J
O S H U A
CHAP. XXIV.
This
chapter concludes the life and reign of Joshua, in which we have, I. The great
care and pains he took to confirm the people of
Israel in the true faith and
worship of God, that they might, after his death, persevere therein. In order
to this he called another general assembly of the heads of the congregation of
Israel (ver. 1) and dealt with them. 1. By way of narrative, recounting the
great things God had done for them and their fathers, ver. 2-13. 2. By way of
charge to them, in consideration thereof, to serve God, ver. 14. 3. By way of
treaty with them, wherein he aims to bring them, (1.) To make religion their
deliberate choice; and they did so, with reasons for their choice, ver. 15-18.
(2.) To make it their determinate choice, and to resolve to adhere to it, ver.
19-24. 4. By way of covenant upon that treaty, ver. 25-28. II. The conclusion
of this history, with, 1. The death and burial of Joshua (ver. 29, 30) and
Eleazar (ver. 33), and the mention of the burial of Joseph's bones upon that
occasion, ver. 32. 2. A general account of the state of Israel at that time,
ver. 31.
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Joshua's
Farewell Address to Israel.
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B.
C. 1427.
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1 And Joshua gathered all
the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for
their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented
themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus
saith the LORD
God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other
gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the
flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed,
and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I
gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down
into Egypt. 5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt,
according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you
out. 6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto
the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and
horsemen unto the Red sea. 7 And when they cried unto the LORD,
he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them,
and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye
dwelt in the wilderness a long season. 8 And I brought you into
the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they
fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their
land; and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son
of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called
Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 10 But I would not hearken
unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his
hand. 11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the
men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. 12 And I sent the
hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two
kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which
ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye
planted not do ye eat. 14 Now therefore fear the LORD,
and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your
fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the
LORD.
Joshua thought he had taken his last farewell of Israel in the solemn charge
he gave them in the foregoing chapter, when he said, I go the way of all
the earth; but God graciously continuing his life longer than expected,
and renewing his strength, he was desirous to improve it for the good of
Israel. He did not say, "I have taken my leave of them once, and let that
serve;" but, having yet a longer space given him, he summons them
together again, that he might try what more he could do to engage them for
God. Note, We must never think our work for God done till our life is done;
and, if he lengthen out our days beyond what we thought, we must conclude it
is because he has some further service for us to do.
The assembly is the same with that in the foregoing chapter, the elders,
heads, judges, and officers of Israel, v. 1. But it is here made
somewhat more solemn than it was there.
I. The place appointed for their meeting is Shechem, not only because
that lay nearer to Joshua than Shiloh, and therefore more convenient now that
he was infirm and unfit for travelling, but because it was the place where
Abraham, the first trustee of God's covenant with this people, settled at his
coming to Canaan, and where God appeared to him (Gen. xii. 6, 7), and near
which stood mounts Gerizim and Ebal, where the people had renewed their
covenant with God at their first coming into Canaan, Josh. viii. 30. Of the
promises God had made to their fathers, and of the promises they themselves
had made to God, this place might serve to put them in mind.
II. They presented themselves not only before Joshua, but before God, in this
assembly, that is, they came together in a solemn religious manner, as into
the special presence of God, and with an eye to his speaking to them by
Joshua; and it is probable the service began with prayer. It is the conjecture
of interpreters that upon this great occasion Joshua ordered the ark of God to
be brought by the priests to Shechem, which, they say, was about ten miles
from Shiloh, and to be set down in the place of their meeting, which is
therefore called (v. 26) the sanctuary of the Lord, the presence
of the ark making it so at that time; and this was done to grace the
solemnity, and to strike an awe upon the people that attended. We have not now
any such sensible tokens of the divine presence, but are to believe that where
two or three are gathered together in Christ's name he is as really in the
midst of them as God was where the ark was, and they are indeed presenting
themselves before him.
III. Joshua spoke to them in God's name, and as from him, in the language of a
prophet (v. 2): "Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah, the great
God, and the God of Israel, your God in covenant, whom therefore you are bound
to hear and give heed to." Note, The word of God is to be received by us
as his, whoever is the messenger that brings it, whose greatness cannot add to
it, nor his meanness diminish from it. His sermon consists of doctrine and
application.
1. The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for his
people, and for their fathers before them. God by Joshua recounts the marvels
of old: "I did so and so." They must know and consider, not only
that such and such things were done, but that God did them. It is a series of
wonders that is here recorded, and perhaps many more were mentioned by Joshua,
which for brevity's sake are here omitted. See what God had wrought. (1.) He
brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, v. 2, 3. He and his
ancestors had served other gods there, for it was the country in which, though
celebrated for learning, idolatry, as some think, had its rise; there the
world by wisdom knew not God. Abraham, who afterwards was the friend of
God and the great favourite of heaven, was bred up in idolatry, and lived long
in it, till God by his grace snatched him as a brand out of that burning. Let
them remember that rock out of which they were hewn, and not relapse into that
sin from which their fathers by a miracle of free grace were delivered.
"I took him," says God, "else he had never come out of that
sinful state." Hence Abraham's justification is made by the apostle an
instance of God's justifying the ungodly, Rom. iv. 5. (2.) He brought
him to Canaan, and built up his family, led him through the land to Shechem,
where they now were, multiplied his seed by Ishmael, who begat twelve princes,
but at last gave him Isaac the promised son, and in him multiplied his seed.
When Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau, God provided an inheritance for Esau
elsewhere in Mount Seir, that the land of Canaan might be reserved entire for
the seed of Jacob, and the posterity of Esau might not pretend to a share in
it. (3.) He delivered the seed of Jacob out of Egypt with a high hand (v.
5, 6), and rescued them out of the hands of Pharaoh and his host at the Red
Sea, v. 6, 7. The same waters were the Israelites' guard and the
Egyptians' grave, and this in answer to prayer; for, though we find in the
story that they in that distress murmured against God (Exod. xiv. 11, 12),
notice is here taken of their crying to God; he graciously accepted
those that prayed to him, and overlooked the folly of those that quarrelled
with him. (4.) He protected them in the wilderness, where they are here said,
not to wander, but to dwell for a long season, v. 7. So
wisely were all their motions directed, and so safely were they kept, that
even there they had as certain a dwelling-place as if they had been in a
walled city. (5.) He gave them the land of the Amorites, on the other side
Jordan (v. 8), and there defeated the plot of Balak and Balaam against
them, so that Balaam could not curse them as he desired, and therefore Balak
durst not fight them as he designed, and as, because he designed it, he is
here said to have done it. The turning of Balaam's tongue to bless Israel,
when he intended to curse them, is often mentioned as an instance of the
divine power put forth in Israel's favour as remarkable as any, because in it
God proved (and does still, more than we are aware of) his dominion over the
powers of darkness, and over the spirits of men. (6.) He brought them safely
and triumphantly into Canaan, delivered the Canaanites into their hand (v.
11), sent hornets before them, when they were actually engaged in
battle with the enemy, which with their stings tormented them and with their
noise terrified them, so that they became a very easy prey to Israel. These
dreadful swarms first appeared in their war with Sihon and Og, the two kings
of the Amorites, and afterwards in their other battles, v. 12. God had
promised to do this for them, Exod. xxiii. 27, 28. And here Joshua takes
notice of the fulfilling of that promise. See Exod. xxiii. 27, 28; Deut. vii.
20. These hornets, it should seem, annoyed the enemy more than the artillery
of Israel, and therefore he adds, not with thy sword nor bow. It was
purely the Lord's doing. Lastly, They were now in the peaceable
possession of a good land, and lived comfortably upon the fruit of other
people's labours, v. 13.
2. The application of this history of God's mercies to them is by way of
exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it
might be continued to them, v. 14. Now therefore, in consideration of
all this, (1.) "Fear the Lord, the Lord and his goodness, Hos.
iii. 5. Reverence a God of such infinite power, fear to offend him and to
forfeit his goodness, keep up an awe of his majesty, a deference to his
authority, a dread of his displeasure, and a continual regard to his
all-seeing eye upon you." (2.) "Let your practice be consonant to
this principle, and serve him both by the outward acts of religious worship
and every instance of obedience in your whole conversation, and this in
sincerity and truth, with a single eye and an upright heart, and inward
impressions answerable to outward expressions." This is the truth in
the inward part, which God requires, Ps. li. 6. For what good will it do
us to dissemble with a God that searches the heart? (3.) Put away the
strange gods, both Chaldean and Egyptian idols, for those they were most
in danger of revolting to. It should seem by this charge, which is repeated (v.
23), that there were some among them that privately kept in their closets the
images or pictures of these dunghill-deities, which came to their hands from
their ancestors, as heir-looms of their families, though, it may be, they did
not worship them; these Joshua earnestly urges them to throw away:
"Deface them, destroy them, lest you be tempted to serve them."
Jacob pressed his household to do this, and at this very place; for, when they
gave him up the little images they had, he buried them under the oak which
was by Shechem, Gen. xxxv. 2, 4. Perhaps the oak mentioned here (v.
26) was the same oak, or another in the same place, which might be well called
the oak of reformation, as there were idolatrous oaks.
15 And if it seem evil
unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve
the LORD.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD,
to serve other gods; 17 For the LORD
our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our
sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the
people through whom we passed: 18 And the LORD
drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the
land: therefore will we also serve the LORD;
for he is our God. 19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye
cannot serve the LORD:
for he is a 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.
Never was any treaty carried on with better management, nor brought to a
better issue, than this of Joshua with the people, to engage them to serve
God. The manner of his dealing with them shows him to have been in earnest,
and that his heart was much upon it, to leave them under all possible
obligations to cleave to him, particularly the obligation of a choice and of a
covenant.
I. Would it be any obligation upon them if they made the service of God their
choice?--he here puts them to their choice, not as if it were antecedently
indifferent whether they served God or nor, or as if they were at liberty to
refuse his service, but because it would have a great influence upon their
perseverance in religion if they embraced it with the reason of men and with
the resolution of men. These two things he here brings them to.
1. He brings them to embrace their religion rationally and intelligently, for
it is a reasonable service. The will of man is apt to glory in its native
liberty, and, in a jealousy for the honour of this, adheres with most pleasure
to that which is its own choice and is not imposed upon it; therefore it is
God's will that this service should be, not our chance, or a force upon us,
but our choice. Accordingly,
(1.) Joshua fairly puts the matter to their choice, v. 15. Here, [1.]
He proposes the candidates that stand for the election. The Lord, Jehovah, on
one side, and on the other side either the gods of their ancestors, which
would pretend to recommend themselves to those that were fond of antiquity,
and that which was received by tradition from their fathers, or the gods of
their neighbours, the Amorites, in whose land they dwelt, which
would insinuate themselves into the affections of those that were complaisant
and fond of good fellowship. [2.] He supposes there were those to whom, upon
some account or other, it would seem evil to serve the Lord. There are
prejudices and objections which some people raise against religion, which,
with those that are inclined to the world and the flesh, have great force. It
seems evil to them, hard and unreasonable, to be obliged to deny themselves,
mortify the flesh, take up their cross, &c. But, being in a state of
probation, it is fit there should be some difficulties in the way, else there
were no trial. [3.] He refers it to themselves: "Choose you whom you
will serve, choose this day, now that the matter is laid thus plainly
before you, speedily bring it to a head, and do not stand hesitating."
Elijah, long after this, referred the decision of the controversy between
Jehovah and Baal to the consciences of those with whom he was treating, 1
Kings xviii. 21. Joshua's putting the matter here to this issue plainly
intimates two things:--First, That it is the will of God we should
every one of us make religion our serious and deliberate choice. Let us state
the matter impartially to ourselves, weigh things in an even balance, and then
determine for that which we find to be really true and good. Let us resolve
upon a life of serious godliness, not merely because we know no other way, but
because really, upon search, we find no better. Secondly, That religion
has so much self-evident reason and righteousness on its side that it may
safely be referred to every man that allows himself a free thought either to
choose or refuse it; for the merits of the cause are so plain that no
considerate man can do otherwise but choose it. The case is so clear that it
determines itself. Perhaps Joshua designed, by putting them to their choice,
thus to try if there were any among them who, upon so fair an occasion given,
would show a coolness and indifference towards the service of God, whether
they would desire time to consider and consult their friends before they gave
in an answer, and if any such should appear he might set a mark upon them, and
warn the rest to avoid them. [4.] He directs their choice in this matter by an
open declaration of his own resolutions: "But as for me and my house,
whatever you do, we will serve the Lord, and I hope you will all be of
the same mind." Here he resolves, First, For himself: As for
me, I will serve the Lord. Note, The service of God is nothing below the
greatest of men; it is so far from being a diminution and disparagement to
princes and those of the first rank to be religious that it is their greatest
honour, and adds the brightest crown of glory to them. Observe how positive he
is: "I will serve God." It is no abridgment of our liberty to bind
ourselves with a bond to God. Secondly, For his house, that is,
his family, his children and servants, such as were immediately under his eye
and care, his inspection and influence. Joshua was a ruler, a judge in Israel,
yet he did not make his necessary application to public affairs an excuse for
the neglect of family religion. Those that have the charge of many families,
as magistrates and ministers, must take special care of their own (1 Tim. iii.
4, 5): I and my house will serve God. 1. "Not my house, without
me." He would not engage them to that work which he would not set his own
hand to. As some who would have their children and servants good, but will not
be so themselves; that is, they would have them go to heaven, but intend to go
to hell themselves. 2. "Not I, without my house." He supposes he
might be forsaken by his people, but in his house, where his authority was
greater and more immediate, there he would over-rule. Note, When we cannot
bring as many as we would to the service of God we must bring as many as we
can, and extend our endeavours to the utmost sphere of our activity; if we
cannot reform the land, let us put away iniquity far from our own tabernacle.
3. "First I, and then my house." Note, Those that lead and rule in
other things should be first in the service of God, and go before in the best
things. Thirdly, He resolves to do this whatever others did. Though all
the families of Israel should revolt from God, and serve idols, yet Joshua and
his family will stedfastly adhere to the God of Israel. Note, Those that
resolve to serve God must not mind being singular in it, nor be drawn by the
crowd to forsake his service. Those that are bound for heaven must be willing
to swim against the stream, and must not do as the most do, but as the best
do.
(2.) The matter being thus put to their choice, they immediately determine it
by a free, rational, and intelligent declaration, for the God of Israel,
against all competitors whatsoever, v. 16-18. Here, [1.] They concur
with Joshua in his resolution, being influenced by the example of so great a
man, who had been so great a blessing to them (v. 18): We also will
serve the Lord. See how much good great men might do, if they were but
zealous in religion, by their influence on their inferiors. [2.] They startle
at the thought of apostatizing from God (v. 16): God forbid; the
word intimates the greatest dread and detestation imaginable. "Far be it,
far be it from us, that we or ours should ever forsake the Lord to serve
other gods. We must be perfectly lost to all sense of justice, gratitude,
and honour, ere we can harbour the least thought of such a thing." Thus
must our hearts rise against all temptations to desert the service of God. Get
thee behind me, Satan. [3.] They give very substantial reasons for their
choice, to show that they did not make it purely in compliance to Joshua, but
from a full conviction of the reasonableness and equity of it. They make this
choice for, and in consideration, First, Of the many great and very
kind things God had done for them, bringing them out of Egypt through the
wilderness into Canaan, v. 17, 18. Thus they repeat to themselves
Joshua's sermon, and then express their sincere compliance with the intentions
of it. Secondly, Of the relation they stood in to God, and his covenant
with them: "We will serve the Lord (v. 18), for he is
our God, who has graciously engaged himself by promise to us, and to whom
we have by solemn vow engaged ourselves."
2. He brings them to embrace their religion resolutely, and to express a full
purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. Now that he has them in a good mind he
follows his blow, and drives the nail to the head, that it might, if possible,
be a nail in a sure place. Fast bind, fast find.
(1.) In order to this he sets before them the difficulties of religion, and
that in it which might be thought discouraging (v. 19, 20): You
cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God, or, as it is in the Hebrew, he
is the holy Gods, intimating the mystery of the Trinity, three in one; holy,
holy, holy, holy Father, holy Son, holy Spirit. He will not forgive.
And, if you forsake him, he will do you hurt. Certainly Joshua does not
intend hereby to deter them from the service of God as impracticable and
dangerous. But, [1.] He perhaps intends to represent here the suggestions of
seducers, who tempted Israel from their God, and from the service of him; with
such insinuations as these, that he was a hard master, his work impossible to
be done, and he not to be pleased, and, if displeased, implacable and
revengeful,--that he would confine their respects to himself only, and would
not suffer them to show the least kindness for any other,--and that herein he
was very unlike the gods of the nations, which were easy, and neither holy nor
jealous. It is probable that this was then commonly objected against the
Jewish religion, as it has all along been the artifice of Satan every since he
tempted our first parents thus to misrepresent God and his laws, as harsh and
severe; and Joshua by his tone and manner of speaking might make them perceive
he intended it as an objection, and would put it to them how they would keep
their ground against the force of it. Or, [2.] He thus expresses his godly
jealousy over them, and his fear concerning them, that, notwithstanding the
profession they now made of zeal for God and his service, they would
afterwards draw back, and if they did they would find him just and jealous to
avenge it. Or, [3.] He resolves to let them know the worst of it, and what
strict terms they must expect to stand upon with God, that they might sit down
and count the cost. "You cannot serve the Lord, except you put
away all other gods for he is holy and jealous, and will by no means admit a
rival, and therefore you must be very watchful and careful, for it is at your
peril if you desert his service; better you had never known it." Thus,
though our Master has assured us that his yoke is easy, yet lest, upon
the presumption of this, we should grow remiss and careless, he has also told
us that the gate is strait, and the way narrow, that leads to life, that we
may therefore strive to enter, and not seek only. "You cannot serve
God and Mammon; therefore, if you resolve to serve God, you must renounce
all competitors with him. You cannot serve God in your own strength, nor will
he forgive your transgressions for any righteousness of your own; but all
the seed of Israel must be justified and must glory in the Lord alone as their
righteousness and strength," Isa. xlv. 24, 25. They must
therefore come off from all confidence in their own sufficiency, else their
purposes would be to no purpose. Or, [4.] Joshua thus urges on them the
seeming discouragements which lay in their way, that he might sharpen their
resolutions, and draw from them a promise yet more express and solemn that
they would continue faithful to God and their religion. He draws it form them
that they might catch at it the more earnestly and hold it the faster.
(2.) Notwithstanding this statement of the difficulties of religion, they
declare a firm and fixed resolution to continue and persevere therein (v.
21): "Nay, but we will serve the Lord. We will think never the
worse of him for his being a holy and jealous God, nor for his confining his
servants to worship himself only. Justly will he consume those that forsake
him, but we never will forsake him; not only we have a good mind to serve him,
and we hope we shall, but we are at a point, we cannot bear to hear any entreaties
to leave him or to turn from following after him (Ruth i. 16); in the
strength of divine grace we are resolved that we will serve the Lord."
This resolution they repeat with an explication (v. 24): "The
Lord our God will we serve, not only be called his servants and wear his
livery, but our religion shall rule us in every thing, and his voice will
we obey." And in vain do we call him Master and Lord, if we do not
the things which he saith, Luke vi. 46. This last promise they make in
answer to the charge Joshua gave them (v. 23), that, in order to their
perseverance, they should, [1.] Put away the images and relics of the strange
gods, and not keep any of the tokens of those other lovers in their custody,
if they resolved their Maker should be their husband; they promise, in
this, to obey his voice. [2.] That they should incline their hearts to the
God of Israel, use their authority over their own hearts to engage them
for God, not only to set their affections upon him, but to settle them so.
These terms they agree to, and thus, as Joshua explains the bargain, they
strike it: The Lord our God will we serve.
II. The service of God being thus made their deliberate choice, Joshua binds
them to it by a solemn covenant, v. 25. Moses had twice publicly
ratified this covenant between God and Israel, at Mount Sinai (Exod. xxiv.)
and in the plains of Moab, Deut. xxix. 1. Joshua had likewise done it once (ch.
viii. 31, &c.) and now the second time. It is here called a statute
and an ordinance, because of the strength and perpetuity of its
obligation, and because even this covenant bound them to no more than what
they were antecedently bound to by the divine command. Now, to give it the
formalities of a covenant, 1. He calls witnesses, no other than themselves (v.
22): You are witnesses that you have chosen the Lord. He promises
himself that they would never forget the solemnities of this day; but, if
hereafter they should break this covenant, he assures them that the
professions and promises they had now made would certainly rise up in judgment
against them and condemn them; and they agreed to it: "We are
witnesses; let us be judged out of our own mouths if ever we be false to
our God." 2. He put it in writing, and inserted it, as we find it here,
in the sacred canon: He wrote it in the book of the law (v. 26),
in that original which was laid up in the side of the ark, and thence,
probably, it was transcribed into the several copies which the princes had for
the use of each tribe. There it was written, that their obligation to religion
by the divine precept, and that by their own promise, might remain on record
together. 3. He erected a memorandum of it, for the benefit of those who
perhaps were not conversant with writings, v. 26, 27. He set up a
great stone under an oak, as a monument of this covenant, and perhaps
wrote an inscription upon it (by which stones are made to speak) signifying
the intention of it. When he says, It hath heard what was past, he
tacitly upbraids the people with the hardness of their hearts, as if this
stone had heard to as good purpose as some of them; and, if they should forget
what was no done, this stone would so far preserve the remembrance of it as to
reproach them for their stupidity and carelessness, and be a witness against
them.
The matter being thus settled, Joshua dismissed this assembly of the grandees
of Israel (v. 28), and took his last leave of them, well satisfied in
having done his part, by which he had delivered his soul; if they perished,
their blood would be upon their own heads.
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The
Death of Joshua.
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B.
C. 1427.
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29 And it came to pass
after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD,
died, being a hundred and ten years old. 30 And they buried
him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in
mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. 31 And
Israel served the LORD
all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua,
and which had known all the works of the LORD,
that he had done for Israel. 32 And the bones of Joseph, which the
children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a
parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem
for a hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children
of Joseph. 33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried
him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him
in mount Ephraim.
This book, which began with triumphs, here ends with funerals, by which all
the glory of man is stained. We have here 1. The burial of Joseph, v.
32. He died about 200 years before in Egypt, but gave commandment
concerning his bones, that they should not rest in their grave until
Israel had rest in the land of promise; now therefore the children of Israel,
who had brought this coffin full of bones with them out of Egypt, carried it
along with them in all their marches through the wilderness (the two tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh, it is probable, taking particular care of it), and kept
it in their camp till Canaan was perfectly reduced, now at last they deposited
it in that piece of ground which his father gave him near Shechem, Gen. xlviii.
22. Probably it was upon this occasion that Joshua called for all Israel to
meet him at Shechem (v. 1), to attend Joseph's coffin to the grave
there, so that the sermon in this chapter served both for Joseph's funeral
sermon and his own farewell sermon; and if it was, as is supposed, in the last
year of his life, the occasion might very well remind him of his own death
being at hand, for he was not just at the same age that his illustrious
ancestor Joseph had arrived at when he died, 110 years old; compare v.
29 with Gen. l. 26. 2. The death and burial of Joshua, v. 29, 30. We
are not told how long he lived after the coming of Israel into Canaan. Dr.
Lightfoot thinks it was about seventeen years; but the Jewish chronologers
generally say it was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. He is here
called the servant of the Lord, the same title that was given to Moses
(ch. i. 1) when mention was made of his death; for, though Joshua was
in many respects inferior to Moses, yet in this he was equal to him, that,
according as his work was, he approved himself a diligent and faithful servant
of God. And he that traded with his two talents had the same approbation that
he had who traded with his five. Well done, good and faithful servant.
Joshua's burying-place is here said to be on the north side of the hill
Gaash, or the quaking hill; the Jews say it was so called because
it trembled at the burial of Joshua, to upbraid the people of Israel with
their stupidity in that they did not lament the death of that great and good
man as they ought to have done. Thus at the death of Christ, our Joshua, the
earth quaked. The learned bishop Patrick observes that there is no mention of
any days of mourning being observed for Joshua, as there were for Moses and
Aaron, in which, he says, St. Hierom and others of the fathers think there is
a mystery, namely, that under the law, when life and immortality were not
brought to so clear a light as they are now, they had reason to mourn and weep
for the death of their friends; but now that Jesus, our Joshua, has opened the
kingdom of heaven, we may rather rejoice. 3. The death and burial of Eleazar
the chief priest, who, it is probable, died about the same time that Joshua
did, as Aaron in the same year with Moses, v. 33. The Jews say that
Eleazar, a little before he died, called the elders together, and gave them a
charge as Joshua had done. He was buried in a hill that pertained to Phinehas
his son, which came to him, not by descent, for then it would have pertained
to his father first, nor had the priests any cities in Mount Ephraim, but
either it fell to him by marriage, as the Jews conjecture, or it was freely
bestowed upon him, to build a country seat on, by some pious Israelite that
was well-affected to the priesthood, for it is here said to have been given
him; and there he buried his dear father. 4. A general idea given us of
the state of Israel at this time, v. 31. While Joshua lived, religion
was kept up among them under his care and influence; but soon after he and his
contemporaries died it went to decay, so much oftentimes does one head hold
up: how well is it for the gospel church that Christ, our Joshua, is still
with it, by his Spirit, and will be always, even unto the end of the world!
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