“A Farewell that Demands a Future”
“After a long time had passed… Joshua, by then a very old man,
summoned all Israel” (Joshua 23:1–2, New International Version).
The Hebrew hints at tenderness: yamîm rabbîm—“many days.” Wars
are mostly behind them; wrinkles and scars remain. Shiloh’s tabernacle
glows in the late sunlight as the commander-turned-shepherd gathers the
elders, heads, judges, and officers for what scholars call a “farewell
address.” Ancient suzerain-vassal treaties always closed with final
charges, blessings, and warnings; Joshua follows that pattern. Moses did
likewise in Deuteronomy 31, and Jacob before him in Genesis 49. The
baton is being passed again.
“You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done… It
was the Lord your God who fought for you” (v. 3).
Memory is a spiritual discipline. In Near-Eastern culture, public memory
kept covenant identity alive long before printed scrolls. Joshua
stitches the past to the present: Jericho’s fallen walls, sun-stilled
skies, kings pinned under sandal-pressed necks.
Cross-references:
• Psalm 77:11 — “I will remember the deeds of the Lord.”
• Revelation 12:11 — “They overcame… by the word of their
testimony.”
“But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God” (v. 8).
The verb is דָּבַק (dabaq), “to cling, cleave,
glue.” It is the same word used of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:24.
Covenant loyalty is relational intimacy, not cold rule-keeping. In verse
6 Joshua presses, “Be very strong” (chazaq me’ôd), echoing his
own commissioning in Joshua 1:7. Strength here is moral courage to stay
attached when prosperity lulls the heart to sleep.
New-Testament echo: John 15:4, “Abide in me…”
“Do not associate with these nations… do not serve their gods” (vv.
7, 12–13).
A western reader might imagine ethnic snobbery; an ancient Israelite
heard covenant purity. The issue was not race but worship. Canaanite
fertility rites included ritual prostitution and infant
sacrifice—practices God had judged (see Leviticus 18). Intermarriage
meant shared altars. The metaphor “they will become snares, whips, and
thorns” draws on hunter and farmer imagery familiar to Iron-Age
villagers.
Cross-references:
• Deuteronomy 7:3–6
• 2 Corinthians 6:14 — “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”
“Every promise… has been fulfilled; not one has failed” (v.
14).
Yet verse 15 flips the coin: if Israel turns away, “the Lord will bring
on you every evil.” Promise and peril sit back-to-back. Augustine later
wrote, “God is good to reward, and just to punish.” Calvin saw in this
verse divine constancy—trustworthy whether blessing or judging.
For Wesley it was a call to “universal holiness of heart and life.”
Cross-references:
• 1 Kings 8:56
• Hebrews 10:23, 26–27
• Covenant Relationship — Genesis 15; Exodus 19; Luke 22:20
• Perseverance — Hebrews 3:14; Revelation 2–3
• Holiness as Witness — 1 Peter 2:9
Joshua’s speech forms a hinge between conquest narratives and Judges’ tragic cycle. The chapter foreshadows the Church’s call to patient faithfulness in an often-alluring world.
Excavations at Shiloh (Tel Seilun) reveal storerooms and massive platform walls, likely linked to the era of Joshua and Judges. Clay tablets from the Amarna Letters (14th century BC) mention city-state skirmishes and a people called “Habiru,” echoes of semi-nomadic groups like early Israel. These findings paint a picture of fragile territorial control—hence Joshua’s urgency.
• Origen contrasted Israel’s physical enemies with the believer’s
spiritual passions—anger, pride, lust—that must not be
“intermarried.”
• Chrysostom read verse 8 as an invitation to the Eucharist: “cling to
Him in this table of fellowship.”
• Modern scholar Sandra Richter notes that the covenant lawsuit form
warns Israel that land tenure is conditional upon fidelity—something
soon vindicated by the exile.
Suggested hymn: “O Jesus, I Have Promised” (John Ernest Bode, 1869). The refrain echoes verse 8: “O let me feel Thee near me! The world is ever near.”
Faithful Lord,
You have kept every promise, and none has failed.
Teach our hearts to cling, to cleave, to abide.
Guard us from subtle snares,
energize us for holy courage,
and let our remembrance of Your victories
fuel obedience for the road ahead.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.