Chapter 21
(Joshua 21:45) There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
God is good. He keeps his promises. Every good gift cometh down from the father of lights. God is faithful. God’s stuff don’t fail. He promised he’d bring them in the promised land and God delivered. He brought them in.
Chapter 22
(Joshua 22:4) And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.
They fulfilled their obligation. And now they can rest. Have you fulfilled your obligations? Lester Roloff once said, if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat. If you haven’t done anything worth eating, you shouldn’t eat. Build up an appetite for rest, I guess.
Reuben, Gad, and Mannaseh did as they ought. Good for them.
(Joshua 22:12) And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.
This is how serious they were about the tabernacle. Maybe. But then again, you see that most all these tribes on this side of the Jordan, when Joshua died, they didn’t drive out the inhabitants of the land like they were supposed to. They were willing to get together and go fight against their own people, but they gave up getting together and fighting against the real enemy. “Forsake not the assemblying of yourselves!” Isn’t there some hypocrisy in that?
(Joshua 22:16) Thus saith the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the LORD?
This is common. If you do something outside the approval of everybody else, if it’s of the religious sort, they immediately assume that you’re sinning against God. If it doesn’t look like their church or smell like their church or sound like their pastor, then it can’t possibly be right. I know I’m guilty of that.
I know if I don’t hear a little Amen or Praise God or if I don’t see some animation from that preacher, I start getting worried. It don’t seem right. I heard a preacher one time that the only time he got passionate about what he was saying was when he was telling people to clean up after themselves. I thought there’s something wrong with this. But who am I to judge.
Seriously, we judge other people and churches because they don’t do things the way we do. They MAY be wrong, but that’s none of our business. Our business is to keep our eyes on Jesus and do what we know to do is right and worry about ourselves first.
(Joshua 22:17) Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD,
Wow, this is a major threat. They’re saying 24,000 people died because of the iniquity of Peor, and we’re not done yet. Apparently that sin is not cleansed yet and we’ve come to take care of it! Thems fight’n words! Phineas needs to chill. But that javelin away.
(Joshua 22:18) But that ye must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the LORD, that to morrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel.
Even though Phineas is wrong about the Reuben, Gad, and Mannaseh, he is right about the results of turning away from the Lord. What you do does not just affect you. It affects the whole family of God. No man lives unto himself. No man dies unto himself.
(Joshua 22:20) Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.
That man did no perish alone in his iniquity. Great truth. Not preached enough about. Sounds like a good message to preach on.
(Joshua 22:34) And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.
Can’t help but think of a guy name Eddie that is a Jehovah’s witness. Ed the witness!
Chapter 23
(Joshua 23:3) And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you.
He fought for you. He fought for me. What a blessed thought. What a comfort and relief to know that God fights for us. There’s some battles I don’t have to fight. There’s some I just have to wait it out until God brings the victory. There’s some where you do have to fight. Sometimes the Israelites fought, sometimes they didn’t. Either way, we trust in God. Amen.
Either he’ll fight for us, or he’ll he fight through us!
Either he’ll fight for us, or we’ll fight for him!
(Joshua 23:10) One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
Here’s a clue as to how the disciples distributed food for the 5000 men beside women and children.
(Joshua 23:14) And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
Going the way of all the earth. All the earth is going to die. The grass withereth and flowers therof fadeth away. So must Joshua. He must decrease. Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
What is the way of all the earth? It’s appointed unto man once to die.
Chapter 24
Joshua 24:2-3 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.
I think it’s amazing that he goes all the way back to before the flood. A reference to the judgment of God upon those that did not serve him, but served other God’s. What’s God done before, he can do some more. Don’t doubt God.
Joshua 24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
Remember Egypt
Joshua 24:8 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.
Remember the Alamo again. He’s talking about Sihon and Og.
Joshua 24:12 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.
There they are specifically. I am NEVER going to forget Sihon and Og. It has been mentioned so many times. Remember Sihon and Og.
Joshua 24:14 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.
Look, there’s always room for improvement. God has a plan. Jesus is going to present us spotless before the Father.
Joshua 24:15 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.
Choose choose choose. We must consciencely make choices in this matter of serving God. The choice is before us every day, every week, every month, every year. The Christian life is a life of making choices. Serving is choosing.
Joshua 24:22 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.
We are Jehovah’s Witnesses
Joshua 24:23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
Incline your heart. That means to lean it over toward God. Point your heart toward God.
There are strange gods among you. Put them away.
Joshua 24:26 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.
A great stone. Remember the stone of Bohan. I wonder if they named this stone. Or if it’s the same stone in other places in the bible.
Another truth about stones: people do forget them.
Joshua 24:32 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 an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
They carried those bones around for over 40 years, and finally buried them. Faith to the bone.
Joshua 24:33 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.
Eleazar died. I thought that was sad. Eleazar had seen alot. He went from Egypt all the way to the Promised Land. From a child to an old man. He’d seen it all. Many among him that never saw Egypt. He’s dead now. Makes me think of the old men of God that I know that are getting older and older and one day, they’ll go the way of all the earth like Joshua and Eleazar. It’s gonna be sad. 🙁