Well do keep your Bibles in hand and turn with me now to the Old Testament scriptures and to the book of Joshua, chapter 24. You can find that on page 198 if you’re using one of our church Bibles.
It has been now four Sundays since last we were in the book of Joshua together, and before we move on to other things there is still one remaining climactic chapter to consider, and then our study of this wonderful book is finally complete. You will remember what has happened in the book of Joshua. He has led that surviving generation who made it through the wilderness, across the Jordan River, and into the Promised Land. And there, Israel has waged a successful conquest of the land. Now the work of subduing Canaan is largely complete. Joshua, at this stage, is an old man, nearing the end of his life and ministry, and here in chapter 24, he gathers the nation together, he summons the elders and their leaders to attend an assembly at Shechem one last time. His purpose is to call them to renew their covenant with the Lord, to renew their bonded relationship with Him, which makes this chapter at once a most fitting conclusion to the book and an extremely timely word for all of us today. If there is one great need in the Church of Jesus Christ in the days in which we now live, surely it is that we renew our covenant with God and rededicate ourselves to live more singly for Him and rest more wholly upon His grace.
And so we are going to look at the material here in Joshua chapter 24 under three broad headings. First of all, in verses 1 through 13, we’re going to see a record of grace. A record of grace. Joshua narrates their national story. He tells their history and he highlights, as he does, he highlights especially God’s redeeming work in their midst. This is a record of grace. Then verses 14 through 28, the claims of grace. Having shown us what God has done by His grace, there are implications for His people in light of that grace for how they must now respond and live. So the record of grace, then the claims of grace, and then finally verses 29 through 33, we will be pointed to the embodiment of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. The book closes rather strangely with three funerals. We find ourselves standing beside three tombstones and they, together, point us to the One who, alone, uniquely defeats death and brings us the grace that we need. So the record of grace – 1 through 13, the claims of grace – 14 through 28, and the embodiment of grace – 29 through 33.
Before we look at all of that, let’s pause again and pray and then we’ll read the chapter together.
Let us pray.
O Lord, Your Word is living and active, sharper than a double edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and laying bare the secrets of our heart, exposing us to the gaze of the God with whom we all have now to do. So we cry to You that You would penetrate the fog of our minds, our weariness, our sense of need, that You would remove from us every distraction, that we would hear indeed a voice behind us saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” That Your Word would cut us to the quick, wound and heal us, and then draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ that we may receive and rest upon Him as He is offered to us in the Gospel. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
Joshua 24, beginning at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out.
Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 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.’
Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’
But Joshua said to the people, ‘You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.’ And the people said to Joshua, ‘No, but we will serve the Lord.’ Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.’ And they said, ‘We are witnesses.’ He said, ‘Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.’ And the people said to Joshua, ‘The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.’ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.’ So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.
After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.
Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.
As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim.”
Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken to us in His holy, inerrant Word.
Well as you know, I’ve been back home in the United Kingdom for the last several weeks and a part of our trip took us back to Scotland, and I, along with a group of friends, visited some of the places where my heroes in the faith lived and died in the service of the Gospel. In Edinburgh, we went to Greyfriars Kirkyard where in 1638, Alexander Henderson, whose pictures hangs in my study here, having drafted a document that became known as “The National Covenant” led many thousands of Scottish people to renew their commitment to the Gospel against all attempts by King Charles to undermine the advances secured by the Reformation. And then just a little way down the hill from that spot in the graveyard that surrounds the church, we visited the mass grave where the bodies of many of those same people who signed “The National Covenant” were thrown after they were killed for their commitments to the faith. Now there were tourists all over the place, people for whom these were, at best, mere curiosities, artifacts of history. But for me, these are sacred places. The events that took place there, all those long years before, ring with spiritual significance. And they call me, as I stand there and as I think about the costly and heroic sacrifice of my fathers in the faith, they call me to imitate their faith and their courage as they lived and died so singly for their Redeemer.
And I dare say, something like that was happening for the people of God when they came to Shechem in the opening verses of Joshua 24. Shechem was a place of profound spiritual significance. It had become, as you will remember, the center of Israelite worship. The tabernacle was now permanently located at Shechem. An altar, a new central altar, had been established there. And now Joshua calls the nation to a sacred assembly at Shechem. But if you remember Israel’s history, you will know that it was really very fitting that Shechem should be the venue for all of that and especially fitting for what is about to unfold in the chapter before us. Shechem was the place where God appeared to Abraham in Genesis 12:6 and promised to give to his descendants this very land. And there, Abraham built an altar under the oak tree, under the terebinth at Shechem. And now here they all are, the descendants, the offspring of Abraham, standing on that same spot gathered at Shechem having finally taken possession of the Promised Land.
Or you may remember later on, in Genesis chapter 35 at verse 2, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, called all of his sons together. These are the men who would become the patriarchs of each of the tribes of Israel. And there, he demanded that they “put away all their foreign gods that are among you.” And there, he buried their idols under the oak tree, under the terebinth at Shechem, where Abraham had built his altar. That language, by the way, “put away the foreign gods that are among you,” is used by Joshua here in our chapter twice over as he summons the people of God, the sons of Jacob, to do the same thing and to renew their commitment to the Lord and to live more singly for Him. So this is a place pregnant with sacred memory. It was the place promised to Jacob to be his burial site. And at the end of the chapter, this is where Jacob’s bones are finally interred. It is a place filled with spiritual significance. And in that atmosphere evoked by the history of Shechem, Joshua begins to retell Israel’s national story.
The Record of Grace
And that’s the first thing that I want us to think about in our passage. In the opening thirteen verses, Joshua gives them a record of grace. A record of grace. From the patriarchal history, verses 2 through 4, through the leadership of Moses in the exodus, verses 5 through 7, then the wilderness wanderings, 7 through 10, until finally he reminds them of their own recent experience in the conquest of the Promised Land, verses 11 through 13. Joshua tells them again the old, old story of God and His rich grace.
God’s Grace is Sovereign
And let me just take a moment, if you will indulge me, to highlight just a few of the many grace notes that ring in Joshua’s retelling of their history because it continues to help us understand the way God lavishes His grace upon us still. You’ll notice maybe most prominently in Joshua’s narrative, as we read it through together, the first note is that God’s grace is sovereign. It is sovereign grace. That comes out especially clearly when you notice the subject of almost every verb in these opening thirteen verses. Who is the principal actor in Israel’s national history according to Joshua’s account? Well it’s not Israel. The principal actor in Israel’s own story isn’t Israel; it is Israel’s great God. Verse 3, “I took your father Abraham.” “I gave him Isaac,” verse 5. “I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt,” verse 6. “I brought your fathers out of Egypt,” verse 7. “Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt,” verse 8. “Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites and I gave them into your hand. I destroyed them before you,” verse 10. “I delivered you,” verse 11. “I sent the hornet before you,” verse 13. “I gave you a land on which you have not labored.” The story of Israel is really the story of free, sovereign grace.
Now let me ask you – When you look back over your own story, is yours a history mainly of what you have done, of your accomplishments, of your tragedies and triumphs, sorrows and successes, your highs and lows, the ups and downs of your family? Or do you trace in it all the hand of sovereign grace? If you are a Christian, your biography, every detail in it, is about much more than your doings and your sayings. It’s about the unexpected wonder of divine intervention who breaks in and makes you His child and takes away your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh and unites you to Jesus Christ and gives you the gift of saving faith and adopts you into His family and fills you with His Spirit and sets your feet on a path through which He will lead you in all the ways of His calling. Grace is sovereign, and we are called here to remember the wonder of that.
God’s Grace is Mysterious
You’ll also notice in verse 4 – if you’ll look at verse 4 – that grace is mysterious. Grace is sovereign and it is mysterious. Look at verse 4. “I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.” Remember, Esau is not the heir; he is not the one through whom the covenant promises would be fulfilled. Jacob is the heir, but Esau gets his inheritance. And what do the people of God get? They get slavery and bondage in Egypt. That’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? But that is precisely the point. Often, the motions of grace in the life of the people of God are mysterious like that. Aren’t they? Counterintuitive; unexpected. We need to come to terms, I think, with the fact that we are rarely capable of reading God’s gracious providence in our lives correctly as it unfolds. Aren’t we often left wondering what God is doing? Why isn’t He blessing us? Apparently not blessing us? Apparently turning a deaf ear to our cries? “What purpose,” we find ourselves often asking, “could this sorrow, this heartache, this loss possibly serve?”
How important, therefore, in moments like that to remember that grace is not only sovereign, but it is also mysterious. It is often impenetrable. “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.” You know the thing about footsteps planted in the sea, don’t you? You can’t follow footsteps like that; you can’t trace them. No sooner are they made than they are obscured. And that’s our experience. Very often we cannot discern the direction and purposes of God or know the way that He takes. Grace is mysterious. And some of you know very well, right now, what that’s like, and you’ve learned to say with Job, “Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward and I do not perceive Him. On the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him. He turns to the right hand but I do not see Him.” That’s been your experience – where is He? What is He doing? I don’t understand. It’s dark and obscure. “Behold, I go forward, He is not there. Backward, I do not perceive Him. On the left hand when He is working I do not behold Him. He turns to the right hand but I do not see Him.” And yet by the grace of God, you’ve also learned to say with Job through faith, “He knows the way that I take. I don’t know the way that He takes. He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” Grace is sovereign and often mysterious, yet faith learns to rest in it knowing that God is good and merciful and is working His purposes out as year succeeds to year.
God’s Grace is Free
Well there’s more that could be said, much more about Joshua’s account of God’s grace. Let me say this one last thing before we move on to other things, however. Grace is sovereign. Grace is mysterious. Finally, notice grace here is free. It is free. Look down at verses 12 and 13. “I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.” “You didn’t win the war by your own sword or secure the land by your own labor or dwell in cities that you had built or eat from vineyards that you planted. I gave it all to you for free. For free. You can take none of the credit for this. None of it.” That is actually the great note of hope that rings throughout the whole Bible, isn’t it? It’s not that you did enough, earned the right, secured the privilege to be called the child of God. No, no, if today you are a Christian it was all by grace. Free, mysterious, sovereign grace. “By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Joshua rehearses here the record of God’s grace. Do you see it?
And I wonder if you would agree with me that much of our discouragement in our own Christian lives actually lies in our failure to do the same – to recount the record of God’s grace. We need to rehearse God’s gracious dealings with us. And our failure to that actually is all the more tragic when you consider Joshua only has part of the story. We have the whole story. We see the story having reached its zenith and its consummation in the incarnation and obedient life and sacrificial death and glorious resurrection and ascension and heavenly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom grace upon grace has been lavished upon everyone who believes. We live, I fear, too much in our daily disappointments. We need to learn or re-learn to tell ourselves the old, old story of Jesus and His love. The record of grace.
The Claims of Grace
The Claims of Grace are Logical
Then secondly, look down at verses 14 through 28 and consider with me the claims of grace. The record of grace, now the claims of grace. And first thing I want you to see about these claims is that they are logical. The claims of grace are logical claims. Verse 14, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” “Now therefore” – God never lavishes His blessings upon us without seeking by those blessings to produce in us a response. There is always a “Now therefore.” After rehearsing the wonder of God’s rich grace in the work of Jesus Christ in the first eleven chapters of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul says the very same thing we hear in Joshua’s mouth here in our chapter in the opening verses of chapter 12 of the book of Romans – “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Those are the claims of grace. Now in view of God’s mercy, in light of all that He has done, since He has lavished grace upon grace upon grace on you, here are the implications – “Now therefore here’s how you should live.”
It is the only appropriate, fitting answer to sovereign, mysterious free grace. You cannot stay the same, you will not be the same if grace has broken into your life. Grace is a change agent. The grace that makes you free calls you to the service of God. There is an inevitability about it. There is a logical necessity to it. “Now therefore in view of God’s mercy” – there is really no choice for you, recipient of saving grace. Holiness is a necessary consequence of grace. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.” That’s Joshua’s point to the people of Israel. Do not excuse your sin, your indifference by an appeal to grace. Grace is a change agent. The evidence of grace at work is that when you hear the “Now therefore’s” of Scripture, you run to obey.
The Claims of Grace are Exclusive
And then notice not just the logic of grace but the exclusivity of it. Look at the text. Look at what Joshua tells them. “Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 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.” I think that’s really rather searching, don’t you? God won’t share you with anyone. That’s what Joshua is saying to them. He won’t share you. He will brook no competitors for your love.
And before you find yourself grumbling that that is a little unreasonable of Him, this exclusivity, that it’s a little restrictive, ask yourself how you would feel in a marriage if your spouse was indifferent about whether you ever remained faithful. Imagine that in a moment of sinful temptation, you were caught flirting with someone outside of your marriage. And as wrong and wicked as that would be, wouldn’t it also indicate something terribly wrong if your spouse in response simply shrugged and said, “Do what you like. I don’t care.” No, no, we get it, don’t we? True love is exclusive. It is exclusive. “Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife? And do you promise to keep, love and cherish her, forsaking all others?” That is the claim love always makes. It is the claim that God makes upon each of us in the Gospel.
So for example, listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. “No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” We are being called here, each of us, today, to face our own idols. Whether it is the love of money, as the particular idol that the Lord Jesus highlights, or sex or power or influence or reputation or pride or control or comfort. We are being called to face our idols, and in repentance, actually to smash them so that we might set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts once more. We need to relearn Cowper’s famous hymn, “O For a Closer Walk with God.” We need to begin to pray with renewed urgency, “The dearest idol I have known, what’er that idol be, help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee.”
And before we move on from this point, let’s be sure we do not skip over Joshua’s remarkable example as the people are summoned into this exclusive fellowship with God alone. Notice Joshua’s remarkable example at the end of verse 15. Whatever the people decide to do, even if they decide to go back to the gods of Egypt or back to the gods that Abraham worshiped before he came to know the Lord on the other side of the River Euphrates, Joshua says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Notice the commitment he makes there is not for himself alone but for his household also. Dads and moms, there is no use saying you want your children to follow Jesus if you are half-hearted and lukewarm in it yourself. You cannot say you are resolved to give your hearts exclusively to Christ while college football and the condo at the beach and the house in the country and almost every other chance you get to abandon the worship of God for your own entertainments takes priority in your life. Never forget you are always discipling your children, always. You are always catechising them. What are you teaching them, not only by your words but by your example? What are you catechising your children really to believe? That you can be a Christian just fine while giving Jesus the dregs of our time and attention? That the Lord will never really call you to sacrifice your comfort or your money or your time or your priorities?
You know, one of the greatest privileges of ministry here at First Presbyterian Church is the sheer number of baptisms we get to perform. I understand last Lord’s Day there were ten baptisms here in the worship services at eight-thirty and eleven. Well let me remind the young parents in the congregation, when you baptized your children you were saying with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Is that truly the commitment of your heart? He claims exclusive rights to the entirety of your life and your children and your marriage and your finances and your time and your every decision. He is Lord! The claims of grace are logical. They are exclusive.
The Claims of Grace are Costly
And finally, they are also costly. They are costly. Look at the text. After Joshua challenges the people to a renewed commitment, in verses 16 through 18 they respond in a way that any evangelist worth his salt would dream about their hearers responding like this. Do you see how they respond? Joshua issues the call and they all come streaming down the aisle. They sign the card. They pray the prayer, don’t they? “We’re all in, Joshua! No holds barred! Me too! Sign me up!” That’s what they say. And I suppose, were we in Joshua’s position, we might leap for joy at the response and immediately admit them to membership in the church and move right along. But look at verse 19. Joshua apparently needs some lessons on how to do evangelism. Verse 19 – he doesn’t say to them, “Well now you’ve prayed the prayer and signed the card. You’re all set!” What does he say? “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good.” That’s no way to make converts, Joshua!
Actually, we find Jesus doing very similar things in His evangelism, don’t we? “Go and sell all you have and then follow Me,” He told the rich young ruler. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits himself?” “You’re not able to serve the Lord. You’re not counting the cost. You’re rushing into this. You’ve underestimated the persistent wickedness of your rebel hearts and the power of your remaining sin.” How we need to beware of playing at religion, of keeping our idols while paying lip service to the Lord, of saying one thing but doing another. “God will not be mocked,” Joshua is saying, and even if you can convince everyone else around you, He knows your heart. He knows, and so be warned. Count the cost of discipleship carefully. Do not presume upon God. That is Joshua’s message to them.
Well as they listen, the people are undeterred, and so he makes a covenant with them in verse 25. Verse 27, he erects a stone to be a witness against them should they ever break the covenant and then he sends them all away. And we rather naturally expect this to be the conclusion of the book of Joshua. What an extraordinary scene it has been – all the people gathered, Joshua has preached his sermon, and they have responded so signally and fervently and recommitted themselves to the Lord. What a meeting! What a worship service! What a revival it has been! And now they all turn as the sun sets and the music plays and the end credits begin to roll. There’s a trend you may have observed in the movies these days. When the end credits begin to roll, especially if there is a sequel, often at the end of the credits there’s another little scene, a little end credit scene, so you have to stay in your seat instead of fumbling for the car keys and walking to the parking lot. All the way through the credits until you get to the end credit scene. The book of Joshua is a bit like that right here. Don’t get up and go to the parking lot too soon just because the end credits have started to roll.
The Embodiment of Grace
Just when you think it’s all over, in verse 29, the screen lights up again and the camera hones in on three tombstones. The name on the first is the name of Joshua, verse 29 and 30. The name on the second tombstone is the name of Joseph in verse 32. And the name on the third tombstone is Eleazar, the high priest, in verse 33. And we’re sort of scratching our heads a little bit as this scene unfolds. What an odd way to end the book! Why not end on a high note instead of three funerals? After all the drama and the wonderful response of God’s people – really, three tombstones? That’s how you want to end the book? And right in the middle of it all – did you notice this – there’s a little note about Israel’s obedience, verse 31, but it is tinctured with a hint, an ominous hint of how precarious their obedience really is. While Joshua was alive, they obeyed. While the generation that saw what God did during the conquest were alive, they obeyed. And if you were to read on into the book of Judges you would see the dark and ominous hint here playing out in tragic technicolor. As in the book of Judges, the people within a generation begin to turn from the ways of the Lord and “everyone does what is right in his own eyes.”
And that’s actually where these three tombstones can help us. My friend, Rhett Dodson, in his little book on Joshua urges us to remember who these three men really were. Joshua was Israel’s great leader. Joseph was the one who, remember, saved his brothers during the famine in Egypt. And Eleazar was the high priest. And yet for all their influence and power, their significance and the way that God used them, for all of that, none of them could change the hearts of the people in a way that would last. Within a generation, as the book of Judges gets under way, they’ve fallen back again to their idols. Joshua couldn’t do it. Joseph couldn’t do it. Eleazar the high priest could not do it. They died and the dark hints of coming failure proved to be true.
So standing here beside these three graves at the close of the book, what is the message? Isn’t the message that we need another, greater than the three, who combines and surpasses them all? Who is Israel’s great King and their true and final Savior and their perfect High Priest – the Lord Jesus Christ, who triumphs over the grave and who brings life and immortality to light; to whom we may turn and say, “You know, Joshua is right. We are not able to serve the Lord, but You are able. You have perfectly obeyed. And by Your resurrection power, You are able to give us new hearts so that trusting in Your grace, now we are more and more able to love and serve and follow the Lord.” The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of grace. He is the One your heart, your heart urgently needs today. And He stands as God’s great Redeemer, King and Savior, and High Priest, who has triumphed over the grave to give grace to You who call upon Him.
So hear Joshua’s summons – “Choose this day whom you will serve” – and may the Lord give you grace to say with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Let us pray.
Our Father, we bless You for Christ, a perfect Savior, able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him. Help us as we see and seek to tear from our hearts our idols. Help us to flee to the only Redeemer of God’s elect, the Lord Jesus Christ, and resting on Him, pardon and renew us and enable us to live for Your glory from this day forth and forevermore. For Jesus’ sake, amen.