Joshua 24. Covenant Renewal at Shechem

The Covenant Renewal at Shechem

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. ² And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, 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. ³ 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. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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.

• Joshua assembles all the tribes of Israel at Shechem.
  • Call of Abraham: God took Abraham from beyond the Euphrates, gave him many descendants, including Isaac.
    • Notice how Abraham’s ancestors served other gods
  • Jacob & Esau: Esau’s was given Sier and Jacob’s family went to Egypt.
• Notice how Joshua speaks through God speaking in first person. This is all God has done, not Israel.

⁶ “‘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. ⁷ And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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, ¹⁰ but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. ¹¹ 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. ¹² And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. ¹³ 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.’

• Exodus from Egypt: Moses and Aaron sent and God cast plagues on Egypt, leading to deliverance through the Red Sea.
• Wilderness wandering
• Victory over Balak & Balaam: Balaam could not curse Israel.
• The Promised Land: Defeat of the Amorites, Canaanites, and others; God sent the “hornet” ahead.
• Gift of land and blessings: Israel received land, cities, and vineyards they did not work for

Choose Whom You Will Serve

¹⁴ “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, 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 the Lord.”

• Joshua tells the people to serve and fear God. “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
• “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, ¹⁷ for it is the Lord 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. ¹⁸ And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

• The people answer: They also recount God’s deliverance and pledge to serve Him.

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”

• Joshua warns: God is holy and jealous; turning away from Him will bring disaster.
  • “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” is strange language to us, but he is conveying the seriousness of this commitment. No one is able to fully serve Him as sinful beings.

²¹ And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” ²² Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³ He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”

• Israel again says they will serve the Lord.

²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. ²⁶ And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” ²⁸ So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

• Joshua establishes a covenant with Israel and gave them rules written in the Book of the Lord.
• He sets up a large stone under the terebinth/oak tree אַלָּה (allah) as a witness.
  • Could this be the same tree that Jacob buried his idols in Shechem from Genesis 35?

Joshua’s Death and Burial

²⁹ After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. ³⁰ 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.

• Joshua dies at 110 years old and is buried at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. Israel served the LORD all Joshua’s days 
• Why did Joshua not appoint a leader after him? Was it assumed the high priest would take that role?

³¹ Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.

• Israel obeyed! Sadly it takes just one turn of a page in the Bible to see Israel’s forsaking of the LORD.

³² 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.

• Joseph’s bones, brought from Egypt, buried at Shechem (fulfilling Genesis 50:25)

³³ 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.

• Eleazar dies and is buried at Gibeah, in the hill country of Ephraim. Now Phinehas is the high priest.