Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18 Commentary

Worship Idea:

This reading from Hebrew Scripture is a key example of the ancient near-eastern tradition of covenant renewal.  It comes at a wonderful spot on the calendar as students in many places are returning to the classroom and folks are finding the rhythm of the school year again.  This is a great time to engage in a practice of covenant renewal and one way to do that is through a “Blessing of the Backpacks,” though make sure to include people of all ages.  Invite students to bring backpacks and grown ups to bring their briefcases, laptop bags, purses, messenger bags, diaper bags, etc.  Anything they use to carry their work.  Then provide a small token (a luggage tag, pin, key-chain or zipper pull) they can put on their bags.  At a point in the service, offer a prayer and invite folks to come forward to receive their blessing.  Here is a liturgy and practice to springboard your imagination toward a contextualized version for your congregation.

Commentary:

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

The book of Joshua begins on the border.  God’s people are finally ready to enter the Promised Land, to obey God’s command to them through Joshua.  Although this is where the book begins, the story of God’s people reaches much further back.  The lectionary offers a gift this week by giving us the bookends because the middle section (v. 3-13) do a detailed retelling of the people and places that make up that history. While the Scripture reader dodged a real pronunciation pothole, the preacher should take some time with the history because it sets the terms, conditions and motivation for Joshua’s big question to the Israelites.  Will Israel re-enlist as covenant partners with God?

Joshua lays out the greatest hits: God parting the waters of the Red Sea to rescue God’s people from Pharaoh’s army and slavery in Egypt. God’s military deliverance and protection through the wilderness. Another sea crossing — this time the Jordan. God delivering the Promised Land to God’s people and Joshua concludes: “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” Choosing to follow God in the future is nearly always predicated on either a) the abject failure of everything else we’ve tried (note the frequent references to idolatry) or b) a proven track record of God’s faithfulness as a solid foundation for future trust.

What We Need to Do Now

So Joshua turns to the work of this moment.  Likely knowing that his death is imminent and it is time for a change of leadership, God calls people back to the covenant in which God is faithful and all those other gods are not.  And God’s people off a resounding huzzah!  They are eager and they are in.  “God is so good. Look at all God has done! How could we keep from singing?” Here endeth the lesson.

The Quiet Part Out loud

The lectionary selection doesn’t do us a favor as preachers this week by ending so neatly.  Joshua asks the Israelites to renew their commitment and they are eager to do so.  But what comes next is a little uncomfortable self-reflection, followed by grace.  Joshua points out that it’s easy to get riled up in a crowd. But that, aside from proving God’s faithfulness, history demonstrates something else: God’s people are terrible at keeping covenants. This is a theme that the prophet Jeremiah will pick up with significant overlap to Joshua’s covenant renewal in this chapter.  “Jeremiah’s words reveal how quickly Israel fell away from their commitment to ‘serve the Lord our God and obey him’ (v. 24). Jeremiah says that even before Joshua’s generation, the people ‘did not listen’ to God’s voice and did not ‘pay attention.’ Instead, they ‘followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts’ (Jer 7:24). Apparently, Joshua’s final charge to yield their hearts was quickly abandoned (or never taken up). They failed to yield their hearts, and by not listening, failed to yield their ears, proving the truth of Joshua’s warning.”

You can hear Joshua’s skepticism as he pushes the people: “You just promised to do something that, in fact, you cannot do.” But the people double down. “We really mean it this time.” Maybe he believes them. Or maybe he knows them and has his doubts.  Here I imagine Joshua sighing, saying “oooooooooo-kaaaaaay” and maybe rolling his eyes. But in any case, writes Biblical scholar Lissa M Wray Beal, “Despite the anticipated failure, Joshua ratifies Israel’s commitment with a covenant.” This, perhaps, serves as a reminder that we do not sustain ourselves.  We do not even bring an equal portion of effort to the endeavor.  Covenants must rely on the kindness and mercy of God if they are going to last.

Wray Beal brings the receipts on this one by comparing the number of ways and times Israel acts in this text: 11. By comparison, the number of times God acts: 25.  This goes well with her observation that a key word in this text is one that “highlights God’s gracious act of giving.” These acts of God’s giving include: miraculous intervention, descendants and land.

A Covenant Mediator

In all this interaction, Joshua demonstrates a deep knowledge and great love for God’s people. He also represents God’s interests when it comes to the covenant. In her commentary on Joshua, Wray Beal acknowledges that crafting covenant in this way, “makes him, like his predecessor, a covenant mediator between the people and God. This is Joshua’s crowning achievement as Moses’ successor. He is therefore rightly ascribed with Moses’ title, the ‘servant of the Lord.’”

This title, of course, will show up elsewhere in Scripture and so it may be a helpful thread to pull in this sermon to consider how Joshua is a particular type of Christ: calling for commitment, mediating the covenant, living as a “servant of the Lord.”

Note: the CEP website also has commentaries on 1 Kings 8:(1-6, 10 – 11), 22-30, 41-42 from previous Year B cycles:

Scott Hoezee 2021: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-08-16/i-kings-81-6-10-11-22-30-41-43/

Stan Mast 2018: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2018-08-20/1-kings-8-1-6-10-11-22-30-41-43/