Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.

To Isaac, I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau, I gave the mountains of Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. Also, I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to what I did among them.

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. So they cried out to the Lord, And he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them.

And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you.

God's Power Over Israel's Enemies

Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel and sent and called Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam. Therefore, he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.

Then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you. Also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand.

I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow. I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore, fear the Lord.

Serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of 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. So the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. and the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.

Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done you good.

And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. So Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore, he said, Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.

And the people said to Joshua, The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 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 oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

And Joshua said to all the people, behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you lest you deny your God. So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old.

And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gaash. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph. And Eliezer, the son of Aaron, died.

They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas, his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim. Amen.

Introduction: Book of Joshua Overview

We can turn back for just a moment to chapter 21, verses 43 to 45. Just a bit of a reminder, chapter 21, 43 to 45 is the theological summary of the entire book. Remember that verse 43 summarizes chapters 13 to 21, verse 44 summarizes chapters 1 to 12, verse 45 encompasses the whole book. So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.

The Lord gave them rest all around according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel.

All came to pass." So there's the faithfulness of God highlighted. He made a promise to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 that he would give them a particular land. He has made good on that promise. They've gone into the land.

They've conquered the land. They've possessed the land. They've inherited the land. And now chapters 22 to 24 emphasize the need for their faithfulness to God.

So God has been faithful to Israel. 22 to 24 take up the theme, how do we keep the land? How do we retain the land? And the answer is that they maintain fidelity to God. Remember that in chapter 22 the issue specifically was faithfulness in worship.

The western tribes got wind that the eastern tribes had put up an altar and that alerted them. They were mindful of the fact that God had told them that they were not to just throw up altars any old place. So they went and investigate. The Eastern tribes had simply put it up as a witness or a testimony and thereby were not breaking the commandments of God.

So there's this desire to maintain unity among the tribes and the desire for pure worship. And then in chapter 23, it's Joshua's farewell address. He reminds them of God's presence and power in their history, and then he highlights the need for careful obedience in chapter 23 verses 6 to 13. So the way that we're going to retain the land is that we go into the land, we maintain purity with reference to worship, we maintain unity with reference to the tribes, and we maintain careful obedience with reference to the law of God.

And then the book ends in chapter 24 with what's called a covenant renewal ceremony. You'll see this throughout the Old Testament. You'll see this at given instances in Israel's history where they renew the covenant with God. Here we see very clearly they are swearing fidelity to the God of Israel.

And the book ends on a very positive note. I mean, other than the death of Joshua, that's a grief and a reminder of Joseph and Eleazar. But there is a very good note upon which the book ends with the people returning after this ratification ceremony to their land. So they've possessed the land.

Now they're settled in the land. And then that sets the stage for the book of Judges, God willing, which we'll introduce next week.

Covenant Renewal at Shechem

But in this covenant renewal ceremony, there are a few things that we need to take notice of. First, there is a historical review in verses 1 to 13. If you remember, we treated the book of Deuteronomy as a large covenant document. There are certain things that are unique, or certain things that are vital, or certain things rather that are essential to covenant, and the book of Deuteronomy sort of fleshes itself out as one large covenantal document.

We see those same sort of elements here present in chapter 24. There's a preamble, an announcement of who the one is that's making the particular covenant. Here in chapter 24 at verse 2, it says, Thus says the Lord God of Israel. That's the preamble.

It's God of Israel. It's Yahweh making a covenant with these people. There is a historical review. This happens in the beginning chapters in Deuteronomy.

It happens here in verses 2 to 13. There are stipulations involved in covenant making. In other words, this is what you're supposed to do, and this is what you're not supposed to do. We see that here as well.

There are blessings and curses pronounced in a covenant ceremony. In other words, when the one making the covenant says, this is what you need to do, if you fail to do it, you will receive the curses. If you do what you're supposed to, you will be blessed. We see that in Deuteronomy 27. and 28.

Very vivid detail. You go into the land and you obey God, blessed you will be. But if you disobey, all those curses of the covenant will be heaped up upon you. And again, the same sorts of things are evident here.

Maybe not on that large of a scale like we find in Deuteronomy, But all the elements of covenant are here present in chapter 24. And then there's ratification. It was very common for the covenant, after it was made, and we see that here, that there would be a duplicate set of copies. When we look at the two tables of the law, we often see pictures of the Ten Commandments in there.

They're pictured with the first five on this tablet and the second or the last ones on this tablet. Probably wasn't that way. All ten were on one and all ten were on the other. And what it was is like a duplicate copy.

When you make a contract or a covenant in our day, you get a copy of that particular thing so that both the owner and the buyer, the purchaser, has a copy. Well, it was true of covenant. So these two tablets would be deposited in the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder to Israel that they were in covenant with the living and true God. So we see that ratification going on in this particular chapter as well.

So all of those elements are present in this covenant renewal ceremony. But I want to look at this chapter. That's more of the structural outline. This is more of an expository outline.

Structure of the Covenant Document

First, the historical review. Secondly, the stipulations of the covenant. Thirdly, its ratification. And then the book ends with the death of Joshua and Eleazar.

The Historical Review

But look at the historical review, and it's important that we get the location. Notice in verse 1, then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. This is Abraham's place. This is a very significant piece of property in biblical history.

Remember, it was when God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans, he brought him into the land of Canaan. The first place that he made an altar was in Sheka. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim were at Sheka. These were the mountains of cursing and blessing, respectively.

Abraham received the promise of land at Shechem. Jacob returned to Shechem after a long exile. And remember that it was at Shechem that Jacob's family put away their idols. They buried those old earrings.

So what we find here in Joshua is that Abraham's seed and Jacob's family have congregated here at the place that God had promised. God had told Abraham, I'm giving you this land. So what more fitting place could one possibly hope for for a renewal ceremony than where it all began. There is significance in this reality that they are participating here in Shechem.

And it's from this vantage point that he then reviews history. And it's important with reference to covenant that we understand history. important with reference to our Christianity that we understand history. Davis says, we stand in the present, but we dwell on the past in order that we can be steadfast for the future. Even back in chapter 23, in Joshua's farewell address, he reminds them of God's presence and power with them up until this particular point.

He does the same thing when he renews this covenant. He wants to remind the people of God this historical prologue of where they had been, how the Lord had fought for them, how the Lord had delivered them. It is absolutely crucial for them to fuel their minds and hearts with that data and information so that they will pursue faithfulness in the land that the Lord God has given them. That's why we do the Lord's Supper.

What are we doing when we gather together? We are remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We stand in the present, but we're dwelling on the past so that we might be steadfast for the future. It is a reminder of God's redemptive benefit, God's redemptive work on our behalf.

And we need to do this frequently. Yes, in the Lord's Supper, our daily Bible reading, we need to be filling our minds and our hearts with the faithfulness of God. You'll see that in the Psalter, especially in the Psalms of Asaph. Asaph tended to be a very melancholy fellow.

When you read his particular Psalms, he's not the brother that's saying, bless the Lord, praise the Lord. He's the brother that's agonizing over the fact that the wicked are getting a lot of temporal blessing and the righteous seem to be having nothing but trouble. It's Asaph who pens Psalm 73. It's Asaph who pens Psalm 77 and 79, where he's reflecting upon the fact that temple and city are in utter ruins.

And so there's nothing present to encourage the brother's heart. So what does he do? But he reaches back in redemptive history. He remembers the events of the exodus.

He uses this to buoy his soul so that he doesn't fall into despair. And it may be that way for us. There may be instances and times in our Christian life where it seems as if there's nothing but clouds hovering above us. Well, what do we do?

Do we just fake happiness? No, we reflect upon the goodness and the faithfulness and the kindness of our God to steady us in the midst of those trials and difficulties. That's something key for the Christian life. You're not going to be in a Christian life that most of us aren't going to be in that sort of a track.

It's going to be more like this. And in order to persevere in the midst of trying times and difficult times, the Scriptures are your best help. You need to fuel your minds and hearts with what God has done. And so Joshua here reviews for them the history of God's dealings with Israel.

God's Grace in Calling Abraham

The first thing that he highlights is God's grace. Notice in chapter 24, verses 2 and 3. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river.

Now, if there was a pause here in this covenant ceremony, if there was a break here, this would have been a great time for them to sing Newton's Amazing Grace. You say, why is that? Because we have this idea, and it's an accurate one, that Abraham is the father of the faithful. But Abraham didn't come out of his mother's womb that way, did he?

Abraham wasn't raised in a Reformed Baptist church. Abraham didn't carry a 1689 confession of faith. Abraham never heard of Robert Raymond when he was a little fella. Abraham was an idolater.

Okay? Abraham worshipped the gods of his fathers. Abraham was every bit as steeped in that wickedness and idolatry as were his fathers, and that is evident. It says, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods.

So even though Abraham is the father of the faithful, we need to remember it was by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. It wasn't because he was wiser, it wasn't because he was more intelligent, it wasn't because he was more resourceful, it wasn't because he happened upon these Israelites, because they weren't there yet. It was God that took him from Ur of the Chaldeans and brought him out of that particular land. In fact, go back to Genesis chapter 12 for a moment.

Genesis chapter 12 is packed with the grace of God. The context is absolutely crucial to appreciate. Remember what happens in Genesis chapter 11. They build a tower. at Babel.

They want to make a name for themselves. They want to rise up. They're exalted in their pride. They've got all of this desire to gather together and to do this task.

And then we find in Genesis chapter 12, after all of this, now the Lord had said to Abraham, It's an amazing time. Now the Lord had said to Abraham, on the heels of this human rebellion, on the heels of the Tower of Babel, instead of God scrapping the world, instead of God cutting them off, instead of God saying, I'm so angry with you, you're going to abide in my curse, it is on that basis, or it is in that context, that now God calls Abraham. Dumbrill says, in the call of Abram, we are dealing with the divine reply to the human disaster of Genesis 3 to 11. They rise up and try to make a name for themselves.

What's one of God's promises to Abraham? I'm gonna make your name great everything they asserted the Lord brought judgment to bear upon them but then he answers with reference to the call of Abraham Abraham is called he's told to get out of your country from your family from your father's house to a land that I will show you I will make you a great nation I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Truly is an amazing response to man in sin. God confounds the people at Babel, but in the midst of that he calls Abraham to himself, calls him out of the Chaldeans, calls him away from his idols, and gives him grace to be one who will ultimately be the father of a great people himself. Calvin says, Abraham did not emerge from profound ignorance and the abyss of error by his own virtue.

Don't you love the way he says that? See, for Calvin it wasn't his sin. He says, Abraham did not emerge from profound ignorance and the abyss of error by his own virtue, but was drawn out by the hand of God. That's what Joshua is reminding the people, the tribes at Shechem concerning.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. Now, did God do that right away? He makes this promise in Genesis 12, doesn't he?

That he'll have a great sea. Does Abraham then have relations with Sarah and they have Isaac? Does anybody know how long it took until Isaac came on the scene? 25 years. 25 years. Now, for us looking back, that's like nothing, right? 25 years.

But when God says, I want you to leave your country, I want you to leave your father, I want you to leave your father's house, I want you to leave everything you know, everything you love, because I'm going to give you a great seed. Wouldn't you just expect that that's going to happen right away? I mean, nine months, of course, it's going to take at least that for the gestation period. But 25 years is probably not what you're reckoning.

You see, we oftentimes want to put God in a box. He makes a promise and we think he needs to give it to us right away. That's not what characterized Abraham according to Joshua. Now we know from Abraham and from the narratives, there were instances, there were times when he and his wife were a bit surprised at some of these particular promises, but Abraham was a faithful man who pressed on according to the timing of God Most High.

He was 75 in Genesis 12, he was 100 in Genesis 21, when Isaac came on the scene. God's promises are often fulfilled over or after a long period of time. And then as he continues on in rehearsing this particular instance, look at what he goes on to say. To Isaac, verse four, I gave Jacob and Esau.

To Esau, I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. That's interesting, isn't it? Spiritually, who is the benefactor with reference to the promises of God in terms of Jacob and Esau? Everybody should get this.

Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated. Well, certainly, shouldn't Jacob get his land first? I mean, if he's got that spiritual priority, what about the temporal priority? See, this is the way we think.

This is the way the Pharisees and the people thought at the time of Jesus. This is why when Jesus taught that parable about the two men who went to pray, and the Pharisees stood there praying and thanking God that he wasn't like other men, And that poor wretch of a publican couldn't even raise up his head, but he just pounded on his chest and said, God be merciful to me. When Jesus said, this one went to his house justified, probably some jaws dropped open. Republicans weren't blessed of God.

Pharisees were blessed of God. We tend to associate temporal success with God's blessing. And if you look at this particular narrative, to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. Verse 4, to Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess.

Right away. How long did it take for Jacob's seed to get the land? Over 400 years, right? It's a bit of a time span between Genesis 12 and Joshua 24.

A lot of things transpired in between. You see, Israel, Jacob's seed, went into slavery. You see, at times, brethren, we mistake the doings of God because we think in terms of carnality. We look at somebody who appears to be doing well, and we assume they've got the blessing of God.

We look at somebody else who's ill, or who's struggling, who's having some trials, and we conclude that God really isn't happy with that person. We might think that in our own lives. When things are going well, we think God's really for us. When things aren't going very well, we conclude that God's not with us.

That's not the God of Holy Scripture. He is with us in the good times. He is with us in the bad times. He strengthens our hands for the fight, no matter what the instance, no matter what the situation.

An outsider looking in would consider this as absolutely contrary to goodness and kindness and blessing. But for Joshua, it is the proof of the faithfulness and the evidence of God's kindness to his people. To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt.

According to what I did among them, afterward I brought them out." God's timing is not always our timing. God's ways are not always our ways. That's something we need to appreciate here. Whether we have to wait 400 years, we're talking a long time here.

We're not talking 40 minutes or 40 seconds or 40 days. I would struggle with a 40-day promise. God says, you're going to have this. Well, OK, give it up.

What are we doing? You're God. You're faithful. Why don't you give us the promise?

Isn't that the way we approach things at times? We go to pray. We say, God, bless me. And then off we go.

And I can't believe I'm not blessed yet. That's not a holy horseshoe. It's not a cosmic rabbit foot. You don't pull the chain and get the blessing.

That's the way people treat God, and that is absolutely wrong. We need to be like Father Abraham. In Romans 4, Paul says, who, contrary to hope, in hope believed. Everything about these promises that God gave to Abraham seemed to fly against everything that Abraham knew.

I mean, come on, he's 100 years old, his wife is 99, how in the world do you expect us to have children? God is God, right? We need to trust that in spite of what appearances may dictate. This is calculated, yes, to review God's history, to instill in the people fidelity to the covenant, but it's hopefully going to remind them that when they continue on in the land, There's going to be periods.

There's going to be seasons. There's going to be times of difficulty and leanness. Remember, if we calculate accurately, the conquest itself took five to seven years. Again, we read through the narrative.

They come in. They cross the Jordan. They go in and not only destroy everybody. I mean, you can read the Southern Campaign.

You can read the Northern Campaign. You can read the list of empire kings that they conquered. And that takes maybe 15 minutes. to read those few chapters, and we just conclude it happened in 15 minutes. That's not the way it goes.

This is a great reminder for Israel, probably a track, probably a help, probably an encouragement for the period of the judges. The people of God were to reflect upon this covenant document, review their covenant history, so that they would be encouraged to serve their God in fidelity. So then he highlights his power, verses 5 to 12. Then, or afterward, I brought you out, refers to the Exodus.

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. So they cried out to the Lord, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Isn't that glorious? Do not fear your enemies.

Wasn't that central to the statement in Joshua 21 in verse 44? And not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. One of those passages we ought to reflect upon with reference to abortion.

The Bible says that Jesus must reign till all of his enemies are made his footstool. There's not going to be abortion in the eternal state. There's not going to be sodomy in the eternal state. There's not going to be Islam in the eternal state or any of the false religions or any of the vain philosophies of men.

The Lord Jesus is currently lowering his foot upon all opposition. Heaven itself is going to be the absence, obviously the presence of God Almighty and the glory of the Lamb, but the absence of anything that offends. And this is something that is to encourage the people of God that the Lord caused your enemies to drown. That's what he says in verse 7.

Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. God faithfully protected them there. They didn't interpret it that way. They whined and they complained, and when they were in the wilderness, they wanted to go back to Egypt.

But in Deuteronomy chapter 1, God says, in the wilderness, I carried you. I carried you in my arms, the way that a father carries his firstborn son. It was a time of protection. It was a time of nearness and communion.

Obviously, the faithful remnant within the covenant community would have seen that. But God highlights this wilderness experience a long time. Verse 8, I brought you into the land of the Amorites who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. That's the east side, the Transjordanian tribes, and they fought with you but I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land and I destroyed them from before you.

Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel and sent and called Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam. Therefore, he continued to bless you. You hear Genesis 12 there?

I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. Balaam was a prophet for profit. He was hired to curse Israel and he couldn't.

God blessed Israel through Balaam. Interesting, Balaam was a diviner. Balaam was able to see things, wasn't he? Balaam had that ability to divine things, to see things, to speak in mysteries and he was given wisdom, but it took a donkey to teach him what he was supposed to say and what he was supposed to do.

As Davis says, the real ass in that account was Balaam. It wasn't his donkey. That's the point in the narrative. The man is employed to go and curse Israel and God overrules it and makes it a blessing for his people.

Do not fret going into the land. Do not fret the issues of your lives. Do not fret the balams of this world, because God can overrule those things and make them blessings. This is the reminder they're getting at Shechem.

When you dwell in the land, dwell in this confident reality that God has been with you every step of the way. He's carried you as a son. He has protected you from, or He has given you victory over the Amorites. He has protected you from Balak and Balaam.

He has guided you in crossing over the river Jordan. Notice verse 11, then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you. What happened there? Victory.

Allah, the Lord God Almighty, the men of Jericho fought against you, also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Bergeshites, Hivites, and the Jebusites, but I delivered them into your hand. Now I gotta think, brethren, when they're standing there in Shechem, and they're hearing this, They're not dead cold fish. Their hearts are throbbing. They're pounding because they're reflecting upon the reality that we're standing where God promised Abraham that we would ultimately possess.

He's faithful. Everybody that's come against us, we have defeated them. Everybody that has risen up against us, we have put them down. We didn't even have to raise arms when we went around Jericho.

All we had to do was march around that city. Now when we went in to dispossess it and utterly destroy everything, obviously they took the sword to that particular task, but to conquer that city, God Almighty gave them victory. This is what He's saying to them. I delivered them into your hand.

Verse 11. I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you. Also the two kings of the Amorites. but not with your sword or with your bow. And then not only has he given them victory, not only has he given them possession of the land, he's given them the provision of the land.

Remember that instance where they cross the River Jordan and then they engage in circumcision in Passover. And then it says that there's no longer any manna. That is fundamental to the story. That is good news.

We read that and say, oh no, they don't have manna anymore. They don't need it anymore because they have a rich, bountiful land that produces barley and produces wheat and produces everything they could possibly need. So God provides for them when they don't have those resources via the manna. God provides for them when they get into the land through the due use of ordinary means.

The provision is the same whether man falls out of heaven onto the ground and you go out and collect an omer a day, except for on the Friday when you gather two omers because you don't want to go out on the Sabbath day. That is the provision of God, but so is you going out and watering your garden. So is God causing the sun to rise and shine on your garden. That provision is as much from the Lord, and that's what's highlighted here in verse 13.

I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them, you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. There were people that worked long and hard building these cities in Canaan, and God has sent you in there to take it from them. This was a gift given by God, unless the humanists say, well, that's not too fair to those poor Canaanites. Those poor Canaanites were wretched, God-hating rebels that the Lord used Israel to bring judgment to bear upon.

That's the issue. It's not as if God took Israel and sent them in to dispossess the land of those nice, innocent Canaanites. Those Canaanites were anything but nice, and they were anything but innocent. And as we'll see in the book of Judges and subsequent history or subsequent Bible, when Israel acts like Canaan, they, too, get thrown out of the land.

So God the Lord is not capricious. He's not arbitrary. He deals in justice, and he deals with equity. So that is a rehearsal. of their history with reference to this covenant.

The Stipulations of the Covenant

Now notice the stipulations, verses 14 to 24. A couple things we need to recognize first. This is a logical progression. Notice in verse 14, now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river, and in Egypt serve the Lord.

You see the progression of thought. Here's what God has done for you, now here is the implication. You see that? Everybody got that?

It's very important that you see that, because that's what's going on. Here's what God has done, here's where He has brought you, and here's how you need to respond. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.

Serve the Lord. This is a logical commitment. In other words, when we survey God's dealings with His people, when the Lord gives them grace and He calls them to Himself, it is right, it is legitimate, and it is logical for those people to commit themselves wholly to God. This is the same emphasis that we find in New Covenant religion vis-à-vis the Book of Romans.

Chapters 1 to 11. What do we have but an exposition of the gospel? We have an explanation of what God does with hell-bound sinners chapter 1 beginning in verse 18 all the way to chapter 3 verse 20 sets forth the bad news or man's plight man's problem and it's from 321 all the way to 1136 that Paul tells us how God meets man's plight similar to what we just saw in Genesis, right? Man's plight starts in Genesis 3, culminates in chapter 11, and God responds with grace in Genesis chapter 12.

It's the same motif you see in Romans. Chapter 118 to 320, this is man's sin, this is man's rebellion, this is man at Babel. 321 and following shows us God's grace, shows us how God meets man in rebellion, and he justifies him freely by his grace. He justifies the ungodly. Paul explains how he does that.

Federal theology. You have the first Adam. We all die in him. You have the second Adam.

We live because of him. You see how God does these things and how it's It flows from his sovereignty, his electing purposes, his predestination. Paul unfolds this at length in chapters 9 to 11, and after expounding the gospel in Romans 12.1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or your logical or your rational or your spiritual service. Same motif, isn't it?

Yes? Oh yeah, absolutely. Certainly that progression is there to be sure. And some have seen Genesis, the whole first five books, based on that covenantal model as well.

We've got preamble, we've got history, we've got stipulation, we've got blessing, and then succession in the book of Deuteronomy. So yeah, there's a lot of ways to sort of approach that. But notice the similarities in these two covenants. Yes, the old covenant, there were some things you need.

Go into the land and obey. You get the blessings of the land. But in terms of that overarching principle, God's grace calling us out of darkness into marvelous light demands a particular response. We don't respond in order to be saved.

We don't respond in order to be redeemed. We've been redeemed and our response is consistent with that. That is what Joshua issues here at Shechem. Now, therefore, based on God's redemption, based on God's protection, based on God's provision, based on God's defeat of your enemy, fear Him.

Serve Him. Do it with sincerity and do it in the truth. Put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.

That's logical, isn't it? Nobody was scratching their heads at Shechem saying, wait a minute, this doesn't sound legit. This doesn't sound right. Just like nobody comes to Romans 12.1 and say, Paul, what do you mean I've got to present my body as a living sacrifice?

Of course I do. I get to now. It's a privilege. It's a blessed response to the gospel of the grace of God Most High.

He calls me out of darkness into marvelous light. It is my great privilege to be able to serve the Lord with fear, in sincerity, and in the truth. Now notice what he says in verse 15. It is an exclusive commitment.

An Exclusive Commitment

This is an exclusive commitment. The end of verse 14, put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt serve the Lord. You see, the gods of Canaan didn't really care if you had a few of them. They didn't care because they're not real, right?

I mean, Baal's not going to get upset if your arms are on the Asherah. Because Baal has eyes, but he can't see. He has a mouth, but he can't talk. He has ears, but he can't hear.

You see, when the psalmist says that, he is mocking idolatry. That's what he's doing. He is mocking it. And that's what Joshua does here in verse 15.

Notice he says, and if it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel, notice what he says, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. the dunghill or the dungheap deities, as Matthew Henry refers to them as. It's kind of an interesting convention, the way he does that. Serve Yahweh or serve Baal, is what Elijah says. But Joshua gives them a third option.

If you're not going to serve Yahweh, you can either serve the gods of Egypt or you can serve the gods of Canaan. Is Joshua really giving them this choice? Is Joshua nuts? Is Joshua a pluralist?

No, Joshua is showing them how foolish and how mad and how idiotic it is to do anything but serve the Lord. It's a reductio ad absurdum. It is highlighting the reality and the necessity for them to give themselves wholly to the Lord God Most High. This is an exclusive commitment.

You don't bring Baal to the Lord God Almighty. You do not walk down the aisle to marry someone with your girlfriend on your arm. You just don't do that. Now, this has a long pedigree in the scriptures, of course.

Jesus tells us you can't serve two masters. You can't have God and Mammon. Elijah, I've already referred to. How long will you falter between two options?

If God or Yahweh is God's servant, if Baal is God, then serve him. Choose ye this day. This is Joshua's point. And then notice their response here.

The people say, in verse 16, exactly what you would hope them to say. So the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites, who dwelt in the land.

We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God." They've listened, haven't they? It'd be nice on a Sunday morning if when you were walking out, I'd say, hey, what was the sermon about? And you could encapsulate it like that. That'd make me happy.

Or would you be like your two-year-old kid? God? That's what we do when we go home at lunch. What was the sermon about?

God? Yes, that's right. It was about God. How many adults would say, God?

What was the chapter? What was the text? I don't want to get too personal here, but look at what they do. They rehearse this history.

They commit to God. The deal is sealed, right? If Joshua was Billy Graham, he'd call them all up to the altar now. If Joshua was a typical evangelist, he'd say, OK, now every head bowed and every eye closed.

Just shoot your hand up, and I'll count you for Jesus. Look at what Joshua does, though. He's kind of a negative Nelly, isn't he? Remember back in chapter 23, how does he end?

He gives them God's presence and power among them. He gives them the necessity for careful obedience. But he ends on such a negative note in 2315. Therefore, it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things, until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you. You know, Joshua, that was such a good speech until you got to that. That's so negative. We don't like that.

And isn't the same thing going on here? Look at these people. Verses 16 to 18, they rehearse what he's just said to them. They're basically swearing their fidelity.

We also will serve the Lord. This is a response to Joshua's statement in 15 when he says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Declaration they are siding with him now. This is our confession as well Joshua says you cannot serve the Lord They're right there Joshua just push him over the edge They're gonna decide for Jesus.

They're gonna raise their head. They're gonna sign the card They're in. Don't tell them something negative like that.

You Cannot Serve the Lord

Look at what he says to them. You cannot. See, man has this idea that everything is in him, and he has all this ability. Joshua says, you are completely unable.

You do not have the wherewithal. You do not have the ability. You, because of your sin, need to take seriously what you're swearing to. You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God.

I was reading Davis's commentary on this, and he mentioned something very interesting. He says, you know, in my denomination, he was a PCA minister, he says they make us swear an oath when we come into office. And he says, when I read this, it's to be this man and that man and to be faithful here and to be godly here and to be pursuing that. He says, that's asking a lot of a lustful, covetous, proud, arrogant man.

There is no possible way I could swear fidelity to such a statement except for by the grace of God. He says, I really tread lightly when I sing certain hymns in our hymnals. Have you ever been singing a hymn and thought, this really isn't true. I don't love Jesus this much.

I should. God forgive me. But sometimes we're singing hymns that you and I know that's not really true of us. We're not that holy.

We're not that godly. This is what Joshua is trying to kill. When they're saying, here we are, sign us up, we're ready to go. Joshua says, you need to count the cost.

Before you swear fidelity to the God of covenant, you need to make sure you understand. This is a Luke 14 moment. This is that instance where Jesus says, nobody goes out to battle without first counting the cost. Nobody plans to build a building without first making sure he has enough stuff so that his neighbors and his friends don't drive by and say, look at that idiot.

He tried to build, but he didn't have enough money. So all he's got there is a skeleton. Or look at that general. He thought he was going to go out there and he was going to win in combat.

He didn't realize that to his 10,000 troops, the opposing armies had 20,000. And to his peashooters, they all had rocket launchers. Jesus wants to dissuade people from some assertion that they'll follow him wherever he bids them in their own strength. This is what Joshua is doing.

He is not discouraging people. He is not telling people that God does not forgive. Notice, he says, He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Is that an absolute statement?

Of course it's not. God forgives sin. God is merciful. God is long-suffering.

God is kind. The emphasis here is if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done you good. Joshua is not just selling long-term fire insurance. When we are preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's not just take Jesus for a better life.

Take Jesus and you'll be a bit of a happier person. Or take Jesus and you'll have more mental health. You cannot serve the Lord. You cannot honor the Lord.

You are absolutely and utterly corrupt and depraved. And apart from God's grace, you can do nothing. That's what Joshua's laying out here at Shechem. He wants people to swear their fidelity to Yahweh, but he wants them to do it with knowledge.

He wants them to do it with understanding. Davis says, Joshua seeks to put down that blathering self-confidence that makes emotional commitments rather than shutting its mouth and counting the cost. That's the point. Anybody can start to sway for Jesus and make a decision.

Not everybody's going to live day in, day out, cutting off hands, gouging out eyes, and pursuing those things that are pleasing to God. You know, everybody that comes forward in an evangelistic crusade doesn't necessarily come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This blathering self-confidence that's whooped up in some emotional rant is not what God is calling us to. God is calling us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then by his grace, to follow the Lamb. to pursue those things which are pleasing in his sight.

Jesus would respond with the very same sorts of things that Joshua gives here at Shechem. When Jesus says, you need to love me more than your father and your mother, what's he saying? But Joshua 24. When Jesus says you need to cut off hands and gouge out eyes, what's he saying but Joshua 24?

When Jesus says you need to forsake everything and follow me, what's he saying but Joshua 24? When he says you need to take up your cross daily and follow after me, what's he saying but what Joshua 24 is? The demand hasn't changed and Joshua doesn't want a bunch of emotional, you know, swayed in sort of people. He wants people that come to the Lord God Most High on his terms.

It's easy to get a lot of people emotional. This is why the Puritans emphasize, we go to the heart through the mind. I would argue heart and mind biblically are synonymous. You don't just make emotional appeals to people.

Jesus makes your life better. Jesus brings inner peace. Jesus makes you happy. Well, who doesn't want to be happy?

That's not the point. Jesus saves you from your sins. Jesus provides righteousness. Jesus provides peace with God.

Jesus provides a master that will lead you in the way that you should follow. That's what Joshua is emphasizing.

The People's Renewed Pledge

Verse 21, the people say, no, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. Remember, covenant renewal, ratifying.

They are affirming. They're swearing their fidelity. Now, therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God, we will serve, and his voice we will obey.

Great, isn't it? Just wait till next week. But isn't that the way it goes? Every time there's covenant renewal, what happens?

We see man. I mean, if you look at the great epochs in redemptive history, when God speaks to his people and swears them to fidelity, what's the next scene usually? What's that teaching us? We need a covenant head that can do it.

We need a mediator that can satisfy. We need a Lord that can make good. See, all of these historical covenants point us forward to the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. It's no accident. that after Noah gets out of the ark and God makes this covenant with Noah, what do we find not long after that?

We find Noah not in very good situations, do we? We find Abraham. We find Moses. We find the people of Israel.

I mean, God ratifies the covenant in Exodus 24. The people swear their fidelity. You notice in Exodus 24, they say, all that the Lord commands, we will do. All that the Lord commands, we will do.

We get to 32, and they're dancing around a calf. and praising it for bringing them out of the house of bondage. What's God telling us? You need my son. You need the Redeemer.

You need the Lord Jesus. All of these historical covenants and all of the Old Testament points us forward to in anticipation to the one that God promised would come to save His people from their sins. I love the way the Westminster larger catechism highlights this reality with reference to the covenant of grace. Let me just get this for you, I don't want to mess it up.

With whom is the covenant of grace made? The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and in him with all the elect as his seed. That's covenant theology that we can hang our heads on. That's the good stuff.

That's what it's all about. And that's what these things were pointing forward to. God knew as soon as their hands went up and they swore fidelity that they were going to go out and sin. He knew that, right?

That's what the whole program's all about. But at this point, it's a good thing. They say they're going to do it.

Ratification of the Covenant

Now notice the ratification of the covenant, verse 25. They cut a covenant. More than likely, they made sacrifice. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day.

A lot of guys, the commentaries, the word barit means cut a covenant. Probably has the reference to cutting the animals that go into the sacrifice in terms of the covenant. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. Then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God." Again, this whole idea, ratification, depositing the covenant documents, all this stuff is what we see throughout the Old Testament scriptures.

This was also paralleled in ancient Near Eastern treaties in and around Israel at the time. And then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.

When the pagans made their treaties, when the pagans or the heathen made their covenants, their false gods would serve as the witnesses. God uses creation to witness against His people in terms of it hearing the testimony that they've made. You see this in Isaiah 1 and verse 2. You see it in Micah chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 where God calls upon the created order to serve as the witness to the fact that these people are swearing their fidelity to Him.

So the stone is set up and it would serve as a witness. Verse 28, very important. Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. This is when they settle down.

This is when they occupy. This is when they take what God has promised and what God has given, and it's a fitting end or a fitting conclusion to the bulk of this book.

Death and Burial of Joshua

And then in chapter...verses 29 and following deals with Joshua, his death and burial. It came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. being 110 years old. They buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Sera, which is in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gesh. Then notice his legacy.

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. Another excellent description of the faithfulness of Joshua. He was the servant of the Lord who led Israel, not perfectly, but he led them well. And in light of that, this brother is someone that we ought to emulate and imitate.

He refers to the bones of Joseph. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph. So we've come full circle here, right? We've come all the way around.

God's made the promise. The people went into Egypt. They come out of Egypt. Joseph's in the land along with Joshua and all of Israel.

Hess says that both the mention of Joseph's bones and the reminiscence of Jacob's purchase of the burial ground tie together the book of Joshua with Genesis and provide a conclusion to the great epic of the formation of the family, tribes, and national identity of God's people as begun in Genesis and concluded in Joshua. So it ties up a particular story or a thread that is most crucial and most testifies to the faithfulness of God. Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died. It mentioned Aaron's death alongside or at the time of Moses, and so it is very much similar to that.

Moses, the servant of the Lord, died. Of course, Aaron died as well. Joshua, the servant of the Lord, dies. Eleazar, the son of Aaron, dies.

They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas' son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim. So that's the book of Joshua. If you've missed any of it or most of it and you're so interested, I think it's on Sermon Audio, is it? Some of it.

I think it's all just still a running list. It's not like a separate category. Good. We'll all close in prayer and then we can have some discussion.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank you for this, your word, and we thank you for your faithfulness that's so evident and so manifest in these books of the Old Testament. I pray that you would just give us grace, God, to consider the things we've looked at tonight. Give us grace, Father, to pursue those things which are pleasing to you. Help us to resist temptation and the tendency to sin. and help us, God, to present our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service unto You.

I pray that You'd go with us now, that You'd watch over all the brothers and sisters in our local church, and I pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture References

• Genesis 11; 12; 12:1-3; 21
• Exodus 24
• Deuteronomy 1; 27; 28
• Joshua 21:43-45; 22; 23; 23:6-13; 23:15; 24; 24:1; 24:2-3; 24:2-13; 24:4; 24:7; 24:8; 24:11; 24:13; 24:14; 24:15; 24:16-18; 24:21; 24:25; 24:28
• Psalms 73; 77; 79
• Isaiah 1:2
• Micah 6:1-2
• Luke 14
• Romans 1:18; 3:20; 3:21; 4; 4:18; 9:13; 11:36; 12:1