Joshua 24

Joshua 24:2

This reveals something that we didn’t know before, although we suspected it. When God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, He called him out of a home of idolatry. Terah, his father, we are told here, served other gods. This raises the question: Why did God choose Abraham and make a nation from him? Let’s consider the background. After the Tower of Babel, man totally departed from the Lord. No one served Godnot even Terah the father of Abraham. When God confused the language, the people scattered in every direction, and they took with them a knowledge of the true and living God, which is the reason even pagan tribes today have a knowledge of the true God, although they do not worship Him. There was total apostasy after Babel. Now what will God do that will be consistent with His person, His attributes, and His character? He could judge the human family and remove it from the earth. He could make the earth as bleak as the moon if He wanted to. But He didn’t. He will recover mankind. He will begin with one man. That man was Abraham, who must have had a desire in his heart to know the living and true God. When God called him, He told him to leave Ur and all his family. Now we know why. Terah was an idolater. God called him away from all that in order to deal with him and make of him a nation through which the Messiah would come into the world. Now God formed the nation in the brickyards of Egypt. (And, friends, if God is going to make anything of you and me, He will take us through the fire to do it. He won’t use the molly-coddle of our contemporary churches, I can assure you!)

Joshua 24:5

God continues to trace His care of them: delivering them from the Amorites who fought them and from Balaam who tried to curse them, bringing them across the Jordan and delivering them from the inhabitants of the land who fought against them.

Joshua 24:13

Now the people of Israel are settled in the land. But, because they did not get rid of the civilization that was there, they are surrounded by idolatry. They are in real danger. Realizing this, Joshua calls them to a real dedication to God, a turning over of their lives completely to Him. Listen to him.

Joshua 24:14

The more I know about Joshua, the better I like him. Through the years he has stood in the shadow of Moses so that we think he is a sort of miniature Moses. But Joshua is a man of great stature. God made no mistake in choosing this man. Although Joshua is an average man, this book reveals that an average man dedicated to God can be mightily used. He says to the nation, “Do you want to go back to the gods of your fathers, those pagan gods which they served? Or do you want to serve the gods of the Amorites? You can choose. But as for me and my house, we have made our choice; we are going to serve the Lord!” Friend, this was a tremendous challenge to all the tribes of Israel to consider their covenant with God. Notice the response of the people.

Joshua 24:16

You would think that because of the fantastic way God worked with Israel they would stay close to Him and serve Him. It is easy to point a finger back about 3,580 years ago and say what a sorry lot Israel was. What terrible failures they were. What about us today? How close are we staying to the living God?

Joshua 24:20

God also has been so good to us that many people live in a lackadaisical manner without any regard as to the blessings He has showered upon them. Many people think they can do exactly as they please. It is true that He is a God of mercy, love, and comfort, but He is also a God of judgment.

Joshua 24:21

These sound like good intentions on the part of Israel, don’t they?

Joshua 24:25

In other words, what Joshua wrote was put on the same scroll that contained the five books of Moses. This brings us to the death of Joshua.

Joshua 24:29

Joshua was buried in that barren place he had chosen for his inheritance.

Joshua 24:31

At the time of Joshua’s death he must have been held in high esteem because Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. This was the effect of his godly influence. Joseph was the father of Ephraim and Manasseh. When these two sons left Egypt, they brought their father’s bones with them and carried them for forty years in the wilderness. They had promised Joseph they would bury his bones in the Promised Land. Why? Because he was expecting to be raised from the dead in that land.

Joshua 24:33

Aaron was the first priest to die; Eleazar was the second. The Book of Joshua is bound by death. It begins with the death of Moses and ends with the deaths of Joshua and Eleazar. The thing that interests me in this verse, however, is the fact that they buried Eleazar in the hill that pertained to Phinehas, his son, which was given him in Mount Ephraim. The question is, “Where did Phinehas get this land?” The priests were given no land, and yet this man acquired a nice little parcel of real estate. Here is a beginning of departure from the living and true God, which will become obvious in the Book of Judges.