Joshua and Judges: Joshua's renewal of the covenant at Shechem before his death. Jos 24.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Joshua's renewal of the covenant at Shechem before his death. Jos 24.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

PSA 4:1 For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

 

PSA 4:1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!

Thou hast relieved me in my distress;

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

 

PSA 4:2 O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?

Selah.

 

PSA 4:3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself; The Lord hears when I call to Him.

 

PSA 4:4 Tremble, and do not sin;

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.

Selah.

 

PSA 4:5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

And trust in the Lord.

 

PSA 4:6 Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?"

Lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us, O Lord!

 

PSA 4:7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart,

More than when their grain and new wine abound.

 

PSA 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep,

For Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety.

 

JOS 24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

 

Joshua completed the covenant with them that day. This conclusion of a covenant was really a solemn renewal of the covenant made at Sinai when the law was first given, like that which took place under Moses in the steppes of Moab just before his death.

 

If they will listen to the voice of the Lord and heed His commands, making proper sacrifices when they sin, and love Him and their neighbor, which with a knowledge of the truth will not be difficult, then they will prosper in the land and the evil of the foreigners through the demon worship will not infect them.

 

God made the bitter water sweet and God made the bitter land sweet. It will remain sweet to them in their time upon it if they will follow Him.

 

EXO 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

 

EXO 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

 

EXO 15:24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

 

EXO 15:25 Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them.

 

EXO 15:26 And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer."

 

The disease of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Syrians, Edomites, Moabites, etc. = the disease of the world. By forsaking the way of the Lord, saved people can be infected by it.

 

We are born into a bitter life. We don't realize if for some time but around our early adulthood we realize that life can be quite bitter. As unbelievers we are slaves to sin and death which produce bitter fruit. But God makes a bitter life sweet through Christ who took the bitterness of sin upon Himself. If as believers we choose to return to idols then we choose to return to bitterness. It's not that I have to work for God's blessings, they have all been given to me. I only have to know the gifts, enjoy the gifts, love the Giver, and follow Him.

 

God makes a bitter life sweet if we will respond to His gifts, loving Him and following Him.

 

This is not at all a reference to physical diseases, but those that effect the soul.

 

The four pillars of the world stand in exact contrast to the length, width, breadth, and height of the plan of God. The lust for wealth, fame, pleasure, and power keep the cogs of the world system spinning as they do. While it is truly God who keeps the world going for the sake of the church, that she may witness to the world of the salvation of Christ, the world follows the way of disease and finds the energy to keep pursuing that which only brings death. When one generation ages and grows tired of the wages of death a new generation is born who finds energy to pursue the same and often thinking that they are novel and innovative in doing so.

 

JOS 24:26 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 oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

 

The sanctuary is not the tabernacle, since it was not moved from Shiloh, nor the ark, which was to remain in the tabernacle. This sanctuary is simply a place of remembrance. The sanctuary of Jehovah under the oak at Shechem was nothing else than the holy place under the oak, where Abraham had formerly built an altar and worshipped the Lord, and where Jacob had purified his house from the strange gods, which he buried under this oak.

 

JOS 24:27 And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God."

 

JOS 24:28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

 

JOS 24:29 And it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

 

There is no successor to Joshua. The people are to govern themselves by the elders in each tribe and the high priest's intercession to God for the people.

 

Unique to history Israel at the time is a confederation of states without a central government, but having a unity through the common worship of Jehovah. The closest example to this would be the Greek city states at the height of their power, but among them there was much fighting. In Israel, unlike any other people, God was a Governor, able to bless and discipline and to intervene righteously amongst a righteous people. Unfortunately, the coming generations would prove to be unrighteous and eventually demand their own destruction at God's hand.  

 

JOS 24:30 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

 

JOS 24:31 And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

 

JOS 24:32 Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph's sons.

 

The account of the burial of Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought with them from Egypt to Canaan, is placed after the account of Joshua's death, because it could not have been introduced before without interrupting the connected account of the labors of Joshua. Joshua's work in completing his calling was given the way that it should have, without interruption.

 

It would not do to leave out the burial of Joseph, per his request so long ago, which was done by Ephraim when they settled their land.

 

However, it would not do to not mention the burial of Joseph as it was significant that the great man of God, Joseph, had requested that his bones be buried, not in Egypt, but in the land that was promised to his people and to his father Abraham.

 

GEN 50:24 And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you, and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob."

 

GEN 50:25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here."

 

GEN 50:26 So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

 

Moses and Israel kept this promise.

 

EXO 13:19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "God shall surely take care of you; and you shall carry my bones from here with you."

 

I think Joseph was more than sentimental. A man like him would have understood the significance of the Promised Land in fulfilling the promise made to Abraham.

 

GEN 22:15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

 

GEN 22:16 and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

 

GEN 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

 

GEN 22:18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

 

As such, it would not do to leave Joseph's burial out of the account of the settling of the land. It is because of Joseph that Israel ended up in Egypt and it is because of him that they prospered there. I know it is God who did these things, but He did them through Joseph and it is therefore fitting that this great man is buried in the field that his father Jacob purchased, in the shadow of Mt. Gerizim and Ebal, and where Abraham was first promised in the Promised Land.

 

The burial of Joseph had no doubt taken place immediately after the division of the land, when Joseph's descendants received Shechem and the field there for an inheritance.

 

Finally, for completeness, the death of the high priest is mentioned.

 

JOS 24:33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

 

That concludes the study of Joshua and we roll right into Judges.