June 24, 2019: Day 58 – Joshua 24

You can’t read this chapter without highlighting vs.15, and especially the last  part of that verse: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  These are the words of Joshua as he sets up a juxtaposition between what God had done and the requirement that God has which is that the people will serve Him and only Him, as opposed to the other gods which are present in the lands that they overtook.  Joshua tells them, you  have a choice, you can serve the God that I serve, or serve the gods that the people in the land serve.  I’m going to serve the Lord God, and so is my family.

So Joshua goes over all the historical background from the time of Abraham to the current day which took them into and out of Egypt and then into the promised land.  Remember that throughout this time the underlying theme  is that God is one, God is jealous, you are to have no other gods before me, if you do have other gods before me then I am not going to be on your side, and by the way, you want me on your side, trust me.

Joshua dies and so ends our chapter and our book of the Bible of Joshua.  This ends the whole series of promises that God made to the people of Israel that they would inherit the promised land.  They have inherited it, now they just have to rule it.  That comes next.