Joshua’s Final Address

Joshua 24

            In Joshua 24, Joshua addresses Israel for the last time. He starts with a long recitation of the Lord’s promises and His faithfulness to those promises, how He chose Abraham out of an idolatrous family, how He brought them out of Egypt, how He gave them the bountiful land in which they were living. The recitation of God’s faithfulness is an essential part of all Biblical worship, Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament that takes the form Joshua has here: the call of Abraham, the Exodus, the Promised Land. In the New Testament, it takes the shape of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Such recitation, oh, let’s call it what it is, such praise, puts the focus squarely on the Lord, who makes and keeps promises. In Lutheran terms, it puts the focus squarely on the Gospel—what God has done for your salvation. And focusing on what God has already done, focusing on the fact that promise-keeping is fundamental to God’s character, is exactly the thing we need in order to keep on trusting Him, especially when the circumstances of life would cause us to doubt His trustworthiness.

            Having reminded them of all that the Lord had done for them, Joshua calls them to holy living. That’s the proper order of preaching: first, justification, what the Lord has done for our salvation, then, sanctification, the life that is born of faith in God’s gracious acts. If you start with sanctification, if you start with yourself and your own behavior, you introduce all sorts of uncertainty into the equation. Look at the uncertainty in Joshua. First, he tells them to throw away the gods of their ancestors. Apparently they were still carrying those idols with them, even after all those years. Second, he warns them that they are unable to serve the Lord, and, frankly, their past and subsequent history prove that assertion. That’s why the Gospel, the good news of what God has done, especially through Jesus, is fundamental. If we are always slipping back into old idolatries, old patterns of false belief and false reliance, we need to be constantly reminded where our hope really lies.

            I’ve passed over Joshua’s most famous quote, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Many of us probably have that hanging in our homes somewhere. It’s a great sentiment; it’s a worthy goal; and by ourselves it’s unattainable. But if when we read “the Lord,” we recite to ourselves what that Lord has done, if we keep the Gospel front and center, then we have a chance to serve the Lord.

            One more thing today—a little historical note. Joshua was 110 when he died. Strangely, as the book recounts the death of Joshua, it also notes the burial of Joseph’s remains: Joseph who was also 110 when he died; Joseph who saved Israel from famine in a foreign land. Things have come full circle. Israel left the land of promise as a family nomads; they return now as a mighty nation, resting securely in the land that the Lord had promised those hundreds of years ago.