Radical Commitment to God’s Way
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study: Joshua 24: 18 – 27
Background: Joshua 23 – 24
Devotional: Jeremiah 31: 27 – 34
Lesson 5 October 3, 2026
Key Verse
Now, therefore, [a]fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and [b]truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Joshua 24:14
INTRODUCTION
Have you thought much about the choices you make every day?
You have to decide on where to go, what to wear, whether to dress up or not, what to eat for breakfast or lunch, or whether to eat at all, who to meet up with, or who to avoid, and many other multiple decisions.
The decisions you make on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis determines your lifestyle and shows who you are, As well, your choices determine what people think of you. These opinions might work in your favour or they might work against you giving people an unflattering view of you.
In the case of God He knows everything about your thoughts and motivations, He know exactly what you are. He know whether you are trying to live uo to the standards He has set for human beings, and especially for those whom He will bring into His family. He knows whether you have rejected obedience to His laws and He knows what disasters face you in your future.
But God is gracious. He does all kinds of amazing things to get you to come into fellowshio with Him, for He does not want you to suffer and to perish.
Our Lesson Study examines the choices the nation of Israel are called on to make to avoid national disaster. They had benefited from the mighty works of God in forming the nation, rescuing them from death by drought, saved them from slavery, and carrying them safely into the Land God had promised to give to the descendants of Abraham. Life was good. Would this good life corrupt them and nake them go into idolatry?
Joshua 24 closed a chapter of God’s program that began with the call of Abraham and among other things, a promise to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan.
Several centuries later God fulfilled that promise and marked the occasion with the end of an era, as the last of those who left Egypt departed the scene.
The period of the conquest has brought that era of the covenant to one phase in its conclusion.
This had involved a stupendous series of actions by God who had graciously brought the people of the nation of Israel all the way from the idolatrous setting of their ancestry.
By God’s grace God had called Abraham from his ancestral line coming from his father Terah, for that line had served other gods, prominent among which was the god named “Sin”.
God had taken the divine initiative, and God had called Abraham out of the idolatrous and pagan Ur of the Chaldees for the only kind of worship that could be seen there was the worship of the Moon god.
God’s grace was astonishing. It was God that had by divine initiative called, redeemed, protected and led Israel toward the Land of Promise.
It was God alone that had given the seed of Abraham redemption and an inheritance.
Now under the leading of Joshua the land had been conquered, the land, had been allotted and the tribes had received their inheritance.
We are therefore looking at a situation where the grace which resulted in the covenant required exclusive loyalty.
The people of Israel knew that God was holy and a jealous God and He would not tolerate idolatrous behaviour, betrayal of promises made by the fathers, or even go along with covering up any rebellion.
The choice before us and Israel then therefore has to be faced. The choice has to be made as to whether the people would observe the covenant and choose God when time times are good, and the promise of God was being clearly fulfilled.
Do you serve God only when times are good?
The history of the people of Israel warn us that great leaders, and we have here the model of Joshua, cannot lead the people forever. They like all human beings will eventually die.
But great leaders try to at least do what is necessary to set people on the right course before they die. That is what Joshua will now do in this Chapter.
It is important to note what leaders have to do periodically with the people that they are leading.
Unfortunately hunan behaviour reveal that there are people that are obsessed with the matters which take a great deal of time and energy. These obsessions throw their life out of balance.
In the case of the nation of Israel we see what some called obsessive- compulsive behaviour where they were very attached to worshiping a foreign god, and ignoring the God that had led them and saved and redeemed them.
Part of the human problem is that we tend to love or be attracted to the idea of “instant gratification” and so if you live in a culture that does not like to wait you will be inclined to structure your life and teach your children that they can have anything that they want “now”.
The god of obsession and instant gratification lead people generally to conformity to the type of gods that lead us to rearrange our priorities despite the evidence in our history.
Those gods lead to disaster.
Moses, God’s faithful ‘servant’ brought the children of Israel to the threshold of Canaan and then the mantle of leadership passed to the faithful Joshua. After a long, sustained, military campaign under Joshua, the Israelites were in control of Canaan with the land allotted tribally as God instructed Joshua.
So what is a leader to do when faced with his coming departure and death?
Joshua started by recounting all that God had done for them.
In today’s Lesson, from the final chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua presents to the nation of Israel what amounts to his farewell address. By this time, Joshua was an old man and a true “veteran” whose career included a host of experiences, serving first as Moses’ apprentice and then leading the Israelites in the conquest of the Promised Land.
It was important that before Joshua’s death, the next generation heard his testimony and learned to appreciate the wisdom that he had to offer God’s people.
As we examine this Lesson Scripture we must bear in mind that faithful leadership can serve well but it cannot replace the need for faithful generations or even to guarantee their continued adherence to the covenant of God. Israel had served well under Joshua and under the early elders of that time but now the later generations would have to know and obey the Lord rather than live on an inherited memory alone.
This is very important to note for we must remember that the promises of God outlives His servants. One writer points out that Abraham had received the promises and passed it on to the children he had, and Joseph had been led by God to do a great task of bringing the people together for survival.
Moses had been called by God to do his great work of leadership but he had passed on.
Now the only survivors of the wilderness experience Joshua and Caleb would run their course and their lives would come to an end.
Joshua was near the end of his life and like Moses before him had one final sermon for God’s people before his passing.
Now grace would present its demands.
It is most important that we remember this and not treat the grace of God casually.
We have to be very careful not to have the compulsive obsessive behaviour that humans seem to have which is of course prompted by Satan to worship other gods.
Topping the list of priorities for Joshua was the need for the Israelites to be reminded of God’s love for them and faithfulness to His promises. It was this subject that prompted the memorable words “… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
One writer summarizes for us what Joshua said to the people as follows:
“1. God had chosen Abraham to be the father of a great nation, and had blessed him with a son in his old age.
2.God had led the Israelites into Egypt to escape a deadly famine. There they had become a great nation.
3. When the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, God had forced Pharaoh to let them go.
4. When they came to the Red sea, God pushed the waters aside to create an escape route.
5. God had led them with manna in the desert.
6. God had protected them in battle.
So note that Joshua had pointed out to this relatively young people that God had reached behind Abraham and taken Abraham out of Terah’s pagan household which had been devoted to other gods which were pagan gods.Then God had moved past the patriarchs pointing out to them that God had led Abraham into Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac, and Jacob and Esau, and their respective children and territories.
Jacob had gone down into Egypt and God had sent Moses and Aaron to lead them, struck down Egypt and the pursuing Egyptians and sustained Israel through the wilderness.
This young generation listening to Joshua knew that they were in continuity with the fathers who had left Egypt and they knew that Joshua and Caleb had seen the Exodus. Many of those hearing would have been under 20 at the time of Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness and so they would have remembered some of it.
Joshua would point out that God had given them great victories East and west of the Jordan, given Israel the land of the Amorites, overruled the curse that Balaam had wanted to put on them, then God had brought the nation across the Jordan and the people of Canaan into the hands of Israel.
In all this Israel had no great national military power and whatever power they had was not the decisive cause of the victories. It was God that gave them the victories and the inheritance.
They had inherited lands they did not work for or labour in, cities that they did not build, and vineyards and olive groves they did not plant.
In Deuteronomy 6 Moses had pointed out that these gifts were based on God’s promises to the fathers and therefore the things that they would be enjoying in the land now came because of the Mosaic covenant which was based on the promises to Abraham.
God’s covenant had been so structured that Abraham’s descendants would inherit great blessings in the land. No covenant rebellion therefore could be tolerated.
The Lord God had given the nation Canaan as an inheritance that they did not earn.
It is very important to note how God approached this matter of pointing the people in the right direction. God wanted them to make a rejection of idols and renew the covenant obligations that had been established.
So Joshua pointed out that it was at Shechem that the Lord had promised Abraham that his offspring would receive the land. Genesis 12 tells us that Abraham built an altar there.
Then Joshua pointed out that Jacob later bought land near Shechem and buried his households foreign gods under the oak tree there. Genesis 33 and 35 records this.
Now Joshua would recall the imbedded national memories and call the people together and this led him to repeat the covenant blessings and the land.
Israel must reject foreign gods at the same place where the promises to the patriarchs had been made, where they had heard and listened to the demand by God that they repudiate idol worship, understand covenant accountability.
God had rescued Israel and His covenant people must not combine worshiping Him with service to other gods. The grace of God did not make their loyalty optional.
God had chosen Abram to be the father of their great nation and had blessed him
Christians are forever in God’s debt and Joshua’s resolute and public commitment to God’s way is no less a standard for us, than it was for the Israelites on that day! Yes, the Israelites received a physical land of their own, a foundational piece for any people that aspire to nationhood.
Christians on the other hand receive so much more! eternal life, present citizenship in heaven, the indwelling Holy Spirit, … an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, …….
Christians are at constant risk of losing sight of God’s faithfulness to us in our frenetic and fast-paced world of AI, social media, materialism … ‘the world’.
Our Study is a needed reminder of the intentional and ever-mindful awareness, gratitude and fidelity we must exercisein our relationship with God.
The Israelites were in a mutual covenant with Yahweh that carried severe consequences for unfaithfulness. Now that the ‘fulness of time’ has come in the New Covenant for all people, how much more committed to God’s way should we be?
By way of context, Joshua had seen it all. The first time he is mentioned in the Bible is when Moses commanded him to choose some men to fight the Amalekites who had attacked Israel not long after the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 17:8–13). Exodus 24:13 describes Joshua as Moses’ minister, a word that could be considered the equivalent of an assistant or an apprentice.
Joshua was with Moses when the two came down from Mount Sinai after Moses received God’s laws written on tablets of stone by “the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). They found the Israelites taking part in sinful, degrading actions that sparked Moses’ anger (32:15–20).
Along with Caleb, Joshua was one of the two spies who voiced confidence that the Lord would lead the Israelites into the promised land (Numbers 14:6–9). Tragically, their voices were drowned out by the defiant unbelief of the other ten spies.
Given this background, it seems inevitable that Joshua would be selected as Moses’ successor to lead the nation into the promised land and complete the task begun by Moses. Deuteronomy 31:1-8 records Moses’ charge to Joshua to assume the leadership of the people. The final chapter of Deuteronomy tells us that “Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses” (34:9).
The book of Joshua then gives the history of the conquest of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership and the allotment of territory to the various tribes. By the time of today’s Text, Joshua had “waxed old” and was “stricken in age” (Joshua 23:1). It was in this condition that he called an assembly and gave his final words to the people.
Let us listen to the ‘man of God’ with a heart to appropriate the timeless lesson he taught on that day.
He points out that there is a required conclusion to all that God has done.
There must be covenant allegiance for the covenant God made was firm and He would remain faithful to what He had promised even if the human beings who said they believed in Him were sometimes unfaithful.
Joshua knew that the people would serve someone and so they have the alternative of worshiping the gods of their ancestors beyond the Euphrates, the gods associated with Egypt, as well as the gods of the Amorites.
These are all choices that the people will face but since they are in the covenant they would have to realize that not all religions are equally valid options or that the people chosen by God can innocently reject the Lord and the covenant. God had already shown them who he was, showing them his grace, and showed them the fact that they had been bound to him by covenant.
Idolatry therefore was an absurd choice. Idolatry would produce guilt. They had to make a public decision just as how he had made the decision that he and his house would serve the Lord.
THE TEXT
Verses 1-13. These verses are a recall, a review of what God did for Israel to this point in their history. They are a looking back which sets the basis for a forward look. Israel needed to cultivate a particular mindset toward their God in light of His gracious dealings and blessings on them as a people He had so graciously chosen!
This should be a constant practice for Christians, informally, daily in prayer and formally in communion!
13. And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—Deuteronomy 6:10-11
In this section of verses (vv. 2-13), God said 17 times: “I” did such and such for you. The emphasis is clearly on God’s great acts for Israel (Deut. 6:10-11).
14. “Now, therefore,fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and [q]truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord.
On the basis of God’s great acts for them, Joshua appealed to the Israelites to commit themselves to Him anew.
Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:1-2).
Though Israel was not as guilty of idolatry at this stage in her history as she was later, this sin existed in the nation to some degree (“do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt,” v. 14; Lev.17:7).
Idolatry can become entrenched and even in this ‘faithful’ generation it still lingered in the people.
This is a warning for Christians who have many idols in our lives to which we are often oblivious.
Anything or one we regard on par with or above God and His interest is an idol. Listen to Joshua’s exhortation, “do away with the gods.”
15. But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: …. but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
… choose for yourselves today … (Joshua 24:15) Joshua’s offer to choose which gods the Israelites would serve (v. 15) was not, of course, an encouragement to consider the idols as an equally acceptable option to Yahweh.
It was simply an oratorical device (i.e., polarization) to help the Israelites distinguish their choices, and to make the right alternative more obvious.
… we will serve the Lord.”… as a true leader, Joshua announced his commitment and choice, and in so doing, he encouraged the people to follow his example.
Note, the initial success of the conquest was due to God’s blessings on His obedient people. The complete extermination of the Canaanites and the Israelites’ full possession and enjoyment of the land, would require the same obedience.
The motive for obedience should be gratitude.
Likewise, the Christian’s present obedience, loyalty, and love (vs.6, 8, 11) should spring naturally from appreciation for God’s faithfulness in the past, as well as from confidence in His promises for the future.
16. The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would abandon the Lord to serve other gods;
The people answered … this is another of Israel’s affirmations of faith. The people responded by committing themselves to Yahweh anew. This is a covenant renewal ceremony, (Jos. 24:26-27).
It is to be noted however that the answer of the people and their confession was based on history for the acknowledged Exodus, the great signs that God had done, among them the protection of God all through the years, and the expulsion of the nations.
But notice that that is not all to serving God. Acknowledging history is important but it is also most important that there is a change in the heart so that one can forsake apostasy, betrayal, and persistent rebellion. There had to be a turning of the heart. This means there had to be a heart decision to choose to follow the one true God, giving God all our time, our resources and our worship.
17- 18. for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and did these great signs in our sight and watched over us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.
These verses reiterate Yahweh’s faithfulness and redemptive acts toward Israel:
(1) The Exodus from Egypt;
(2) The miracles of deliverance;
(3) God’s presence and care during the wilderness wandering period; and
(4) the defeat of the Canaanites and the possession of the Promised Land (cf. Gen. 15:16).
They were committing themselves, at least vocally, to join Joshua in serving the LORD. Joshua did not want the people to make their decision naively, however.
“The great need of most Christians is to learn that in themselves they simply cannotbe the people God wants them to be.”
19. Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your wrongdoing or your sins.
… “You will not be able to serve the Lord … Joshua did not speak in an absolute sense; he himself was serving the Lord.
The people responded by committing themselves to Yahweh (vv. 16-18). They were committing themselves, at least vocally, to join Joshua in serving the LORD.
Joshua did not want the people to make their decision naïvely, however.
“The great need of most Christians is to learn that in themselves they simply cannot be the people God wants them to be.”
… He is a holy God. He is a jealous God … Therefore Joshua reminded them of the difficulties involved in following the LORD (vv. 19-20). They would not be able to serve the LORD in their own strength: simply by determining to do so using their willpower (Exod. 19:8).
They would always have to remember that their God was holy and jealous
(i.e., allowing no rival god in His peoples’ affections).
…He would not forgive your transgressions or your sins (v. 19).
“When does God not spare (forgive)? (1) When transgression and sin is wilfully committed, and when (2) forgiveness would, as He foresees, lead to no amendment.
20. If you abandon the Lord and serve foreign gods, …
‘If”‘ shows the conditional nature of covenant and promises to Israel
(Deut. 28:1-2,15).
All of Yahweh’s blessings of Deuteronomy 27-28, as well as His land promises, are conditioned on a faithful, obedient, believing Israel. This is true of the Old Testament and the eschaton!
The people were in a ratified covenant with Yahweh that carried specific stipulations tied to unfaithfulness. They needed the reminder.
Christians are under an unconditional covenant with Yahweh and are the children of God and they must rightly expect discipline, even extreme if they. persist in unconfessed sin.
21. … “No, but we will serve the Lord.” …again the people declared their loyalty to the Lord. The scene is reminiscent of what transpired at Mount Sinai when the Lord established His covenant with the Israelites there and the people said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient”
(Exodus 24:7).
22. “You are witnesses against yourselves … And they said, “We are witnesses.
The covenant has rights and responsibilities. To say “yes” has definite privileges and consequences. Israel had affirmed their covenant relationship to Yahweh in Jos. 24:16-18 and again in Jos. 24:24.
In a solemn proceeding such as this, where the people have “presented themselves before God” (Joshua 24:1) and pledged their loyalty to Him alone, there is a need for witnesses.
In this case Joshua calls upon the people themselves to serve as witnesses against themselves. They have chosen to follow Joshua’s example and serve the Lord; but if they turn away from Him and worship other gods, they will bring upon themselves the punishment that Joshua has said must follow (24:20).
The people agree to Joshua’s terms: We are witnesses.
23. “Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
Joshua urges the people before him to make a break with the gods that remain in their midst. In so doing, he repeats the command he issued earlier (Joshua 24:14).
But as important as that action is, genuine commitment to the Lord (the kind that must accompany the pledge that the people have just made) has to include the hearts of the people. They must put away other gods internally as well as externally. The word incline is often used in Scripture of one’s ear being tuned to hear sound instruction (Proverbs 4:20) or refusing to hear it (Jeremiah 25:4).
24. And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and [r]obey His voice.”
This is the third time the people have expressed a desire to serve the Lord (see Joshua 24:18, 21). Anyone who knows the history of Israel that follows in the book of Judges may well think, “If only the people had followed through on their words and promises.” As promising as the conclusion to the book of Joshua is, the conclusion to the book of Judges is disheartening. Its final verse is one of the saddest in the Bible: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
It is easy in the midst of a throng of like-minded believers (such as the gathering in Joshua 24) to voice allegiance to the Lord; it is quite another to translate that pledge into everyday actions and choices that are consistent with that allegiance. That remains true today.
CONCLUSION
Let us note some important matters in our conclusion.
First, understand that the grace of God begins in your idolatrous life and in your idolatrous household.
Then accept that God will take you, lead you, multiply you, and take you into a covenant line.
Then God will bring you out of the symbolic land of Egypt.
The wilderness can take a long time but remember that the delay in the wilderness is due to divine provision and judgment on your unbelief.
Rebellion will have consequences
Then understand that God will give you victory over the curse of Balaam and the attacks of the proverbial Amorites.
The Lord will lead you and give you what we call “Canaan land” which is an unearned inheritance.
What do you need to do?
You need to confess the great saving works of the Lord in your life. But in doing so remember that the holy and jealous God will judge apostasy.
At the same time remember the Holy Spirit is there to assist you in this rejection of apostasy for you know believers have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
But at the same time do not presume upon grace while using God and making only a verbal profession which you might think will sanctify rebellion.
Read therefore1 Corinthians 10: 1-1 and Hebrews 3;7-19 simply to remind you of how God looks at our affairs of life.
Be careful when you give your testimony and your confession you are not witnessing against yourself. One writer points out something that is very important to us:
“This chapter also exposes the inability of vows alone to produce enduring holiness. Israel sincerely promises service, and the nation generally serves throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders.
Yet Judges records recurring apostasy.
Later history brings idolatry, divided monarchy, exile, and the need for a covenant work deeper than external oath renewal.
The new covenant directly answers that need. God promises the house of Israel and Judah that He will write His laws on their hearts, forgive their iniquity, cleanse them, give them a new heart and Spirit, and it caused them to walk in his statutes ( Jeremiah 31: 31- 34; Ezekiel 36: 22-28).
Those promises retain their stated relation to Israel and Judah and support Israel’s future restoration.
Through Jesus’ blood, the new covenant is inaugurated, and the church presently receives its savings blessings
(Luke 22: 20; 1 Corinthians 11: 25; 2 Corinthians 3; 6; Hebrews 8-10).
Joshua’s demand for exclusive service continues as a whole- Bible truth.
Jesus says no one can serve two masters ( Matthew 6: 24).
The Apostle Paul warns believers to flee idolatry and uses Israel’s wilderness failures as instruction for the church (1 Corinthians 10:1-14).
The church is not ancient Israel and is not under the mosaic covenants land sanctions, but the God was worshipped by the church is the same Holy God who condemns divided allegiance.”
It is noteworthy that the names Joshua and Jesus come from the same Hebrew verb, meaning “to save.” As Joshua brought the Israelites into the promised land of Canaan, Jesus, the “captain of [our] salvation” (Hebrews 2:10), leads us toward our promised land of Heaven.
And as one ponders Joshua’s words in our Text and the degree of commitment to the Lord that He called the Israelites to demonstrate, it is not difficult to recognize similarities to Jesus’ teaching about what is required to be His disciple (Luke 14:25–33).
One must “count the cost,” as Jesus put it, and that is what Joshua encouraged the Israelites to do.
For us as Christians to say that “We will serve the Lord” means we will honor Jesus as Lord and demonstrate that commitment by serving Him faithfully every day. Like Joshua’s audience, we too must reject the “gods” that threaten to undermine that commitment. Those gods may not be statues or images of pagan deities; they can be material objects (money and possessions) or a degree of devotion to a career, to sports, to education, or something else that has claimed, for all intents and purposes, the status of a “god” in our lives.
In whom or what are we placing our trust? Where is our heart inclined? The words of Joshua still issue a resounding call to New Testament believers: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”