Gotta Serve SomebodyJoshua 24 sermon transcript

7/16/17

Some of you may recognize the title of the sermon this morning—“Gotta Serve Somebody”—as also the title of a Bob Dylan song. I think it was written in 1979, a little bit before my time. I don’t remember where I came across this song, but as I was studying Joshua 24 a couple of weeks ago, I thought, “That’s really a fitting summary of the message of this chapter,” and so I titled the sermon accordingly. If you remember that song or if you’re familiar with it at all, the chorus has a line repeated in it, multiple times—the song’s really long; one performance I listened to was over seven minutes long—but the chorus keeps on going back to this line: “It might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” And Bob Dylan was correct. You do. God has designed us to serve. He has created us to worship and serve…him. But the truth of the matter is we are always serving and worshipping somebody, whether it be God or something else. And that’s definitely the message that Joshua has for the people of Israel at the final chapter of the book of Joshua.

So, as we come to the conclusion of this series, we’re going to look at Joshua 24 this morning, and I’d like to talk for just a moment about what I think this chapter is. What’s going on here? If you look at a commentary or study Bible or maybe even in the Bible that you’re looking at, you might have a heading that says something like “covenant renewal at Shechem,” and that’s pretty typical. I’d like to suggest to you that something else is going on, though. Let me show you why. If you’ll drop your eyes down toward the end of the chapter, verse 25, for just a second. Joshua 24:25—you get a summary of what’s just happened, and this is what it says: So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. So, what that verse seems to be telling us is that Joshua makes a covenant with the people, that is, the parties of the covenant are Joshua and the people of Israel. He’s making a covenant with the people, between him and them, not between God and them, but between himself and them, between the leader and the people.1 Now, it has reference to the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant; God does speak in the midst of this, as we’ll see, and so God’s covenant with Israel is involved, but what I think we’ve really got going on is that Joshua is calling the people one last time, in a formal covenant ceremony to keep the Mosaic Covenant. So, he’s making a covenant with them to keep the Mosaic Covenant, to keep their covenant with God.2 And so this is not quite a renewal of the covenant; we did see one of those in the book of Joshua, back in chapter 8, verses 30-35. But this is something else, I think.

1 Some students of Scripture claim that the phrase used here indicates that Joshua made a covenant “for” or “on behalf of” the people. See, for example, David M. Howard, Jr., Joshua (The New American Commentary 5; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), pg. 439. However, these folks seem to overlook the fact that 25 other times in the Hebrew Bible—including 5 other times in Joshua—this phrase describes one person making a covenant “with” someone else. See Ex. 23:32; 34:12, 15; Deut. 7:2; Josh. 9:6, 7, 11, 15, 16; Jdg. 2:2; 1 Sam. 11:1; 2 Sam. 5:3; 1 Kgs. 20:34; 2 Kgs. 11:4; 1 Chron. 11:3; 2 Chron. 21:7; 29:10; Ezra 10:3; Ps. 89:3; Job 31:1; Isa. 55:3; 61:8; Jer. 32:40; Ezek. 34:25; 37:26.

2 Cf. the definitive study of Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), pg. 390, who write, “The expression employed there is kārat bĕrît, i.e., to cut a covenant. Some scholars have incorrectly assumed from such texts that the expression kārat bĕrît does not always refer to covenant initiation, but can be used for covenant renewal. This is an erroneous conclusion. What in fact happened is that Joshua made a covenant with the people to keep the covenant—the Israelite covenant inaugurated through Moses at Sinai and Moab.”

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The leader himself is making a covenant with them, and after we looked at chapter 23 last week and Pastor Barry opened it up for us, I had the thought as I was looking at this: Why does Joshua see it necessary to do this? If you remember from Joshua 23, he charged them in his “farewell speech” to obey Yahweh, to serve the Lord and to reject idols,3 and that’s the very thing he’s going to say to them here. And so, I had the thought: Why is it necessary? Why is chapter 24 even in here, if he’s already done this? I have a suspicion, and that’s all it is. I suspect that a little bit of time has passed. There’s no note about any time passing; we don’t know how much might’ve passed. Could it have been weeks or months? Probably not years; Joshua was “old and advanced in age,”4 we learned last week, and he’s about to die.5 So, probably not years, but perhaps months or even weeks. And in that time period, I think Joshua has become aware of something. Either he’s become aware of something or he’s deciding to deal with something that was there all along, and we’ll see what that is in just a bit, charging the people, “Serve God and abandon idols and reject idols,” Joshua finally sees is not enough. He’s needs something more official, more formal, and so he chooses to “cut” or make this “new” covenant with Israel, between him and them that they will maintain their faithfulness to God. And we’ll see the problem as we go through this chapter.

If you have your sermon notes in the bulletin, you’ll see an outline there, and you’ll see that I want us to look at this chapter in terms of the gospel. That might not be surprising to you at this point in our study, but I hope you’ll see as we go along that this is very fitting. You’ll see that I’ve outlined this chapter in terms of “Gospel Reminders”; we’re going to be reminded of what God did for them in the past to rescue them, to save them. And then we’re going to see some “Gospel Obligations”; based on what God has done for them, Joshua’s going to command them, obligate them in certain ways. And then, finally, we’re going to see some “Gospel Fruit”; we’re going to see a hint at what Joshua’s really expecting this to all look like; the reality of what God’s done for them in the past should have a certain impact on them, and Joshua’s going to highlight that. And so we’ll see these things as we go along.

Let’s begin walking through the chapter with verses 1-7. We’ll look at “part 1” of “Gospel Reminders.” He’s going to go back through the history from Abraham to the wilderness. So, let’s look at Joshua 24:1-7: Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon

3 See Josh. 23:6-8, 11-13, 15-16.4 See Josh. 23:2.5 See Josh. 23:14.

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them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time.

So, he tells the story; he goes back to Abraham. But, notice here that Joshua is speaking as a prophet. He opens up in verse 2 with “Thus says Yahweh,” just like you’d read hundreds of times in the prophetic books. Joshua is serving as a prophet here. God is speaking through Joshua; the voice they hear is Joshua’s voice, but the words are God’s words. And God wants to remind them of all that he’s done for them. He begins the story with Abraham and his family, and he reminds them at the very beginning that Abraham and his family were pagans. They were idol worshippers. He wants to start there, I think, because he wants to press on them a picture of his grace to them. He wants to remind them that their very existence is based in God’s grace and nothing in them or their family.6 Abraham was a pagan; he was an idol worshipper; he wasn’t looking for God; he wasn’t seeking the true God; he was worshipping his own gods, and he was satisfied with them. And God reached into his idol-worshipping life and “took him.” That’s what verse 3 says: “Then I took your father Abraham” totally by grace! There was nothing in Abraham that attracted God to him. There was no faith in Abraham at that point. God reached into his life, took him, and put him where he wanted him to be. He took him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and he brought him into the land of Canaan.7 And so he tells the story here.

He’s very much telling them the gospel story. If you asked an Old Testament Israelite, “What is the gospel?” they would likely tell you about the exodus event. The exodus event is the gospel to an Old Testament Israelite. It’s the event where God saved them from slavery, saved them from Egypt. And we’ll see that in just a moment. But God here actually pulls the story back a little bit further and talks about how he saved Abraham from his slavery. He saved Abraham from serving foreign gods. And so the gospel began way back then when God took the initiative and, totally by his grace, reached into Abraham’s life and took him, not his brother Nahor. Right? Terah had two sons: Abraham and Nahor. Nahor continued in his idol worship; God chose Abraham, totally by his grace. And so that is the beginning of the story of the Old Testament gospel, if you will.

But then he moves forward to the primary gospel event of the exodus. He tells how Jacob and Esau were given to Isaac, who was given to Abraham. He tells how the line continues, the promised line of descent, and then Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. But then God sent Moses and Aaron and he brought them out of Egypt. That’s the primary line of how God saved the people of Israel. He saved them serving Egypt. Now, here he doesn’t mention anything about slavery or serving, but later in the story we’re going to see a conversation between Joshua and the people, and they’re going to mention how God brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And so, God saved them, he rescued them from slavery to Egypt. But not just that. While they were in Egypt, we’re going to learn in this passage for the first time in the Bible, they were worshipping other gods; they were worshipping the gods of Egypt, while they were in slavery to Egypt. So, God not only rescued them from their physical slavery, but he also saved them from their spiritual slavery. He brought them out of the place dominated by the idols of Egypt. So, this is very much a reminder of the good news for them. They look back to this event of how God saved them from their slavery.

6 Cf. Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words (Focus on the Bible Commentaries; Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2000), pg. 183, who writes, “That there is a people of God at all hangs on the single thread of the mere good pleasure of God, who, for no apparent reason, took hold of our father Abraham, the sinner.”

7 Cf. Gen. 15:7.

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Well, he continues in verses 8-13 with more gospel reminders, from the wilderness to the conquest. And so, he brings the story up to date. Look at verses 8-13: Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites;8 it was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.

God’s grace is magnificently on display in this account. God is reminding them of his grace to them, of how he did all of this for them. And so he tells them as they traveled in the wilderness about how he gave them victory over the Amorites. He’s talking about those two kings, Sihon and Og, that are so famous in the Bible, how he gave them into the hands of the people of Israel. And that’s important for them to remember because that victory gave them that land; that is the land that God gave to the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, if you’ll remember. And so, God gave that to them freely.

But then, in verses 9 and 10, he reminds them of the story in Numbers 21, about the king of Moab, Balak, and how he “fought” against Israel. Now, he didn’t mount an army and come and attack Israel with any physical fighting force. Instead, he hired Balaam, the pagan prophet, the diviner, the magician, the powerful curser, the one who would speak a word and somebody would get hurt or killed or sick. But God turned what Balak and Balaam intended for harm against Israel for their good. You remember the story, surely. Balaam went intending fully to

8 The reference to “the hornet” here vexes students of Scripture. Further vexation occurs when we recognize that the most straightforward reading of the grammar indicates that the identity of the hornet is the two kings of the Amorites. This reflects a fulfillment of the promise given by God in Ex. 23:28 and Deut. 7:20, which, it seems, we must take symbolically. Ex. 23:28 makes this clear with its parallelism to Ex. 23:27; see them together: “I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets [singular in Hebrew] before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.” Thus, we should conclude that “hornet” is a vivid image of something that causes people terror. Now, in Josh. 24:12, again, the grammar indicates that the identity of “the hornet” is somehow “the two kings of the Amorites,” a reference to Sihon and Og, the two kings they defeated on the east side of the Jordan. So, how could the two kings of the Amorites serve as “the hornet” that God sent in ahead of Israel to drive out the Canaanites from the west side of the Jordan? Perhaps it was the report of what God did to those two kings at the hands of the people of Israel that terrified the people. Isn’t this what Rahab said when she spoke of how the Canaanites were terrified of Israel, because they had heard how Yahweh the God of Israel had dried up the waters of the Red Sea and also how he had enabled Israel to conquer Sihon and Og and their armies? See Josh. 2:9-11. Cf. David Jackman, Joshua: People of God’s Purpose (Preaching the Word series; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), pg. 187, who writes, “There is a rather mysterious reference in verse 12 to ‘the hornet’ that God sent before the Israelites and ‘which drove them out before you.’ The reference to ‘the two kings of the Amorites’ at this point seems to confirm that the most likely meaning is metaphorical. The liquidation of Og and Sihon produced terror and panic among the Canaanites equivalent to an invasion of hornets, when everyone would seek cover to protect themselves.”

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curse Israel, but God caused his words to change, so that he brought blessing on Israel. He blessed them, and he blessed them, and he blessed them! He couldn’t do anything but bless them! And so it was that God says, “I delivered you out of his hand. I saved you, I rescued you from Balaam.”

And then, finally, he brings the story up to date in verses 11-13, how they crossed the Jordan River and they took the land of the Canaanites. God gave it to them; he gave the Canaanites into the hand of the people of Israel. He gave them victory over the Canaanites. Now, if you look at the end of verse 12, he reminds them: “it was not by your sword or by your bow.” Now, as we’ve read through the book of Joshua, you know that they pulled their swords out, they pulled their bows out; they fought; they killed people; they engaged in warfare and combat. But God is reminding them that that was not the decisive factor in your victories! You had to fight; you had to! It was necessary that you fought…but you don’t get credit for the victory. God does. He is the one who granted them victory; he is the one who gave the enemies into their hand. Yes, they had to use their swords and their bows—they had to fight—but God is the one who made it decisive. God is the one who gave them the victory. And that is true in your life and mine. We have to fight—whether we’re talking about sin or Christian growth or just living in this world, enduring suffering—we have to fight, we have to work. But our work is not decisive; it is necessary, oftentimes, but, if we grow, if we put away sin, if we succeed in life in any way, it’s not because of our efforts or our labors. It’s because God is gracious to us to grant us victory, to grant us success.

Well, with all of these gospel reminders on the table, Joshua now steps in and speaks for himself, and he obligates the people, and he basically obligates them very simply to one thing: Serve Yahweh, not idols! Look at verses 14-21; let’s get the whole conversation in view here. Verses 14-21: “Now therefore—(note that big “therefore”; he’s just told them all that God had done for them, and now he says “therefore, here’s what you need to do”)—fear Yahweh and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh to serve other gods, for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And Yahweh drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.”

So Joshua obligates them. In light of what God’s done for you, he says, “Serve Yahweh.” But, note there in verse 14, he also commands them to “put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt.” It seems to imply that they have, in their midst, in their tents, in their camp, the idols that their ancestors worshipped, their idols that they worshipped while they

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were in Egypt. They’ve been harboring them this whole time, it appears. Joshua, to this point in the story, has not mentioned them. But it seems, here—unless they’ve reconstructed them in the intervening years—but it seems that all along the way, as God was giving them victory, as God was giving them the land that he promised to them, they were harboring these idols.9 They were keeping them, holding onto them in their midst, and Joshua says, “Put them away! Get rid of them!”

Now, verse 15 has two lines in it that are famous. You’ll find them on coffee cups and bumper stickers and keychains and posters. The first one is, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” I trust, as you look at verse 15, you’ll recognize that, when it’s on a coffee cup or a bumper sticker or a poster or a keychain, it’s taken out of context. Notice how he introduces that command: “If it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh…choose this day whom you will serve.” You see what he’s saying? “If you decide that it is a bad thing to serve Yahweh the true God, if you decide that Yahweh’s not worth serving, you’ve still gotta serve somebody.” And he gives them a choice. He says, “You can choose the gods that your ancestors worshipped, that Abraham and his family worshipped, or you can choose the gods that are in the land, that are among the Canaanites that you’re facing. Make your choice! You gotta serve somebody, and you will!” That’s the reality of life. You are always serving somebody or something. You can’t not serve. And so Joshua says, “If you won’t serve God, you will somebody, and so make your choice. You’ve got idols to choose from.”

The end of verse 15 gives us the other line that’s famous, and it’s a good one to have on a coffee cup or a keychain or a bumper sticker or a poster: “But as for me and my house, my family, we will serve Yahweh! We will serve the Lord!” So, Joshua stands apart from the people and he says, “My family—we’ve made our choice and we choose Yahweh! There’s not any option for us about these pagan gods! We have chosen Yahweh.”

And then we get into the people’s response. We get this conversation and this back-and-forth between Joshua and the people. The people respond to him, “Far be it from us”—in verse 16—“Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh to serve other gods!” They emphatically say, “There’s no way we could serve other gods! There’s no way! Why would we do that??” And then, in the next two verses, they list the facts of the gospel for them. They list them; they know what God has done for them; they mention it; they speak of it; they talk about it; they recite and rehearse the history of how God has blessed them, of how God has saved them from Egypt in particular. They know the details; they know the facts. And they say, “In light of that, how could we serve any other gods??” And then, at the end of verse 18, they say, “Therefore, in light of what he’s done for us, we also—like you, Joshua—we also will serve Yahweh, for he is our God! He’s our God!”

And then in verse 19, Joshua drops the bombshell:10 “But Joshua said to the people, ‘You are not able to serve Yahweh.’” Joshua says, “You can’t do it! You can’t serve Yahweh! You do not

9 Cf. Howard, Joshua, pg. 435, who writes, “Thus, false worship had been a hallmark not only of Israel’s distant ancestors or of their more immediate ancestors in Egypt, but even of themselves, here in the land of Canaan. Joshua’s implication was that the nation had never truly rid itself of false worship, and he was urging the people in the strongest terms possible to do so now.”

10 Cf. Trent C. Butler, Joshua (Word Biblical Commentary 7; Dallas: Word, 1984), pg. 274, who refers to this as “the most shocking statement in the OT.”

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have the ability to serve Yahweh!” He gives a reason; why are they not able? What’s their problem? On one level, their problem is because of who God is, who the true God is: “He is a holy God; he is a jealous God.” Why is he reminding them of this? I suspect that, when they make this claim, this profession, “We will serve the Lord! We will serve Yahweh!” they’re thinking in terms of how to serve idols, how easy it is to serve pagan gods. How do you serve a pagan god? Well, you build him a little statue, and you bring him food every day, and you make sure he stays warm and goes to bed at night; you take care of him; you provide his needs. That’s how you take care of a pagan god. There are manuals for it; you can read them on the internet. That’s how you take care of a pagan god, and so I think Joshua is recognizing that the people are easily saying, “Yeah, we’ll serve Yahweh,” and what they mean is, “We need how to serve God; we’ve served the idols of Egypt; we know how to do that; that’s easy! We can do it! We will do it, in fact!” But Joshua is reminding them that the true God, the God of the Bible, Yahweh, the God of Israel, is not like pagan gods. He has no needs! He has no needs! You can’t bring him food and it makes him happy. You can’t find a list of “do this and do this and do this do this and don’t do that and don’t do that,” and he’s a happy God; he’s not like that! The gods that we make up, that human beings make up are easy to serve.11 The true God, the one who created everything—he’s not like that. He’s holy; he’s in a category all by himself. He’s got no needs. He is holy; he is altogether other.

He is also a jealous God. I wonder how that hits you when you read it in your Bibles. It’s a pretty common descriptor of God. We tend to think of jealousy in its negative connotations. Somebody has something that we want, and we get upset because they have what we want, and we feel jealous. But there’s another aspect of jealousy that has to do with relationships, and I wonder if we are less comfortable with it for a good reason: because we’ve never had the relationships that are closest to us threatened. Because, you see, jealousy, in its pure form, jealousy as it pertains to God especially, has to do with a passionate response to a threat, particularly a threat to a relationship. And some of us don’t know what that’s like, what it’s like to have our closest, most intimate relationship threatened by something else outside. When that happens, it is proper and right and good for a passion to rise up to drive a response that protects the relationship. That’s what jealousy is all about; at the core of jealousy, it is about a passionate reaction to protect a relationship. And that’s what God’s jealousy is all about. He’s in a relationship with these people, and he will not brook rivals. He will not brook threats to the relationship. And we just discovered that the people of Israel have idols in their tents, in their camp. They have been harboring these idols, perhaps for years, and God has been utterly gracious to continue them the land, to continue blessing them in the midst of their sin.

11 Cf. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr., Joshua (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), pgs. 557-558, who writes, “The danger is that they fail to reckon fully with Yahweh’s unique character compared to the gods they have known. His audience viewed the latter as so easy to please that they could serve several of them at the same time. They would, thus, assume they could easily get along with Yahweh in a mutual back-scratching relationship: They protect Yahweh and he protects them.” Cf. also Butler, Joshua, pg. 274, who observes, “The issue at stake in the entire chapter is the service of other gods, presented as a present reality for Israel. Her experience is that of the service of gods who make less demands than does Yahweh. She has been able to serve such gods. She could build images for them, dress them, perfume them, build a house for them, bring sacrifices to feed them, carry them in processions, even bury them in appropriate moments (Gen 35:4; cf. 31:34)….[For] the common worshipers, it was certainly within their possibilities to serve the gods they knew, indeed, to serve several of them simultaneously. Joshua has detected this in the response of the people.”

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But, here Joshua wants to remind them that he will brook no rivals. And you need to know that about your God. God didn’t stop being jealous when he sent Jesus to die for our sins and our failures. His jealousy, in a sense, is displayed in that very event. But you can be sure, Christian, that if you are harboring idols, if you are harboring other things that you give your allegiance to and give your life to, you can be sure that God is going to act in jealousy. He’s going to rise up in his passion because he loves you, because he wants to protect his relationship with you. And that might be a painful thing for you. And so the call from Joshua here is that you get rid of anything that threatens your commitment to God, anything that threatens your relationship with Jesus. Get rid of it! Because if you’re truly his bride, if you are truly in a relationship with this God, and you’re harboring other lovers, he will act to protect that relationship! He may not act immediately, but he will, and it will be painful, but it will be good. But a better end is to get rid of them, to act for yourself, to get rid of anything that threatens your allegiance to Jesus.

And that’s what Joshua is calling the people to do here: “Get rid of your idols.” He’s telling them, “You can’t serve this God because this is the way he is,” and then he warns them, “He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.”12 He’s basically saying, “He is not going to tolerate you harboring these idols forever. He’s not going to tolerate it; he’s not going to put up with it.” “He will turn and do you harm and consume you, even after having done you good.” It’s a warning against presumption here, presuming that because God has been good to me, he’s not going to act in judgment for them or discipline for us. It’s a very powerful warning against presumption. Joshua perceives that they are indeed being presumptuous. What’s their response? Look in verse 21: “No! But we will serve Yahweh!”

Well, in verses 22-25, Joshua then gives us a picture of what he’s expecting precisely, literally, physically, exactly. What’s it going to look like? If their allegiance to God is on par, if they are connected to him, if their relationship is good, what’s it going to look like? What is the fruit that will be borne? Verses 22-25: And Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “Yahweh our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules13 for them at Shechem. So Joshua says, “You are

12 I wanted to comment on my discomfort with this sentence. It’s such a bald statement that God will not forgive their transgressions and sins. This could be a statement we merely need to hold in tension with the reality that God is fundamentally a forgiving God. See Ex. 34:6-7. However, there may be a translation difficulty here that helps alleviate the situation in this context. The word translated “forgive” has a physical meaning often used in Scripture; it means “to lift, to carry, to bear” an object. For example, it’s used repeatedly in Joshua 3-4 to depict the priests “carrying” the ark of the covenant. This is the only verse in Joshua where it has a non-physical meaning. Now, this word is used throughout the Old Testament with a term for sin as its object, and it usually does mean forgive and is so translated. However, it’s possible that in this context Joshua is making a play on words of sorts. If he means something like God will not “carry” your transgressions or sins, perhaps the point is just that he will not “put up” with it or tolerate it. Two obscure English translations actually render it this way. Young’s Literal Translation reads, “He doth not bear with your transgression and with your sins.” And the New Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic translation, reads, “he is a jealous God who will not tolerate either your misdeeds or your sins.” Contextually, this might be a more fitting translation. Or, I might just be trying too hard to wiggle out of an uncomfortable warning!

13 On this unique phrase, cf. Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 560, who writes, “Joshua institutes ‘decrees and laws,’ a phrase that elsewhere suggests a hendiadys (‘decree-and-law’ as a single idea) summarizing a legally binding, standing policy (Ex. 15:25; 1 Sam 30:25; Ezra 7:10). In short, the people take on themselves the ‘covenant’ here

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witnesses against yourselves.” What does that mean? Well, Joshua recognizes that each family and each individual ultimately has to make this commitment for themselves. They’re all gathered together at Shechem here to make this covenant, to engage in this relationship, this agreement with Joshua, and they’re publically affirming, “We will serve the Lord.” And so, when he says, “You are witnesses against yourselves,” what he basically means is—if you’ll put yourselves in that situation for just a minute—is I heard you say that you will serve the Lord, and you heard me say that I will serve the Lord, and, “You are witnesses,” means that we are accountable to each other. The people of Israel, each individual family and each individual within the family was accountable to each other for their relationship with God.14 Folks, that’s something that carries over very much into the Christian life. Your relationship with Jesus is not private. Your relationship with Jesus is a public affair. You are accountable, we are accountable to each other for our relationship with God. That’s why we are called together in a family, the church. We hold each other accountable. And so, if I’m struggling in my faith in Jesus, if I’m struggling in the way that I relate to my God, I have a responsibility to let you know about it. But guess what? If you see me giving off evidence that I’m struggling in my relationship with God, guess what? You have a responsibility to come draw it to my attention. Either I’m unaware of it or I’m sinfully forcing it down, trying to hide it, cover it up because I don’t want you to know about it. We are accountable to each other. We are in a covenant relationship. Covenant relationships are public relationships. We are accountable to each other. That’s the way God designed it; it was true in the Old Testament and it’s true in the New Testament. We are accountable to each other, and that’s a good thing. We uphold each other for our profession of faith. We are accountable to each other. If I say, “I follow Jesus,” you are going to hold me accountable to that commitment…I hope. I expect you to; I need you to. We need each other to do that, and they needed each other to do it as well, and so Joshua proclaims this for them. He tells them of this accountability that they have to each other. They have chosen, they have verbally said, repeatedly, “We will serve Yahweh!”

But here’s how it needs to look. Verse 23: “Put away the foreign gods that are among you. You actually have to take the statues and the idols out of your tents and get rid of them.” That’s what it’s going to look like, if you’re really serving Yahweh. If you’re really serving the Lord, you’ve gotta get rid of them! You’ve got to get rid of them! “And incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.” So, there’s an internal aspect. It’s not just this hypocritical thing where I look pretty on the outside; I get rid of my idols in front of your face, but at home, in secret, I’m harboring them even still. There’s an internal reality there.

Now, I think it’s significant that we are at Shechem at this point. Shechem is a place with history in the Bible,15 and I think Joshua knows that, and I think he purposed to gather them at Shechem

enacted as a permanent, official, self-imposed public policy that Israel will serve Yahweh alone.” Cf. A. Graeme Auld, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (The Daily Study Bible Series; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1984), pg. 128, who notes simply, “The Hebrew sentence translated ‘he will not forgive your transgressions’ (v. 19) is unusual and a little difficult; but I am clear that ‘he will not tolerate your rebellion’ comes closer to its sense.”

14 Cf. Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 559, who writes, “But here Joshua declares that the assembled crowd—the only ones taking on the covenant—are witnesses against each other in the present matter. That ‘witnesses’ is plural implies that their testimony is individual, not corporate. Each person attests the participation of the others in the covenant, and each is responsible to hold the others accountable for keeping it.”

15 This history begins with Abraham. Shechem is the first place where God promised to give the land to Abram. See Gen. 12:7. Cf. Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 549, who comments memorably, “As if to welcome Abram to his new neighborhood, Yahweh chose Shechem as the first place in Canaan to appear to him.”

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for this moment, in fact. Let me tell you a piece of that history. Genesis 35—this is the story of Jacob and his family, when they’re fleeing. He’s taken his family out of Laban’s household and they’re on the run from Esau at this point.16 At this juncture, Jacob says this: So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you—that’s the exact same words that Joshua uses, verbatim—Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.” What did they do? Verse 4: So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. I think that’s what Joshua’s expecting the people of Israel to do. “Give me your idols; we’re going to bury them or burn them or destroy them somehow. We’re going to get rid of them.” But the book of Joshua doesn’t tell us that they did. There’s an ominous note here to what is omitted. Joshua seems to be expecting that they will get rid of their idols. He commands them to, he calls them to, he obligates them to, because of what God’s done for them, and he has the history to back it up, that when Jacob called his family to do that, that’s exactly what they did. They brought him their statues, these golden idols, and they buried them, put them out of sight, got rid of them at Shechem.17

There’s something else that’s a little bit ominous to me. There’s a lot about what they say here. So, Joshua tells them, “Put away your idols,” and how do they respond? With words.18 “Yahweh our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” As I was looking at the whole of the passage, I noticed that three times they make this commitment to serve the Lord.

Verses 18, 21, and 24: “Therefore we also will serve Yahweh, just like you Joshua.” “No,” Joshua said, “You can’t serve Yahweh,” and they said, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.” And

16 No, this is not right. He’s already encountered Esau, back in Gen. 33.17 Cf. Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 549, who writes, “Even more telling, when Jacob returned there after his years

in Haran, Shechem was the site where he and his entourage renounced other gods, burying their idols and idolatrous jewelry under the landmark oak (35:4). Those memories made Shechem the ideal place for a later generation, the first one actually to occupy Canaan in fulfillment of the patriarchal promise, formally to renounce its allegiance to other gods and to pledge loyalty to Yahweh alone.”

18 Cf. Richard S. Hess, Joshua (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 6; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), pg. 338, who writes, “The people do not respond to any of the specifics that Joshua has commanded. They only repeat their earlier promise to serve the Lord. The omission of an explicit note of obedience is ominous. It is not like the response of Jacob’s family who buried all their images and cultic items at Shechem (Gen. 35:2–4). It suggests that, whatever loyalty the people swore, they kept their images and symbols of other deities.”

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then finally here, they say, “Yahweh our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” Notice how they added a line, extended their commitment a little bit. But three times—and I was reminded that there’s another occasion at the very beginning of their relationship with God, in Exodus 19-24, when three times they committed to serve God.

Exodus 19-24 is when God brought them out of Egypt, and he brought them finally to himself at Mt. Sinai. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, on eagles’ wings, and I brought you to myself.”19 And it’s there in Exodus 19 that he proposes this covenant relationship with them. He says, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”20 And then in Exodus 20, you get the Ten Commandments and some other laws, and then chapters 21-23 you get more laws and regulations, “The Book of the Covenant,” and then in Exodus 24, you get sacrifices that actually ratify the covenant relationship. It’s the pronouncement, “I pronounce you man and wife,” essentially, in Exodus 24. This is all one event. Well, in chapters 19-24, three times they say, “We will serve Yahweh,” essentially. “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do,” Exodus 19:8. Exodus 24:3: “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.” Exodus 24:7: “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Notice that they add and extend their commitment. It’s not seven chapters in the book of Exodus until they build a golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai and break their marriage relationship with God.21 That does not bode well for the people of Israel here in Joshua 24.22

You’ve all read Joshua 24, and you think this is a happy ending, and I’m ruining it for you, and I’m sorry! There is a negative pall that comes across this chapter as I read it to conclude the book of Joshua. It leaves us wanting something more, I think.

Well, back to the book of Joshua. Verses 26-28 give us the way that they’re going to remember. How are they going to remember this covenant? Well, he’s going to memorialize it in a certain way. Joshua 24:26-28: And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And

19 See Ex. 19:4.20 See Ex. 19:5.21 See Ex. 32.22 Cf. J. Gordon McConville, and Stephen N. Williams, Joshua (The Two Horizons Old Testament

Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), pg. 129, who writes, “The Baals moved in with a speed (Judg 2:11)—or, rather, did not move out with an intransigence—that reminds us of how quickly the affair of the golden calf followed the giving of the Ten Commandments, or how soon after the covenant Ham transgressed against Noah, and even brings to mind the story of the fall occurring so swiftly after creation.”

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he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of Yahweh that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

Well, finally, famously the book ends with a series of funerals, and if you’re looking at your sermon notes, it says “Four Funerals,” and if you’re familiar with the book of Joshua, you’re probably thinking “three funerals.” I have not been very good at math for many years, but I can count to four, I assure you—accurately. So, let me show you the four funerals that I see here. Verses 29-30 give us the first one: After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being 110 years old. And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. So, finally Joshua is called “the servant of the Lord.” That’s the title that’s been given Moses throughout the book of Joshua, and finally he comes to the end of his life and the narrator here gives it to Joshua as well. And it’s fitting because he just committed himself, “As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” And he has proven himself, right? He’s been faithful throughout his life, and so finally he gets the honorary title of “the servant of Yahweh.” And so, he’s buried in his inheritance.

Now, verse 31 is where I see funeral number two. Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that Yahweh did for Israel. And you’re thinking, “Man, I don’t see a funeral there. There’s nothing said about death. It seems like a good note.” And most people see it that way. But maybe I’m just a cynic, and I see a negative note here. “Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua”…and that’s all. I see the death knell of the people of Israel here, the beginning of their death, if you will. Another funeral here. And this is confirmed for me a little bit in the book of Judges, not just because of the way the story goes, but Judges chapter 2 verse 7 quotes this verse exactly, and then three verses later, in Judges 2:10 we read, And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know Yahweh or the work that he had done for Israel. Would you think about that with me for just a minute? Joshua dies at 110 years old. At a conservative estimate, we could say that the elders who were with Joshua when he dies were probably about 40. And with another conservative estimate, we could say that they probably died at about 80. Forty years. Forty years. How can it be? Forty years later the men and the women, the adults among them “did not know Yahweh or the work that he had done for Israel.” Think about it: these who were the adults of the next generation, aren’t they the children? Aren’t they the children standing here in Joshua 24? How could it be that they grew up and they didn’t know? How could it be that the people “served Yahweh” and yet their children didn’t know? How could it be? If they’re harboring these idols all along the way, Joshua 24:31 might say, “Yes, they served Yahweh, but they also served other gods.” They didn’t serve Yahweh alone. Their allegiance to him was not total and complete. And the very next generation suffered. Could that happen to us? Maybe we think it’s easier for us. We’ve got tools that they didn’t have; we’ve got resources that they didn’t have. We’ve got picture Bibles that we can use with our children; they didn’t have that. We’ve got cartoons that teach us Bible stories; they didn’t have that. We’ve got a whole Bible; they didn’t have that. How could it be that one generation later

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they did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel? It boggles my mind; I don’t have an answer for that question. I pray that it does not happen to us.

Well, back to the end of Joshua, two more funeral to go through quickly. As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim. There’s a mixed tone to these verses. Yes, they brought the bones of Joseph into the land, and it’s a picture of God’s faithfulness. Yes. And yes, the priest’s son, Eleazar, is buried in his own city, the city that was given to him. Yes, this is all a picture of the faithfulness of God. But when a book ends with death, death, death, this is not a good thing! Death is never a good thing! The story ends with death, and it leaves us longing for more. It leaves us really seeing a need for another covenant, a New Covenant here.23

I’d like to explore that very quickly this morning. There’s a problem with the people of Israel that Joshua brings out here. There’s a problem. Joshua said that the problem was that they can’t, verse 19: “You are unable to serve the Lord.” And there is definitely an inability problem with the people. But there’s also a “won’t” problem, a willingness problem, and Moses told them about that in Deuteronomy 31. At the very end of Moses’ life, Moses told them—or Yahweh told Moses at least—that they would not serve Yahweh. Joshua says they can’t, and Moses had already said that they wouldn’t. Deuteronomy 31:16: And Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.” The people just said, “Far be it from us that we would forsake Yahweh.” Yahweh already told Moses they will forsake Yahweh. So, there’s a “can’t” problem and there’s a “won’t” problem.

What is the problem really? The problem is the nature of the heart. Joshua commanded them to incline their heart toward Yahweh. Well, the psalmist prayed for that very thing in Ps. 119:36.24 He prayed, Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! “Incline my heart”—why did he pray for that? Because the psalmist recognized what the people of Israel at large didn’t or wouldn’t admit: “I can’t! I can’t incline my heart!” Do you get the metaphor? Take your heart out and bend it in a certain direction. That’s the image. Take your heart and turn it in a particular direction. You can’t do that! Joshua commanded them to, but they can’t. The psalmist prays and asks God to do it because God can! And he recognizes that he can’t.

Moses also said, “Circumcise your hearts!” Take it out and transform it radically! Deuteronomy 10:16 says, Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. But

23 Cf. Bruce K. Waltke and Charles Yu, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), pg. 533, who writes, “The book of Joshua implicitly looks forward to the need for a new covenant even as the book of Deuteronomy explicitly prophesies a new covenant after exile. Once again we see that the Old Testament is a masterpiece of indirection, understandable only to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.”

24 At this point in the sermon, I simply listed the citations of the following five verses, but I am including the words of the verses here for easy reference.

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then later, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses said, “Yahweh will circumcise your heart.” So, he commands them, “Circumcise your heart!” Take it out and transform it radically! Cut out the stubbornness. But then he says, knowing that they can’t, Yahweh will do it: And Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.25

Ezekiel sounds the same note in connection with the promise of a new covenant. In Ezekiel 18:31, Yahweh commands the people to “make yourselves a new heart”: Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?26 Like they could. Well then, in chapter 36:26-27, a famous new covenant passage, Yahweh promises, “I will do it! I will give you a new heart; I will give you a new spirit; I will put my Spirit in you!” And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.27 So, the heart of the problem is always going to be the heart. This is true of Israel; this is true of the world. This is true of all humanity. We have a heart problem. We need a new one. We can’t do it ourselves. You can’t perform heart surgery on yourself, physically or spiritually.

Well, finally I’d like to reflect this gospel rhythm that we see here. The pattern of the gospel that we see in Joshua 24 is present from Genesis to Revelation and everywhere in between. I hope you come to see it more frequently. But the pattern God telling us what he’s done for us by his grace, and only then, based on that, does he command us to live a certain way. This is the truth of the gospel that we celebrate as Christians, and it’s been true all along. Jesus died to enable us to serve God now and forever. It really is all about service. It really is all about worship. You gotta serve somebody, and Jesus died so you’d serve him. Hebrews 9:13-14 tells us this very thing: For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now! During your life! That’s why Jesus died, to pay for your sins, to cleanse your heart, because you can’t do it yourself. And if your heart is clean, then you’re set free to serve the living God. But I hope you know that that’s your

25 I wanted to elaborate on this verse. Note the result: Yahweh will circumcise your heart and the result will be that you will love Yahweh wholeheartedly. This is the “greatest commandment,” taken from Deut. 6:4, the Shema, the fundamental confession of Israel. But they couldn’t obey that command, so God promised to change them in such a way that he would enable them to obey.

26 I wanted to elaborate on this verse as well. Yahweh is commanding the people to repent here, but, again, as in Deuteronomy, he recognizes that they can’t even obey the command to repent of their sins! This inability is the backdrop to the New Testament using the language of God “granting” repentance to sinners. Cf. Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25.

27 Again, I wanted to elaborate here. We are all born with a “heart of stone.” Going back to Joshua’s command, “incline your heart,” can you bend a rock? Here, what is needed is not simply bending, but rather replacement. Can you perform open-heart surgery on yourself? No, you cannot! God promises to perform a heart transplant, removing the rock and replacing it with a “heart of flesh,” which describes a heart that beats and pumps blood and is flexible and pliable. Moreover, that last line is beautiful to me: “and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” God promises to “cause” us to obey! In an effort to protect our perceived notions of “free will,” sometimes we deny God this right. The only reason any of us ever obeys is because God graciously causes us to do so. This doesn’t negate our freedom in choosing to act; rather, it assures us that our efforts actually can be successful! It is his empowering grace that enables us to repent, to overcome sin, and to obey.

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destiny also for eternity. You were made to serve! Always! And you will. We find this out in the Revelation 7:14-15: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. All the time, serving God, forever and ever—that is our destiny! That’s what Jesus died for us to do. He died so that we would serve him.

And here’s just a reminder that that means that Jesus is our Lord. This is the fundamental confession of Christianity. I became a Christian after the “Lordship salvation” controversy circled among churches, but I’ve studied the arguments for that in an academic way, but it was a little bit before my time. But, honestly, I never understood it, because I never understood how anybody could read the Scriptures and honestly say that a person can be saved and accept Jesus as Savior but not Lord, because the fundamental confession of Christianity according to Romans 10:9—because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Jesus is Lord or he’s nothing to you! He is Lord or he is nothing. You can’t have it both ways.

Well, finally, the pattern is there; the gospel obligates us to obey Jesus. Paul gives us this very concisely in 2 Cor. 5:14-15: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. That’s a little convoluted sentence there, but the point is simple: Jesus died and rose from the dead for you, so that you would serve him, so that would not serve yourself anymore, because that you do when you’re just a person in this world—you serve yourself and everything else! But Jesus died and rose from the dead so that you would serve him and him alone.

Finally, the fruit of the gospel, the gospel bears the fruit of transformed lives. I wonder if you’ve seen this before in Col. 1:6-8: [The gospel] has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras…[who] has made known to us your love in the Spirit. We typically look at those verses, and we think, “Well, the gospel bearing fruit means that it’s making conversions. It’s bringing people to salvation.” And it does that. But Paul seems to point to something different, a further fruit that the gospel is bearing among those who are already Christians. He points to how “Epaphras has made known to us your love in the Spirit.” You see, that’s the fruit that the gospel has borne among the Christians: love in the Spirit. That’s why we need to keep preaching the gospel; that’s why we need to keep studying the gospel, reminding each other of the gospel, because it’s the Spirit of God using the gospel of God to transform our lives. That’s what he does. The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22, is love. It’s the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit the Spirit produces. Well, here it’s the fruit of the gospel. But don’t you see that you can’t separate them? You can’t separate the fruit of the Spirit from the fruit of the gospel. You can’t separate the work of the Spirit from the work of his Word. They are always in tandem.

So, you gotta serve somebody, and my prayer is that you’ll serve Jesus alone in your everyday life. As you go to work, as you go to play, as you engage in relationships, you will serve Jesus and no one else.

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