Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

God had commissioned the Israelite leader Joshua to accomplish

a two-part mission: 1) to conquer the Canaanites (Joshua 1-12)
and 2) to settle the Israelite tribes in their allotted territories
(Joshua 13-22).

Commentary on Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Dennis Olson

God had commissioned the Israelite leader Joshua to accomplish a two-part mission:
1) to conquer the Canaanites (Joshua 1-12) and 2) to settle the Israelite tribes in their
allotted territories (Joshua 13-22).

In Joshua 24, it is time for this old leader to offer his last words of instruction and the
renewal of Israel’s covenant commitment to their God before he departs this life.
Several pieces of background are important to understanding the significance of
these final words of Joshua.

The promise of the land of Canaan

Much had been at stake in this mission to get Israel settled in Canaan. God’s
reputation as a promise-keeper was on the line. Over several centuries of time, God
had promised the land to Abraham (Genesis 12:1; 15:17-21; 17:8), Isaac (Genesis 26:2-5),
Jacob (Genesis 28:1-4, 13-15), Joseph (Genesis 48:3-4, 21), and Moses (Exodus 3:7-8).
There had also been a failed attempt by Moses to bring Israel into the land of Canaan
thirty-eight years earlier that had ended in disaster (Numbers 13-14). Joshua had a
heavy burden to get this right.

God’s holy war against Canaan

God’s initial instructions for Joshua’s holy war (Hebrew herem) were designed to
cleanse Canaan of all non-Israelites and eliminate all temptations to worship other
gods: “you shall not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them”
(Deuteronomy 20:16-18).

Such words reapplied over the centuries have had real consequences in the history of
God’s people, often tragic and disastrous. These horrific genocidal directives rightfully
trouble us. They seem to run contrary to so many other biblical texts (for example
Isaiah 2:1-4; 11:1-9, Matthew 5:9. 38-39, 43-48; 26:51-52; Romans 12:9-21; Colossians 1:20;
3:12-15) in which peace, non-violence, turning the other cheek, loving enemies and
“living peaceably with all” are upheld as God’s ultimate will and purpose for humanity
and the world.

Joshua’s incomplete and failed mission

We can’t resolve these thorny theological and ethical issues here. But the important
point for understanding Joshua 24 is that Joshua had a clear mandate to wipe out the
Canaanites completely. Yet, at the end of his life, Joshua had failed. The Canaanite
prostitute Rahab and her family (Joshua 6:22-25), the Canaanite clan of Gibeonites
(Joshua 9:22-27), and many other Canaanite towns were not conquered and thus
allowed to remain living in the land.

A few texts in Joshua do speak of an accomplished and total conquest of all of

Canaan (Joshua 11:23). Other assessments, however, have a disappointed God
complaining to Joshua that “very much of the land remains to be possessed” (Joshua
13:1). God had reassured Joshua that God would somehow finish the job later (“I
myself will drive them out” — Joshua 13:6). In the end, however, even God would not
complete the conquest of Canaan (Judges 1:22-36; 2:19-3:6). Remarkably, God
ultimately abandoned his own original holy war plan to wipe out all the Canaanites.
Instead, God permanently allowed the Canaanites to continue to live among the
Israelites in the land “in order to test Israel.” God thereby consigned the holy war
strategy to the dustbin of history, a rejected way forward.

The land as gift, remaining in the land as vocation

Another important theme in understanding Joshua’s farewell speech in Joshua 24 is
the recurring reminder to Israel that the conquest of Canaan was never based on
Israel’s inherent moral or religious superiority over the people of Canaan. The
Canaanites had lost their land because of centuries of wickedness and injustice
against their own people (Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 9:4-7; Psalm 82).

So why did God give Canaan to the Israelites instead? Simply because God had made
a promise and chose to keep that promise out of love for God’s people, Israel
(Deuteronomy 7:6-8; 10:15; 32:8-9). The land was pure gift (Deuteronomy 8:11-18;
Joshua 24:13). And just as the people of Canaan had lost their land because of their
wickedness, so Israel should remember that it too could lose the land if they forgot the
LORD (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). Eventually, Israel did perish from the land — the northern
kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE (1 Kings 14:15-16) and the southern kingdom of Judah in
587 BCE (2 Kings 21:10-15). In each case, God declared the reason: “because they have
done what is evil in my sight.” With this all in the background, we turn to our text of
Joshua 24.

Joshua’s farewell speech: rooted in God’s love (24:1-13)

Joshua invites all Israel to the town of Shechem in the central highlands of Israel.
Joshua reminds them of the long history of all that God had done for Israel: the
promises to the ancestors, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and God’s provision
through the wilderness (Joshua 24:1-13). Although much of this section is deleted from
the lectionary reading, these verses are important. They testify to God’s grace, mercy
and unmerited love of Israel which forms the reason for Joshua’s call in verse 14: “Now
therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” Reverence
and obedience to God are the primary ways by which God’s people give thanks to
God for the generous gifts of life and freedom God has already given.
We will serve the LORD! No, you won’t! Yes, we will! (24:14-21)
Joshua urges the people to put away “the gods of the ancestors” and “serve the
LORD.” Speaking on behalf of his own household, Joshua declares: “We will serve the
LORD” (Joshua 24:15). If the other Israelite household are unwilling to follow the
example of Joshua in serving the LORD, then they are free to “choose” among multiple
other foreign gods, whether Mesopotamian gods (from “beyond the River
[Euphrates]”) or “the gods of the Amorites [Canaanites]” (24:14-15). It doesn’t matter
which other god they choose; they will have broken the sacred covenant bond
between them and their one true God.

The Israelites respond to Joshua enthusiastically: “We also will serve the LORD”
(Joshua 24:18)! Now the reader might expect Joshua at this point to say, “Great! I’m
delighted to hear you’re on board!” Instead, Joshua sternly replies, “You cannot serve
the LORD!” God is jealous for your love, and God will not forgive you endlessly and
without consequence. If you forsake God, God will “consume you, after having done
you good” (Joshua 24:19). The people urgently answer back, “No, we will serve the
LORD” (24:21). The elderly Joshua seems to have a longer view of these matters based
on his long experience.

You are witnesses against yourselves (24:22-25)

Joshua proceeds to a formal ritual of renewing the covenant relationship between the
Israelites and Israel’s God at Shechem. The people’s own words of unfailing
commitment to serve God alone would be written down (Joshua 24:26) and
remembered as “witnesses against you (24:22).” The Israelites’ words of assurance to
Joshua at Shechem echo the words of an earlier generation spoken to Moses at
Mount Sinai. There too the Israelite had spoken with enthusiasm, “Everything that the
LORD has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7)! Israel, however, quickly forgot its
commitment and broke its covenant with God. They worshiped an idol — a golden calf
— and thereby came dangerously close to endangering any future with God (Exodus
32:1-35; see also Exodus 33-34). Joshua had been present there at Sinai (Exodus 32:17).
He had heard these insincere assurances from the people before.

Joshua knew all too well what Moses also knew (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29). The future of
God’s people in the land depended ultimately not on the people’s sincerity,
faithfulness or obedience. No, ultimately, the future depended on God — God’s
faithfulness, God’s mercy, God’s powerful word, God’s transformation of the heart.
Israel would suffer severe consequences for its centuries of forsaking God (exile from
the land). In the end, however, God would bring Israel back to the land not because of
who the people were, but because of who God was…and who God is.