Joshua 24:6, commentary and pictures

This verse stands in Joshua's final address to Israel, spoken after the wars of conquest were ended and after the Lord had given Israel rest from its enemies. It belongs to his dying charge at Shechem, given when he was weighed down by the infirmities of age and about to lay his responsibilities upon the representative men of the nation. He summoned the tribes to Shechem because no spot held so many sacred associations.

That setting carried minds back to God's covenant with Abraham and Jacob and recalled their own solemn vows upon entering Canaan. The mountains Ebal and Gerizim stood as silent witnesses of vows they had now assembled to renew, while on every side the land for which they did not labor and the cities they did not build and the vineyards and oliveyards they did not plant stood as evidence of what God had wrought for them. The verse belongs to Joshua's recounting of Israel's history since God called them to be His people and called them out as the people of God. It is part of his review of God's mighty acts, providential care, and past dealings with Israel throughout their travels.

It recalls God bringing Israel's ancestors and fathers out of Egypt to the sea and protecting and delivering them when the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. Like Moses just before his death called Israel together and rehearsed their past experience, trials, failures, and warnings, so Joshua at the time he was to lay down his work called the tribes together and rehearsed their history in his closing work. The review was intended to remind Israel of God's love and mercy and to lead them to serve Him sincerely and truthfully. The review was meant to awaken gratitude for God's care and humility over Israel's unjust complaints and failure to follow His revealed will.

The review of God's providential care was meant to awaken gratitude and humility for past failures to obey His revealed will. Reviewing such past blessings and acts of God strengthens the faith of His people and blesses those who hear the account. Israel's history so reviewed showed that God was faithful both to His promises and to His warnings. In that context Joshua warned Israel against idolatry and close ties with idolaters, including intermarriage, because these associations could corrupt them and lead to sin and ruin.

The lesson applies personally to avoid even the appearance of evil and not to place oneself in situations that lead toward sin. This final recounting shows that God's people today must rehearse and repeat the instruction God has given them, standing firmly in defense of truth because Satan is working to make of no effect what God has spoken and to unsettle confidence.