Fear God, serve faithfully, abandon your idols, obey the Lord

Text Joshua 24 Time 11 07 21 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)

We come this week to the final chapter of Joshua, what we call Joshua 24. Most of the chapter is taken up with a final speech to the people by Joshua before his death at the age of 110. The speech is in verses 1-28 and includes the responses of the people. Then we have a final footnote rounding off the whole book in verses 29-33. Joshua's speech was given in very different circumstances to ours today but I do not think it is difficult, if we are Christians, to see obvious parallels between what Joshua said to the people then and what Jesus says to his people here today.

So Joshua assembles all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. No doubt this means representatives of all the tribes. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. He then said to all the people, This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says and proceeded to speak the Word of God.

We can divide up what he says into two parts. First, he summarises their history, which is also our history as believers, in verses 1-13. Then in verses 14-24 he urges them to fear the LORD, to serve him faithfully and to abandon all forms of idolatry. There is some dialogue here as Joshua does not merely want them to say they will serve the LORD. He is looking for a genuine commitment from them. Thirdly, verses 25-28 tell us how Joshua formally made a covenant for them and set up a stone of witness. Covenants are important in the Bible and here once again we have reference to an agreement between God and his people. Finally, we have a historical footnote that also has things to teach us about serving the LORD.

1. Believer, do not forget your history

Joshua begins by summarising their history, going back as far as Abraham and his call. He gives the history in four parts.

1. From the call of Abraham to slavery in Egypt

Joshua goes right back to the time Long ago when their ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. Joshua wants them to remember their godless and pagan beginnings.

We ought to remind ourselves of that from time to time too. Even if we were brought up in Christian homes that was our background by nature.

3 But God says I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. It all began with the call of Abraham. I gave him Isaac, says the LORD 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. As Abraham's family grew, God's hand was on them guiding them and that included their going down to Egypt, which was at first, you recall, because there was famine in Canaan. So with us when we heard God's call it wasn't one that took us straight to the Promised Land in many cases. First, there was what we might call a sojourn in Egypt.

2. From slavery in Egypt to life in the wilderness

Joshua continues speaking for God Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, remember the ten plagues and I brought you out. Then came the crossing of the Red Sea When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 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. God miraculously brought them through the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptians just as for every believer, he has converted them and defeated all their enemies. He has delivered us from slavery. Remember that.

3. From life in the wilderness to the conquest of the land east of the Jordan

We read then (8-10) of how God brought them 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. There is also a reminder of how Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel and sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on them. But God refused to listen to Balaam, so he blessed them again and again, and God delivered them out of his hand.

4. From the conquest of the land east of the Jordan to the conquest of the rest of the Promised Land

Finally (11, 12) they crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against them, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but God says I gave them into your hands. 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. And (13) So God gave them a land on which they did not toil and cities they did not build; so that at that very time they were living in them and eat(ing) from vineyards and olive groves that they did not plant.

We too, thanks to conversion, are enjoying many wonderful things in life - good things from God. what blessings are ours in Christ. Never forget them.

As Paul writes to the Ephesians (2:1-10) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, ... All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Believer, never forget how God has brought you from being dead in your transgressions and sins to being created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

2. Fear the LORD, serve him faithfully and abandon your idols - no easy task

Having rehearsed this history, Joshua now calls on the Israelites to act in the light of it. He says 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.

Three things are required - fear of the LORD, faithful service and the abandonment of idols. He is a little sarcastic, it seems, when he comes to this third requirement. He says (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. If you're not going to serve the LORD then choose. Are you going to serve the old gods or the new ones? But as for me and my household, he asserts we will serve the LORD.

A dialogue then follows

The people say (16-18) Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God. Given all that the LORD has done for them why would they bother with false gods?

But Joshua pushes them further (19, 20) You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you. Do you know what you are doing asks Joshua. It is dangerous to turn to God if you are then going to turn away. He is holy. He is jealous. Aren't you in danger of raising his ire?

But the people are sure (21) No! We will serve the LORD.

And so Joshua says (22) You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.

"Yes, we are witnesses," they replied.

And so Joshua says very practically Now then ... throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.

24 And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.

Is that our response too? Are we determined to serve God and obey him, well aware of the consequences of a failure to do so? Yes, we ought to doubt ourselves but still we must act and do what is right. Search out the idols that remain and remove them.

3. Solemnly commit yourselves to serving the LORD and obeying him

We read next (25) that On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem where Abraham had met with God so long ago and where Jacob returning from the east had urged his family to bury their household gods, he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. Other religions did not feature covenants but the LORD was a Gd who made covenants with his people. There was a sacrifice and Joshua also (26-28) recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Hence the record of it that we have here. He also took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD. "See!" he said to all the people. "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God." Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.

This is a reminder to us that there ought to be solemn moments when we dedicate ourselves to serving and obeying God. This is a solemn moment now - let's dedicate ourselves now to the Lord.

There was a preacher in Wales towards the end of the 18th century called Christmas Evans. At one point his preaching was blighted by a way of thinking that was popular at the time called Sandemanianism - a dry way of looking at the gospel that had little place for experience. He wrote

The Sandemanian heresy affected me so far as to quench the spirit of prayer for the conversion of sinners and it induced in my mind a greater regard for the smaller things of the kingdom of heaven than for the greater. I lost the strength which clothed my mind with zeal, confidence and earnestness in the pulpit for the conversion of souls to Christ. My heart retrograded in a manner and I could not realise the testimony of a good conscience. On Sabbath nights after having been in the day exposing and vilifying with all bitterness the errors that prevailed, my conscience felt displeased and reproached me that I had lost nearness to, and walking with God. It had disastrous results among the churches. I lost in Anglesey nearly all my old hearers and we thus almost entirely took down what had taken 15 years to raise.

Evans met and began to read the writings of Andrew Fuller and that set him thinking. He alsop heard a sermon by one Thomas Jones, who preached against the heresy. On his way home from this service, Evans had a remarkable experience of God that got Sandemanianism out of his system for ever. It was one of those solemn moments we are thinking about. He relates the story himself,

I was weary of a cold heart towards Christ and his sacrifice and the work of his Spirit; of a cold heart in the pulpit, in secret and in the study. For 15 years previously I had felt my heart burning within as if going to Emmaus with Jesus. On a day ever to be remembered by me, as I was going from Dolgellau to Machynlleth, climbing up towards Cader Idris, I considered it to be incumbent upon me to pray, however hard I felt in my heart and however worldly the frame of my spirit was. Having begun in the name of Jesus, I soon felt as it were, the fetters loosening and the old hardness of heart softening, and, as I thought, mountains of frost and snow dissolving and melting within me. This engendered confidence in my soul in the promise of the Holy Ghost. I felt my whole mind relieved from some great bondage. Tears flowed copiously and I was constrained to cry out for the gracious visits of God, by restoring to my soul the joys of his salvation and to visit the churches in Anglesey that were under my care. I embraced in my supplications all the churches of the saints and nearly all the ministries in the principality by their names. This struggle lasted for three hours. It rose again and again, like one wave after another, or a high, flowing tide driven by a strong wind, till my nature became faint by weeping and crying. I resigned myself to Christ, body and soul, gifts and labours, every hour of every day that remained for me and all my cares I committed to Christ. The road was mountainous and lonely and I was wholly alone and suffered no interruption in my wrestling with God.

After this his old pulpit power returned to him. A new spirit of prayer came on the believers in Anglesey and within two years, 600 people were added to the Churches.

Pray for times like that.

4. Consider this final historical note and the final call for faithfulness

The book finishes with these footnotes about Joshua, the people, Joseph's bones and the High Priest Eleazar

Joshua 29, 30 After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

The people. In verse 31 we are told that Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.

Joseph's bones 32 And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.

Eleazar 33 And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.