever have been breathed.” That is an overwhelming reflection. Consider the possibility of Adam himself now entertaining it, or following it out in all its infinite melancholy! Think of him saying “By my sin I ruined God’s fair earth; to me ascribe all iniquity, all shame, all heartbreak; by my presumption and disobedience I did it all: I slew the Son of God; but for me there would have been no Bethlehem, no Gethsemane, no Calvary, no Cross: lay the blame at the right door, O ages of time, ye burdened and groaning centuries, curse my name in all your woe.” On such thoughts we may not dwell, for the mind reels in moral amazement, and the heart cannot quench the passion of scepticism. Enough is known to make us solemn. Count the graves until arithmetic gives up the reckoning in despair. Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, all gone! Just as we had come to know them in the breaking of bread they vanished out of our sight. It was as if rocks had been uprooted, or as if planets had ceased to shine: nay more, for we have not only lost strength and majesty, we have lost guidance, stimulus, friendship, and the subtle ministry of eloquent example. Can history repeat such men? Does our story now lie all down-hill, from steep to steep until we reach the valley of commonplace or the plain of mediocrity? Jesus Christ has taught us how to regard great men, saying “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Here we have at once recognition of greatness and hope of greater history. What if we may know more than Adam, see farther than Enoch, embark in greater adventures than Abram, offer greater sacrifices than the priests, and see a deeper law than was ever revealed to Moses? In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom, yea riches unsearchable, promises exceeding great and precious. My soul, bestir thyself, go out in the early morning, remain in the field until the stars come out, for every hour brings its own spoil, every moment its own vision. O my Lord, Father in heaven, Blessed One, made known to me in the Cross of salvation, inspire me, lift me up, and make me gladly accept thy yoke and do all thy bidding; give me the aspiration that is untainted by vanity, and the consecration that is undefiled by selfishness, then shall I be willing to be baptised for the dead, and to stand steadfastly where princes and veterans have fallen by the hand of Time.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXIII
BRIEF REVIEW; RETURN OF WARRIORS OF THE TWO AND A HALF TRIBES
Joshua 22-24
We commence this discussion at Jos 22 , and there are several things that I wish to discuss in this section. First Theme: Brief review Joshua 13-21, enough to make it clear what part of the territory was yet unoccupied, as well as one or two other little things.
Second Theme: The return of the warriors of the two and a half tribes whose territory lay east of the Jordan.
Third Theme: Joshua’s first address.
Fourth Theme: Joshua’s final address, Jos 24:1-28 .
Fifth Theme: The renewal of the covenant and its witness.
Sixth Theme: Completing the records, as was done in the Pentateuch by Moses.
Seventh Theme: The death and burial of Joshua, the burial of the bones of Joseph and the death and burial of Eleazar. That part of Jos 24 , just as a part of Deuteronomy as a connecting link, was inserted by the later historians, and you will see that not only here but it reopens in the next book. Now those are the several themes that I shall discuss. In the preceding section on the division of the land, Joshua 13-21 inclusive, you will notice that on account of Joshua’s age the Almighty instructed him to divide the land on the west side of the Jordan as it had been divided on the east side of the Jordan, and yet the record states that much land yet remained to be possessed.
Now, in the part of the territory where they had not been fully subjugated, their enemies were the Geshuri, very different from the Geshurites that we shall learn about directly. They occupied the Arabian desert from the river of Egypt where it went into the Mediterranean Sea clear on up almost to Kadesh-barnea, until it touched the Philistine country. Now, that tribe of the Canaanites west of the Jordan inhabiting that territory, while it had been divided, had not been brought into complete subjugation. Their territory came up to the narrow strip on the Mediterranean Sea, the five towns of the Philistines that were not completely occupied, then going further up by the Mediterranean Sea were the Phoenicians, the chief towns of which were Tyre and Sidon, and they were not completely conquered. So that what remained to be conquered on the west were the Phoenicians and the Philistines.
Now, when it comes to the northern border, a strip of country commencing in the mountains of Lebanon and including the entrance into Hamath, a stretch clear across into the mountains of Gilead, where was the half tribe of Manasseh, that strip had not been completely subjugated. So that on three sides, the Geshuri on the south; on the west, the Philistines and Phoenicians; on the north, the strip including a number of small kingdoms, particularly the kingdom of Maachi, and one other that the half tribe of Manasseh had not overcome were not subjugated. Now, without going into an elaborate detail, I determined to give you an idea of the country, so that you could see that on the three borders, south, west, and stretching clear across the north, there was unpossessed territory.
The next thing to explain in that section is that the section closes in Jos 21:43-45 , by stating that every promise that God had made to them had been literally fulfilled and that they had been put in possession of the land and that no enemy was able to stand before them and that they had rest. The point is, to reconcile that with those facts that I have just stated, that on the north, on the west and on the south are portions of territory that have not been occupied. How, then, is the conclusion of that section true? You will find by carefully noting Exo 23:29-30 , and Deu 7:22 , that God had forewarned them that he would not put them in possession of all this territory in one year. It would have been a destruction of the population before any other population could move in and keep the land from going to waste, therefore, in making the promise to put them in possession that promise was modified. “I will not drive out the enemy the first year, lest the land should go to waste, but I will drive them out little by little, year after year.” That explains the apparent discrepancy between the two statements.
The next thought that I wish to bring out is that in the beginning God had appointed Joshua to make the general conquest of the land where it required all Israel to be held together in one army, the main battles to be fought and the enemy to be defeated, so that they would not take the open field. Then Joshua’s part must end, and the details of driving out the remnants of the people devolved upon each tribe, which God clearly foretold, as you will see in Num 33:55 , and Joshua restates it in Jos 23:11-13 . God designedly left a portion of the inhabitants for each tribe, in its tribal capacity, to grapple with and assured them that if they were sluggish in completing that, then he would preserve these remnants alive to be a thorn in their flesh; as a test of their character. So that they understood that these remnants would rise in punishment, as you will see illustrated when you come to the book of Judges. So all of the statements have been taken together and scripture compared with scripture. Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been published are on those remnants of nations, God permitting them to remain to try the tribes. Generally the sermons preached on that make this scriptural application, viz.: that after regeneration there remain remnants of the fleshly nature to be overcome by sanctification, and if a man does not cultivate sanctification these remnants will rise up and conquer him and bring him into temporary captivity at least. It is a fine spiritual application.
The second theme is the return of the warriors of the two and a half tribes whose territory lay east of the Jordan. That proves that the conquest of Joshua was over, and the army broken up. Joshua assembled these tribes and passed on them the highest commendations that a general ever gave to soldiers. He said that they had not failed in any particular in doing what Moses required and what they had promised. There was not a blot on their record. Following that commendation, which is as superb as anything I know of in literature, he then exhorts them that on their return to their old home they be as faithful in the future as they had been in the past. Then he gives them a benediction and a blessing is pronounced on them, and in that benediction he says, “You go home; you go with great spoils and many riches, your part of the conquest which has taken place.” And so they are dismissed, and this is the first item of the return of the tribes. The next thought is that when these armies got to the river Jordan they erected on the mountains near the Jordan a very great and very conspicuous altar, an altar to be seen, as your text says. You can even see it now, at least the site of it and the ruins of it, and you see it a long way off.
Now, when the nine and a half tribes heard of the erection of that altar, they misconstrued its intent and came rushing together to make war on the two and a half tribes. But before they declared war, somebody had sense enough to suggest the sending of an ambassador to find out about this, and so they selected a high priest and a deputation from the nine and a half tribes, and they went over and interviewed the two and a half tribes, and interviewed them very sternly. They thought that the altar was the altar for burnt offerings and that it was intended to be a line of separation between the two and a half tribes and the nine and a half tribes, and that the two and a half tribes would worship idols there and not the true God; that it meant revolt from the central place of worship and the high priest makes an accusation.
The two and a half tribes turn them down very easily. They say, “Brethren, this is not an altar of burnt offerings. This is an altar of witness and the meaning is that, as long as that hill stands and that altar stands, it is a pledge that the tribes east of the Jordan are bound up with the tribes west of the Jordan in unity of worship, and the unity of the tribes is to be preserved.” I imagine that that deputation looked foolish. Just before you go to war on people, read David Crockett, who said: “Be sure you are right, and then go ahead.” Stop long enough to be sure you have heard the right of it. If we consider the truth of a thing, it will from much dissension free us. So I think that the two and a half tribes came out way ahead of that high priest as well as upon the fidelity of their service. The two and a half tribes made the name of that altar “Ed.” That means witness, not burnt offerings, “witness,” like Jacob’s Mizpah, the meaning of which is the same thing: “The Lord witness between me and thee.” Somehow I was always charmed with that incident, viz.: the going home of those tribes and their fidelity to the unity of Israel and the true worship of God.
Now we come to the third theme. It is presented in Jos 23 . Joshua calls the people together, it doesn’t say where, but presumably at Shiloh, and delivers them an address bearing upon this point, viz.: The duty that devolved upon them in their several tribal capacities to conquer the remnants: “Now while I was your general, I represented the whole nation; I commanded the army of the whole nation. You will bear witness that God stood by me; that he gave us victory every time; that no nation was able to stand before us. Now that public general part is ended, and your particular part remains to be done.” It is in that connection that he tells us that if they are sluggish about driving out these remnants, God would retain them and preserve them as thorns in their sides In that connection he reminds them of the reason that God commanded the extirpation of the Canaanites, viz.: they were idolaters, they were outrageous sinners. Now says Joshua, “If you do as they did, God will do to you as he did to them. If you turn away from the true God and you lapse into the idolatrous ways of these nations, and that can be brought about by your intermarriage and your treaties with them, if you do that, he will sponge you off the map as he sponged them off the map for a like offense, and you will go into captivity.” Now, you can see that presumably it was at Shiloh, and the purpose of this assembly is quite distinct from the purpose of the one next to be considered.
So now we come to Jos 24 , the last part. Now he commands all Israel to come together again and the place this time is Shechem, not Shiloh. Why should it be Shechem? Considering the objects that he had in view in calling them together, why was Shechem the appropriate place?
First, Shechem was the place where Abraham halted when he got to this land, and he built an altar and received from God the promises of the land; it was to be given to him and his children. When God sent him out, he went, not knowing whither he went, but here at Shechem God outlines to him that this very territory is to belong to him and his children. That was the first altar and the first promise considering the possession of the land.
The second thing is that when Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, he stopped at Shechem and built an altar and there was a renewal of the promises to him, and he there freed his family from idolatry. You remember that one of his wives carried away the teraphim of Laban and Jacob made his wife bury these things under an old tree.
Right there Jacob bought a particular section of land, setting a price, and that land he was to deed to Joseph, and the descendants of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh, and right at that place, as we learn later in this book, the bones of Joseph were buried. In the last chapter of Genesis Joseph tells them that he will die and he says, “Take my bones,” and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him and we learn here that the bones of Joseph were buried -there, and so we learn from Stephen’s speech in Acts. There you have three reasons. Let us see if we cannot find another. When Joshua first brought the people over into the Promised Land after they had been circumcised and he kept the feast of the Passover, it was to this place that he brought them with Mount Ebal on one side and Mount Gerizirn on the other. He renewed the covenant there and there he built an altar of stone, and on the stones recorded the Pentateuch as a witness. Then we learn next from Ebal and Gerizirn were enunciated in turn a curse and a blessing of the covenant, and yet further we learn that there this copy of the covenant, prepared by Joshua, was set up so that the Pentateuch stood there and the altar of the renewal of the covenant stood there and the echoes of the blessings and curses, and the bones of Joseph were there, and the altar of Abraham was there, and the altar of Jacob was there. “So it was intensely appropriate that in his farewell address he should gather them where they had renewed the covenant on their first entrance into the Promised Land.
Now we come to the final address as it reviews their history. He reminded them that beyond the flood, that is, the Euphrates River (that is the meaning of Euphrates, the flood), in Ur of the Chaldees, their ancestor was Terah, an idolater, and that from that idolatrous country God called their immediate ancestor, Abraham, and brought him to this place and made him that promise. He then shows their history under Moses when God leads them out of Egypt and establishes with them his covenant at Mount Sinai, their wandering in the wilderness and that God conquered for them the tribes east of the Jordan, and God conquered for them the tribes west of the Jordan.
Now, upon these historical facts he makes an exhortation that is very thrilling. He shows if ever a nation in the world was under obligations to keep the covenant given at Sinai and renewed at Ebal and Gerizirn, that this people was under obligations to do it. And he urges them to be faithful, in all things, to their God and their religion. Having finished his exhortation, the people reply, and they say that they will do what he tells them to do. Then he said that they need not think, and you and I need not think, that it is an easy thing to live right in the sight of a jealous God. If you make a vow to do anything, you had better thoughtfully consider it. He having then cautioned them, they renewed their promise. Then he said, “Now we will renew the covenant itself.” While the book doesn’t give the details of how the covenant was renewed, they renewed it just as before. There they built an altar; there were certain burnt offerings, certain sanctification and setting apart. Then there was the taking upon themselves the vows of the covenant. Now that having been done, Joshua makes that altar witness of the covenant. Then he completes the records just as Moses finished up the records of the Pentateuch and put them in the ark to be preserved. Joshua completes the record of this time and takes the Pentateuch out of the ark and slips his record inside of the holy ark of the covenant of God, and all the history in connection with it as a witness.
Then follows an account, doubtless by Phinehas, the high priest. As Joshua had finished the last part of Deuteronomy, so here a record is made of Joshua’s death and his burial. There is a singular thing in the Alexandrian version of the Septuagint, which says that the knives with which the people had been circumcised were buried with Joshua. It may have been, I don’t know. Then follows the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and that closes up the book. Now, this is a very brief discussion but it is sufficient, and in our next discussion we will take the period of the Judges, bearing in mind that a considerable part of the book of Judges overlaps the book of Joshua; that several things occurred before he died and before his final address was delivered.
QUESTIONS
1. Why was the land now divided?
2. What land yet in the hands of the enemy?
3. How was God’s promise literally fulfilled?
4. What was Joshua’s part in the conquest of the land?
5. What each tribe’s part after the general conquest?
6. If they proved sluggish in this then what?
7. What commendation pronounced upon them by Joshua?
8. What exhortation to them?
9. The benediction on them?
10. The altar on the Jordan:
(1) Describe it.
(2) How construed by the nine and one-half tribes, and why?
(3) What steps did they take?
(4) What the response?
(5) What the effect on the nine and one-half tribes?
(6) What name did they give the altar and what its meaning?
(7) What the value of embassy before war?
III. Joshua’s First Address about the Completion of the Conquest
11. Where assembled?
12. What duty does he point out to them?
13. What the penalty for their failure?
14. Where?
15. Why there? (Give seven reasons.)
16. Give brief analysis of this address of Joshua, and their reply.
17. Give an account of the renewal of the covenant.
18. What the witness?
19. Tell how Joshua completed the records.
20. Who wrote the account of Joshua’s death and burial?
21. The fulfilment of what prophecy made by Joseph recorded here?
22. What other death recorded here?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jos 23:1 And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old [and] stricken in age.
Ver. 1. Joshua waxed old. ] And so more fit to give counsel than now to act great exploits, , . Howbeit he was willing to show that although he was old and withering, yet “the root of the matter was in him”; and like the rose, he kept his sweet savour, though he had lost his lovely colour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 23:1-13
1Now it came about after many days, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years, 2that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in years. 3And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the LORD your God is He who has been fighting for you. 4See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. 5The LORD your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you. 6Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, 7 so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. 8But you are to cling to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. 9For the LORD has driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. 10One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. 11So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the LORD your God. 12For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, 13 know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
Jos 23:1 after many days Although it seems the conquest of Canaan happened very rapidly, in reality it took a long time. The Canaanites were not easily or totally defeated (cf. Judges 1). The delay in the last seven tribes’ land allotment is one evidence of the protracted timeframe.
when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies This is an idiomatic statement. It is a recurrent theme (cf. Deu 12:10; Deu 25:19; 2Sa 7:1; 2Sa 7:11; 2Ch 14:7). It probably means there was no current national military campaign in progress (cf. Jos 21:44). It did not apply to the individual tribes possessing their own allotted territories. The phrase has connotations of
1. no war
2. security from invasion
3. peace
Jos 23:2 Joshua called Chapter 23 seems to have been a private meeting with the tribal representatives, while chapter 24 is a more public meeting calling for a public decision.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, TEVelders. . .heads. . .judges. . .officers
NJBelders. . .leaders. . .judges. . .officials
JPSOAelders. . .commanders. . .magistrates
The exact function of each of these groups is uncertain (cf. Deu 1:15-16; Jos 8:33) but there was a distinct division of leadership on a tribal level. See fuller note at Jos 24:1.
Jos 23:3 the LORD your God This is a technical phrase for the Covenant relationship. It is used extensively in Deuteronomy and Joshua. See Special Topic: Names for Deity .
to all these nations . . . which remain It seems that Joshua defeated the military resistance of the Canaanites, but each tribe had to finish the conquest in its own inheritance (compare Jos 11:23-23; Jos 21:43-45 with Jos 13:1-4; Jos 15:63; Jos 23:5 and Jdg 2:21; Jdg 2:23).
He who has been fighting for you This same truth is repeated in Jos 23:5; Jos 23:9-10. God as warrior is a common theme of the Pentateuch (e.g., Deu 1:30; Deu 3:22; Deu 20:4; Exo 14:14) and Joshua (e.g., Jos 4:13-15; Jos 10:14; Jos 10:42). Notice, however, the previous phrase which emphasized the necessary cooperation of Israel (because of you).
Jos 23:4 See This term (BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal IMPERATIVE) is often used by YHWH in Deuteronomy. It helps the people recognize what He had done (cf. Exo 31:2; Deu 1:8; Deu 1:21; Deu 2:24; Deu 2:31; Deu 11:26; Deu 30:15; Deu 32:39). Here it is used by Joshua for the elders to recognize his advanced age and the beginning of a new period in Israel’s history in the Promised Land.
Jos 23:5 He will thrust them out from before you The VERB (BDB 213, KB 239, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Deu 6:19; Deu 9:4) is SINGULAR in form, but with a PLURAL suffix. This seems to imply YHWH’s agency through Israel’s instrumentality (divine will and human free will).
just as the LORD your God promised you This is a recurrent theme.
Jos 23:6-8 There is a series of things Israel should do to maintain her relationship with YHWH.
1. be very firm, Jos 23:6, BDB 304, KB 302, Qal PERFECT, cf. Jos 1:6-7; Jos 1:9; Jos 1:18; Jos 10:25; Jos 23:6; Deu 31:6-7; Deu 31:23
2. to keep, Jos 23:6, BDB 1036, KB 1581, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Deu 4:6; Deu 29:9
3. to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, Jos 23:6, BDB 793, KB 889, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Jos 1:7; Num 15:39; Deu 16:12; Deu 30:8
4. you may not turn aside from it, Jos 23:6, BDB 693, KB 747, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, e.g., using two synonymous VERBS, Jos 1:7; Exo 32:8; Deu 2:27; Deu 5:32; Deu 9:12; Deu 11:16; Deu 17:17; Deu 17:20; Deu 28:14; 1Sa 12:20
5. you will not associate with these nations, Jos 23:7, BDB 97, KB 112, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT
a. do not mention the name of their gods, cf. Exo 23:13
b. do not make anyone swear by them
c. do not serve them, cf. Exo 20:5; Exo 23:33
d. do not bow down to them, cf. Jdg 2:19
6. you are to cling to the LORD, Jos 23:8, BDB 179, KB 209, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Jos 22:5; Deu 10:20; Deu 11:22; Deu 13:4; Deu 30:20; 2Ki 18:6. This is the same VERB used to describe Adam and Eve’s relationship (cf. Gen 2:24).
Jos 23:9 For the Lord has driven out great and strong nations before you The VERB (BDB 439, KB 441, Hiphil IMPERFECT) is recurrent (e.g., Jos 3:10; Jos 13:6; Num 33:52; Num 33:55, used in the sense of dispossess).
YHWH’s ownership of the land is symbolized in His victory over the Canaanites. Yes, Israel goes to battle, but it is the power and presence of YHWH that brings victory over vastly superior foes (cf. Deu 4:38; Deu 9:1; Deu 11:23).
Israel’s lack of military success (i.e., they did not dispossess, cf. Jos 13:13; Jos 16:10; Jos 17:13; Jdg 1:29-33) was due to their lack of faith in YHWH’s promises and their unwillingness to seize the moment! The unbelief of the ten original spies returns!
no man has stood before you to this day This is a metaphor for negated effective resistance (cf. Jos 1:5; Jos 10:8; Deu 7:24; Deu 11:25).
Jos 23:10 one of your men put to flight a thousand This is hyperbolic expression of YHWH’s victorious presence (cf. Lev 26:7-8; Deu 32:30). See Special Topic: Thousand (eleph) .
Jos 23:11 Loving YHWH is expressed by covenant obedience! Love is an action, not just a feeling. Believers must make a decisive and personal choice to obey God! This is a recurrent theme in Deuteronomy (e.g., Jos 6:5; Jos 10:12; Jos 11:13).
Jos 23:12 This is a list of the ways of not being faithful to the covenant.
1. if you ever go back, BDB 996, KB 1427, both the INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and Qal IMPERFECT from the same root for emphasis
2. cling to the rest of these nations, the same VERB used positively in Jos 23:8 (Qal IMPERFECT, here Qal PERFECT)
3. intermarry with them, BDB 368, KB 364, Hithpael PERFECT, cf. Exo 34:15-16; Deu 7:3
4. associate with them and they with you, BDB 97, KB 112, Qal PERFECT, cf. Jos 23:7
Jos 23:13 know with certainty This is an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and a Qal IMPERFECT of the same root (BDB 393, KB 390) for emphasis.
This is a list of the consequences of disobedience to the covenant.
1. The LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out
2. They will be
a. a snare (used to catch birds, BDB 809 I, cf. Exo 23:33; Exo 34:12; Deu 7:16)
b. a trap (a trap set on the ground, BDB 430)
c. a whip on your sides (like an animal goad, BDB 1002)
d. thorns in your eyes (BDB 841, cf. Num 33:55; Jdg 2:3)
3. they will perish from this good land, BDB 1, KB 2, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Deu 4:26; Deu 7:4
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
a long time after. Eight years. See App-50.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
old and stricken in age. Aged 102. Compare Jos 13:1. Figure of speech, Pleonasm. App-6. Hebrew. “old and advanced in (or come into) the days”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 23
In chapter twenty-three,
It came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest to Israel ( Jos 23:1 )
A long time, being about seventeen years. So from the time that they conquered the land, the people had gone back to the other side, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, about seventeen years later.
Joshua waxed old and stricken in age ( Jos 23:1 ).
The stricken in age as a phrase that refers to actually a feebleness because of age. Now with Moses, man, he was a healthy critter right up until the day he died. He didn’t need glasses or anything else. His strength did not wane at all but he was still very healthy up until the day of his death.
Caleb fared much better than Joshua, Caleb remained very healthy. When he was a hundred and twenty-five years old, he said, “Now Moses promised me this area down here, and I want to go down. I want permission to go down and take it.” He said, “I’m as strong as I was the day I spied out the land, and I’m ready to take a company of men and go down and wipe out those guys.” So he got along pretty well in his older years, but Joshua was well stricken in years, which does refer to a feebleness. The well stricken in years would mean really, he really had now a hard time getting around. He probably was hard of hearing and just the processes of age had set in upon him.
I make that point to make another point. That is that God, for purposes that we do not understand, allows some people to age very well. They can remain strong and healthy till the day they die, whereas other people age really takes its toll upon them, and they become very feeble, and weaken with age.
The question, “Does that mean that Joshua was less favored by God than Moses? Or was less favored by God than Caleb? Does that mean that Joshua did not have enough faith, and because of his lack of faith he was stricken in years?” I don’t think so at all. I think that, that’s just the way it happens. That there are some people who live to a ripe, old age and remain healthy all the time, and there are some people who when they get old become feeble, and it has nothing at all to do with their faith, or their relationship to God, or God’s love for them.
I do not know of any man in the Old Testament who had greater faith and more miracles through his ministry than Elisha the prophet. Yet we read in the scriptures, “Now Elisha fell sick of the sickness whereof he died.” This mighty man of faith, tremendous spiritual insight, and yet he fell sick of the sickness whereof he died. Does God allow His children to get sick? You bet He does. Does God allow His children to get old? You bet He does. Some of them when they get old, do they get stricken with years? Yes, they do. How is it that some age well, and some don’t age well? I don’t know. But I think that it is very wrong for us to insinuate, or to declare that if a person just has enough faith they don’t need to get feeble with old age. If that person becomes stricken in years that we begin to look at them as sort of spiritually second rate. I don’t know the ways of God, the purposes of God, but I do know that God allows His children many times to endure suffering.
In the New Testament we read in the book of Acts that, “Herod stretched forth his hand against the church, and he had James beheaded.” When he saw that it pleased the Jews, this was James the brother of John, when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he put Peter in prison intending to bring him forth the next day for a trial and execution. The church got together and prayed, and about the midnight hour an angel of the Lord appeared to Peter in the prison, and said, “Put your shoes on, Peter.” Peter put his shoes on. He says, “Follow me.” The gates all started opening automatically. Peter followed the angel out. When they got outside of the prison, the angel left him. All of a sudden he realized he wasn’t dreaming. He thought, “This is just a dream. But it’s chilly tonight, and I’m out here and it’s not a dream. It’s real. I’m free.”
So he went to the house where the church was holding a prayer meeting, and he knocked on the door. The young girl Rhoda came to the door, and he said, “Let me in; it’s Peter.” She was so excited she ran back to the prayer meeting where they were praying, “God help Peter, get Peter out of there, save Peter.” And she said, “Peter’s at the door.” And they said, “Oh you’re crazy. You’re dreaming.” But he kept knocking, so they went to the door, and sure enough there’s Peter. So you can’t really say it was the faith of the church praying that sprung Peter out of prison.
Now did the Lord love James more than He loved Peter? “Herod stretched forth his hand and beheaded James.” Could not God have also saved James from being beheaded? Yes, I’m sure He could. Why didn’t He? I don’t know. I do not know the mind of God. But there you have a case of where the Lord did rescue Peter. Why? Because the Lord wasn’t through with Peter yet. Later on Peter was crucified upside down. Why didn’t the Lord rescue him then? Did he lose faith as he grew older? No. It was just God’s time for him to go.
Now one day it’s gonna be God’s time for us to go. We do not know by what means God may choose to take us. But death is not defeat for the child of God. We look at it entirely the wrong way. God loves us. God has given to us marvelous promises. God will sustain us. God will be with us. God will strengthen us. God will heal us. But there comes a time for each of us when the purposes of God have been accomplished within our lives, and why should He leave us around this rotten place any longer, and He sees fit then to take us to our blessed reward with Him in heaven. That isn’t defeat. That’s victory when the Lord chooses by whatever means to take us home.
Now some people die sudden death. They appear to be in top physical condition, good health, and suddenly they are taken with a heart attack or in an accident. We cannot understand or know why God takes some in early childhood, some in early manhood, some in late years. When my father and brother were killed in my brother’s plane, here my father was retired. We figured that he maybe would be around for another ten years or so, he was in good health and still very active. My brother had a motorcycle shop and my dad had just taken up dirtbike riding and was really loving it. He was just an active kind of a person, but we knew getting up at that age, you know, five, ten years, and that’s gonna be it.
But my brother, tremendous athlete in the prime of life at twenty-four years. I could understand the Lord taking my dad, he’s, you know, at that age and you’re gonna go before too long now. But my brother at twenty-four years, why would you snuff out a life that’s right here in the prime of health? As so many people said, “His whole life was before him.” But what makes you think that it isn’t? But we cannot understand the ways of God.
God said, “My ways are not your ways, My ways are beyond your finding out,” and it is only an exercise of futility to try to find the answers to the whys of God. “Why did God? Why did God?” And whenever a person prefaces a question to me, “Why does God?” I just say, “I don’t know.” I do not know the whys of God nor will I allow myself to fall into the trap of seeking to understand the whys of God. Because so many people just more or less eat themselves up with the whys of God. “Why did God?”And they let that just eat them up rather than just accepting, “God did and He knows best and so I just commit it to God and His wisdom.”
This past week I had two funeral services. One for a man who was fifty-five years old, in great shape, good health, had a massive coronary as he was coming down the ski slopes at Mammoth. What a way to go. The other one was for a baby who lived for nineteen hours. “Why God?” You don’t know. You’ll never know, it’s foolish to try to understand.
So Joshua, though God loved him, he was a servant of God, a faithful servant of God, yet as he got older he became feeble and he was well stricken with years. The years weren’t good to Joshua, though God loved him and he was a true and faithful servant. So loving God, serving God, believing in God, trusting God is no guarantee against the fact that you may be plagued with physical problems. Some of the dearest, sweetest, most faithful Christians I know have had tremendous health problems. It doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of faith in their life, it doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of commitment and devotion. It may even mean that they have a deeper commitment and devotion, that you wouldn’t be able to take that kind of stuff. God knows that your faith is so weak He dares not to lay anything like that on you. You may be cursing Him, but He knows that they have the depth and the quality that they can abide these things. Don’t be so foolish as to think that a person is a second rate child of God just because they have suffered some kind of chronic illness in their life. If only they followed some magic formula of positive confession or anything else that they could’ve been delivered from that particular ailment. That’s hogwash. Some of the dearest saints of God endured horrible persecution and torture and suffering and hardships. God knew they had that inner strength and fortitude to take it.
I thank God that He has given me tremendous health. That’s something that I thank God for all the time, because I feel so good. Maybe I am one of those weak spiritual characters. God knows that He dare not let me be sick too long, I’d murmur and complain and groan about it. So He keeps me in good, strong, physical condition so He doesn’t have to listen to my murmuring and my moaning all the time. I don’t know why God keeps me healthy. I thank Him for it, but I pray that I would have enough grace to thank Him even if I weren’t so healthy. I pray that I’d have enough spiritual grace to give thanks unto God even if I had a weak, sickly body. But you cannot equate spirituality and physical health.
You say, “Oh, but the scripture says I wish above all things that God make us prosper and be in good health, even as thy soul doth prosper.” ( 3Jn 1:2 ) You didn’t know I knew that scripture did you? Yes, I did know it was there. That is John’s personal little salutation to the excellent lady. Just as I would write to a friend and say, “I trust that you’ll stay healthy and prosper even as you are prospering spiritually.” But it is not at all a declaration of God’s purpose or will for a person’s life; it is John’s personal little greeting to the elect lady.
You say, “But then should we pray for the sick?” You bet, because the scripture says, “Pray for the sick.” Should we expect them to be healed? You bet because the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up. But yet on the other hand, don’t think that you’re gonna escape the aging processes. Don’t think you’re gonna escape death unless the Lord raptures His church, which I think He is, but I mean it’s wrong for you to think that you have some kind of a divine immunity from problems, from distresses, from physical sufferings, from accidents or anything else.
God does help us. God is good to us. You’ll never fully understand the whys of God. I’ve wrestled with the whys of God for years growing up in a home that was a home that was really spiritually tuned. Extremely beautiful godly mother, deeply committed dad, one of the greatest personal witnesses I’ve ever met for Jesus Christ. Always witnessing to people. I grew up in this neat kind of an environment, of just believing and trusting in God. From my birth I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe and trust in the Lord and love the Lord.
I can remember when I was a little guy going down the street on my bike and just worshiping the Lord. I was just praying and I decided, well, I was always taught you know when you pray you’ve got to close your eyes. I just wanted to pray and worship the Lord, and I closed my eyes and I ran into a car. I started wrestling with the whys of God. “Why God did You let me run into the car? After all I was praying. When I’m so spiritual and praying, Lord, why weren’t You watching over me? Your angels were supposed to keep me from that, Lord. What’s going wrong here?” Well, I discovered that God also, like my little granddaughter says, “God gave me a bwain, and He wants me to use it.” So we’re not to become foolish or extreme. We’re to leave the whys with God.
Joshua was old and was stricken in years.
And so he called them together, the elders, and the heads of the people, the judges, their officers, and he said, I am old and stricken with age ( Jos 23:2 ):
Joshua that’s a negative confession, that’s terrible, you should never say that. What a horrible confession to make. Hey, no. This is plain honest. Why can’t I be honest? If I don’t feel good, why can’t I say, “I don’t feel good.” Why should I be dishonest and say, “Oh I feel great,” if I’m feeling miserable? “Oh, it doesn’t hurt” and it’s paining like everything. Joshua was just plain honest. “Folks, I’m old and I’m stricken with years.” Well it was probably obvious. He was probably leaning on his cane and could probably hardly see him, you know, just straining. Just plain honesty. He reminds them of God’s goodness,
You have seen all that the Lord your God hath done to the nations because of you; for the Lord your God has fought for you. Now I’ve divided the land by the lot… And the Lord your God, shall expel the rest of your enemies from before you, [So Joshua the old man stricken with years, says,] Be courageous and keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, don’t turn aside from it to the right or to the left; That you might come among these nations, that remain; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow yourselves to them: But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man has been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fights for you, as he has promised you. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do any wise and go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go unto them, and they to you: Know of a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of those nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off the good land which the Lord has given to you ( Jos 23:3-10 , Jos 23:12-13 ).
So Joshua was giving them a charge, the charge included that of separation. To remain separate from these people. Not to get involved and enter marriages and so forth. Not that God has separated races and is opposed today to any mixture of races, that’s not at all what it is saying or advocating. God was preserving a race in order that He might bring His Son through this particular race. But it isn’t that today there should be any kind of superior or inferior races of people. That is wrong, for in Christ He has made us all one whether we be Jews or Gentiles, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, Christ is all and in all today, new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Now he said,
Behold, I’m going the way of all the earth: and you know in your hearts and in your souls, that not one good thing has failed of all of the things which the Lord has spoken concerning you; if all come to pass, and not one thing has failed thereof. [God has been true, God has been faithful to His promises.] Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, [you can be sure that if you fail God,] and turn away from God the evil things are also gonna come upon you, the destruction, and all that he promised. When you’ve transgressed from the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and you’ve gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from the land ( Jos 23:14-16 ).
So, “even as God has watched over you for good,” he is declaring, “God will watch over you for evil.” So cleave to the Lord, and love the Lord, serve the Lord.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
As the time approached for Joshua’s passing, he twice gathered the people together and delivered to them his farewell messages.
The first of these is contained in this chapter. Its burden was of the power and faithfulness of God, with the declaration of an earnest desire for the faithfulness of His people to Him.
His references to himself were very brief, the principal ones being, “I am old and well stricken in years,” and “I am going the way of all the earth.” Only incidentally did he refer to his own work. After having declared that Jehovah had brought them in he said, “Behold, I have allotted unto you these nations”; “I have cut off’ your enemies. In contrast to this his references to Jehovah were constant.
“Jehovah your God hath done,” “Jehovah your God, He will thrust out.” Urgently and earnestly he charged, “Therefore, be ye very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book the law of Moses”; “cleave unto Jehovah your God; closing with the most solemn warnings as to what would happen if they departed from their allegiance.
Perhaps his warnings were more fiery and searching than those of Moses. The address is a wonderful revelation of the strength of the man, and of that strength as consisting in his acute consciousness of the relation of the people to Jehovah and his consequent passion for their loyalty to God’s law.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Joshuas Farewell Address
Jos 23:1-16
Joshuas anxiety for the welfare of his people after his death has New Testament parallels. See Act 20:29; 2Pe 1:13-15; and especially Joh 13:1-38; Joh 14:1-31; Joh 15:1-27. As always, he lays stress on what the Lord had done, Jos 23:3; Jos 23:5; Jos 23:9. Not one ray of glory is stolen for himself.
He argues for their steadfastness on three grounds: There are the promises of Jos 23:5; the threatenings of Jos 23:11-13; the exhortations of Jos 23:14-16. Our failure to drive out the foes of our heart is due to our failure to follow the Lord. A lack of whole-hearted surrender lies at the root of all failure. Cleaving to the Lord is the Old Testament way of saying abide in Christ, Joh 15:1-27.
In contrast to mans inconstancy and infidelity, notice the sublime testimony to Gods faithfulness. Not one thing hath failed, Jos 23:14. When at last we review our life, we, too, shall be able to say as much, if only by His grace we are kept faithful and obedient. We cannot keep the old Covenant, but the new stands forever, Jer 31:31.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
As we turn to chapter 23 we read:
And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age: And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you.
Joshua then went on to remind them how he had divided the land by lot among them and how the Lord their God had expelled their enemies in the past. If they continued to walk in obedience He could be depended on to drive out those that remained, in order that Israel might possess the land in peace and quietness, even as God had promised them. It was for them to be courageous and obedient and to seek to walk in all the commandments of the Lord, as set forth in the law of Moses. Then they could depend upon God to keep His Word and act on their behalf. If, on the other hand, they failed in this and did not cleave to the Lord their God, but turned from His law to walk in the ways of the nations surrounding Palestine or of the remnant of those remaining in the land, then their own God would turn against them and they would learn in bitterness of soul the folly of disobedience to His truth.
And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until He have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which He hath given unto you.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jos 23:1
At the death of Moses a sudden gleam of heaven, as it were, came over the elder Church. The law seemed for a while suspended as regards its threats and punishments; all was privilege on the one side, all was obedience on the other. Joshua led the people forward, conquering and to conquer; he led them into rest and prosperity. His history is made up of two parts: triumph and peace. Such a blessed season never returned to the Church of Israel till that Church was made glorious by the coming of the Sun of righteousness, and was brought forth out of the shadows and dreariness of the law into the fulness of grace and truth.
I. First, as is very obvious, Joshua is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ as regards his name, for Joshua is in Hebrew what Jesus is in Greek.
II. Joshua is a type of Christ in an act of grace which he exercised, and that to his enemy Rahab. Why have we at once a sinful woman spared and admitted into covenant on her faith, nay privileged in the event to become the ancestress of our Lord, except that in Joshua the reign of the Saviour is typified, and that the pardon of a sinner is its most appropriate attendant?
III. As Joshua answers to our Lord in his name and in his clemency, so, too, does he in his mode of appointment. Moses chose Joshua, who had no claim or title to be chosen; he consecrated him, not in a legal, but in a Gospel, way; he prefigured in him the ministers of Christ and soldiers of His Church. Joshua was chosen, not by the will of men, but by the will of God.
IV. In a special way God’s choice ended in Joshua. He did not receive it by inheritance, nor are heirs mentioned to whom he left it. He who divided the land by lot, who gave to each his portion to enjoy, is allotted in the sacred history neither wife, nor children, nor choice possession. In this he was the type of the Lord Himself, who, “though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.”
V. We read of no lamentation of friends, no special honours being paid to Joshua, at his death. He was buried neither by his sons nor by the assembled people, as if to teach us to raise up our hearts to Him for whom no mourning was to be made, for He was the living among the dead; and though for a while He laid Himself down in the grave, He did it that, there lying, He might quicken the dead by His touch, that so first He and then they all might rise again and live for ever.
VI. Joshua did not accomplish all the work that was to be done, but left a remnant to those who came after him. And so in like manner Christ has done the whole work of redemption for us, and yet it is no contradiction to say that something remains for us to do: we have to take the redemption offered to us, and that taking involves a work. He has suffered and conquered, and those who become partakers in Him undergo in their own persons the shadow and likeness of that great victory. We advance by yielding; we rise by falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and prayer.
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 150.
Jos 23:1-3.
Joshua and St. John stand out as if in direct hostility to each other. We know that the Book of Joshua must have been read by the Apostle in his childhood, his manhood, his old age. Let us inquire how at different times of his life he must have regarded it.
I. We find him first as a Galilean fisherman. At that time the book of the wars of the Lord may have had some attraction for him. He would receive it as coming from Divine authority, but there was nothing which bound it to his actual human sympathies. What was there in what he saw and heard that could make any Jew feel that he belonged to a chosen, vigorous, triumphant people?
II. It is a common notion, suggested by his own words, that the Apostle was a hearer and disciple of John the Baptist. The immediate appeal of John’s preaching was undoubtedly to the individual conscience. Each man was awakened to a sense of his own evil. He wished, first of all, for a baptism for the remission of sins. Such a thought absorbs for a while a man’s being. The disciples of John would not in general have found leisure to think of the Book of Joshua.
III. Another period came. John was called to be Christ’s disciple. Christ said that He was come to establish a kingdom, and His followers were sure that He did not deceive them; and now all that they had heard in the old Scriptures of a kingdom that was to put down the tyrants and giants of the earth came to life in their minds. They would dwell on the battles of Joshua and David with an earnest delight, with a confidence that they were battles fought on their behalf, in the like of which they might one day be permitted to engage, with a prospect of a more complete and permanent victory.
IV. But there came a fourth stage in St. John’s life. After he had leant upon his Lord’s breast at the Last Supper and had stood beside His Cross, his strong belief in Christ as a Conqueror through suffering may for a time have made him unable to understand the triumph with which the old Israelite leader records the discomfiture and extinction of the Canaanitish hosts. But this feeling would be accompanied by two others: (1) with a distinct acknowledgment that Joshua’s battles were tending to the establishment of a righteous kingdom upon earth; (2) that the Christian man is in as literal a sense a warrior as the Jew ever was.
V. In his old age, as he sat alone in the island of Patmos, may not St. John have found in the old leader of his country’s hosts a teacher and a friend? He could learn from him that there is a Divine and gracious purpose in that which looks darkest and saddest: he was told that nations are not swept out of the earth for nothing, that the earth is God’s, and that He will reclaim it from those who lay it waste and make it a den of robbers.
F. D. Maurice, Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 305.
Jos 23:8
I. It could be only in a limited sense that this praise could be given to the children of Israel; their great crime through all periods of their history was that they did not cleave unto the Lord their God. But probably during that score of years which intervened between the entrance into Canaan and the death of Joshua the Hebrews were more true in their allegiance to their heavenly King than at any other period. As yet they had everything to preserve them in their steadfastness, and there was no strength of temptation to allure them to rebellion. While Joshua lived they did cleave as fully as they ever cleaved to the Lord their God.
II. Our only safeguard in facing the snares and temptations, the malice and opposition, the craft and cunning, of the devil, the world, and the flesh is to cleave unto the Lord our God. “Keep innocency and take heed unto the thing that is right,” and you will find the boldness of evil abashed and the designs of evil powerless before you. Cleave unto God quietly, but resolutely and consistently. “Take good heed to yourselves that ye love the Lord your God.” Fear will never induce you to cleave to Him. Love will. And if you cleave unto the Lord, none shall be able to stand before you, or to gain the mastery over you.
F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 115.
Jos 23:11-15
I. In this speech Joshua once more presses upon the people their true character as the chosen people of the Lord God. He is able now to appeal to facts in evidence of the truth which had once been matters of faith; he is able now to point to what God has done, to call the people themselves to witness that all the promises of God have come to pass, and that not one good thing hath failed of all those which the Lord their God had promised them.
II. Joshua found in his old age nothing to retract of what he had said in former times concerning God and the people, and the relation of the one to the other. He next implores the people to guard against backsliding. He says: Go on as you have begun, and God will bless you; your shame, and misery, and damnation will be if you turn back from following the Lord.
III. Once more, looking forward to the future, Joshua declares that, in case of the Israelites going back from their high position as God’s people, God would punish them as severely as hitherto He had blessed them bounteously. The possession of the land had been the reward of obedience; the loss of the same would be the punishment of disobedience.
All the points in Joshua’s speech might be applied by a Christian minister to a Christian congregation. Consider: (1) whether you are sufficiently alive to your high calling, and profession, and privileges; (2) whether you are guarding against backsliding in your religious course; (3) whether you think sufficiently of the danger of offending God and of the awfulness of that judgment-seat before which the living and the dead must alike one day stand.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 108.
References: Jos 23:14.-J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 256; A. Raleigh, Thoughts for the Weary, p. 81. Jos 24:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1718. Jos 24:9, Jos 24:10.-Expositor, 2nd series, vol. v., p. 407; H. Thompson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 1st series, p. 26. Jos 24:13.-J. Vickery, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 133. Jos 24:14.-G. Woolnough, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 307. Jos 24:14, Jos 24:15.-J. Hamilton, Works, vol. vi., p. 116.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
2. Joshuas Two Addresses
The First Address
CHAPTER 23
1. The people gathered (Jos 23:1-2)
2. Gods faithfulness remembered (Jos 23:3-5)
3. Exhortations to obedience (Jos 23:6-11)
4. Warning (Jos 23:12-13)
5. Conclusion of first address (Jos 23:14-16)
It was about eight years after the Lord had given rest unto Israel, that the aged Joshua called for all Israel and their elders to assemble in his presence. He was very old and the time of his departure at hand. The purpose of his first address is to remind the people and their elders of the Lords faithfulness in keeping all His promises, and to exhort them to be faithful to Him and to warn them of the results of apostasy. He exhorts them with the same message, which the Lord had given to him in the beginning of the book. Compare verse 6 with chapter 1:7. He had been obedient to this command and the Lord had done all for him He had promised. Joshua was a man of faith and courage, an excellent character.
He is characterized by conscientious fidelity to the Law, and unclouded theocratical sentiments. He is deliberate and prudent when he acts himself, for he conducts the wars of the Lord; but he becomes prompt, bold and decided, when the Lord sends him. His courage is humility, his strength is faith, his wisdom is obedience and the fear of the Lord. He has a gentle spirit, but does not betray weakness; the evidence of the latter is furnished by his strict judgment in the case of Achan, and the scrupulous exactness with which he executes the Lords sentence respecting the Canaanites. Such a union of gentleness and rigor, of simplicity and prudence, of humility and grandeur of sentiment, presents evangelical features. This peculiarity of his character, combined with the peculiarity of that age of the kingdom of God in which he lived, and also of the position which he occupied, adapts both himself and the work which he performed to be highly significant types of the future. He conducts the people into the land of promise and of rest; but there remains a better rest into which his archetype, who bears the same name, conducts the people of God (Heb 4:8-9); he carries on the wars, and executes the judgments of the Lord, in which are shadowed the victories and judgments of Christ.
The sentiments which govern Joshua, pervade the people in general in his day. The whole history of the chosen people presents no other period in which they were generally animated by such zeal in the cause of the theocracy, by such conscientious fidelity to the Law, by such vigorous faith and sincere fear of God as that generation manifested. It was the period of first love, and, in this aspect, may be compared with the first centuries of the Christian Church. (J.H. Kurtz, Sacred History)
And we need, as His people, the courage of faith to stand for the Lord and for His Word in the days of departure from God. And Joshuas warning was sadly fulfilled in the subsequent history of Israel.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Ed
i.e. a witness; so Jos 24:27.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the Lord: Jos 11:23, Jos 21:44, Jos 22:4, Psa 46:9
waxed old: Jos 13:1, Gen 25:8, Deu 31:2
stricken in age: Heb. come into days
Reciprocal: Exo 33:14 – rest Deu 25:19 – when the Jdg 11:26 – three hundred 2Sa 7:1 – the Lord 2Sa 23:1 – the last 1Ki 1:1 – and stricken in years 1Ch 22:18 – and hath 2Ch 14:6 – the Lord 2Ch 14:7 – and he hath given 2Ch 15:15 – the Lord 2Ch 20:30 – his God Isa 63:14 – the Spirit Heb 4:8 – had
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A BRAVE SOLDIER
And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.
Jos 23:1
At the death of Moses a sudden gleam of heaven, as it were, came over the elder Church. The law seemed for a while suspended as regards its threats and punishments; all was privilege on the one side, all was obedience on the other. Joshua led the people forward, conquering and to conquer; he led them into rest and prosperity. His history is made up of two parts: triumph and peace. Such a blessed season never returned to the Church of Israel till that Church was made glorious by the coming of the Sun of Righteousness, and was brought forth out of the shadows and dreariness of the law into the fulness of grace and truth.
I. First, as is very obvious, Joshua is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ as regards his name, for Joshua is in Hebrew what Jesus is in Greek.
II. Joshua is a type of Christ in an act of grace which he exercised, and that to his enemy Rahab.Why have we at once a sinful woman spared and admitted into covenant on her faith, nay privileged in the event to become the ancestress of our Lord, except that in Joshua the reign of the Saviour is typified, and that the pardon of a sinner is its most appropriate attendant?
III. As Joshua answers to our Lord in his name and in his clemency, so, too, does he in his mode of appointment.Moses chose Joshua, who had no claim or title to be chosen; he consecrated him, not in a legal, but in a Gospel, way; he prefigured in him the ministers of Christ and soldiers of His Church. Joshua was chosen, not by the will of men, but by the will of God.
IV. In a special way Gods choice ended in Joshua.He did not receive it by inheritance, nor are heirs mentioned to whom he left it. He who divided the land by lot, who gave to each his portion to enjoy, is allotted in the sacred history neither wife, nor children, nor choice possession. In this he was the type of the Lord Himself, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.
V. We read of no lamentation of friends, no special honours being paid to Joshua, at his death.He was buried neither by his sons nor by the assembled people, as if to teach us to raise up our hearts to Him for whom no mourning was to be made, for He was the living among the dead; and though for a while He laid Himself down in the grave, He did it that, there lying, He might quicken the dead by His touch, that so first He and then they all might rise again and live for ever.
VI. Joshua did not accomplish all the work that was to be done, but left a remnant to those who came after him.And so in like manner Christ has done the whole work of redemption for us, and yet it is no contradiction to say that something remains for us to do: we have to take the redemption offered to us, and that taking involves a work. He has suffered and conquered, and those who become partakers in Him undergo in their own persons the shadow and likeness of that great victory. We advance by yielding; we rise by falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and prayer.
Illustrations
(1) Joshua was essentially the soldier, and as such was just the man raised up by God for his age. His obedience to God was a soldier-like obedience. Such was his energy, his power to inspire others, his very piety. Teachers will find the best illustrations, for the character and work of Joshua, in such generals as Havelock or Gordon. What is remarkable in him is that he was wholly free from personal ambition, or any thought of self-aggrandisement. His whole heart was in the highest degree patriotic, under a system which required patriotism to take the form of religious obedience. Note Joshuas power of decision, and promptitude. He was a valiant without temerity, and active without precipitation. His piety was gentle, his faith was impregnable, and his confidence in God unshaken.
(2) After forty years of wandering, seven years of war, and eighteen years of peace, Joshua, now 110 years old, stands as straight and as firm as an oak tree, and never stammers or mumbles his message. Talk about growing old and useless! Some men grow old like bread; they get stale. Others grow old like wine, richer and stronger.
(3) The final farewell of Joshua, the manifest dignity and serenity of saintly ripeness, the vigour of his exhortations, and the assurance of his faith, are worthy of devout study. This his last service is his best service. He had been faithful as a spy, as the helper of Moses, as a warrior and leader, and as a divider of the land among the tribes. But here he seeks to lead them into covenant with God, that they may through faith and obedience be enabled to keep all they had conquered.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Hallowed Reminiscences
Jos 23:1-16
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. A glorious rest. Our study opens with very striking words: “And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies.”
There is, indeed, a twofold rest. There is a rest from our enemies and their is a rest in our souls. There is a rest from our labors and there is a rest to our souls.
We remember how Christ said, “Come unto Me, * * and I will give you rest.” We remember also, how He added, “Take My yoke upon you, and * * ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Why should we be restless and filled with care when our sins are gone, and we are freed from the powers of darkness?
Why should we be anxious for anything, when we have Him? He is all we need, and more than we need.
Canaan rest was, indeed, a picture of the rest we have in Christ even now; it is, however, more effectively a picture of the Millennial rest which we shall have in Him, when Christ shall come and reign. It was this rest of which the Holy Spirit spoke in Heb 4:1-16, when He said, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” It is toward that rest that we set our faces like a flint. It is for that rest that we must labor, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief in which Israel of old fell and were left dead in the wilderness.
2. A glorious sunsetting. We now come to the story of Joshua passing to be with his fathers in Paradise. Joshua said, “I am old and stricken in age.” Then the aged successor of Moses began to recount the Lord’s mercies.
Joshua had proved himself faithful even unto death. He had lived true to his Lord; and so, also, he died. He never turned to the right hand or to the left. His eye was fixed on Jehovah. His feet kept the straight and narrow way.
Joshua proved that e’en down to hoary hairs, the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us.
3. A glorious praise. There is something uplifting and inspiring in the words of Joshua, which are found in Jos 23:3 and Jos 23:4.
First of all Joshua gave God praise. He said, “Ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done.” He did not take the honor of achievement to himself. He gave glory to God. What have any of us which we did not receive of Him? He is our Victory. He is our Supply. He is our Wisdom, our Strength, and our all in all.
Joshua said, “The Lord your God is He that hath fought for you.” The conquests of Israel must have been the conquests of the Lord, because there is no other basis upon which they could have been realized. Israel had neither the skill nor the prowess to conquer the Canaanites.
To be sure, even Joshua acknowledged that he and the people had their part in the conquest. Their part, however, was that of obedience to orders. Their part was the march of faith. Thus to this day, it is “The Holy Ghost and us.” It is not us, for the reason that we of our own selves can do nothing. It is not Him alone, for He has made Himself dependent upon us as channels through whom He may work out His purposes and plans. “Together” is His word to us.
I. WHAT OUR EYES HAVE SEEN (Jos 23:3)
1. All that God hath done. We like the expression, “Ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done.” God did it, we saw it. How wonderful are all His works, and how wonderful that we may behold the works of the Lord.
The heavens could not tell us of His glory, if our eyes had not been keyed to view the heavens. Day unto day could not have shown us knowledge, if we had not been given brains to grasp the things which are God’s.
As it is, we can see only in part. We may think we know it all, yet,
“Millions of years our eyes will rove
O’er the wonders of His love”;
and yet there will always be more to follow.
2. All that God is. It is not enough for us to revel in the works of God for us. We need to go deeper in, and know God Himself. We need to say, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” Paul wrote, “I know whom I have believed.” If we know Him, not about Him, we are indeed happy. Did not Christ say: “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent”?
Is it not true that our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ?
3. All that God hath in store. To know what God has done and what He is, as manifested in His Son, is not all of the Christian’s privileges. He may also, through the Holy Spirit, get a vision of the things to come. It is written, “That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace * * toward us.”
II. ENTERING INTO THEIR INHERITANCES (Jos 23:4)
1. The fulfillment of every promise. So far as Joshua and Israel were concerned, they actually entered into their inheritance, and there failed not one good thing. It behooves us, as Christians, to study deeply into our inheritance which He has prepared for those who love Him.
These inheritances were every one prepared for us, from before the foundation of the world.
In Ephesians we are acclaimed as having obtained an inheritance. In the Book of Peter we are acclaimed as being kept by the power of God through faith to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you.
Think you that such an inheritance as that to which we are predestined shall ever fail us? God says it is reserved for us in Heaven, while we are kept for it down here,
2. The righteous adjustment of every reward. Jos 23:4 tells us that the inheritances were divided unto Israel by lot; that is, to each one was given his own portion. Thus it is when our Lord shall come, there will not only be the inheritance by grace of the saints in light, but there will also be inheritances by reward for services rendered. In other words, God shall render to every one according as his work shall be.
Here is an incentive for present hour toil.
3. The blessings of God to every individual. Everyone in Israel received something. Each one had his portion. So also when we stand before the Lord, there will be certain things for all. Some of these riches of grace are described for us in the 1st chapter of Ephesians.
Let us thank God and take courage.
III. THE THINGS TO COME (Jos 23:5-6)
1. Blessings still in store. The Children of Israel had not yet accomplished all of their task. Jos 23:5 says, “And the Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you.”
We have not yet done all that God has commanded us to do. Therefore we have not yet received the full reward for our labor. The more we do for Him, the more He rewards us. Let us, therefore, redeem the time. Let us be up and doing. Let us occupy until He comes. If there remains much land yet to be possessed, much service yet to be done, let us not loiter by the way.
2. Blessings contingent upon courageous conquests. Jos 23:6 says: “Be ye therefore very courageous.” We must not become disheartened. We must not grow weary in well-doing. There is no time for idling. As long as there are ripened fields to be harvested, lost souls to be rescued, wanderers to be restored, we must press on our way.
We are almost amazed at the amount of land yet to be possessed. Millions of people have never yet heard the Gospel. With every present-hour possibility for speed and travel, we must hasten on.
3. Blessings contingent upon keeping the Law. The Children of Israel had more than a service to render; they had a Word to keep, and a life to live. There are some people who would sum up their whole Christian life in the word “do.” We ask them to consider the word “be.” Our duty is not only to go, to tell, to serve; we must be filled with the Spirit.
It is necessary for us to take heed to ourselves, to the way we live, to what we are. It is only thus that we can get God’s richest blessings and rewards.
IV. GOD’S GALL TO SEPARATION (Jos 23:7; Jos 23:12)
1. God’s people are a special people. The Lord called Israel to come out from among the nations in order that they might be a special people unto Himself, above every people that dwell upon the face of the earth. Until this day Israel is not reckoned among the nations. They are a people belonging peculiarly unto God. What is true of Israel is true also of the Church. Of the Church we read: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar (special) people.”
We are in the world, but we are not of the world. Upon us God looks as a people wholly His. He even says: “Know ye not that * * ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price.”
2. God’s people are a separated people. We could scarcely be a special people without being a separated people. If we are His, we are not of the world. If we are His we are called to come out of the world. God has said, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, * * and touch not the unclean thing.” It is upon this condition that God adds this promise, “And [I] will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters.”
3. God’s people are a sanctified people. The word “separated” is included in the word “sanctified.” However, the word “sanctified” goes beyond the word “separated.” When the Lord said, “I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified,” He meant that He had separated Himself unto us as a holy God, that we might be separated unto Him as a holy people.
In the Epistle to the Thessalonians we read: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.” God calls us to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence. He hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness.
V. A CALL FOR FIDELITY TO GOD (Jos 23:8-12)
1. Cleaving to God a condition of chasing thousands. Jos 23:8 says, “But cleave unto the Lord your God.” We remember how Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. There is a little verse that is big in its meaning. Here it is: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” The word “panteth” is the same as the word “cleave.” It means to follow hard after.
Cleaving to God is the first condition of the promise, “One man of you shall chase a thousand.” Victory according to this is based upon cleaving to Jehovah.
2. Loving God a condition of favor from God. Jos 23:11 says: “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. How else could God work for us? In Hosea it says: “Thou shalt abide for me * * so will I also be for thee.” If we love Him, He will love us. If we give, it shall be given to us. We cannot expect to receive from God unless we are ready to impart to God. The early Church had left her first love, and for this cause she was not long in leaving her first power.
3. Keeping connections. Jos 23:12 says: “If ye do in any wise go back, * * know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you.” Every victory that Israel ever received was due to keeping connection with the Highest. Every battle that they ever lost was due to their drifting away from God. They were commanded to make no marriages with the peoples of the nations about them. They were not to cleave unto the remnant of the nations that remained among them. To the Church, as well as to them, world mixing and world conformity always brings disaster.
VI. A HALLOWED REMINISCENCE (Jos 23:14)
1. Growing old. Jos 23:14 gives us the picture of Joshua the aged. He says: “And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth.” Joshua seemed to be handing the torch of the Lord to his successors. How his heart must have beat within him as he pleaded with them to hold that torch high. He never let the flare burn low, and he did not want them so to do.
Let the young people who read these words remember that the old men and the old women who have kept the faith and finished their course are passing on their way, one by one. The young people, therefore, should step in and fill up the ranks.
When Moses died, Joshua took his place. Now that Joshua was about to go the way of all men, he unsheathed his sword and handed it to a younger generation.
2. Looking backward. The old always look back to the days of their youth. They become retrospective. As Joshua turned his face into the past, he said, “Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you.”
As the aged of today look back they feel like saying;
“Here I’ll raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help I’ll come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at Home.”
3. Faithful to the end. There was a glorious sunset for Joshua. As he reviewed his life, he could say, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have kept the Law.” As he looked forward he could say, “There is laid by for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give me in that day.”
VII. GOD NEVER FAILS HIS SAINTS (Jos 23:14-16)
1. God is faithful to all of His promises. It is as true today as it was then. Great is His faithfulness. We may fail Him: He never fails us. We may not keep our word, or fulfill our promises: He never fails. The Word of God from Genesis to Revelation is filled with many wonderful promises relative to this life and to the life to come. Every one of these promises is yea and amen in Christ Jesus. When we have reached the other shore we will be able to say what the aged Joshua said: “Not one thing hath failed.”
His Word is forever settled in Heaven. Heaven and earth may pass away but His Word will never pass.
2. We must be faithful to Him in all things. One of America’s great men said: “O my friend, teach me to be thine.” If we are true to God we have nothing whereof to boast, for He is true to us. Every call in the Bible upon the part of a faithful God toward an unfaithful people reveals the infidelity of the human heart.
Is it not a shame that the Holy Ghost must beseech us to give ourselves wholly to the One who gave Himself wholly to us? Sometimes whole sermons are given in pleading with Christians to present their tithes to God. God did not give us a tithe, He gave His all. He did not say, “One tenth of all I have is yours.” He said, “All things are yours-the things present and the things to come.”
3. Disobedience will bring disaster. As Joshua anticipated the possibility of an unfaithful people he said: “It shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, * * so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until He have destroyed you from off this good land.” Wandering Israel today, scattered among all nations, verifies the truthfulness of Joshua’s word. The same is true of the Church. She has lost her good name among the nations, because she has lost her walk with God. Let us remember and fear lest we also fall by the way.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Fidelity to God marked the lives of Caleb and Joshua. In this line a word from Dr. A. B. Simpson will be most appropriate.
“This victorious achievement meant a hard fight and a powerful and relentless foe. It was the very citadel of the Anakim, the giant rulers of Canaan. These men stood for the strength of evil in the human heart, the life of self and sin in all its rudiments and ramifications. No great prize is won without opposition and difficulty. The devil does not take much trouble with ordinary people. He reserves his best shots for the most valuable game. We read that as soon as David was crowned king of Hebron, the Philistines came up to seek for David. He had suddenly become an object of interest because he had become a king. And so when we are pressing on for the highest things, we shall always find the principalities and powers not on the lower planes of life, but in the Heavenly places. The story is told about a regiment that had been punished for an ignominious defeat by the loss of their colors. They were deeply humiliated and eagerly waited the chance to retrieve their failure. At last it came. One day the commander called them and, pointing to a rugged hill bristling with the artillery of the enemy, he said, “Boys, there are your colors. Go and get them.” It needed no second word to start that resistless charge. And they came back bloodstained but triumphant with their flag wrested from the grip of their most powerful enemies. Our flags of honor and our crowns of glory are waiting us yonder on many a height of difficulty and danger. Shall we be found in the ranks of Caleb and on the heights of Hebron?”
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Section 2. (Jos 23:1-16; Jos 24:1-33.)
The closing chapters are so plain that they require, in general, but little interpretation. Joshua’s appeal, the renewal of the covenant, the limiting statement as to Israel’s obedience in the (lays of Joshua and of those contemporary with him, all show the decline that is imminent, and which faces us at once in the following book. Joshua’s words, “Ye cannot serve Jehovah,” show that, with all his heroism of individual obedience, he is not deceived as to the issue under that covenant which so often needs renewing on the people’s side. How could he be, with Moses’ song ringing in his ears? Only those willing to be deceived could be. And so with ourselves exactly: predictions of the Church’s course have so little ambiguity that it is marvelous that the smooth preaching of peace, and the comforting assurance of progressive blessing, could ever gain credence with those who boast in an “open Bible.” But the Bible can be but little “open,” as long as man’s pride and self-seeking hang their imaginative veil before it; and the Church, believing herself heir to Israel’s promises, has largely refused to accept the lessons of Israel’s career, which she has so closely followed. Thank God, we are near the end of the strange history of near two millennia and for us the end is the coming of the Lord.
(1) These charges are a double warning, at the pathetic moment when Joshua, their leader in victory so often, is passing away. Old, and stricken with the weight of the years he carries, he stands before assembled Israel, to remind them of the Lord’s fulfillment to them of His promises, and to assure them that His threatenings would be no less perfectly fulfilled. The word given to himself at the beginning of the conquest of the land, he now exhorts them with in turn: “Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left.” In truth it needs courage to stand for God and for His word in the face of all that this involves! Yet how strange to speak of any call for this as if it could be lacking! Courage, in standing for God! But such is man, even the best of men, that he needs to be urged to this, though only faith is lacking in this cause for one man to chase a thousand, yea, for two to put ten thousand to flight.
(2) Joshua’s second address is at Shechem, a place memorable in so many ways from Abraham’s time and there the covenant with Jehovah is renewed. Joshua reminds them again of the mercies of God towards them, beginning with the call of Abraham himself, of whom we are now for the first told that he had been involved in the common idolatry of the times, along with his father Terah and his brother Nahor. With grace thus the tale begins, a grace their need of which their own history had so clearly testified. Divine power had been shown in the gift of Isaac, given when nature was dead in Abraham. Even Jacob and Esau were the seed of a barren woman. To Esau God had given Seir, while Israel endured the needed discipline in Egypt. Then came the marvel of their deliverance, the days of sojourn in the wilderness, the dispossession of the Amorite kings, and the spiritual conflict when Balaam, after all the history of failure, sought how to curse and ended but in blessing them finally, the possession of the land they now enjoyed. After all this, Joshua bids them, if there could be doubt, to make up their minds whom they would serve, the idols their fathers had served beyond the river, the gods of the Canaanites in whose land they dwelt, or else Jehovah: his own choice for himself and his house was already made.
In result the people renew the covenant, and a great stone is set up under an oak in memorial of it. It is still the legal covenant, and all is suspended upon an obedience at the best how fitful! The stone in its lifelessness would abide, more certainly far than the living tree under which it was set up, Israel’s picture at that moment. For the present it is well, and they depart, every one in peace to his inheritance.
Joshua dies, his influence lasting till the end of his generation -a significant limitation. Joseph his father’s bones are buried at Shechem. Lastly, Eleazar dies: and these three graves are a sign that the Great Deliverer has not yet come. The types are but the shadow, not the substance: which yet for faith they point on towards. Thank God, for us the Deliverer is come, although not even yet the full deliverance.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
COVENANT RENEWED, JOSHUAS END
THE GATHERING AT SHILOH (Joshua 23)
A long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel, refers to a period elapsing after the distribution of the land. We do not know how long it was, but Joshua is old and his departure is near (Jos 23:1).
This is a gathering of the leaders presumably at Shiloh, where the central place of worship was (Jos 23:2).
It is an occasion to exhort the people to faithfulness in their obligations to God, the address of Joshua falling into three parts: (1) He recalls past blessings (Jos 23:3-4); (2) He rehearses promises yet to be fulfilled (Jos 23:5-11); and (3) He renews the warnings in the event of disobedience (Jos 23:12-16). Under the second head, he applies almost the same words to Israel that the Lord spake to him at the beginning (Jos 23:6). Courage is necessary to drive out the enemy, but it consists in doing the will of God. The enemy will vanish if they do this. Moreover the will of God is their separation from the nations which constitute the enemy, and especially the worship of their gods. How aptly this fits in with the obligations of the Christian. The world is our enemy, but this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1Jn 5:4). That is, as we believe God and obey Him in the Gospel of His Son, He subdues our enemy and the world loses its power over us. The Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you (Jos 23:10).
Under the third head, note Jos 23:12-13, which serve as a text, alas! for the whole story of the book of Judges which follows this.
THE GATHERING AT SHECHEM (Joshua 24)
Just why this gathering was held at Shechem instead of Shiloh is not revealed, but it may have been because this was the locality between Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, where the covenant had been ratified on their entrance into the land (see chap. 8). It may have been desired to give the present occasion the impressiveness of that memory, and of other events which had taken place there (see Gen 12:6-7; Gen 33:18-20; Gen 35:2-4).
Gods past blessings are once more rehearsed (Jos 24:2-13); the covenant solemnly renewed (Jos 24:14-25); the words written and the witness recorded (Jos 24:26-28). Jos 24:2-13 contain a wondrous recital of Gods grace towards Israel. And it was grace towards all the world, too, when we consider the purpose of Israel in the redemption of the latter. Let not these verses be passed over hastily.
Grace precedes service on our part, but service follows grace, hence the obligations in Jos 24:14-25. Notice Joshuas example (Jos 24:15), and the all too prompt vow of the people. Joshua seems to doubt them (Jos 24:19-20), but they reiterate their allegiance (Jos 24:21-24), and the scene closes.
Note the existence of the book of the law of God in Joshuas time and his own addition to it (Jos 24:26), as a historical fact bearing upon the science of Biblical criticism in our time. This testifies to the early origin of the Pentateuch and points to Moses as the author.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CORROBORATION OF JOSHUA
Before concluding our lessons in Joshua it will be stimulating to faith to speak of the new light thrown on Canaan during Joshuas time by the excavation work in southern Palestine under Prof. Sellin.
He tells us that the foundations of the walls built by the Canaanites around their cities can easily be traced. During their occupation by the Israelites these walls were repaired or pointed, and as the Canaanites used polygonal stones and the Israelites four-sided ones, the archaeologist is enabled to exactly define the portions of the walls of Israelitish origin.
The ruins of the walls of Jericho are well preserved, and the remnants of house walls over six feet high. The houses of the Israelites were small, and the difference between those occupied by the common people and the princes is largely one of the number of rooms.
These discoveries bear on the religious condition of the people and their development. Under the high altars in the groves, vessels, amulets, and idols, made of clay and bronze, were found. The inscriptions point to the offering of newborn children in these vessels as a votive offering to the goddess, Astarte. Professor Sellin says that the exact truthfulness of the Biblical records receives emphatic corroboration from these discoveries.
Speaking of the walls of Jericho again. A well-defined citadel was unearthed upon the northern boundary having two study towers upon its flanks, one of them with an area of 40 x 16 feet. The inner wall was about twenty-six feet high and afforded protection to various apartments and offices for military and domestic uses. In and about the citadel were remains of the older Canaanite time which preceded the siege of Joshua.
It is doubtful whether the towers existed in Joshuas time, although they seemed to have preceded the reign of Ahab, during which Hiel of Bethel rebuilt the city. Referring to this rebuilding, a gap is observed by explorers between the early Canaanite remains and those of the Jewish monarchy, and this may corroborate the fact that Jericho lay in ruins for several centuries between its destruction at the hands of Joshua and its rebuilding under Ahab.
Of course the material of these discoveries needs sifting and collocating, and some conclusions may receive modification, but nevertheless they are of great value and likely to become increasingly so.
QUESTIONS
1. What was the central place of worship in Joshuas time?
2. Can you quote 1Jn 5:4?
3. Name some events that have made Shechem memorable in the history of Israel.
4. What evidence of the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch does this book afford?
5. How does archaeological science corroborate the historicity of this book?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
As Joshua neared the end of his life, he called for all the leaders of the people to meet with him. He reminded them that it was God who fought for them in the conquest of the land. How else could the walls of Jericho fall down and the sun stand still? The parts of the land remaining to be conquered were their’s for the taking because God would drive the people out.
Joshua did place a burden of responsibility upon the people of Israel as well. First, they had to keep the law of Moses. Second, stay free from the idols and people of the nations around them. Third, they should remain loyal in their service to and love of the one true God ( Deu 6:5 ). As long as they did these things, God would cause one Israelite to be able to chase a thousand of their enemies. He warned the leaders that failure to follow God would result in him turning from them just as surely as he had fought for them. They would perish like the wicked people they had driven out of the land with God’s help ( Jos 23:1-16 ).
Then, Joshua called for all the people to come with their leaders to Shechem to present themselves before God. Since the expression, “before God” indicates before the ark of the covenant, it must be assumed the tabernacle, or at least the ark, was moved for this solemn renewal of Israel’s commitment to God. Shechem was the place Abraham first received the promise of the land ( Gen 12:6-7 ), Jacob set up his tent upon his return from Laban ( Gen 33:18-20 ) and apparently Jacob called for his family to cleanse itself from false gods ( Gen 35:1-4 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Jos 23:1-2. A long time after the Lord had given rest unto Israel That is, about fourteen years after the conquest of the country, and seven after the division of it among the tribes: see Jos 11:23; Jos 14:10. Joshua called Either to his own city, or rather to Shiloh, the usual place of such assemblies, where his words, being uttered before the Lord, were likely to have the more effect upon them. All Israel Not all the people in their own persons, but in their representatives, by their elders, heads, judges, and officers. Probably he took the opportunity of one of the three great feasts. You will not have me long to preach to you; therefore observe what I say, and lay it up for the time to come.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jos 23:7. Neither make mention of the name of their gods. This prohibition is often repeated, and it involves mythology in difficulties. The LXX had authorities for saying, Jos 24:33, that the Israelites fell away to worship Astarte and Ashtaroth. Of Astarte we find the following remarks, that she was a goddess of Syria, and one of the four Venuses that espoused Adonis, called also Atergatis, by Elian, and Tertullian in his Apology. She was the Venus or goddess of the Sidonians, to whom Solomon built an altar to please his idolatrous queens.Ashtaroth is a plural name, equivalent to riches, flocks, &c. He was called the god of the Egyptians. These idols were destroyed by Samuel, 1Sa 7:3; but were privately restored by Solomon. Of Baal we have spoken, on Num 32:38.
REFLECTIONS.
Joshua, feeling the approaches of death, by the increase of his infirmities; but feeling his soul unimpaired in vigour and fidelity to God, assembled all Israel, to receive his final commands. It is by charges and injunctions of this nature, that virtuous princes live and reign for ever in the heart and memory of all their subjects. He opened the assembly by reciting a summary of the miracles of providence and grace by which God had enabled them to conquer the country. He exhorted them to persevere in the same piety and fortitude, assuring them withal, that God would expel the remaining heathen. As they had not repented on seeing the wonders of the Lord, and feeling his vengeance, their sentence still remained.
Anxious to encourage them in the Lords awful work, he joins his testimony to that of Moses, saying that one of them should chase a thousand, because God would fight for them as he had promised.
This success was however on condition of their perseverance in the love of God; on condition of their abstaining from marriages, and from covenant and intercourse with the obdurate and devoted nations; because after those covenants they would be incapable of executing the divine vengeance. God would not fight for them in a state of perjury and lies.
The case is similar with the christian church. If a minister of religion associate with the wicked in their routes and parties, from that moment his mouth is stopped. He can no longer magnify the righteousness of God in the pulpit, and denounce sentence against sinners. The libertines who may occasionally listen to his voice, perceiving the dissonance between his words and works, will harden their hearts against the truth, and declare with a high voice, that he shall never convert them from profligacy to hypocrisy. No man who does not live in the spirit and practice of religion can possibly reprove the wicked with good effect. On the contrary they will be as snares to his feet, enticing him to sin, and as thorns in his sides to reproach him when he goes astray.
Mark also the considerations with which Joshua enforced his exhortation. Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth. And among all the venerable elders who stood before him, not one was so old as he by about thirty years. He had served the Lord with an unspotted piety; and the Lord had fulfilled to him, and to his faithful people every promise of his covenant; and therefore he could exhort them to fidelity, with all the weight of wisdom, and of vast experience. Hence we see that as aged and faithful men have these advantages over the young, they should particularly lay themselves out to encourage early piety, and perseverance in every virtue to the end of life. Nor was Joshua, less than Moses, wanting to add, that a defection from the true religion would not only forfeit all its blessings, but incur all its curses. And who for the sordid love of sin would forfeit all this good, and bring upon himself the insupportable displeasure of Almighty God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
AN APPEAL ON THE BASIS OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
(vs.1-16)
Many years had passed now that Joshua calls for all Israel, elders, heads, judges and officers, and tells them he is old and advanced in age (vs.1-2). Shortly after coming out of Egypt Joshua was said to be “a young man” (Exo 33:11). If therefore he might have been about 30 when leaving Egypt, then when entering Canaan he would be about 70. So that his address to Israel now would be about 40 years after entering Canaan, since he died at 110 years.
But his spiritual energy and exercise are beautiful to witness in this appeal to Israel. His concern for them did not diminish because he was leaving them, for he was a true man of God. He seeks to draw their hearts in reality into the Lord’s presence, reminding them that they themselves had seen all that the Lord had done in defeating all the nations who opposed Israel (v 3).
Joshua tells Israel he had divided to them by lot, not only the property in the land, but “these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes” (v.4). Thus the nations had not been totally expelled, though they had been subdued. There remained therefore work for Israel to do in siding with God to have these inhabitants expelled, so that Israel might fully possess the land (v 5).
Joshua almost verbally repeats to Israel what God had told him personally many years before in chapter 1:7 “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all this is written in the Book of the Law of Moses” (v.6). How often we need to be reminded to have courage to act on all that is revealed to us in God’s Word! For us today this is not the Law of Moses, but the more wonderful truths of the New Testament.
The Word of God would be their one real protection against mingling with the unbelieving inhabitants of the land (v.7), and they are warned not to even make mention of their false gods, not in any way to acknowledge them, but to continue to hold fast to the Lord God (v 8). For the Lord had already proven His faithfulness by driving out before them great and strong nations, and none had been able to stand before Israel. Let them remember this. Also, they may still depend on His grace and strength to enable one man to chase a thousand, certainly an amazing accomplishment! (v.10). This was however conditional upon their taking careful heed to love the Lord God (v.11). If not, and they declined morally to mix with the nations, intermarrying etc., the tables would be completely turned: instead of driving out the nations, they would find them to be snares and traps, scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes, so that Israel would be expelled from the land (vs.12-13).
Israel would no longer have Joshua to depend on, for as he tells them, he was going the way of all the earth, into death. However, he strongly reminded them that they knew in their hearts and souls that not one thing had failed of all that the Lord God had promised them: all had been fulfilled (v.14).
Though he has been exhorting them, his words become more prophetic in verses 15 and 16. He says that just as God had fulfilled His word in blessing to them, so He would in the future bring on them harmful things culminating in their destruction from the land which in grace He had given them (v.15). He does not say, “If you have transgressed,” but “when you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them.” Nor was it long after Joshua’s death that this disintegration began, though God was most patient with Israel, seeking all through the history of the Judges and of the Kings to draw Israel back from their idolatry, until eventually their stubbornness became so determined that the nation was carried away from their land. Even then, God worked to restore Judah from the bondage of Babylon (2Ch 36:22-23), bringing a remnant back, but that remnant became guilty of the enormous wickedness of crucifying the Lord of glory, and now for nearly 2000 years Israel has borne the solemn results of their rebellion.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
B. Joshua’s farewell address to the Israelites ch. 23
Joshua had reached what he believed were the final days of his life. Before he died, he wished to address the whole nation, as Moses had done before his death (Deuteronomy 31). So he assembled all the leaders of the people from every tribe in Israel (Jos 23:2).
Joshua’s experiences duplicated those of Moses in several particulars. Both men led the Israelites across a body of water. Both met God in a theophany. Both held out their staffs at a crucial time in battle. Both built altars to the Lord. Both gave farewell addresses to the Israelites that were similar in their contents.
"The content [of Joshua’s address here] . . . relates to that of a covenant renewal ceremony, but again in a distinctive manner. The liturgy of covenant renewal has become the sermon of a dying leader." [Note: Butler, p. 253.]
Compare the Book of Deuteronomy, which features Moses’ sermons just before he died. This address consists of two parts. The structure of the two parts is parallel, and the contents are similar.
"Unlike other narrative texts, this one has no specific setting in time or space. It simply connects to Jos 13:1, when Joshua was old, and Jos 21:44, when God had given rest. The setting thus marks Israel at the moment she had dreamed of from the Exodus onward (Exo 33:14). But it also marks the crisis of leadership transition. The message which follows is at the same time one for prosperity, and also for crisis." [Note: Ibid., p. 254.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. A reminder of past blessings 23:1-13
Joshua reminded the Israelites of God’s faithfulness in fighting for them and giving them victory over their enemies, as He had promised, if they kept His covenant with them. Joshua urged the people to remain loyal and promised that God would then drive out the Canaanites that still remained in the land (Jos 23:4-7; Jos 23:12-13).
"Joshua passed on to Israel the secret of success and prosperity that the Lord had given him at the beginning of the Conquest [Jos 1:6-7; Jos 1:9; Jos 1:18]. God’s promise [concerning occupation of the land] was not unconditional; Israel’s faithfulness was required." [Note: Madvig, p. 362.]
"To make mention of the names of the idols [Jos 23:7] (Ex. xxiii. 13), to swear by them, to serve them (by sacrifices), and to bow down to them (to invoke them in prayer), are the four outward [false] forms of divine worship." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 224.]
"For Israel, Yahweh claimed to fulfill all the functions for which other nations needed a multitude of gods. The problem was that Israel could never really come to believe the claim totally. She constantly sought the favors of the gods who had claimed to give fertility to the land long before Israel entered it or the gods who seemed at the moment to have military power." [Note: Butler, p. 255.]
The nation as a whole had been faithful to God during Joshua’s administration. Therefore he did not mention individual sins and failures here. Joshua, as Moses, called the people to love Yahweh as well as obey Him (Jos 23:11). He also reminded his hearers of the dire consequences of failing to obey God out of love (Jos 23:12-13).
"If Israel does not do her part, then God will not do his. Here is the danger of freedom. God seeks man’s free response of love. God does his part to deserve and receive such love. God does not force his attentions upon man. But the man who ignores God’s claims finds God’s punishment." [Note: Ibid., p. 256.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXXI.
JEHOVAH THE CHAMPION OF ISRAEL.
Jos 23:1-16.
THE last two chapters of Joshua are very like each other. Each professes to be a report of the aged leader’s farewell meeting with the heads of the people. No place of meeting is specified in the one; Shechem is the place named in the other. The address reported in the twenty-third chapter is in somewhat general terms; in the twenty-fourth, we have more of detail. The question arises, Were there two meetings, or have we in these chapters different reports of the same? The question is of no great importance in itself; but it bears on the structure of the book. In our judgment, both reports bear on the same occasion; and if so, all that needs to be said as to their origin is, that the author of the book, having obtained two reports from trustworthy sources, did not adopt the plan of weaving them into one, but gave them separately, just as he had received them. The circumstance is a proof of the trustworthiness of the narrative; had the writer put on record merely what Joshua might be supposed to have said, he would not have adopted this twofold form of narrative.
Joshua had been a close follower of Moses in many things, and now he follows him by calling the people together to hear his closing words. On the edge of the future life, on the eve of giving in his own account, in the crisis when men are most disposed to utter the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he calls his children around him to hear his parting words. He knows, as Moses also knew, the impulsive, fitful temper of the people. All the more did he regard it as desirable not to omit such an opportunity of impression. ”All pathetic occasions,” it has been well said, “should be treasured in the memory; the last interview, the last sermon, the last prayer, the last fond, lingering look; all these things may be frivolously treated as sentimental; but he who treats them so is a fool in his heart. Whatever can subdue the spirit, chasten the character, and enlarge the charity of the soul, should be encouraged as a ministry from God.”
“The People’s Bible,” by Joseph Parker.
What was the burden of Joshua’s address? What was alike the keynote, and the central note, and the closing note – the beginning, and the middle, and the end? You have it in the words – “The Lord your God is He that fighteth for you”; therefore “cleave unto the Lord your God.” You owe everything to the Lord; therefore render to Him all His due. Let Him receive from you in the proportion in which He has given to you; let Him be honoured by you in the ratio in which you have been blessed by Him; and see that none of you ever, to the last day of your lives, give the faintest countenance to the idolatry of your neighbours, or consent to any entangling connection that would furnish a temptation to join in their wickedness.
This starting-point of Joshua’s address – ”The Lord your God is He that fighteth for you” – is a serious one, and demands careful investigation. God is expressly set forth as the champion of Israel, fighting for him against the Canaanites, and driving them out. He is here the God of battles; and the terrible desolation that followed the track of Israel is here ascribed to the championship of the Most High.
There are some expositors who explain these sayings in a general sense. There are great laws of conquest, they say, roughly sanctioned by Providence, whereby one race advances upon another. Nations enervated through luxury and idleness are usually supplanted by more vigorous races. The Goths and Vandals overcame the Romans; the Anglo-Saxons subdued the Britons, to be in time conquered by the Normans; Dutch rule has prevailed over the negro, English over the Hindu, American over the native Indian. In the treatment of the conquered races by the conquerors, there has often been much that is gross and objectionable. Even when a civilized and cultured race has had to deal with a barbarous one, instead of the sweetness and light of culture you have often had the devices of injustice and oppression. We cannot vindicate all the rule of the British in India; greed, insolence, and lust have left behind them many a stain. Still, the result on the whole has been for good. The English have a higher conception of human life than the Hindus. They have a higher sense of order, of justice, of family life, of national well-being. There is a vigour about them that will not tolerate the policy of drifting; that cannot stand still or lie still and see everything going wrong; that strives to remedy injustice, to reform abuse, to correct what is vicious and disorderly, and foster organization and progress. In these respects British rule has been a benefit to India. There may have been deeds of oppression and wrong that curdle the blood, or habits of self-indulgence may have been practised at the expense of the natives that shock our sense of humanity, as if the inferior race could have no rights against the superior; but these are but the eddies or by-play of a great beneficent current, and in the summing up of the long account they hold but an insignificant place. In themselves, they are to be detested and denounced; but when you are estimating great national forces, when you are trying the question whether on the whole these forces have been beneficent or evil, whether they have been of heaven or of the devil, these episodes of wrong are not to be allowed to determine the whole question. You are constrained to take a wider view. And when you survey the grand result; when you see a great continent like India peaceable and orderly that used to be distracted on every side by domestic warfare; when you see justice carefully administered, life and property protected, education and civilization advanced, to say nothing of the spirit of Christianity introduced, you are unable to resist the conclusion that the influence of its new masters has been a gain to India, and therefore that the British rule has had the sanction of heaven.
We say there are some expositors who hold that it is only in a way parallel to this that the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites enjoyed the sanction of God. Without making a great deal of the wickedness of the Canaanite tribes, they dwell on their weakness, their poor ideas of life, their feeble aims, their want of developing power, their inability to rise. Into the heart of these tribes there comes a race that somehow possesses extraordinary capabilities and force. History has shown it to be one of the great dominant races of the world. The new people apply themselves with extraordinary energy to acquire the country of the other. Dispossession of one race by another was the common practice of the times, and in a moral point of view was little thought of. The times were rude and wild, property had not become sacred, human life was cheap, pain and suffering got small consideration. Having spent some centuries in Egypt, the new race brought with it a share of Egyptian culture and accomplishment; but its great strength lay in its religious ardour, and in the habits of order and self-control which its religion fostered. The memory of their ancestors, who had dwelt as pilgrims in that country, but under the strongest promises on the part of God that He would give it as an inheritance to their descendants, increased the ardour of the invasion and the confidence of the invaders. With all the enthusiasm of a heaven-guided race, they dashed against the old inhabitants, who staggered under the blow. To a large extent the former occupants fell under the usual violence of invaders – the sword of battle and the massacre after victory. The process was accompanied by many wild deeds, which in these days of ours would excite horror. Had it been completely successful it would have utterly annihilated the native races; but the courage and perseverance of the invaders were not equal to this result; many of the original inhabitants remained, and were finally amalgamated with their conquerors.
Now, in this case, as in the conquest of India by Britain, a process went on which was a great benefit on a large scale. It was not designed to be of benefit to the original inhabitants, as was the British occupation of India, for they were a doomed race, as we shall immediately see. But the settlement of the people of Israel in Canaan was designed and was fitted to be a great benefit to the world. Explain it as we may, Israel had higher ideas of life than the other nations, richer gifts of head and heart, more capacity of governing, and a far purer religious sentiment. Wherever Israel might be planted, if he remained in purity, mankind must be benefited. A people so gifted, with such intellectual capacity, with such moral and spiritual power, with such high ideals, and producing from time to time men of such remarkable character and influence, could not but help to elevate other races. That such a people should prevail over tribes emasculated by vice, degraded by idolatrous superstition, and enfeebled and stunted through mutual strife, was only in accordance with the nature of things. On the principle that a race like this must necessarily prevail over such tribes as had occupied Palestine before, the conquest of Joshua might well be said to have Divine approval. God might truly be said to go forth with the armies of Israel, and to scatter their enemies as smoke is scattered by the wind.
But this was not all. There was already a judicial sentence against the seven nations of which Israel was appointed to be the executioner. Even in Abraham’s time we have abundant proof that they were far gone in corruption, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was but an early stroke of that holy sword which was to come down over a far wider area when the iniquity of the Amorites should become full. We have no elaborate account of the moral and religious condition of the people in Joshua’s time, but we have certain glimpses which tell much. In the story of Baal-peor we have an awful picture of the idolatrous debauchery of the Moabites; and the Moabites were not so sunk in vice as the Canaanites. The first Canaanite house that any of the Israelites entered was that of an immoral woman, who, however, was saved by her faith, as any and every Canaanite would have been had he believed. The most revolting picture we have of Canaanite vice is connected with the burning of children alive in sacrifice to the gods. What a hideous practice it was! Who can estimate its effect on the blithe nature of children, or tell how the very thought of it and the possibility of suffering from it must have weighed like a nightmare on many a child, converting the season of merry childhood into a time of dreadful foreboding, if not for themselves, at least for some of their companions. Loathsome vice consecrated by the seal of religion; unnatural lust, turning human beings into worse than beasts; natural affection converted into an instrument of the most horrid cruelty – could any practices show more powerfully the hopeless degradation of these nations in a moral and religious sense, or their ripeness for judgment? Israel was the appointed executioner of God’s justice against them, and in order that Israel might fulfil that function, God went before him in his battles and delivered his enemies into his hands. And what Israel did in this way was done under a solemn sense that he was inflicting Divine retribution. That the process was carried out with something of the solemnity of an execution appears, as we have already seen, from the injunction at Jericho, which forbade all on pain of death to touch an atom of the spoil. And this lesson was burnt into their inmost souls by the terrible fate of Achan. Afterwards, it is true, they were allowed to appropriate the spoil, but not till after they had been taught most impressively at Jericho that the spoil was God’s, so that, even when it became theirs, it was as if they had received it from His hand.
We cannot suppose that the people uniformly acted with the moderation and self-restraint becoming God’s executioners. No doubt there were many instances of unwarrantable and inhuman violence. Such excesses are unavoidable when human beings are employed as the executioners of God. To charge these on God is not fair. They were the spots and stains that ever indicate the hand of man, even when doing the work of God. It is not necessary to approve of these while we vindicate the law which doomed the Canaanites to extermination, and made the Israelites their executioners. It is not necessary to vindicate all that the English have done in India, while we hold that their presence and influence there have been in accordance with a Divine and beneficent purpose. Where God and man are in partnership, we may expect a chequered product, but never let us ascribe the flaws of one to the influence of the other.
If it be said that the language of the historian seems sometime to ascribe to God what really arose from the passions of the people, it is to be observed that we are not told in what form the Lord communicated His commands. No doubt the Hebrews were disposed to claim Divine authority for what they did to the very fullest extent. There may have been times when they imagined that they were fulfilling the requirements of God, when they were only giving effect to feelings of their own. And generally they may have been prone to suppose that modes of slaughter that seemed to them quite proper were well pleasing in the sight of God. They may have believed that God participated in what was in reality but the spirit of the age. Thus they may have been led to think, and through them the impression may have come to us, that God had a more active hand, so to speak, in many of the details of warfare than we ought to ascribe to Him. For God often accomplishes His holy purposes by leaving His instruments to act in their own way.
But we have wandered from Joshua, and the assembly of Israel. What we have been trying is to show the soundness of Joshua’s fundamental position – that God fought for Israel. The same thing might be shown by a negative process. If God had not been actively and supernaturally with Israel, Israel could never have become what he was. What made Israel so remarkable and powerful a nation? If you appeal to heredity and go back to his forefather, you find the whole career of Abraham determined by what he undoubtedly regarded as a supernatural promise, that in him and his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. If you speak of Moses as the founder of the nation, you find a man who was utterly defeated and humiliated when he acted on his own resources, and successful only when he came in contact with supernatural might. If you inquire into the cause of the military superiority of Israel, you cannot find it in their slave condition in Egypt, nor in their wandering, pastoral life in the desert. You are baffled in trying to account for the warlike energy and skill that swept the Canaanites with all their resources before their invincible might. That an Alexander the Great, or a Caesar, or a Napoleon, with their long experience, their trained legions, their splendid prestige and unrivalled resources, should have swept the board of their enemies we do not wonder. But Moses and his bevy of slaves, Joshua and his army of shepherds – what could have made such soldiers of these men if the Lord had not fought on their side?
The getting possession of Canaan, as Joshua reminded the people, was a threefold process: God fighting for them had subdued their enemies; Joshua had divided the land; and now God was prepared to expel the remaining people, but only through their instrumentality. Emphasis is laid on ”expelling ” and “driving out ” (Jos 23:5), from which we gather that further massacre was not to take place, but that the remainder of the Canaanites must seek settlements elsewhere. A sufficient retribution had fallen on them for their sins, in the virtual destruction of their people and the loss of their country; the miserable remnant might have a chance of escape, in some ill-filled country where they would never rise to influence and where terror would restrain them from their former wickedness.
Joshua was very emphatic in forbidding intermarriage and friendly social intercourse with Canaanites. He saw much need for the prayer, ”Lead us not into temptation.” He understood the meaning of enchanted ground. He knew that between the realm of holiness and the realm of sin there is a kind of neutral territory, which belongs strictly to neither, but which slopes towards the realm of sin, and in point of fact most commonly furnishes recruits not a few to the army of evil. Alas, how true is this still! Marriages between believers and unbelievers; friendly social fellowship, on equal terms, between the Church and the world; partnership in business between the godly and the ungodly – -who does not know the usual result? In a few solitary cases, it may be, the child of the world is brought into the kingdom; but in how many instances do we find the buds of Christian promise nipped, and luke-warmness and backsliding, if not apostasy, coming in their room! There is no better help for the Christian life, no greater encouragement to fellowship with God, than congenial fellowship with other Christians, especially in the home, as there is no greater hindrance to these things than an alien spirit there. And if men and women would remember that of all that concerns them in this life their relation to God is infinitely the most momentous, and that whatever brings that relation into peril is the evil of all others most to be dreaded, we should not find them so ready for entangling connections which may be a gain for the things of this world, but for the things of eternity are commonly a grievous loss.
It is a very vivid picture that Joshua draws of the effects of that sinful compromise with their Canaanite neighbours against which he had warned them. ”If ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.”
The Garden of Eden was not the only paradise that sin ruined. Here was something like a new paradise for the children of Israel; and yet there was a possibility – more than a possibility – of its being ruined by sin. The history of the future showed that Joshua was right. The Canaanites remaining in the land were scourges and thorns to the people of Israel, and the compliance of Israel with their idolatrous ways led first to invasion and oppression, then to captivity and exile, and finally to dispersion over the face of the earth. However sin may deceive at the beginning, in the end it always proves true to its real character – “the wages of sin is death.” The trouble is that men will not believe what they do not like to believe. Sin has many a pleasure; and as long as the pleasure is not gross, but wears an air of refinement, there seems no harm in it, and it is freely enjoyed. But, unseen, it works like dry-rot, pulverising the soul, destroying all traces of spiritual relish or enjoyment of Divine things, and attaching the heart more strongly to mere material good. And sometimes when death comes in sight and it is felt that God has to be reckoned with, and the effort is honestly made to prepare for that solemn meeting by looking to the Divine Redeemer, the bent of the heart is found to be entirely the other way. Faith and repentance will not come; turning Godwards is an uncongenial, an impossible attitude; the heart has its roots too much in the world to be thus withdrawn from it. They allowed themselves to be drawn away from their early hope by the influence of worldly fellowship, to find that it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul.
How awful are the words of St. James: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”