Week 4

3/23/2025

Spring 2025

• Central Passage: Joshua 23-24, Joshua's farewell and covenant.

• Click here to see the Middle School Sunday school handout for Joshua.

• Check out the Middle School Sunday School Resources page for other books of the Bible resources. Note: the Joshua handout will be available soon.

            After the primary events of Joshua’s conquest concluded (Josh 1-12), Joshua, with the help of Eleazar, the high priest, apportioned the land to the tribes of Israel (Josh 13-21). After Joshua had completed that work, he said his farewell. As you read Joshua 23-24, compare these chapters to the the final chapters of Deuteronomy that contain Moses’ farewell. Take note of similarities and differences. Joshua, continuing to be the hopeful book that may give its readers the impression that Israel will keep the covenant and enjoy the land’s blessings forever, begins to conclude with Joshua’s farewell. However, as these chapters conclude, several things indicate that the success of the conquest so far is the calm before the storm of horrifying covenant infidelity that would follow in Judges.

Joshua 23

            On that seemingly hopeful note, God gave rest to Israel (Josh 23:1) as they finally dwelt in the land promised to Abraham. Just as the exact Hebrew phrase of being “old and advanced in years” was applied to Abraham at the end of His life of blessing (Gen 24:1), Joshua, now having partially received that Abrahamic promised blessing of land, was “old and advanced in years” (Josh 13:1; 24:1-2). Though the literary features of Joshua 23 turn our attention to Abraham and God’s promises to him, the conquest remained incomplete in Joshua’s old age. However, God promised to continue to drive out these nations, for He had already “cut them off.”[1]

            Thus, Joshua charged them once again: “Be very strong” (Josh 23:6). Once again, Joshua defines how Israel was to view godly strength: as faithfulness to God’s covenantal commands (cf. Josh 1:7-8). The syncretism[2] that Joshua then cautioned Israel against was one of religious allegiance, not ethnicity. As seen previously, Rahab became an Israelite; thus, the key issue here is making covenants (whether marriage or political) with those who worship the powerless yet wicked Canaanite pantheon. Many of these verbs of worship—swear by them, serve them, and bow down to them—describe Israel’s repeated rebellious activity during the book of Judges. Thus, this stern warning both prepares the reader for the bleak prophecy in Joshua 24:19 and recalls Moses’ bleak predictions for Israel (Deut 31:16-18).

            Despite the bleak prophecies, Joshua warned and exhorted the Israelites. The graphic language of Joshua 24:13[3] describes the destructive nature of syncretistic marriages to show them that the good life is not to be found in the allure of paganism. Because of its allure to destruction, they are to “exceedingly guard [their] souls” (Josh 23:11, my translation). Furthermore, and much greater than just a passive snare for destruction, the retreat into paganism results in God’s wrath burning against them. We do a disservice to the justice of God when we forget that sin makes a just God angry. We also do a disservice to our need for His justice against wickedness. Once again, the Canaanites were not just worshipping differently and innocently; their worship included temple prostitution, sex slavery, child sacrifice, and violent bloodshed. The victims of injustice cry out for the justice of God, which, by our standards, often appears slower than we would like.

As Joshua exhorted Israel to cling to God (cf. Josh 22:5; Gen 2:24), the human heart always clings to something for its delight. Our weekly rhythms of false worship that cause us to cling to the world’s paganism require the reconsecration of gathered worship. The church’s patterns of worship are God’s sanctifying means of grace that give us renewed distaste against the sin and misery we heap on ourselves and point us toward the Lordship of Christ to which we must cling. Be mindful of your own patterns. Evaluate how your daily rituals might aim your heart at clinging to improper sources of flourishing and the good life.[4]

Joshua 24

            Similar to how covenants begin with a historical prologue to recount the deeds of the ruler and his subjects (cf. Deut 1-4), Joshua 24 also begins with a historical prologue. Joshua 1:1-13 emphasize that these conquest events are to be remembered with a God’s-eye view. Recall Joshua 5:13-15 when the leader of the LORD’s army claimed to be neither for nor against Israel as if he were someone under Joshua’s command in Israel’s battles. This was God’s fight—He was the conqueror of the land while Israel watched in awe. Joshua 24:1-13 reinforces this point, particularly verse 13. All of the land’s provision was an expression of God’s providential, gracious hospitality to His people. From conquest to settlement, Israel entered into His rest by receiving His blessing through their obedience.

            Therefore, Joshua commanded: fear the LORD completely[5] (Josh 24:14). When Joshua commanded them to put away the false gods of Egypt and the Baals, he continued Moses’ missionary purpose.[6] As Moses originally wrote the Torah/Pentateuch to teach theology to Israelites who had been paganized during their Egyptian sojourn, Joshua remembered and continued that missionary emphasis: Israel was to serve the creator of all things rather than the created. However, Joshua also presented a choice to them. We should be careful not to read the famous Joshua 24:15 passage too individualistically, but in saying this, he stepped forward as the leader before the rest of Israel, saying, “Who will join me?”[7]

            The Israelites boldly responded with their allegiance to following Joshua into serving the LORD, but Joshua responded with a predictive warning: they cannot serve a jealous[8] and holy God. Joshua 24:19 takes this even further: He will not forgive. Though God would mercifully accept their repentance and atonement, He rejects covenant infidelity. This verse warns against cheapening God’s grace for Israel to abuse. If they continued in their disobedience, God would not forgive them without real repentance.[9] Thus, he cuts a covenant with Israel. Though the ESV’s subject heading indicates that this was a covenant renewal, the Hebrew phrase for cutting a covenant is exclusively used at the initiation of a new covenant, not a renewed covenant. This covenant is not one of the major covenants of the Bible[10] since it is not directly from God, but it is a covenant Israel made with Joshua that they would obey the covenant God made through Moses. Thus, by the end of the book, Israel now has three monuments to bear witness to future generation: one to commemorate the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 4:2-9), another to remember Achan’s sin and their defeat at Ai (Josh 7:26), and one final memorial to remember this solemn oath that would bear witness against them for disobedience and call them to repentance, just as the Song of Moses would bear witness against Israel but call them back to repentance.

            As Joshua completed his farewell and made this covenant, there is something important missing from these final chapters of Joshua when compared to Moses’ farewell found in Deuteronomy’s closing chapters. The hopeful tone of the book ends with a hint of dramatic tension. This sobering ending to the story contains several deaths and burials: key patriarchal figures, Joshua, and finally, Eleazar, the high priest and son of Aaron. The question is implicitly asked, “Who will lead Israel?” Unlike Moses, Joshua did not appoint someone to continue his prophetic leadership over the nation. And now, Eleazar, the man whom God anointed to make atonement for Israel and to determine His will with the Urim and Thummim. Though the text leaves us in suspense, it also leaves us in anticipation. Joshua died at 110 years old. Joshua’s ministry had thus far been connected with Moses’, so remember that Moses died at 120 years old.[11] As Deuteronomy 34:10-12 ends with anticipation for the prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-9), Joshua’s ending gives us a small nudge that, though Joshua was another prophet whom God has provided out of faithfulness to His promise in Deuteronomy 18, he was not the prophet whom God would raise up to be even greater than Moses. Thus, the story in Judges will continue this anticipation for the prophet as well as the king that God’s kingdom needs.

Sources

Gentry, Peter J. and Stephen J. Wellum. Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Howard, David M. Joshua: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. The New American Commentary. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1998.

McConville, J. Gordon and Stephen N. Williams. Joshua. The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.