'And Joshua said unto the people. Ye cannot serve the Lord: for He is
an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your
transgressions nor your sins. 20. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve
strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after
that He hath done you good. 21. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay;
but we will serve the Lord. 22. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are
witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord, to
serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses. 23. Now therefore put away,
said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart
unto the Lord God of Israel. 24. And the people said unto Joshua, The
Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey. 25. So Joshua
made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an
ordinance in Shechem. 26. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of
the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an
oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. 27. And Joshua said unto
all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it
hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us: it shall
be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. 28. So Joshua
let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.'-JOSHUA xxiv.
19-28.
We reach in this passage the close of an epoch. It narrates the last
public act of Joshua and the last of the assembled people before they
scatter 'every man unto his inheritance.' It was fitting that the
transition from the nomad stage to that of settled abode in the land
should be marked by the solemn renewal of the covenant, which is thus
declared to be the willingly accepted law for the future national life.
We have here the closing scene of that solemn assembly set before us.
The narrative carries us to Shechem, the lovely valley in the heart of
the land, already consecrated by many patriarchal associations, and by
that picturesque scene (Joshua viii. 30-35), when the gathered nation,
ranged on the slopes of Ebal and Gerizim, listened to Joshua reading
'all that Moses commanded.' There, too, the coffin of Joseph, which had
been reverently carried all through the desert and the war, was laid in
the ground that Jacob had bought five hundred years ago, and which now
had fallen to Joseph's descendants, the tribe of Ephraim. There was
another reason for the selection of Shechem for this renewal of the
covenant. The gathered representatives of Israel stood, at Shechem, on
the very soil where, long ago, Abram had made his first resting-place
as a stranger in the land, and had received the first divine pledge,
'unto thy seed will I give this land,' and had piled beneath the oak of
Moreh his first altar (of which the weathered stones might still be
there) to 'the Lord, who appeared unto him.' It was fitting that this
cradle of the nation should witness their vow, as it witnessed the
fulfilment of God's promise. What Plymouth Rock is to one side of the
Atlantic, or Hastings Field to the other, Shechem was to Israel. Vows
sworn there had sanctity added by the place. Nor did these remembrances
exhaust the appropriateness of the site. The oak, which had waved green
above Abram's altar, had looked down on another significant incident in
the life of Jacob, when, in preparation for his journey to Bethel, he
had made a clean sweep of the idols of his household, and buried them
'under the oak which was by Shechem' (Gen. xxxv. 2-4). His very words
are quoted by Joshua in his command, in verse 23, and it is impossible
to overlook the intention to parallel the two events. The spot which
had seen the earlier act of purification from idolatry was for that
very reason chosen for the later. It is possible that the same tree at
whose roots the idols from beyond the river, which Leah and Rachel had
brought, had been buried, was that under which Joshua set up his
memorial stone; and it is possible that the very stone had been part of
Abram's altar. But, in any case, the place was sacred by these past
manifestations of God and devotions of the fathers, so that we need not
wonder that Joshua selected it rather than Shiloh, where the ark was,
for the scene of this national oath of obedience. Patriotism and
devotion would both burn brighter in such an atmosphere. These
considerations explain also the designation of the place as 'the
sanctuary of the Lord,'--a phrase which has led some to think of the
Tabernacle, and apparently occasioned the Septuagint reading of
'Shiloh' instead of 'Shechem' in verses 1 and 25. The precise rendering
of the preposition in verse 26 (which the Revised Version has put in
the margin) shows that the Tabernacle is not meant; for how could the
oak-tree be 'in' the Tabernacle? Clearly, the open space, hallowed by
so many remembrances, and by the appearance to Abram, was regarded as a
sanctuary.
The earlier part of this chapter shows that the people, by their
representatives, responded with alacrity--which to Joshua seemed too
eager--to his charge, and enumerated with too facile tongues God's
deliverances and benefits. His ear must have caught some tones of
levity, if not of insincerity, in the lightly-made vow. So he meets it
with a douche of cold water in verses 19, 20, because he wishes to
condense vaporous resolutions into something more tangible and
permanent. Cold, judiciously applied, solidifies. Discouragements,
rightly put, encourage. The best way to deepen and confirm good
resolutions which have been too swiftly and inconsiderately formed, is
to state very plainly all the difficulty of keeping them. The hand that
seems to repel, often most powerfully attracts. There is no better way
of turning a somewhat careless 'we will' into a persistent 'nay, but we
_will_' than to interpose a 'ye cannot.' Many a boy has been made a
sailor by the stories of hardships which his parents have meant as
dissuasives. Joshua here is doing exactly what Jesus Christ often did.
He refused glib vows because He desired whole hearts. His very longing
that men should follow Him made Him send them back to bethink
themselves when they promised to do it. 'Master, I will follow Thee
whithersoever Thou goest!' was answered by no recognition of the
speaker's enthusiasm, and by no word of pleasure or invitation, but by
the apparently cold repulse: 'Foxes have holes, birds of the air
roosting-places; but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head. That
is what you are offering to share. Do you stand to your words?' So,
when once 'great multitudes' came to Him He turned on them, with no
invitation in His words, and told them the hard conditions of
discipleship as being entire self-renunciation. He will have no
soldiers enlisted under false pretences. They shall know the full
difficulties and trials which they must meet; and if, knowing these,
they still are willing to take His yoke upon them, then how exuberant
and warm the welcome which He gives!
There is a real danger that this side of the evangelist's work should
be overlooked in the earnestness with which the other side is done. We
cannot be too emphatic in our reiteration of Christ's call to all the
'weary and heavy-laden' to come unto Him, nor too confident in our
assurance that whosoever comes will not be 'cast out'; but we may be,
and, I fear, often are, defective in our repetition of Christ's demand
for entire surrender, and of His warning to intending disciples of what
they are taking upon them. We shall repel no true seeker by duly
emphasising the difficulties of the Christian course. Perhaps, if there
were more plain speaking about these at the beginning, there would be
fewer backsliders and dead professors with 'a name to live.' Christ ran
the risk of the rich ruler's going away sorrowful, and so should His
messengers do. The sorrow tells of real desire, and the departure will
sooner or later be exchanged for return with a deeper and more thorough
purpose, if the earlier wish had any substance in it. If it had not,
better that the consciousness of its hollowness should be forced upon
the man, than that he should outwardly become what he is not really,--a
Christian; for, in the one case, he may be led to reflection which may
issue in thorough surrender; and in the other he will be a
self-deceived deceiver, and probably an apostate.
Note the special form of Joshua's warning. It turns mainly on two
points,--the extent of the obligations which they were so lightly
incurring, and the heavy penalties of their infraction. As to the
former, the vow to 'serve the Lord' had been made, as he fears, with
small consideration of what it meant. In heathenism, the 'service' of a
god is a mere matter of outward acts of so-called worship. There is
absolutely no connection between religion and morality in idolatrous
systems. The notion that the service of a god implies any duties in
common life beyond ceremonial ones is wholly foreign to paganism in all
its forms. The establishment of the opposite idea is wholly the
consequence of revelation. So we need not wonder if the pagan
conception of service was here in the minds of the vowing assembly. If
we look at their vow, as recorded in verses 16-18, we see nothing in it
which necessarily implies a loftier idea. Jehovah is their national
God, who has fought and conquered for them, therefore they will 'serve
Him.' If we substitute Baal, or Chemosh, or Nebo, or Ra, for Jehovah,
this is exactly what we read on Moabite stones and Assyrian tablets and
Egyptian tombs. The reasons for the service, and the service itself,
are both suspiciously external. We are not judging the people more
harshly than Joshua did; for he clearly was not satisfied with them,
and the tone of his answer sufficiently shows what he thought wrong in
them. Observe that he does not call Jehovah 'your God.' He does so
afterwards; but in this grave reply to their exuberant enthusiasm he
speaks of Him only as 'the Lord,' as if he would put stress on the
monotheistic conception, which, at all events, does not appear in the
people's words, and was probably dim in their thoughts. Then observe
that he broadly asserts the impossibility of their serving the Lord;
that is, of course, so long as they continued in their then tone of
feeling about Him and His service.
Then observe the points in the character of God on which he dwells, as
indicating the points which were left out of view by the people, and as
fitted to rectify their notions of service. First, 'He is an holy God.'
The scriptural idea of the holiness of God has a wider sweep than we
often recognise. It fundamentally means His supreme and inaccessible
elevation above the creature; which, of course, is manifested in His
perfect separation from all sin, but has not regard to this only.
Joshua here urges the infinite distance between man and God, and
especially the infinite moral distance, in order to enforce a
profounder conception of what goes to God's service. A holy God cannot
have unholy worshippers. His service can be no mere ceremonial, but
must be the bowing of the whole man before His majesty, the aspiration
of the whole man after His loftiness, the transformation of the whole
man into the reflection of His purity, the approach of the unholy to
the Holy through a sacrifice which puts away sin.
Further, He is 'a jealous God.' 'Jealous' is an ugly word, with
repulsive associations, and its application to God has sometimes been
explained in ugly fashion, and has actually repelled men. But, rightly
looked at, what does it mean but that God desires our whole hearts for
His own, and loves us so much, and is so desirous to pour His love into
us, that He will have no rivals in our love? The metaphor of marriage,
which puts His love to men in the tenderest form, underlies this word,
so harsh on the surface, but so gracious at the core.
There is still abundant need for Joshua's warning. We rejoice that it
takes so little to be a Christian that the feeblest and simplest act of
faith knits the soul to the all-forgiving Christ. But let us not forget
that, on the other hand, it is hard to be a Christian indeed; for it
means 'forsaking all that we have,' and loving God with all our powers.
The measure of His love is the measure of His 'jealousy,' and He loves
us no less than He did Israel. Unless our conceptions of His service
are based upon our recognition of His holiness and demand for our all,
we, too, 'cannot serve the Lord.'
The other half of Joshua's warnings refers to the penalties of the
broken vows. These are put with extraordinary force. The declaration
that the sins of the servants of God would not be forgiven is not, of
course, to be taken so as to contradict the whole teaching of
Scripture, but as meaning that the sins of His people cannot be left
unpunished. The closer relation between God and them made retribution
certain. The law of Israel's existence, which its history ever since
has exemplified, was here laid down, that their prosperity depended on
their allegiance, and that their nearness to Him ensured His
chastisement for their sin. 'You only have I known of all the families
of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.'
The remainder of the incident must be briefly disposed of. These
warnings produced the desired effect; for Joshua did not seek to
prevent, but to make more intelligent and firm, the people's
allegiance. The resolve, repeated after fuller knowledge, is the best
reward, as it is the earnest hope, of the faithful teacher, whose
apparent discouragements are meant to purify and deepen, not to
repress, the faintest wish to serve God. Having tested their sincerity,
he calls them to witness that their resolution is perfectly voluntary;
and, on their endorsing it as their free choice, he requires the
putting away of their 'strange gods,' and the surrender of their inward
selves to Him who, by this their action as well as by His benefits,
becomes in truth 'the God of Israel.' Attempts have been made to evade
the implication that idolatry had crept in among the people; but there
can be no doubt of the plain, sad meaning of the words. They are a
quotation of Jacob's, at the same spot, on a similar occasion centuries
before. If there were no idols buried now under the old oak, it was not
because there were none in Israel, but because they had not been
brought by the people from their homes. Joshua's commands are the
practical outcome of his previous words. If God be 'holy' and
'jealous,' serving Him must demand the forsaking of all other gods, and
the surrender of heart and self to Him. That is as true to-day as ever
it was. The people accept the stringent requirement, and their repeated
shout of obedience has a deeper tone than their first hasty utterance
had. They have learned what service means,--that it includes more than
ceremonies; and they are willing to obey His voice. Blessed those for
whom the plain disclosure of all that they must give up to follow Him,
only leads to the more assured and hearty response of willing surrender!
The simple but impressive ceremony which ratified the covenant thus
renewed consisted of two parts,--the writing of the account of the
transaction in 'the book of the law'; and the erection of a great
stone, whose grey strength stood beneath the green oak, a silent
witness that Israel, by his own choice, after full knowledge of all
that the vow meant, had reiterated his vow to be the Lord's. Thus on
the spot made sacred by so many ancient memories, the people ended
their wandering and homeless life, and passed into the possession of
the inheritance, through the portal of this fresh acceptance of the
covenant, proclaiming thereby that they held the land on condition of
serving God, and writing their own sentence in case of unfaithfulness.
It was the last act of the assembled people, and the crown and close of
Joshua's career.