Chapter 81. Joshua 24. The Death of Joshua.
JOSHUA had become quite old and felt that the time of his departure was near. He
had much at heart the welfare of the people of God, and wished to speak to them once more. So he called the congregation together, to remind them of God’s goodness to them. It was the Lord, he said, who fought for them, who subdued the nations and cut them off. They must take courage, keeping all the law of Moses not turning aside from it to the right nor to the left. Alas, how impossible this was for them! How often they had proved that they could not, that their hearts were wicked, and out of them proceeded only evil! And are we any better? Can we do anything toward our salvation, and toward pleasing a holy, sin-hating God? No, no indeed! God gave the law, that by it we might learn what we are, and when the heart of man had been fully told out, then God gave His Son that He might become our Righteousness, and now we are told it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5).) Had the children of Israel realized what they were, they would not have answered as they did. “God forbid,” they said, “that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” Joshua had little faith in their ability to keep their word. “You cannot serve the Lord,” he answered, “for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you after He has done you good.” But the people answered; “No but we will serve the Lord.” They were not long in proving they could not fulfill their boast. Joshua said: “Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve Him. . . . Now put away the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.” And the people said, “The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.” Joshua, then made a covenant with them and wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it under an oak tree that stood by the sanctuary of God, telling the people this was a witness, lest they deny their God.
Soon after this Joshua, the servant of the Lord died; he was then one hundred and ten years old. The people buried him in the border of his own inheritance in Timnath-serah. During his life time, Israel, who had seen the wonders done by God in their midst, served the Lord, bin they soon forgot Him, as we shall see later, the Lord willing.
The bones of Joseph which they had carried with them through the wilderness were buried in Shechem in the parcel of ground his father Jacob had bought for a hundred pieces of silver.
We read that Joseph when about to die, had faith that God would surely deliver Israel from Egypt, and gave directions that when they left this country they should carry his bones with them.
Eleazar, Aaron’s son, also died, and was buried in a hill belonging to Phinehas, his son, in. Mount Ephraim.
ML 01/14/1912