JOSHUA: A FOREBODING FAREWELL ADDRESS, Reflections on Joshua 24
Last week’s blog focused on God delivering His people out of slavery in Egypt and the commemoration of Passover as the means to save God’s people from the tenth plague against Egypt. After delivering the Israelites out of slavery, the people rebel against God and are made to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses takes them to the brink of the Promised Land, but then dies. God raises up a new leader, Joshua, who leads the people to conquer their promised territory.
By the time we get to Joshua 24, the land has been conquered and allocated to the 12 tribes. God has fulfilled His promise going back to Abraham to give his descendants this land (see Gen. 15:12-16).
In Joshua 24, Joshua recounts Israel’s history and has a covenant renewal. There is something both encouraging and ominous about the final chapter of this book. The encouraging part is that Joshua’s leadership and ministry finishes strong, with a recounting of God’s Story among His people going back to Abraham. He pledges that he and his household will worship and serve the Lord and calls on the people to renew their covenant with God. The people commit themselves to serve the Lord and not worship foreign gods.
The ominous part is that Joshua’s pleas and warning sound so foreboding. He warns the people that God is a jealous God, and that if they worship foreign gods the Lord will turn against them. The fact that Joshua has to tell them to get rid of their foreign gods (see vv. 14 and 23) may suggest that idolatry had already crept in among them.
Those familiar with the Bible’s storyline realize that Joshua’s spiritual hunches about apostasy come true. The Book of Judges tells the story of a nation spiraling down from bad to worse. God delivered His people from slavery and placed them in the Promise Land to be a light to the nations. Rather than revealing the glory of God and His ways among the people, the Israelites fail to rid the land of foreign gods and embrace them instead. As a consequence, God delivers them into the hands of their enemies. Under oppression, they call out to God and repent. God raises up a military leader (a judge) to deliver them, but after a while they fall into idolatry again and the cycle repeats.
A familiar refrain appears in this book: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Though God was their true king, they had no strong spiritual leadership that succeeded Joshua. By the end of this book, it appears Israel has all but forgotten God’s covenant and law.
How does a follower of Jesus read and understand this portion of the Bible and Israel’s history? Here are a few possibilities. First, we see the failure and inability to worship the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Our sinful hearts tend to worship and seek after things other than God. We need a Savior who will deal with our sin in a definitive way. Second, we recognize that this story points to the need for the One True King who will come. King Jesus is the perfect King to reign over us. Third, though Canaan is an important part of God’s promise to give His people a land, it is not the ultimate destination for God’s people. Believers today (as long ago) live as foreigners and temporary residents on earth seeking a heavenly city (see Hebrews 11:8-16). We also understand that worshiping God in spirit and truth is not about a locale (see John 4:19-24), but that the gospel is proclaimed and God is worshiped throughout the whole world. We long for the New Jerusalem to come, that will include God’s redeemed people from every race, tribe, tongue, and people group. That is our ultimate promised land.