STATE OF THE NATION
Opening Prayer
Lord, You truly have dealt kindly with Israel.
Read JOSHUA 24:1–15
The Covenant Renewed at Shechem
24 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.
5 “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6 When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen[a] as far as the Red Sea.[b] 7 But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
8 “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9 When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
11 “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates 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 ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Footnotes
a. Joshua 24:6 Or charioteers
b. Joshua 24:6 Or the Sea of Reeds
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God … so that no one can boast’ (Eph 2:8,9).
Think Further
Joshua begins with a review of covenant history. It is a prophetic word spoken in the first person, cataloging God’s actions in history. History truly is His Story. The words ‘other gods’ (2) repeat the wording of the first commandment (Deut 5:7). The 18 ‘I’ statements leave the listeners in no doubt that all the blessings they have enjoyed have come not through their actions but from ‘the surprising grace of God’ (Davis, 2000, p188). One can speculate about what is included and what is omitted from the account of salvation history. Jacob and Esau are in; Sinai and Ishmael are out. The phrase ‘you lived in the wilderness for a long time’ (7) neatly sums up half of Exodus and all of Numbers!
Joshua follows the Lord’s words with a challenge to the people to commit to follow God (14, 15), including his famous ‘choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve’, in which it is easy to miss that the choice he gives them is not between God and idols but between the gods of their ancestors and the gods of the Amorites. The implication may be that Israel has always harbored local gods and never fully trusted and served the Lord. Covenants are all well and good, but they need to be renewed, and Joshua calls on the people to throw away their idols and pledge themselves to serve the Lord exclusively and faithfully, as a confirmation of their covenant relationship with God.
William Johnson suggests that proper conversion occupies three stages: religious conversion, beginning to love God; then moral conversion, resulting in a change of values and priorities; and intellectual conversion, leading to a new worldview (William Johnson, The Inner Eye of Love, Harper & Row, 1982, p268, quoted in Hamlin, 1983, p202 ). That is what following the Lord faithfully implies; the same requirements are placed on us if we are to be disciples of Jesus.
Apply
Reflect on how you have seen God work in your life. What idols do you need to get rid of to serve the Lord faithfully?
Closing prayer
Lord, teach us to remember all the beneficial things You have done for us personally.
Book and Author Intros
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