TEXT [Commentary]

3.   Joshua’s rhetorical skepticism (24:19-24)

19 Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you abandon the LORD and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you.”

21 But the people answered Joshua, “No, we will serve the LORD!”

22 “You are a witness to your own decision,” Joshua said. “You have chosen to serve the LORD.”

“Yes,” they replied, “we are witnesses to what we have said.”

23 “All right then,” Joshua said, “destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God. We will obey him alone.”

NOTES

24:20 other gods. Lit., “strange gods.”

24:22 You are a witness to your own decision. Lit., “You are witnesses against yourselves.”

24:23 Joshua said. Not in the Hebrew text, but necessarily inferred.

destroy the idols. Lit., “put away the strange gods”; the phrase uses the same verb as in 24:14 and the same adjective as in 24:20.

24:24 We will obey him alone. Lit., “And to his voice we will listen.”

COMMENTARY [Text]

To underscore the seriousness of this commitment, and to make sure the decision to serve Yahweh was genuine and not merely a result of the enthusiasm of the moment, Joshua approached the matter from a different perspective. He challenged the peoples’ ability to keep this commitment, should they make it. Would they be able to serve a holy and jealous God (24:19)? Presented with a second emphatic declaration by the people (24:21; cf. 24:16), Joshua pressed them to repeat it as a legal affirmation (24:22). If Israel later turned away from God, they would be perjuring themselves.

With respect to God, “holy” means transcendent. God is separate from all creation, over and above all he has created. God has no beginning and is noncontingent, needing nothing outside himself for continued existence. Every pagan god, by contrast, is a humanly deified manifestation, representation, aspect, or abstraction of some created entity. In pagan thought, even the gods are finite, and everything in nature is, or will become, a god.

The Godhead revealed in Scripture—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—exist and live in relationship, in community. Life in community gives holiness its moral and ethical aspects. God’s character is righteousness, always doing what is right, and doing so in and for relationships of integrity. What is right originates from God’s character. God created humans for relationship with himself. That is God’s desire and every human’s need. Without relationship with God, humans ultimately do not survive. God desires every human not only to survive, but to thrive in relationship with God and in community with each other.

Divided or misguided allegiances provoke God’s jealousy because God knows they destroy his precious creatures. The Hebrew term may be translated either “­jealous” or “zealous.” God is zealous for the good of human beings, whom he created in his own image. God is zealous for the relationship with us for which he created us and jealous (for us) over anything that corrupts that relationship.

Of course, this is not to say God is not grieved by human rejection; God is. God feels grief, hurt, and even anger, as we do. In fact, we feel these and other emotions because we are created in God’s image. In our fallen state, however, humans often (usually?) experience hurt, grief, and jealousy as personal or corporate diminishment and/or dishonor, so we try to “get even” with those who have wronged us. This can be no part of God’s grief, hurt, or anger, though, because, objectively, God cannot be diminished or dishonored. Objectively, God’s “jealousy” cannot be hurt at human turning away to other “gods,” because no human action can injure or diminish God’s nature, character, or glory. Our unfaithfulness, however, can and does injure or end our relationships with God and with each other. God passionately desires relationship with us (Isn’t that amazing!), so our unfaithfulness does grieve and even anger God—for God’s own sake, as well as for ours.

Some Israelites had carried “gods” with them since they left Egypt, “gods” inherited from parents or grandparents who died in the wilderness before God allowed Israel to enter Canaan. It may be difficult to understand how they could continue to worship images made by human hands. Hadn’t they experienced, over 40 years, God’s love and power exercised for them? But if we remember that we too sometimes create or embrace entities that challenge God for our loyalties, we will be more charitable toward ancient Israel. Further, we will ask God to help us identify the idols we have been carrying, throw them away, and set ourselves with renewed purpose to serve God alone.