Joshua's final address to the Israelites, recorded in Joshua 23-24, serves as a powerful exhortation to remain faithful to God amidst surrounding nations. He contrasts the power of deity with the possibility of departure, warning against tolerating or intermarrying with the Canaanites, which would lead to spiritual compromise and divine discipline. Joshua recounts God's historical faithfulness, from Abraham's calling to the conquest of Canaan, emphasizing that God has always fought for them. He urges the people to choose obedience, cleaving to the Lord, and consecrating their affections, ultimately leading to a pivotal decision point where they pledge to serve only the Lord, a commitment that is immediately tested by the subsequent generation's apostasy.
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A very familiar portion in Matthew's Gospel. The eleventh chapter of Matthew. We'll begin to read it first. Chapters, the last and the final section of Joshua, chapters twenty-three and twenty-four. This is Joshua's valediction, his final address to the people. He's bidding them good day and goodbye and the Lord's blessing upon them. He has some interesting things that have profitable lessons for us. Joshua, twenty-three and four, twenty-three is a farewell address to the leaders of the nation.
Joshua calls together the leaders of the nation, and twenty-three he addresses them. Very likely he is in the city of Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the wilderness has been established as a central place. but that cannot be affirmed from the text. But we do know in chapter twenty-four, he calls all the tribes and all the people come together. First in chapter twenty-three, a farewell address to challenge the leadership, all the leaders of the nation, chapter twenty-three, then urges them all to go to Sheikham, and he addresses all the people themselves. There are two themes that run concurrently and oftentimes are interwoven, and we'll be able to see that as we read the text, and they are two central thoughts that seem to be upon Joshua's mind.
The possibility of departure and the power of deity. The possibility of departure, now this has been drawn to our attention from the book of Hebrews, the very serious awareness that we need to have that once we have committed ourselves to God, we need to persevere in this and hold fast at the beginning of our confidence and continue that trust and exercise and enter into the things that God has held out for us. For Joshua has the same burden, but it specifically shows itself in chapter twenty-three. And he uses the word nation, the word nations, the Gentile people around.
That implies something that we should hold on to in our mind, that at this stage, which is about eighteen to twenty years after what we have finished up reading in the preceding section, for about eighteen to twenty years they've been living in the Holy Land, and there are still the nations that were originally there. They have not conquered the nations. Joshua has come to the end of his life. He is weakened, he is feeble, he is pleading with God's people, and it's a very moving appeal. But very discreetly, he addresses the leadership first. And I want you to notice as we read and make your own observations with your own exercise of heart, that the words to the leadership are very challenging and personal, and the relation itself.
The people do not have the same kind of an appeal. It seems, in Joshua's mind, he puts a great importance upon the attitude, the disposition, and the devotional heart of the leader to bring the others into a place of blessing. In this twenty-third chapter, the word nations is used seven times, and they're alluded to on twelve different times. He has an anxiety about the people of God. His concern is that they have tolerated the nation so long, they have not evicted the enemy, they have been so gracious and tolerant, even as we find in the next chapter, or rather I should say the next book, in the first two and a half chapters of Judges, it's a panoramic view of what has happened during the life of Joshua.
And it ends up with, after Joshua dies, the children of Israel do evil in the sight of the Lord. They have tolerated the nations for so long they've accepted it as a way of life. They have condoned so much of the enemy and been so much at ease by bringing them into their life in various forms, and it's given a real anxiety to this man, Joshua. He alludes twelve times to our God, and he does it in a very specific way. He says in this chapter, Jehovah your Elohim, the eternal, ever-existent, covenant-keeping God who redeemed you out of Egypt and revealed himself as one who will always fulfill his responsibility, Jehovah your Elohim, the essential, sovereign, glorious deity, the personalized God that is the creator and the controller of everything.
He uses that phrase, Jehovah your Elohim, Jehovah your Elohim, over and over again. What's he trying to do? Remind them of the power of God that's strong on their behalf and the terrible dangers that lay before God's people for dereliction of obedience. Verse one, and it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about. that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age.
You have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribe, from Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them out of your sight. You shall possess their land as the Lord your God hath promised unto you." Isn't that positive thinking? Isn't that exactly what Lou mentioned in his prayer? That we might leave here with that kind of positive, confident perspective that we're going to be and do what God desires.
Be ye, therefore, very courageous to keep all to do that is written in the book of the law of Moses. That you turn not aside, therefore, to the right hand or to the left. That you come not among these nations, these that remain among you. Neither make mention of the name of their gods. or cause to swear by them, needeth serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them. But cleave unto the Lord your God, as you have done this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong. But as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand. For the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you.
as he has promised you, take good heed, therefore, unto yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Else, if you do in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you know for a surety that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you. They shall be snares and traps unto you. scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of the good thing which the Lord your God spake concerning you.
All are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Therefore it shall come to pass that as all good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised, so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath 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 yourselves to them, then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given unto you." Isn't that an unusual address to the leadership? He warns them about idolatry.
He warns them about carelessness. He is seeking to encourage them and gives a very conscientious appeal that there be no trace of apostasy, no backing away, no cooling of affection. It is important that those of us who are taking the role of leadership amongst God's people, we affirm clearly and simply the characteristics. But the warning is in verse twelve to the end of the chapter. The first thing he describes is disobedience. If we're going to be disobedient, to the word of God and to the laws of God. If we're going to be resistant, then there is bound to be problems and difficulties, and immediately the problem was in regard to these intermarriages with the unbelieving, those who are not God's people.
We cannot have an affinity with unbelieving people. We cannot commit ourselves into that bond and that what God has joined together, let no man break asunder. Once we have committed ourselves to an individual, it is a permanent union. And as best as we are able, we commit ourselves to that unless the providence of God in His circumstance deprives that individual of their life or some other biblical reason dissolves the union. But the essential thought, the ideal that's before God is that God's people will be bound to God's people. And here, as long as you get amongst them and live closely with them, you allow them to remain. You're going to make intermarriages with them.
You're going to blend yourself in with them and adapt their ways and doings. And that disobedience will bring the defeat because God will not drive the nations out from before you. And after that there will be great discomfort. You'll have to go through disciplinary and chastening times scourging and thorns. The whole implication is that God will bring His discipline into your life. So we need to appeal to the leaders. This is Joshua's exercise. And then he finishes up in verse sixteen with the disgrace that they'll battle themselves and worship other gods. Is it possible for us to be addicted to idolatry? I believe it's Alan Redpath that suggested in his commentary, or his book rather, of sermons on the Book of Joshua, that the greatest idolatry of Christianity is the idol self.
My pleasure, my will, my gift, my service, my way, my family, my church, myself. our greatest idolatry, to be so occupied with self. That's why we need to learn the lesson of the cutting off and the identification and the death of the Lord and accept the truth and believe it in our mind that we no longer exist in the reckoning of God in this positional role. He has dealt with us. He has judicially condemned and sentenced us. We have been crucified with Christ. And to bring an end to self, and see God's perspective and enter into it with a certain kind of vigor and abandon and enjoyment.
And then we'll have less of it tentacles in our life influencing us. But in the first part of this chapter where he addresses them, there are three simple thoughts. Verse six, the courageous obedience that's suggested. Therefore be very courageous. Courageous to do what? To keep the law. Leadership must rely on the bedrock standard of God's Word. We cannot vacillate and be moved by the whims and fancies of society, the rising and the falling and the ebbed tides of all the fantasies and ideas and religions and cults of men and all the social preferences.
It's the Word of God. We must feel that in our soul. We must be resorbedly committed to it. The servant of the Lord from the book of Hebrews has ministered to us earlier. Remember David said that there was a resolve that we should have regarding the Lord's Supper. And it had that great five-fold, five-leveled, and maybe even multiple levels of importance to the soul of those who are going to go on with God and not be caught in apostasy. The Word of God. Be courageous to keep all that is written in the law. Then in verse twenty-eight, There's a courageous obedience required for the leadership, but it's a cleaving separation.
Now for some, the word separation is sufficient, but separation for some means some form of legalistic attitude that I don't do this and I don't go there and you can't do this and you must wear this and so. And again, this has been underlined in our thinking from a different portion in the book of Hebrews. That's not the thought. The thought is here that our separation is not from, but it is unto. Cleave unto the Lord your God. Do you? Remember what it was said of the Thessalonians? They turn to God from their idols, to serve the living and true God and wait for His Son from heaven. Jesus, our deliverer from the wrath to come. What a blessed thing is ours to be identified with Him.
courage to be committed to the Word of God, cleaving to this concept that I'm going to be separated unto the Lord. I will not deprive you and me of anything, and we know that. There should be all that is needed for our life and welfare provided. And then the third simple exhortation, and so touching in verse eleven, take good heed unto yourselves that you love the Lord your God. To avoid apostasy, to avoid departure, to avoid chilling and cooling of affections, I must consecrate my affections unto Jehovah my Elohim, the Lord your God.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. And if you love me, my father will love you and manifest himself to you. There will be special blessing and enrichment. Three simple standards, courageous obedience in verse six, cleaving separation in verse eight, and consecrated affections in verse eleven. After the warning has gone out, then he turns his thoughts to the people of God. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to seek them. Why does he change the place? Or why is it emphasized the location? I wonder if Joshua is unconsciously hopeful that somehow this concern that he has about idolatry and the inclination to yield ourselves and be amenable and cooperative to the religious practices of these people and the world around them.
In effect, it's the world. Remember John, the Apostle John, at the end of his letter? Keep yourselves from idols. The aged man may be the last writer to the body of Christ and the least and incorporated in Holy Scripture. Keep yourselves from idols. There are things that come in that occupy our attention, that sweep our affection away from the Lord. It may be legitimate things. It might be business. It might be family. It might be loved one, whatever it is. But we need to center our thought upon the Lord and have everything else kind of mesh in and fall into place. And God will allow that, I am sure, because He has drawn us to that. That's His criteria. Bring them to Shechem. Why Shechem? Oh, I'm so concerned about the idols.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the great God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would do the same thing for our children of God here and the people of God as they did when we gathered here with Jacob? Jacob dug a hole under the oak tree and the whole family threw their little idolatrous things into the hole and buried it underneath the oak in Shechem. That was way back in the book of Genesis, way back at the beginning, when God wanted Rachel to just break away from her past and be done with that that she had in her idolatrous practices. There's so many little things that we need to bury. So when it's called to the people, he draws to their attention.
the power of God. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, for their heads and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your father dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, and immediately he starts an historical narrative. Adolf Safir says something in his commentary in the book of Hebrews, that God's people are an historical people. That's true. We live by our history.
Our roots, our background, our knowledge, our experience. We are tethered to a long historical background, and we are leaning upon that. And the only thing we know about the future, other than our simple faith in what God affirms, is what God has done in the past. We are an historical people, and his tone seems to change. Such discretion, such wisdom in his ministry to the nation. He addresses and challenges in a very practical way the leadership, but when he turns to the people, he tries to get the flow of their feeling, their historical lineage, their background, the greatness of God. And he reveals to us something here that has been untold in Scripture up to this point.
Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time. Even Tara, the father of Abram and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods." Abram was an idol worshiper. Abram lived in Ur of the Calvies, and Ur and Haran, they in those places, worshiped the gods of the Babylon. And those were two centers at that time that worshiped the moon god. And that's why he left Babylon and Ur and went up to Haran. Well, that was the other pivotal central point. Terror was leading them in that way. They were idol worshippers. They were, Abraham was not a man that was out seeking and searching for truth and God. The God of glory appeared unto Abraham and called him.
Great, magnificent choice and move and kindness of God. Isaiah says in Isaiah fifty-one, one and two, he says, harken unto me, listen to me. This is my own paraphrase. Look unto the whole of the pit from once you've been dubbed, even Abram and Sarah. Look at the whole of the pit from once you've been dubbed. Look at the idol worshippers over there in Ur of the Chaldees. But it was the power of the Lord your God that wrought on their behalf and brought you to where you are. Twelve times he says, I took, I gave. Notice as we read.
Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord your God, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Tara, the father of Abraham, the father of Megal. They served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau. And I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them. And afterward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And you came unto the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea.
And when they cried unto the Lord, remember some of those people there, remember this experience. Some of them were little children. They viewed that memorable catastrophic event when the whole Egyptian army was drowned. They remembered the clattering and the strides and the laying of the horses and the thundering and the shouting. They saw the debris and possibly the bodies floating or covered up with seaweed and debris. They saw this memorable event. Why did he do this? Because it's the people of God. And the people of God have to have something more than their intellect and their will challenge. These young ones need to get the flow of stories. They need to get the sense of historicity of their faith.
They need to see God moving, events upon events upon events, culminating in His great deliverance and now the opportunity for an inheritance. Most remarkable, when they cried unto the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them. Your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt. And you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Baalim, the son of Beor, to curse you.
But I would not hearken unto Baalim. Therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand. You went over, Jordan, and came unto Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you. The Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hittites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hands. I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy swords, nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, cities which you built not, and you dwell in them, of the vineyards and the olives, which you have planted, not do you eat. Why, what a lovely record of what?
The power of God on our behalf. You see, he's not staying up there, pleading with God's people in the farewell address on the basis of his years of leadership. There's no appeal about himself. There's no preoccupation about his heart or his feelings or his family or what he thinks and feels. No emotional appeal, no sympathy. Real leadership comes in directing the hearts and minds of God's people to the Lord himself. And if you're going to teach a Sunday school class, teach the word of God and truths about our blessed Lord and allow the word of God to be used by the Spirit. Set aside the human appeals. There are so many ways that we can use subtly and craftily affection for ourselves, particularly with young ones.
We must not do that. Better to the little ones that we seem a little bit distant or removed than they become enamored with us as people and want to please us. Children do that. And in a family, that's fine. But to do the work of God, no, Joshua, he has challenged the leadership and then he takes the minds of all the people and says, focus your attention upon God. again and again I gave, I delivered, I did, speaking the word of Lord. Then, so tenderly, so appropriately, says, now therefore, after he's presented the power of deity, he now puts treasure for a decision. And that comes to each of us.
And this is what we pray will the Spirit of God will do this morning. Wonderful to hear God's word. Wonderful to learn truth. Wonderful to have little outlines, a little thoughts, a little insight. Wonderful to rest and feel refreshed. But now, now at this juncture, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. The whole history of Israel is divided into three bodies of water, the flood, the sea, and Jordan.
Whether he's done this purposely to accomplish an end, I don't know. And connected with the flood, that is the Euphrates River, was the gods of Babylon that they once served. connected with the sea was the gods of Egypt, which they were once the coming and being enticed and involved with. And connected with Jordan were the gods of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan that they were to leave. So he makes a historical resume with an unusual pattern. He said, there at the flood you served the gods of Babylon. You've broken away from that. There at the sea you had the insidious culprit of Egypt that you were leaning toward in the gods of Egypt.
And there at Jordan, in these three great bodies of water, you've had certain experiences and events, tethered in your mind, link it some little crafty way, some inspired manner which Joshua could put in the minds of the young ones, and they'd remember the flood, the sea, Jordan. And let's be charged and encouraged. He says, Now serve the Lord. Make it real. He doesn't ask them for courage. He doesn't call upon them. saying, in the light of God's blessing and care, you, the people of God, please realize what God has done. Fear him, reverence him, serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the things that are idols in your life that distract your attention from the Lord.
God, your Father served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, serve ye the Lord. And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. And then very selectively he is able to say, can you imagine at the end of his life, he didn't say this when he was a twenty-year-old man. He says this when he's more than a hundred years old and he's dying. And he says, as for me and my house, he knows the direction his family is going to go. He is confident that He has established such a standard that the family is moving in that direction. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And the people, they come back with the answer. God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Now, I don't know how they did this. I don't know whether it was absolute unison and a thunderous response to his appeal, or whether they went around and took a public opinion of poll of the twelve tribes, or whether there were some representatives that came from each tribe. However, it worked out their uniform opinion was, oh, God forbid that we would forsake the Lord and serve other gods, and only remember all God has done. Lord our God, he it is that brought us up our fathers out of the land of Egypt, may rehearse back to him everything that God has done. But notice what the people say.
Joshua says in verse nineteen, you cannot serve the Lord. Why does he say that? He said, here you are, you're doing the same thing. You're not turning around and going to your tents and tearing up your idols. You're not taking those things and breaking them and burning them and have a mess of Holocaust, of all that idolatry you've been dabbling with. There's no sense of commitment, there's no repentance. You're saying, just like it's Sinai, sure we'll serve the Lord. And they affirm this, and he tells them they cannot. He is warning them. This is a deeper exercise of heart. Good intentions at a camp or at a revival meeting or some moving occasion does not produce the results that God is looking for. It's a sense of real identification with the end of myself and, Lord, I am unable to work within me and to resolve to yield to him.
And he's trying to create that in their heart. But there's no such spirit. Verse twenty one, the people say, we will serve the Lord. The people say at the end of verse twenty two, we are witnesses. We're committing ourselves before the Lord. And then in verse twenty four, And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve. His voice will we obey. Could you look at chapter two of the book of Judges? Verse eight. This is a rehearsal of the book of Joshua. It begins in chapter one, chapter two. This is the end of that rehearsal before we get into the content of the actual Judges.
and Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Sin-Mathiris, in the Mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaius. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and serve Balaam. We have a natural propensity to idolatry. We have a natural inclination, a natural tendency to put something between ourselves and the Lord.
And for me to be able to truly answer up and to have that kind of statement that's given that courageous obedience to be cleaving to Him and this real, genuine, affectionate love for the Lord God is going to be that I must, in truth, put away the things that stand between me and the Lord and serve the Lord in sincerity and in truth. Shall you? Shall you resolve this morning in response to the Word of God and whatever the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart? Have you resolved to do this with a deep sense of her own inadequacy and weakness?
Lord, help me. Help me to be strong enough to be what I should be to lay hold of my inheritance. May God bless his words to our hearts.