Dennis Tuuri

# SERMON TRANSCRIPT
## Joshua 23

And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel and for their elders and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age. And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you.

For the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight, and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you.

Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left, that ye come not among those nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them, but cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day.

For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong, but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand. For the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves that ye love the Lord your God. Else, if ye do in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you.

Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. And behold, this day I go the way of all the earth. And ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you.

All have come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Therefore, as all good things are come unto you which the Lord your God promised you, so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things until he hath destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them, then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illuminate our understanding. The date on the outline should of course be March 7th instead of March 6th. This is the next to last chapter of the book of Joshua. Remember, we said basically the chapter winds up at the end of chapter 21 with a theological conclusion of what God has done—that his word does not fall to the ground. It is effective. And then there are three chapters that essentially are three appendices.

You can look at them that way to the book. The bulk of the book has been God’s faithfulness to deliver his people into a good land and into his presence, the land in which he dwells, and to destroy their enemies. It is the two-fold blessing of God to his people repeated throughout Scripture and certainly that is the theme of the book of Joshua. The last three chapters, however, call for action on the part of Israel in response to God’s truth he reveals throughout the rest of the book and in their history.

And so these three appendices can be seen as three separate calls for Israel to be faithful and obedient, and as faithful to God as he has been to them. These three chapters all begin with a summation. Last chapter you remember, Joshua summoned the two and a half tribes. They are going to go back across the Jordan back to the land on which they were to live throughout their lives. And then this chapter begins with the summation in verse one.

God Joshua calls in verses 1 and 2 for all of Israel and particularly the representatives to come before him. And then in chapter 23 we will see another summoning to retake the covenant. This language also has covenantal implications in it as is rather obvious from the text. But next chapter we have the actual formal retaking of the covenant by the people. So that is the context in which we find this. That is the framework of the book in which this appendix fits.

These are Joshua’s last words. And what I want to go through then briefly is an overview of the text showing us that Joshua’s last words are words that relate to history. They help Israel to understand her history up to that point, her present state in history, and what will happen historically to her in the future based upon her actions. They are historical words. They are words of invoking both love in the people for God and fear of what he will do if they fail to live as his people.

They are words that are gracious words and yet they are also law words. Obviously, God’s word is always both a law word and a grace word to us. And this chapter is no different. And those words also require separation. We usually too often as Christians think of separation from the world, failing to recognize the other side of that is separation unto God and a holy calling. And finally, there are sledgehammer words of charge to people not to change.

So that is what we are going to go through—an overview of the text and we will look at some practical applications for Reformation Covenant Church and see what this has to say to us in our particular history, where we are in the context of growth and development as a people of God at this church.

This history and charge repeats itself throughout these verses. In verses one and two, Joshua—I said Moses; it is very much like Moses. Joshua’s life is essentially following the same pattern of footsteps that Moses walked in. Moses also had deliverance while he was on the other side of Jordan of nations. He led them in victory. Joshua led them in victory into Canaan. And Moses, the book of Deuteronomy really is his last words to the people. And this is Joshua’s last words, much as Moses gave his last words. And in Joshua’s last words, we see history and charge going back and forth.

History in verses 3 through 5. God’s past work of blessing is recounted by Joshua in verses 3 and 4. And the future blessings of God’s historical work promised to them is talked about in verse 5. In response to that, Joshua gives them a charge to respond to God in faithfulness. Verse 6 he charges them to exercise fidelity to God in obedience. In verse 7, he charges them to separate themselves from evil.

In verse 8, again, he charges them to fidelity to God, to cleave unto God. And then he goes back in verses 9 and 10 to historical lessons again. He talks about God’s fidelity again in blessing Israel. His past blessing work to them is again recounted. And the future blessing work of God is also promised again in verse 10. And then in response to this historical thing, Joshua goes back then and gives them a charge.

So we are going back and forth recounting God’s faithfulness, charging Israel to faithfulness, recounting God’s faithfulness, charging Israel to faithfulness. And in verses 11 and 12, that faithfulness is called for not simply obedience, but a love for God. The word love is used there. They are charged to separate themselves from evil because of that love from God and their love for God. The history is repeated again in verses 13-15.

God’s fidelity in historical acts now to curse Israel is spoken of by Joshua if they fail to love and obey God. This future cursing work is threatened in verse 13, again talking about future history. His past blessing work is again recounted in verse 14. And his future cursing work is threatened again in verse 15. So we have a historical section again in verses 13-15. And then verse 16 ends off with another charge.

It is implied negatively stated, but it is nonetheless a charge of fidelity and obedience to the Lord God in verse 16. And so this goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth through three cycles in this chapter. The same message being pounded home again and again. That is because God’s people need it.

The word covenant is explicitly used in verse 16. The word covenant is used very sparingly in the book of Joshua. It is used to refer to the ark of the covenant in chapters 3, 4, 6, and 8. It is also used with respect to Achan’s sin, transgression of the covenant in chapter 7. And it is also used to describe the treaty or covenant that they make with the nation of Gibeon, the city of the Gibeonites in chapter 9. And it will occur again next chapter as the covenant is retaken. So it is used sparsely, but it is very important to see it in the context here because you could look at this again and commentators have in relationship to the suzerainty treaties that were common in the Middle East in this particular period of time.

A suzerain was a lord or a master and the vassal was the servant that was brought into relationship with him. And these recountings of the works of the great Lord of Lords, the King Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel are recounted and then laws are given to his people and then blessings and cursings—stipulations or sanctions rather—are attached to those stipulations of what they must do. And so this is a treaty form in many ways.

And we will see that this leads to the formal retaking of the covenant or treaty between the people of God and himself as their king and lord in the next chapter. Covenant language is used here. They are supposed to cleave to God. It is the same word when they are supposed to cleave to God as is used in the marriage covenant in the book of Genesis for instance.

Now you must be noticing at the very least fullness of references to it. You will notice as we went through it that there were four curses. You might have noticed this, maybe not. Four curses that are threatened to them in the context of if they do not obey in verse 13. If you do not destroy these nations before you, and by the way, the word nation is used seven times in verses 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, and 13. There is a fullness of the nations. The nations run throughout this chapter.

The temptation for Israel to compromise and to depart from faithfulness to God runs throughout the chapter in a seven-fold number of fullness. Then we have this four-fold message of curse upon them. If they do not drive out the nations, then these nations will be snares, traps, scourges, and thorns. Four-fold completeness. And God will destroy them from off the land. The land in the Bible in the Old Testament particularly has four corners to it the way it is pictured by God.

The temple, the tabernacle, a building you walk into, a home, really is a world model as Reverend James B. Jordan has talked about in his book Through New Eyes. And these four-fold curses you can think of as emphatic in terms of bounding the whole land: snares, traps, scourges, and thorns. That is what awaits Israel if they fail to drive out the nations and if they fail to keep themselves from those nations.

This four-fold pattern of cursing that is developed is in relationship to their failure to keep themselves away from the nations and the corrupting influence of the nations. Indeed, this four-fold pattern is also repeated in the action in verses 14-16, their actions relative to these nations. If they refuse to keep themselves clean from them and cleave to God and not to the nations, this four-fold curse will come upon them. And so throughout this chapter, we have these repeated references given to fullness and completion, both a blessing.

The word good is used four times in verses 14-16. There is the goodness of God demonstrated to them. And if they fail to respond correctly, we have the four-fold curses placed upon them. So it is a very powerful text is what I am trying to say here.

Well, let us look at it now in terms of the structure of it. These are last words of Joshua. Last words are important in the scriptures. You know, so many of us in our day and age seem to think we want to die quickly. We want to die in our sleep quickly, get it over with quick, no pain. And that is how the culture defines a good death today. Well, in the Bible, that would be a terrible death. In the Bible, the head of the household as he dies is supposed to have time to gather the people to him and to give his last words and give instructions, give counsel, blessings, threaten curses to certain ones of his family if they fail to repent and if they fail to cleave to God in their future.

And so this pattern that we have here from Joshua being old, stricken in years, and gathering clan together, so to speak, and speaking his last words is repeated throughout Scripture and should be a model for us as well as we get older and begin to get gray, etc. We should hope that we have time as we move to our death to summon our family and summon church members as well and speak our last words.

Joshua does that here. Moses did it in the book of Deuteronomy. Paul does it in Acts 20 to the Ephesian elders. He essentially gives them some last words of his own. He does not know where he is going in terms of whether he may be going to his death. He maybe the last time he sees the Ephesian elders, so he speaks last words, so to speak. Jacob does it with his children. Joseph did it with his brothers. Throughout the scriptures, we see this.

David in both 1 Samuel 23 and 1 Kings 2 gives his last words. He calls the people together. Then he calls his son to him and gives them some very moving last words.

Matthew Henry said that death, Joshua’s death, the setting for these last words, the fact that Joshua was moving toward death has two significances to it in this chapter. First of all, death is given as a reason for Joshua to speak. His life is drawing to an end. And as our life is drawing to an end, we should be even more steadfast in our diligence in terms of doing the work that God has called us to do. Matthew Henry said God uses Joshua’s encroaching death to argue with him to give them this charge. When we see death hastening toward us, Matthew Henry said this should quicken us to do the work of life with all our might. So death is a reason for Joshua to talk.

But death is also impending. Death is a reason for the tribes of Israel to listen. Things get clear as we approach the edge of eternity and as we approach the meeting which we will have with our maker. It becomes things take on a clarity to us. And so it is very important to listen to men’s last words. And Joshua uses it here as an argument for them to hear what he has to say.

This reminded me—I spoke of this before earlier in the book of Joshua. Psalm 71: “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth. And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have shown thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hath done great things, O God, who is like unto thee. Thou which hast shown me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”

That should be a Psalm—that particular verse where the psalmist writes, “When I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have shown thy strength unto this generation.” Those should be important thoughts for us as we mature in age and look forward to our old age and our approaching death—of what last words we will give to our children. Will they be words exhorting them to fidelity? Will they be words ringed with sadness for our own lack of fidelity?

As I went through this, I have known this was coming for some weeks now, and I have thought an awful lot during this time of Judge Beers. And you know, it was one of the great sadnesses of my life and remains so to this day that I only knew him for a fairly short period of time—a couple of years. When he died I realized that ability to glean from his wisdom, from his dedication and devotion to God was gone. It was simply gone. It could not be had anymore once he died. And it is very important for us as we see men that are exemplary in faith and practice and wisdom to cleave to them, particularly as they get old, recognizing that God can take them from us. But I gleaned a lot of wisdom from the judge, as those of us who were at the church at that time did.

And his last words came ringing home to me through the past few years as I considered this chapter. He had various forms. I thought of three of them particularly, and I will talk about these a little later as well. But this thing about death being a reason to talk—that as we approach the end of our life, as Matthew Henry said, we should do the work of life with all our might. I remember the judge several weeks before he died, sitting in a wheelchair, in a chair at home, really almost unable to move.

And you know, I do not remember if I asked him if he was just going to give up or whatever how the conversation got into it, but he said, “I cannot give up. I have got to keep fighting. I have got to fight. I have got to do the work God has called me to do.” That was his attitude as he was approaching death. He did not want to just, you know, slide on out of his responsibilities. He wanted to do what he had to do prior to this life being over.

And he hung on for months for the sole purpose essentially of going to the Christian Reconstruction Conference that year and praying there and being a charge to people in his way to fidelity to the Lord God who is effecting a reformation and reconstruction in our country. Judge Beers understood the reason of approaching death as a reason to speak and a reason to be diligent in his work. And I thought of actually something he said a year or two before he died.

Actually, I remember that one night as we were sitting around at that time—we were on Friday nights going through the Westminster Confession of Faith and the other reformed documents, studying them, reading them—Judge Beers, and this is not a single occurrence. He would do this frequently. At that time, he had a hard time reading the Bible aloud without crying. He was so moved by it. I remember him sitting around that living room with us.

And then he just lifted up his hands and said, “Do you see what God is doing here? Do you see what God is doing?” And he began to cry. He was so moved with the reformation or reconstruction that God was acting in the lives of that little group of men and of course not just in us but across the country through works of various reconstructionist writers and other faithful men of God. Judge Beers was moved and I count that as among his last words.

It was the last year or two of his life and it is important for us as we will point out a little bit later on in terms of our understanding the relevance of this passage to our lives. And then I also remember last words as he was laying on his deathbed so to speak—again in his apartment very unable to move essentially—and Roy will be able to speak to this also if you ask him about it. But the judge would call us in there and he would say, “There are certain people here you need to talk to. Get them on board.” And if they will not get on board, help them to see that they better move out.

Now, those were words that I did not understand a whole lot at the time. They were words that I thought, well, you know, he is getting old. He is about ready to die. He is probably in a lot of pain. I know he was. He is getting cranky on us. But, you know, I do not think—I am sure there was part of that, but I do not think that was the bulk of it.

He knew the seriousness of the work of this church and he knew the necessity to exhort and encourage people to be faithful to do what God has called us to do. And you know, I thought about particularly in terms of David. You know, David’s last words to Solomon among other things said, “Get Joab. Put him to death. He troubled me all my life. He is a murderer. Execute him.” And Solomon did that. Dragged him from off the horns of the altar and put him to death.

Joab, a mighty man, a reminder to us of the failure to control ourselves—mighty and gifted, but he could not control himself, so he brought trouble to the kingdom. Well, that is the same way that Judge Beers spoke to us—not to go get them and kill them, but exhort people to faithfulness. This is not some game. This is not some little, you know, vocation we have like hunting or fishing. This is real life stuff.

This is the most important thing we have. It is our fidelity to the God of the scriptures. And people have got to move to obedience in terms of that. The last words are important and we have here Joshua’s last words, a chapter of farewell, his last words. And what are these words like? First of all, these words relate to history. History. And this is so important, so simple and yet so important. Joshua speaks to Israel’s history.

Over and over again in this passage, he tells them what God has done in bringing the nations under subjection to them. Look what God has done for you. He says over and over and over again, look what God has done. And he reminds them of this time after time, as I have pointed out already, in verse 3, verse 4, verse 9, verse 14—three different times in this cycle, he says, “Look what God has done for you.

God has fought for you. You did not do this yourself. I did not do it. I am the captain of the army, but this is not my credit. It is not my glory. It is God’s glory. And look what he has done for you.” Understand the history of what God has accomplished in your life and why you sit in this land now is what he is telling them. Understand that history. Joshua’s last words are historical words.

Francis Schaeffer said, “The difference between Greek and Hebrew thinking is not that the Greeks were rationalists while the Hebrews were existentialists.” No, quite the contrary. The Jews insisted on a tougher reality than the Greeks. They demanded not only that which was reasonable, but also that which was rooted in space and time. Joshua was saying to the people as he was about to leave them, “Remember the past. Remember those things. These things are rooted in history and they are also of course open to reason. They are based upon God’s word and the reasonableness of God’s word, but they are also based on the historical acts of God.

When we get to the center, the conclusion of our worship service today, we celebrate a historical event—the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Real events, flesh and blood events, not concepts. The gospel is not at heart a concept or a philosophical construct. It is a recitation. It is good news of historical events. And Joshua’s last words to the people tell them, “Know the historical events that God has accomplished.

Understand and interpret them correctly. Do not doubt what God has done in your life. God has blessed you.” Joshua was a man who understood the importance of flesh and blood realities. Flesh and blood realities is what history is all about. And God tells us the same thing in his last words. Historical importance is at the center of our faith. We have the interpretation of history seen in light of God’s providence.

Now, this is also a historical word. And as I said before, the future—Joshua 23 gives us the theological understanding of what will happen to Israel in the rest of her time because she is going to sin. She is going to fall. And indeed, God is going to do just what he said. Scourges, scourges, thorns, snares, and pits are going to befall them. And eventually, they will be driven off the good land. You know, it is not just that they understood that there is death involved here for the body. The body has four corners as I said. The robe the person would wear in the Old Testament spoken of as four corners. If the tabernacle and the land is a world model, it is also that—that is what our bodies are as a world model, and our bodies also will suffer individually. We will suffer not just as a group of people if we fail to do what God tells us to do. We will suffer in our bodies—scourges and thorns and snares and pits—and we will then be driven out of this body because God will kill us.

So God wants us to understand history in terms of flesh and blood, and he wants us to understand the historical significance of the future in terms of what we do today in terms of his word. These words are, as one commentator said, timely words that are appropriate for a time of prosperity to remember why you are being prosperous and also for a time of crisis to remember the good things God has accomplished in the past.

That is the way you achieve good things in the future—by centering upon those things that God has done, to cleave to him. Israel is defined as she looks at her history. And so the last words are historical words.

These last words are also, as I said, godly words of love and fear. Godly love is called for here. As in other parts of Joshua, we see the call to obedience. But in the second cycle of things in verse 11, they are told to love God. There is a literary structure here. Those things are equated. They are repeated. It is a three-fold cycle. The same message. First message is obedience. The second cycle at the historical recitation they are told to love God. Those things are related in God’s word. Love and obedience. The Hebrew word for love covers the whole range of human affections: sexual love, love of friendship, love for God. It is more than, as one commentator said, it is more than a voluntary expression of the emotions.

It can be commanded. Very significant. It can be commanded and it expresses itself in concrete acts of obedience to law. Some people have difficulty with this. The respect that biblical love according to the models given to us in the Old Testament—that biblical love is subject to be commanded. But that is clearly what the scriptures tell us. And to doubt that is to bring some foreign or alien concept of what love is into the scriptures.

The scriptures tell us love can be commanded. Love means walking in God’s ways, obeying God’s commandments, holding fast to God, serving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love without obedience—to make that claim you can have love for God without obedience to his law is hypocrisy. It denies the words of our savior himself. If you love God, you will keep his commandments. And it goes with the principle that if you attempt to obey these commandments and sincerely walk in God’s ways, you will indeed find yourself growing in your love and your affection and emotional love as well, which is certainly an important part of it for God.

Love and obedience go together in the scriptures. But these words—these last words—in our call for them to love and obey God and to see the dynamic synergism of those two concepts. We always want to place one against the other. The Bible does not do that. It says they are synergistic. The sum is worth more than the total of the individual parts added together. The sum becomes synergistic. It is like a positive feedback mechanism which grows obedience and love.

But in addition to these words being godly words of love, they are also words invoking fear in us. And this is what, you know, a lot of Christians really do not want to hear about. They do not want to hear about command and love. They certainly do not want to hear about God invoking fear in us. But that is just what he does here, does he not? Over and over, he warns them. The whole passage ends with threatenings, not with blessings.

Now, it is like I said before, the blessings have been given us in Christ. The curses are threatened for the future depending upon our actions, and they are threatened to the end that they would charge us to obedience and love for God here in the present. But that fear is there. Calvin said, “True faith, while it relines upon God keeps those who possess it in God’s fear. In short, those who would find God must seek him sincerely.

And if we desire to be guided and regarded by him, we must beware of turning our backs upon him. God is no buttercup. God is a God of power and strength.” Psalm 16. The people understood this. Verse 3 of Psalm 16: “To the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Mighty ones.” And then in verse 4, “Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hasten after another god.” That is simply a short form recitation of Joshua 23.

The psalmist understood this. The Hebrews understood the need to combine the negative with the positive side of God’s faithfulness. Hard attachment to God must be combined with a godly fear of him as well. God’s word is also both a law word and a grace word together. These words are given to people that God has graciously brought into deliverance in the land of Canaan. He has delivered them out of Egypt, and he has given them the land where he dwells, where God’s enemies and people’s enemies are destroyed.

God has graciously done this. Joshua says, “We did not do this. We had some part in the fighting, but God accomplished all this stuff. He fought for us,” and they saw God ahead of them, fighting for them at particular battles. God, they knew God is the one who had done this. God had graciously entered, ushered them into blessing. And it is in the basis of that grace that they are then called to live a life in terms of God’s law. The background is provided, as Wooster said in his commentary, for the exhortation to covenantal loyalty which invokes following God’s commands.

These are evangelical commands. Wooster says they come within the framework of grace. This law, Torah lifestyle is God’s gracious provision for a life of covenant fellowship between himself and his people. It is how you realize the blessings of God’s presence, a loving presence to you—by following this life, this culture, this Torah, this law that God gives us. The Ten Commandments begin with a recitation that God has delivered us out of the house of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

And then it calls us to live a life and faithfulness to the God who has delivered us. There is a continual appeal to the written law of God based upon God’s grace and giving it to us and delivering us that we might keep it. So God’s Joshua’s last words are words of law and grace combined. And God’s and Joshua’s last words are words of separation. And as I said, there is a separation from, but there is also a separation to.

They are to separate themselves from the nations around, and they are to cleave to God. And as I said, cleave means the same word as a man and wife cleave together. You know, I will talk about this more in a few weeks when we get to covenants and particularly the covenant of marriage as we are going to have some celebrated in this church. But it is very important to recognize that is the kind of word that is used here—a covenantal cleaving, a clinging, and adhering to God by understanding his ways and walking in those ways, having your life and culture formed on the basis of God’s word.

That is cleaving to him in the scriptures. You adhere to him. You love him and you grow in that love. But if you are going to do that, you also have to make sure you do not cleave to the nations around you—the foreign temptations, the temptations to not follow God or to compromise God’s word with other ways, with other forms of worship, with other forms of culture. Instead of clinging firmly to God, she will indeed cling to the remnant of the nations.

And the end result is that curses will cling to them. In Deuteronomy 28:60, “Moreover he shall bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.” Same word. So cleaving is a big deal here. You are supposed to cleave to God. You are not supposed to cleave to the nations around you. You are supposed to separate yourself from off of them. And if you do not and if you end up really cleaving to them, the curses of those nations, the diseases God will cause to cleave to you.

Romans 1:28, he turns you over to a reprobate mind. He causes you to go through his judicial pronouncements to the end that the curses cleave. You do not cleave to God, his curses will cleave to you instead of his blessing. So last words are words of separation from sin and compromise to the world around us. This separation is based upon the fact—as we said a couple weeks ago—that one of the big things in scripture is the destruction of our enemies. Unknown to so many Christians today.

One of the commentators mentioned that many times mission references a particular book—the missionary nature of the church—that he references a single example that so often our evangelism and our missionary activity fails to recognize this particular dynamic of what missions is all about. The destruction of the enemies of God’s people. As God’s messengers go out to proclaim peace, they proclaim at the same time war to those who are in opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is implied in the message has been from beginning to end. Certainly it is true in the Old Testament as is clear over and over again from the text around us and it is true in the New Testament as well. What is the great song that Zacharias sings filled with the Holy Ghost in Luke 1? One of the other things it says—that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all them that hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember his holy covenant. That covenant is death to our enemies—to the enemies of Christ and his people. The enemies of Christ and his people will be destroyed by God in time and in history.

Now we know that in the gospel era, that word, that destruction is accomplished through the preaching of the word. The gospel goes out and it shakes men and nations and it either shakes you with joy or it shakes you with fear. Talk about that at communion today. Earthquakes abound in the scriptures and earthquakes should abound in our preaching of the gospel as well. We should shake men with fear and we should shake men with joy. That is what this passage is all about.

You do not cleave to them because you are supposed to be destroying them. And if you fail to destroy them, you will indeed be compromised to them just in the simple act—the failure. As Calvin said, the wrong that is the failure to wipe out the enemies which is wrongful, as Calvin said, contrary to our duty. If we fail to do that, they will become this four-fold curse upon us. So God’s word is a call to cleave to God and away from the nations.

I would just mention here by the way that Exodus 23 commands that we do not even mention the names of the gods around us. They were not even supposed to talk about the names of the gods around them. A Matthew Henry commenting on this said, “The Jews would not suffer their children to name swine’s flesh because it was forbidden, lest the name of it should occasion their desiring it. But if they had occasion to speak of it, they must call it that strange thing.” It is a pity that among Christians the names of the heathen gods are so commonly used and made so familiar as they are, especially in plays and poems. Let those names which have been set up in rivalry with God be forever removed and lost from memory.

And it is interesting if you look at this text in Joshua, there is a four-fold progression of what happens to people who begin to mention these names. Let us see. Ah, verse 7 in the first mention of separation from the nations he says that you come not among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them. There begins with mentioning the name—a four-fold progression here of what happens as we intermingle and compromise the faith.

We name the names of those around us, the gods of those around us. That is followed with causing to swear by them. Instead of invoking our tongue now, now we swear by them. We lift the hands, so to speak, and end up swearing by those gods. And the next step is you serve them. You bend the knee to them. And then finally, you bow down yourselves unto them. There is a four-fold progression of physical activity involved here—with naming of the names, raising your hand to swear with them, getting down on your knees to serve them and then laying down prostrate and bowing down before them.

And of course, that is the same four-fold action that should symbolize a relationship to the covenant God of Israel, to Yahweh, the God of gods, to the true God, and to not to false idols. We are supposed to do the same thing with him, are we not? We are supposed to name his name. Supposed to be frequent upon our lips and our homes and in our church, in our culture. And we are supposed to swear by his name.

We are supposed to bow the knee to serve him and prostrate ourselves before him to worship him. And he says, if you do not do that, if you do not destroy these nations, that is what you will end up doing with those gods around you. Do not even name their names. He says, as one commentator said, “Having social mixers with the Canaanites will only make fertility theology more available for Israel, and an accommodation to the local beliefs seem more natural.” Romans 12:2. You know, we have that in our offering every Lord’s day.

We come forward and your service says—we do not read it usually, but the order of service, you will read there at the offertory. We quote from Romans 12:1 and 2. What is your reasonable service of worship? It says, do not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold. But let God remold your minds from within. And the offertory every Lord’s day is a reminder to us not to be conformed to the image of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind—the washing of the water of the word.

And I do not agree with Phillips’ translation here. In terms of do not mold yourselves into the world’s mold but remolded from within. You remember—I am well, you probably do not—but when I studied these words originally, the word for do not be conformed to the world around you, it is, I think, a good way to think of it is like a silly putty image. If you take silly putty, put it on a comic, pick up the silly putty, put on a piece of paper, you get an ink stamp transference of the paper. That is what it means: do not be conformed to that picture. It is a silly putty image. That is what the world has. There is no depth or substance to it. It has comic book life around us. Do not be conformed to that, but be transformed. Totally different word. You go from glory to glory, substantive change in your life as you mature in God.

And so we are warned not to be part of the nations around us, not to be part of the theologies of compromise that are around us as well. Okay. And so these last words of Joshua are words calling from separation from nations, cleaving to God, and actually a destruction of the nations as well. And then finally, these last words, as I said, are sledgehammer words of theology. Again, same thing being repeated over and over. History, charge, history, charge, history, charge, warning, warning, warning. And it ends on warning. Watch it because God threatens you with punishment if you fail to cleave to him.

Matthew Henry said, “This charge can be summed up. You are to be very courageous. You are to be very cautious. Take heed,” he says in verse 7. You must not acquaint yourselves with idolaters. You must not show the least respect to any idols in the land. You are to be cautious and to be very constant. So the three C’s that Matthew Henry uses are to be courageous, cautious, and constant. Courageous, cautious, constant. That is this, that is the model of this charge from Joshua as to how to live the Christian life.

We must always, always, always be on our guard. And of course, that is the last words of Paul to the Ephesian elders, too, in Acts 20. He warns them in his last words to them, “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased of his own blood.

For I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” We must always, as well in New Testament times as Old Testament times, be cautious and be courageous and be very constant in our fidelity to God. And that is pounded over and over again here. Hal Calvin says that the substance of this whole address amounts to this: that as God has proved himself true by his favors and the fulfillment of his promises, so his threatenings will also not be empty or vain.

And he will certainly avenge the profanation of his worship by their final destruction, by destroying them in all rigor and without mercy. Calvin says that such is the lethargy of the flesh, that it always needs to be stimulated by threats from God. And I think that is true over and over again. The scriptures warn us of these things. And do not think it is just Old Testament. What is the book of Hebrews all about?

“Fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” God shakes things in Hebrews. You do not approach the shaking mountain anymore in the past. Now we approach the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the real throne, which is even worse—threatenings to those who fall away and who despise the blood of the savior. So this threatening goes throughout the scriptures. This is essentially by Joshua. These last words are an altar call.

You know, they are a call to choose. They are a call to consecration. They are a call to remember their history, to understand the necessity of fear and love for God, of God’s gracious law word, and to be warned about the dangers should they fail to act in obedience to the God who has given them so much. These are words of charge. They are not words of change. They tell the people that if you do change, that is when God’s actions will change toward you.

They charge them to be constant and faithful to perform that what God has accomplished in their midst. And if they are constant and faithful, God will not change in terms of his blessings toward them. But he promises to be just as faithful in his severe word toward them as he was in his blessing word should they themselves change and move away from steadfast obedience to God’s word.

What is Israel’s response? Whether Israel, what will they do in relationship to all of this? That is the thing that this chapter leaves unanswered. And yet, it does answer in a way because it ends with threatening. It ends with words of curse to them. And indeed, the nation of Israel would find itself again and again failing to do these very things that God had called them to do. But even in those times—in times of exile—they would read this book of Joshua and they would remind themselves of what happened.

Yet God is the one who faithfully performed things in our early days, who brought us deliverance. And the reason we are here now is because, just like Joshua 23 said, we did not wipe out the nations around us. We did not eliminate those foreign philosophies, those foreign theologies from our mind. We played with them. We toyed with them. They seemed good to us after a while. We forgot the diligence of the law word of God and its application to our lives.

And pretty soon, we started to slide off. You know, that is what happens to people. If you always put input into the system, you slide off. And the people of Israel would slide off. It is not that they woke up one day and said, “Let us go serve Baal.” That is not what happened. Public schools, Molech worship. You think that this church is so unusual in taking a position against it. Well, I will talk about that in a little bit.

But, you know, these things happen gradually. It is tough to homeschool over the long haul, for instance. Tough to do it when times get hard in our lives. They would be called to learn lesson of history. I want to talk a little bit more about these threatenings before we get to application of this to RCC, because it is so important that he does indeed end on threatening here.

Well, let us see Mark 8:35-38. Just so you will see that this is essentially the same kind of model of charging and then warning is carried out by our savior as well. In Mark 8:34 and following, he urges his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. That is what Joshua is telling us to do here, essentially. He goes on to say, “Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s the same shall save it. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels.” End of speech from Jesus. Jesus ends with the word of threat to them. If you are going to be ashamed of me and if you do not take up your cross and be devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, then God will be ashamed of you in the final judgment.

And you may have had a nice easy life on earth. And you may have obtained riches and you may have had a lot of leisure time because of your choice not to take up your cross and follow him. It may have been easier for you in some ways, but it would have been an empty life and ultimately be a life that would cause you to not be acknowledged by the Father in the end day. You lose your soul for the sake of the world. And that is a pottage is what you trade your eternal inheritance for. And Jesus threatens us with that in Mark, chapter 8.

Joshua, some would say, was a lousy preacher because he ends with threat instead of with promise. And yet that is what God gives us. And that is what he gives us over and over again throughout the scriptures. As I said, the epistle to the Hebrews is another good one. Instead of closing his address with a good word of blessing to the people, he offends our taste by emphasizing the utter certainty of Yahweh’s judgment. That same word that is faithful to bless—that does not fall to the ground. Remember that word—chases us should we depart from the living God and hammers us out of the way. Then we become destroyed because we identify with God’s enemies. Joshua concludes his remarks on a negative, jarring note.

And this is, as I said, very frequent.