The Faithfulness of God
Chapter 23
Joshua was getting to be an old man. It was now 25 years after he had become the leader of the people. So he called them all together and spoke to them. He reminded them of all that God had done for them in their conquest of Canaan.
· Joshua 23:1-3, After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, 2 summoned all Israel-their elders, leaders, judges and officials-and said to them: "I am old and well advanced in years. 3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.
We too, need to be reminded that we have been taken from a place of slavery to sin and put in a place of blessing and victory.
It is the Lord’s battle still because we are not sufficient to combat Satan.
The first step in securing their inheritance is found in verses 4 and 5.
· Joshua 23:4-5, Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain-the nations I conquered-between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west. 5 The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
This tells us of the work that God had done.
This is applicable to us in our spiritual lives. God has begun a good work in us and He will continue this work until we die. As Joshua speaks to the people he uses some of the same language that God had spoken to him years earlier.
· Joshua 23:6-8, "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.
This advice is as appropriate for us today as it was for the Israelites in Canaan. We may face defeats at times but we are not to dwell on our defeats.
The next verses should be great confidence builders in us and in our faith.
· Joshua 23:9-11, "The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. 10 One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11 So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
Everything favors those who trust God. Our enemies are great but God is greater.
Then Joshua issues a warning in the next two verses.
· Joshua 23:12-13, "But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.
So we have been warned not to coexist with sin.
The contemporary equivalent for us is found in 2 Corinthians.
· 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.
Just as the Israelites could not hope to improve the Canaanites, we cannot expect to improve the sin nature. To suggest that we become more like the world around us in order to win them is not the wisdom of God.
Three Possible Losses
There were three possible losses for the Israelites. Joshua warned that the Lord would not drive out the Canaanites unless Israel obeyed in faith. So the first loss would be a loss of power. God removes His power from us when He is not honored and when we are not obedient.
· John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Separation from the Vine separates us from His power and we bear no spiritual fruit.
Next we see that there is a loss of comfort:
· John 15:3-4, You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
And finally we see that there is a loss of capacity:
Israel was promised that if they were willing and obedient they would eat of the good of the land. But if they refused and rebelled, they would be destroyed.
The Final Charge to Faithfulness
Chapter 24
Realizing that his death was eminent, Joshua told the people that he would soon die.
· Joshua 23:14-16, "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you."
So he reminds all of Israel of the good things that God has done for them but he also issues a strong warning that they must be obedient to God. The same warning is fully applicable to us today.
He goes all the way back to Abraham and reviews all of the things that God had done for His chosen people, culminating with the victories over the Canaanites in the Promised Land. Joshua’s concluding remarks are some of the most powerful testimonial words in the Bible.
There were three admonitions in verses 14 and 15. He first admonished them to fear the Lord. Not to be afraid of God but to place our reverent trust in Him. With such reverent trust they would follow Him in confidence. They would also hate evil and walk in faith.
His second admonition was to serve the Lord. After a proper attitude of the heart with a reverential fear of God, there should come the activity that matches the reverence. In order to serve the Lord we must put on the whole armor of God for the battles that we will surely face.
Finally, he warned the people to put away those things which God did not allow. Idolatry, evil, unbelief, carelessness and backsliding were to be avoided.
He then made it very clear that there were choices before them and they had to make the choice. As for himself, Joshua had long ago decided that he would serve the Lord, with all that that implied.
· Joshua 24:14-15, "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
We cannot be neutral. We must make choices. If we do not make positive choices, we necessarily make a negative choice.
How could Joshua be so emphatic about his family? Surely he could speak for himself, but what about the others in his family? First of all, he had taught them well. In the second place they were completely committed to the Lord and Joshua trusted the Lord to keep them.
Well, how did the people respond to Joshua’s admonition?
· Joshua 24:16-18, Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
The people made a very positive decision. They remembered all that God had done for them, all the things to which they had been witnesses. They would definitely follow the Lord.
But Joshua warned them that they were not making a light decision. This was serious business.
· Joshua 24:19-20, Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."
Again the people responded emphatically.
· Joshua 24:21, But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the LORD."
Then Joshua placed the responsibility on the hearts of the people.
· Joshua 24:22-24, Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD." "Yes, we are witnesses," they replied. 23 "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." 24 And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him."
The lesson here should be perfectly clear. God lives within us by the Holy Spirit, but for us to have fellowship with Him we must give Him first place in our lives. He is a jealous God and will not take second place.
Now, for God to have first place in our lives, we must grow into this. He receives first place to the extent that we are obedient to Him.
Spiritual growth is a matter of becoming more and more obedient to Him. God knows our hearts and He knows whether or not we are committed to becoming more obedient.
Well how did this work out?
· Joshua 24:29-31, After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31 Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.
This was a great beginning for the young nation of Israel, and what a different history we would have had if the succeeding generations had been faithful to the witness of their elders.