Joshua 24:28

20 If you shall forsake Jehovah, and serve a strange god, he will turn, and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good. 21 And the people answered him, By no means; but we will serve Jehovah. 22 And Joshua said unto the people, You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen Jehovah, to serve him; and they said, (We are) witnesses. 23 Now therefore take away the strange gods which are in the midst of you, and incline your heart to Jehovah the God of Israel. 24 And the people answered, Jehovah our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. 25 Joshua therefore made a covenant with the people on that day; and held forth to them precept and judgment in Sichem. 26 Joshua wrote those words in the book of the law of God; he also brought a great stone, and placed it there beneath the oak which was in the sanctuary of Jehovah. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, that stone will be for a testimony to you, for it has heard all the words of Jehovah which he has spoken to us, and it will be for a testimony against you, lest perchance you lie against your God. 28 And Joshua sent back the people, every one to his own inheritance. 29 And these things having been done, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of a hundred and ten years. 30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Thimnat-serah, which is on mount Ephraim, to the north of mount Gaas.

24:15-28 It is essential that the service of God's people be performed with a willing mind. For LOVE is the only genuine principle whence all acceptable service of God can spring. The Father seeks only such to worship him, as worship him in spirit and in truth. The carnal mind of man is enmity against God, therefore, is not capable of such spiritual worship. Hence the necessity of being born again. But numbers rest in mere forms, as tasks imposed upon them. Joshua puts them to their choice; but not as if it were indifferent whether they served God or not. Choose you whom ye will serve, now the matter is laid plainly before you. He resolves to do this, whatever others did. Those that are bound for heaven, must be willing to swim against the stream. They must not do as the most do, but as the best do. And no one can behave himself as he ought in any station, who does not deeply consider his religious duties in family relations. The Israelites agree with Joshua, being influenced by the example of a man who had been so great a blessing to them; We also will serve the Lord. See how much good great men do, by their influence, if zealous in religion. Joshua brings them to express full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. They must come off from all confidence in their own sufficiency, else their purposes would be in vain. The service of God being made their deliberate choice, Joshua binds them to it by a solemn covenant. He set up a monument of it.

In this affecting manner Joshua took his last leave of them; if they perished, their blood would be upon their own heads. Though the house of God, the Lord's table, and even the walls and trees before which we have uttered our solemn purposes of serving him, would bear witness against us if we deny him, yet we may trust in him, that he will put his fear into our hearts, that we shall not depart from him. God alone can give grace, yet he blesses our endeavours to engage men to his service.

So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. Dismissed them, and took his final leave and farewell of them, dying soon after; upon which they returned to the possessions and inheritances assigned by lot to the several tribes, of which they were the heads and princes.

28 . let the people depart ] On the breaking up of this august assembly every man returned to the lot of his inheritance in the newly acquired and goodly Land of Promise. For the section to Joshua 24:31 comp. Jdg 2:6-10 . “Nothing can be conceived more impressive or more sublime than the circumstances of this last public interview of the aged Leader with the people whom he had put in possession of the goodly land of Canaan, and who had so often followed him in his victorious path. In the midst of the elders, the chiefs, and magistrates of Israel; surrounded by a respectful people, formerly bondsmen of Pharaoh, but now in possession of a rich and beautiful country, and the sole survivors of an untoward generation, their illustrious and venerable commander—the oldest man in all their nation—spoke to them as to his sons. And of what did he speak? He was a soldier, and his career had been essentially military; but he spoke to them, not of conquest—the sound of the trumpet and the gleam of the sword cannot be recognised in his address—but of the holiness and the obedience which become the people chosen of God. It is such a discourse as a patriarch might have given upon his deathbed, or a prophet might have uttered from the valley of vision.”—Kitto’s Bible Illustrations , ii. 314. Joshua 24:28

26. Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God—registered the engagements of that solemn covenant in the book of sacred history. took a great stone—according to the usage of ancient times to erect stone pillars as monuments of public transactions. set it up there under an oak—or terebinth, in all likelihood, the same as that at the root of which Jacob buried the idols and charms found in his family. that was by the sanctuary of the Lord—either the spot where the ark had stood, or else the place around, so called from that religious meeting, as Jacob named Beth-el the house of God.

Consult the marginal references. That was by the sanctuary of the Lord - i. e. the spot where Abraham and Jacob had sacrificed and worshipped, and which might well be regarded by their posterity as a holy place or sanctuary. Perhaps the very altar of Abraham and Jacob was still remaining.

[Bible] 24:21. And the people said to Josue: No, it shall not be so as thou sayest, but we will serve the Lord. 24:22. And Josue said to the people, You are witnesses, that you yourselves have chosen you the Lord to serve him. And they answered: We are witnesses. 24:23. Now therefore, said he, put away strange gods from among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel. 24:24. And the people said to Josue: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to his commandments. 24:25. Josue therefore on that day made a covenant, and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem. 24:26. And he wrote all these things in the volume of the law of the Lord: and he took a great stone, and set it under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the Lord. 24:27. And he said to all the people: Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it, and lie to the Lord your God. It hath heard... This is a figure of speech, by which sensation is attributed to inanimate things; and they are called upon, as it were, to bear witness in favour of the great Creator, whom they on their part constantly obey. 24:28. And he sent the people away every one to their own possession, 24:29. And after these things Josue the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old: And after, etc... If Josue wrote this book, as is commonly believed, these last verses were added by Samuel, or some other prophet. 24:30. And they buried him in the border of his possession in Thamnathsare, which is situate in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas. 24:31. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue, and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue, and that had known all the works of the Lord which he had done in Israel.