Choose whom you will serve: the covenant at Shechem

Joshua 24 is the last scene of the book of Joshua. The book narrates the entry into Canaan under Joshua son of Nun, first of the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings). Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) credits Joshua with writing most of it, with an account of his death added by another hand. Many modern scholars see the book as the product of a longer process of compiling, and others defend a close tie to eyewitness records. The dating of the events is also debated, with an early date of about 1406 BC drawn from 1 Kings 6:1 and a thirteenth-century date favoured by other scholars. The chapter itself presents its events as happening near the end of Joshua's life, after the land had been divided among the tribes (chapters 13 to 21).

The setting is Shechem, in the hill country between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Shechem was a place of memory. Abraham built his first altar in Canaan near here (Genesis 12:6-7), Jacob bought land and buried foreign gods beneath an oak near the town (Genesis 33:19; 35:2-4), and Joshua had already led Israel to renew the covenant between Ebal and Gerizim (Joshua 8:30-35; Deuteronomy 27). Some Greek manuscripts of Joshua read Shiloh in 24:1, where the Hebrew text has Shechem, and add lines at the end of the chapter; the class follows the Hebrew text. An influential twentieth-century proposal, by Martin Noth, took Shechem as the centre of a league of twelve tribes, but that proposal is now widely questioned.

The audience is all Israel, represented by its elders, heads, judges and officers (24:1). The chapter has the shape of an ancient covenant document: it begins with what the great king has done, then states the demand, and ends with witnesses and a written record. This is the form that scholars have long compared with Near Eastern treaties between a great king and his subjects.

Joshua 24 is Hebrew narrative built around speech. Most of the chapter is a single speech by Joshua, in which God speaks through him in the first person, followed by a rapid exchange between Joshua and the people. In narrative, repetition shows what the writer wants the reader to notice. The verb 'serve' (avad) occurs again and again, over and over in verses 14 to 24, and the contrast between serving the LORD and serving other gods is the point of the whole chapter.

The chapter should be read as a covenant ceremony, not as a debate. Joshua is not asking the people to weigh two options neutrally. He presents what the LORD has done, expects loyalty in return, and sets alternatives so that the people must state where they stand. The Torah's covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19 to 24) and the Moab covenant in Deuteronomy 29 are the closest parallels, and Joshua 24 deliberately stands in their line.

The central difficulty is Joshua's response in verse 19. When the people pledge themselves, he tells them they are not able to serve the LORD. That sounds like a refusal of the pledge, and reading it well depends on how the rest of the Torah describes Israel's heart. Deuteronomy 29:4 says the LORD had not yet given the people a heart to understand, and Deuteronomy 30:6 promises that he would circumcise their hearts. Joshua's statement fits the Torah's own diagnosis. The people are able to commit, but they are not yet able to keep the commitment.

Verses 1–2

Joshua gathers the tribes 'before God' at Shechem and begins with a prophetic formula: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel.' Everything that follows is God's own account. He starts by naming Terah, Abraham's father, who with his family served other gods beyond the River, which is the Euphrates. Israel's story begins in idolatry, so the people hearing this speech have no grounds to assume that their own election is based on their merit.

Verses 3–13

The LORD retells the story in the first person, using the verb 'I took' and 'I gave' again and again. He took Abraham and led him through the land and gave him Isaac. To Isaac he gave Jacob and Esau, and he assigned Esau the hill country of Seir, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. He sent Moses and Aaron and struck Egypt, brought the people out, and drew them through the sea while the Egyptians drowned. He brought them to the east side of the Jordan, delivered the Amorites, and turned Balak's hired prophet Balaam into a blessing rather than a curse (Numbers 22 to 24). After they crossed the Jordan, he gave them Jericho and the seven nations. He sent the 'hornet' (tsirah) ahead of them, an image that is difficult to interpret; it may refer to literal insects or to a terror from God (see Exodus 23:28 and Deuteronomy 7:20). The speech stresses that the victory did not come by Israel's own sword or bow. It ends with the summary that Israel received a land they had not worked for and cities they had not built, and ate from vineyards and olive groves they had not planted. The pattern echoes Deuteronomy 6:10-11 (see the class on Deuteronomy 6).

Verses 14–15

The 'therefore' turns history into demand. Fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness, and put away the gods the fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt. The reference to Egypt tells the reader that idolatry persisted there as well (Ezekiel 20:7-8). Then comes the famous call: if serving the LORD seems wrong, the people may choose whom they will serve, whether the gods beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they live. 'But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.' Joshua does not stay neutral. He states his own decision, for himself and his household.

Verses 16–18

The people answer immediately that they would never forsake the LORD for other gods. They repeat the LORD's deeds: he brought us out of Egypt, did great signs, and protected us on all the road. They conclude that they will serve the LORD, for he is their God.

Verses 19–20

'You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God.' He is also jealous, and he will not forgive their transgressions if they forsake him and serve foreign gods; he will turn and bring harm. The reason Joshua gives is God's own character, not Israel's weakness alone. The LORD is holy, and a people with divided hearts cannot meet him as they are.

Verses 21–24

The people insist again. Joshua makes them witnesses against themselves and tells them to put away the foreign gods that remain among them, which shows that idols were still in the camp, and to turn their hearts to the LORD. They answer that they will serve him and obey his voice.

Verses 25–28

Joshua makes the covenant that day at Shechem, gives them a statute and rule, and writes the words in the Book of the Law of God. He sets up a large stone under the oak by the sanctuary of the LORD, saying that the stone has heard all the words spoken and will be a witness against them if they deal falsely. Then he sends the people home.

Verses 29–33

The book closes with three burials. Joshua dies at 110, as 'the servant of the LORD', the title Moses had borne, and is buried at Timnath-serah in Ephraim (called Timnath-heres in Judges 2:9, apparently a variant spelling of the same place). Israel serves the LORD during his days and those of the elders who outlived him. Joseph's bones, brought up from Egypt in fulfilment of his oath (Genesis 50:25; Exodus 13:19), are buried at Shechem in the plot Jacob had bought. Eleazar, the high priest, is also buried. The promise to the patriarchs now has a place to rest.

Joshua 24 gathers several of the Bible's central teachings.

• The first is that salvation begins with God's initiative. Every verb in the history is the LORD's: he took, gave, sent, brought and struck. The covenant is a response to what he has done.
• The second is that idolatry is the chief danger to a redeemed people. Joshua names it at the start with Terah and at the end with the foreign gods in the camp. This corresponds to the first commandment and to the warning of Deuteronomy 6.

Third, the chapter shows the limits of human promises. The people say three times that they will serve the LORD. In the next book their children 'did not know the LORD' (Judges 2:10), and the generation after that serves the Baals. Joshua's words in verse 19 were accurate. The book of Joshua therefore ends with both hope and a question mark, and that tension runs through the rest of the Old Testament until the prophets promise a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Fourth, the three burials bear a message. Joshua's death shows that even the great leader is mortal. The burial of Joseph's bones in the land shows that God keeps promises across centuries, and the New Testament counts Joseph's instructions about his bones as an act of faith (Hebrews 11:22). Eleazar's burial reminds the reader that the priesthood passes from one generation to another, and that the priests also die.

Joshua is the clearest type of Christ in this book, and the New Testament makes the link itself. His name, Yehoshua, is the Hebrew form of Jesus, and the Greek Old Testament calls him Iesous. Stephen speaks of the tabernacle being brought into the land under Joshua (Acts 7:45), using that Greek name. Hebrews 4:8 states the limit of his work: if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken afterwards about another day. In this chapter that limit is seen up close. Joshua can lead the people into the land, gather them, plead with them, and write the covenant down, but he cannot change their hearts, and then he dies. This is type and contrast together. The shadow shows what the greater Joshua must do.

The words 'you are not able' lead the reader forward to the New Testament's account of what the law could not do. Paul writes that what the law was powerless to do because of the flesh, God did by sending his Son (Romans 8:3). The covenant that Joshua writes in a book and seals with a stone is superseded by the one in which the LORD gives a new heart and puts his Spirit within his people (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Luke 22:20). The link between Joshua's warning and the new covenant is an echo, not an explicit citation, but it follows the plot of the Bible.

The burial of Joseph's bones is also an echo. Joseph's confidence that God would bring Israel up out of Egypt anticipates the larger hope of a final deliverance, and the grave in Shechem stands as a quiet pledge that the promised inheritance will be given. Hebrews counts it an act of faith, and later it joins the account of those who died waiting for a better country (Hebrews 11:13-16).