And just like that, we’re at the end of Joshua.
And the events of these chapters take place in Shechem and Shiloh.
Let’s pause for just a moment to remember the history of Shechem.
- Jacob bought a field just outside the city and built an altar to the LORD there. 🔥Genesis 33:18-20
- Jacob commits his family to YHWH and orders them to get rid of their idols and idolatrous jewelry. He buries the idols under a tree there. 🌳 Gen. 35:1-4.
- After Jacob moved from Shechem his sons would still tend flocks there in his field. That’s where Jacob sent Joseph. Only they had moved on. 🐑🐑🐑
- Jacob had dug a well on his property near Shechem. 🪣💦 John 4:6-12
- Moses told the people that when they entered Canaan, they were to go to Mount Ebal and write the commandments on huge stones there as permanent memorials. Then they would split into groups and recite the blessings of the covenant from Mount Ebal ⛰️ and the curses from Mount Gerizim ⛰️. Shechem is right between those mountains. Deut. 27, Josh. 8:30-35
- Joshua had selected Shechem as a City of Refuge 🏯 AND the Lord (by lot) had chosen it as a city for the Levites. Josh. 20:7, 21:20-21.
So- TONS of major history here. THIS is where Joshua summons the leaders and all the people for his parting message. Just as Moses gathered Israel and went over the law and charged the people to love and serve Yahweh, Joshua does the same. And of course, there are a few final encouragements to “be strong and courageous” for good measure. If Joshua had a “life verse” it’s that. “Be strong and courageous.” 💪🏼🤨
Joshua started out as Moses’ assistant. A servant. Then he became a fearless military leader. A warrior. We don’t generally think of Joshua as a prophet, but here at the end of his life, in 24:2-13, he speaks in first person on God’s behalf. That’s exactly what an OT prophet does. Yahweh reminds them of all the miracles He did for them. He’s making it crystal clear WHO exactly did all this for them. It wasn’t any of the Baals or Asherah or Molech or any of the gods of Egypt. It was Yahweh alone.
Joshua, the OT Jesus is a Servant, Warrior, and Prophet.
And it is right on the heels of this prophetic word that we get Joshua’s MOST famous quote:
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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.” Joshua 24:15 ESV
And just like at Mount Sinai, Israel swears on a stack of Bibles (so to speak) that they WILL serve the Lord.
Joshua’s response is telling.
“All right then,” Joshua said, “destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
Joshua 24:23 NLT
Y’all- they already had idols among them. 🤦♀️
It’s one thing to say you’re going to serve the Lord. It’s a whole other ballgame to actually DO IT. It’s easy to talk a big game. “Oh yeah, I’m a Christian.” And then spend time and money on porn and booze, or watch filth on a screen or listen to it on EarPods. Or read explicit “spicy” content that only rouses the flesh. Or waste the precious hours of life doom-scrolling online arousing what my mom would call “hate and discontent.” Or support ungodliness in civics and government.
If you’re truly going to serve the Lord, for Heaven’s sake, get the idols out of your life and actually, freakin’ DO IT.
How dare we look back at ancient Israel with disdain and eye roll 🙄 at them when we do the SAME THINGS.
I’ve gotten to where I don’t believe anyone who tells me they’re a Christian. Lots of people have very screwball ideas about what that even means. I want to see evidence and sense the witness of the Holy Spirit. Maybe I’m a bit jaded. But haven’t we been tricked enough by modern day Gibeonites masquerading as something they’re not?
😅 Whoah. Now you’re gettin preachy. Calm down. Deep breaths. 😮💨 Easy there, Tiger.
🐯 ok. meow. (Retracts claws)
I find it fascinating that at the very place where Jacob challenged his family to get rid of their idols, nearly 500 years later Joshua is doing the exact same thing in the exact same place. Just as Jacob renewed his promise to Yahweh at Shechem before moving to Bethel (House of God), Joshua renewed Israel’s covenant with Yahweh and then went to the “house of God” At Shiloh.
There is a trip that happens between Joshua 24:25 and 24:26. Joshua goes from Shechem to Shiloh (see map above) to record what has happened in “the Book of the Law”- which is none other than the 5 Books of Moses. The Book of the Law was kept at the Tabernacle which was at Shiloh, (see Josh. 18:1). After adding what we now call “the book of Joshua” to the Old Testament canon, Joshua has a huge stone rolled into place under a large tree next to the Tabernacle. 🪨🌳
Note the parallels. This stone is like the partner of the stones on Mount Ebal which had the Law inscribed on them. Remember those? They were painted WHITE. Also, as Jacob buried the idols and idol-inspired jewelry of his family under a great terebinth-oak tree, so Joshua figuratively puts this symbol of the renunciation of the people’s idols under a great terebinth-oak.
“Joshua said to all the people, “This stone has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness to testify against you if you go back on your word to God.”
Joshua 24:27 NLT
The word for “heard” is shama. As in, “Hear (shama), Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique. And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 LEB
Now pair that with this:
“And do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!”
Matthew 3:9 LEB
And this…
“And he answered and said, “I tell you that if these keep silent, the stones will cry out!”
Luke 19:40 LEB
The people heard. And the rock heard. But who actually listened? The rocks will be more faithful to Yahweh than His own people.
Most of Israel will prove to have stony hearts.
Yahweh will make a New Covenant with humanity. He will take out the stony hearts and give us new, clean hearts upon which is written the Law of God.
Just like Joshua painted the ugly old stones WHITE and wrote the Law of God on them, the greater Joshua (Jesus) will write the Law of God on the whiter-than-snow hearts of those who trust in Him.
And these same people will be called “living stones” by Peter as he writes to encourage the Gentile believers to draw near to the first “Living Stone” – Jesus.
“…to Whom you are drawing near, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in the sight of God. And you yourselves, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
1 Peter 2:4-6 LEB
Jesus is the Rock that gave water in the wilderness. And He is the white stone of witness upon Whom is written the Law of God in perfection. And the plan is- that He wants to make His people like Him. Stones who hear what the LORD says. Living stones in a living Temple.
“The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give to him some of the hidden manna, and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
Revelation 2:17 LEB
Do you see the picture more clearly now? Joshua (Yashua) the victorious Servant/Warrior/Prophet is standing beside a hearing stone under the terebinth-oak next to the house of God…
Oh… and if you’re picturing yourself like this…
Remember that…
“Yahweh said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God does not see what man sees, for a man looks on the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 LEB
And the inside looks like this:
A very pretty house.
Are you seeing it yet? Let me help…
The Living Temple made of Living Stones.
This chapter, and the book, ends with 3 burials: Joshua, Joseph, and Eleazar. 🪦🪦🪦
Here we must say goodbye to 3 of the finest men in the entire Old Testament; men whose lives were lived in faithfulness to Yahweh.
Joshua’s name means “Yahweh saves.” I cannot find any mention of him having a wife or children. He was a descendant of Joseph’s second son, Ephraim (who was given the blessing of the firstborn). A detail included in the Septuagint is that Joshua had something usual buried with him; the flint knives that he used to circumcise the men of Israel at Gilgal. This is a picture of Jesus- who cuts away the flesh from the heart and it is buried with him, (see Col. 2:11). Joshua is buried on his chosen homestead (City of the Sun in the Hills of Double-Fruitfulness) in the territory of Ephraim at the same time that his forefather, Jospeh (the one given the double-blessing), is also being buried.
Jospeh’s name means “let him add” or “adding.” His embalmed body was finally laid to rest in Shechem some 4 centuries after he had passed away. Stop and think about this. The last time Joseph’s body had been in Shechem was when he was a lad of 17, wearing his coat of many colors, sent by his father Jacob to check on his brothers. It took about 500 years, but Joseph finally made it home.
Eleazar is a compound of El (God) and azar (to surround, protect, aid, help). He was the 3rd son of Aaron; his older brothers Nadab and Abihu having died before the Lord for offering strange fire. He was the newly-made high priest before whom Joshua became the newly-ordained leader of Israel. He had used the urim & thummim to “enquire of the Lord” for Joshua. The two of them had been the political and spiritual leaders of the nation.
As these 3 men are buried, the last link to the Patriarchs is cut and a glorious segment of Israel’s history ends. 🌄
The Septuagint (LXX) includes more information that is not present in the Masoretic Text. I already mentioned the flint knives buried with Joshua. The LXX also has it that Jacob bought the field at Shechem with 100 lambs instead of 100 pieces of silver. (Maybe it was both? The Hebrew is unclear as this word is only used in 2 other places.)
Then the Septuagint includes these additional words following the burial of Eleazar in the city of Gibeah which belonged to his son Phinehas:
“In that day the children of Israel took the ark of God, and carried it about among them; and Phinehas exercised the priest’s office in the room of Eleazar his father till he died, and he was buried in his own place, Gibeah. But the children of Israel departed every one to their place, and to their own city: and the children of Israel worshipped Astarte, and Astaroth, and the gods of the nations round about them; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab and he ruled over them eighteen years.”
This narrative bridge actually extends to Judges chapter 3. And that’s where the timeline actually picks back up. Judges 1-2 are a recap of events already covered in the record of Joshua. And that’s where we head next.
Get your flashlight. It’s about to get dark.
🔦👀
To The Reader 