Joshua

Joshua Chapter 24

• Joshua 24:1 And Joshua 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.

Joshua was a great leader. He gathered the heads of the tribes together to prepare them for the days to come when he would have to leave them for a season. He warned them to stay true to God and not depart from the law of God.

• Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

The other side of the flood means the Euphrates River. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees (Babylon) originally. Then his father Haran took them to Haran in Syria.

When we remember the flood in Noah's day, we can see that at the rebellion at Babel, later Babylon, Nimrod led the people into idolatry and rebellion against God. Those that went into the area of Syria kept the idolatry but for some glorious wonderful reason God took Abraham out of those things and showed Him the true God leading him to the land of Canaan.

• Joshua 24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
• 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

We heard the story in Genesis of the split of Jacob and Esau. God chose to use Jacob whose name was later changed to Israel to inherit the land of Canaan. Esau went to Mount Seir. Children of Lot...Moab and Ammon went east too. Esau, Moab and Ammon all were east of Israel.

Jacob had many children making up the 12 tribes. Joseph was sold into Egypt and God used him to save many people from famine. When that happened the children of Israel went to Egypt to be with Joseph.  

After the death of Joseph though a king arose that didn't recognize Joseph as a former ruler and he put the descendants of Jacob  into severe bondage.

• Joshua 24:5  I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
• 6. And 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.
• 7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
• 8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

Abraham was promised all the land of the Amorites and Canaanites but in the days he lived, their iniquity was not full. In other words they were not past the point where they could repent so God didn't allow Israel to take their land at that time. Over 400 years later, their iniquity was full and to the point where they were beyond repentance.

God doesn't always judge idolatry at once. He never forces anyone to choose Him over idols but when the spirit behind the idolatry causes people to start killing and sacrificing their own children into the fires of an idol, and violence increases, God calls a halt and stops them. This is why after they left Egypt, dwelled 40 years in the wilderness, they were sent to take over the land of Canaan and rid them of idols and idolatry.

The nations today that allow the practice of abortion need to fear God and repent of this. God is not ignoring the millions of unborn children slaughtered by the hands of so-called doctors. Sooner or later judgment will come. We are seeing an increase in fires, floods and natural disasters. Many blame global warming, now called climate change; but I believe it is a warning and a preview of a future judgment.

God may use the climate disasters to bring the judgment, I don’t know, but I do know that we are all now living by the mercy and grace of God. We are in His hands. Oh that the whole world would awake and get to know the creator that many nations abandoned when they started treating the theory of evolution as fact instead of a theory of one crazy backslidden preacher’s son. 

• Joshua 24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
• 10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.

Balaam wanted the rewards that Balak promised him if he would just curse Israel. Since he failed to do that because the Lord would not curse Israel but bless them, Balaam thought of a plan to entice the daughters of Moab to tempt the men of Israel and lead them into idolatry. The story of Balaam shows us that a prophet of God can be tempted with the material riches of this life and totally fail to do the will of God.

• Joshua 24:11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
• 12 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.
• 13 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.
• 14 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.

If any of the children of Israel still possessed strange gods, they were to repent and put them away. True repentance means not only to be sorry and seek God's forgiveness, it means to change, put away and turn away from the sin.

• Joshua 24:15 And 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.

Joshua is making a bold statement here that he will choose God over and above the gods of the Amorites that dwelled in the land they now possessed, the gods their fathers worshipped on the other side of the Euphrates River that begun in Babel or Babylon or to choose to serve the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

• Joshua 24:16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
• 17  For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
• 18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God.
• 19 And Joshua 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.
• 20 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.

Joshua told them that if they forsake God and worship idols, God will not forgive them if they try to keep their idols and just add God to their worship. In order to have the presence of God, they had to get rid of the idols and worship God only.

This is similar to salvation through faith in Jesus. Some believe that we can just say we accept Jesus into our hearts, we can be saved and then live how we want saying we are covered by His grace. While it is true we can't save ourselves just by repentance alone without Christ, when we come to Christ for salvation, our hearts must be willing to turn from our sins which is genuine repentance and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We can't have a mind that desires to keep sin in our hearts and serve Christ as the same time. It’s like having two gods, idols and the Lord Jesus. How can Jesus save us from sin if we keep the sin and do not repent? We can't do that. That doesn't mean that we never sin or make a mistake but it does mean that we are new creatures in Christ and our mindset changes into someone that does not want to be a slave to sin but live for God.

Repentance means to turn away from our old ways and turn to our new master, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God. We don't stop sinning to be saved but we stop sinning because we are saved. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin, not just from the consequences of sin.

• Joshua 24:21  And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.

If only they could really mean that. We see by reading the bible further, it didn't take long for them to go after other gods.

• Joshua 24:22 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.
• 23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.

Why some still had the strange gods is a puzzle after all the things God delivered them from; but human nature is weak. 

• Joshua 24:24  And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
• 25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
• 26 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.
• 27 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.
• 28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.

They made a commitment and did keep it until the elders that outlived Joshua died, then they began to depart from the true faith.

• Joshua 24:29 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.

He lived the same age as Joseph. 

• Joshua 24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
• 31 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.
• 32 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.

Joseph gave them a command years before that when God would deliver them from Egypt, they would take his bones with them and when they got to Canaan, they were to bury him in the land of Canaan. Joseph knew ahead of time about the 400 years of bondage and that God would deliver them back into the land of Canaan. Joseph was a prophet as well as a ruler in Egypt.

• Joshua 24:33  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.

So we see the generations passing by and new ones take their place. This is why teaching the word of God is so important to continue from generation to generation. If we stop doing this, people will depart from the truth and listen to the lies of Satan who desires to steal, kill and destroy mankind from the face of the earth.

Doctrines of Satan are evolution which denies God as creator, sexual immorality that is unnatural and departs from the way God created us by using the body for sexual gratification that causes harm and disease.

Back to Bible Study Menu

Joshua Index