For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. For the LORD our GodThis phrase acknowledges the personal relationship between the Israelites and God. The Hebrew word for "LORD" is "Yahweh," the covenant name of God, emphasizing His eternal presence and faithfulness. The use of "our God" signifies a collective identity and commitment to Yahweh, distinguishing Him from the gods of other nations. Historically, this reflects the Israelites' understanding of God as their unique, covenantal deity who has chosen them as His people. He is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt
This phrase recalls the Exodus, a foundational event in Israelite history. The Hebrew verb for "brought up" is "alah," which conveys the idea of elevation or ascent, symbolizing liberation from oppression. The mention of "our fathers" connects the current generation to their ancestors, reinforcing the continuity of God's salvific acts. Archaeologically, the Exodus is a pivotal narrative that shaped Israel's identity as a people delivered from slavery by divine intervention. out of the house of slavery
This phrase emphasizes the condition from which the Israelites were delivered. The "house of slavery" refers to Egypt, where the Israelites were oppressed. The Hebrew word for "slavery" is "ebed," which can also mean "servant" or "bondage." This highlights the transformation from servitude to freedom, a central theme in the Israelite understanding of God's redemptive power. and performed these great signs in our sight
The "great signs" refer to the miraculous events that demonstrated God's power and presence, such as the plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. The Hebrew word for "signs" is "oth," which indicates a mark or token of divine intervention. These acts served as tangible evidence of God's sovereignty and faithfulness, reinforcing the Israelites' trust in Him. He protected us along our entire journey
This phrase underscores God's providential care during the Israelites' journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Hebrew word for "protected" is "shamar," meaning to guard or keep. This conveys the idea of God as a shepherd, guiding and safeguarding His people through the wilderness. Historically, this journey was fraught with challenges, yet God's protection ensured their survival and eventual settlement in Canaan. and among all the nations through which we traveled
This phrase highlights the presence of other nations during the Israelites' journey. The Hebrew word for "nations" is "goyim," often used to refer to non-Israelite peoples. The Israelites' encounters with these nations tested their faith and obedience, yet God's protection prevailed. This reflects the broader biblical theme of God's sovereignty over all nations and His ability to fulfill His promises despite external challenges. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt and guided them through the wilderness. 2. JoshuaThe leader of Israel at this time, who is addressing the people and reminding them of God's faithfulness. 3. The IsraelitesThe people of God who were delivered from slavery in Egypt and are now in the Promised Land. 4. EgyptThe land where the Israelites were enslaved for 400 years before God delivered them. 5. The JourneyRefers to the Israelites' exodus from Egypt and their travels through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Teaching Points God's FaithfulnessReflect on God's unwavering faithfulness in delivering His people from bondage and guiding them through challenges. The Importance of RemembranceRegularly recall and give thanks for God's past deliverances and provisions in your life. Trust in God's ProtectionTrust that God will protect and guide you through life's journey, just as He did for the Israelites. The Call to Serve God AloneRecognize the call to serve and worship God alone, rejecting the idols and distractions of the world. Passing Down the FaithEmphasize the importance of sharing testimonies of God's faithfulness with the next generation. Bible Study Questions 1. How does Joshua 24:17 remind us of God's faithfulness in our own lives, and how can we cultivate a habit of remembrance? 2. In what ways can we see parallels between the Israelites' journey and our spiritual journey today? 3. How does the deliverance from Egypt serve as a foreshadowing of Christ's deliverance of believers from sin? 4. What are some practical ways we can ensure that we are serving God alone in our daily lives? 5. How can we effectively share accounts of God's faithfulness with others, especially the next generation, to encourage their faith? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 13-14Details the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, highlighting God's miraculous deliverance through the parting of the Red Sea. Deuteronomy 6:12Warns the Israelites not to forget the LORD who brought them out of Egypt, emphasizing the importance of remembrance. Psalm 136A psalm of thanksgiving that recounts God's enduring love and mighty acts, including the deliverance from Egypt. Hebrews 11:29References the faith of the Israelites as they passed through the Red Sea, connecting their journey to the broader account of faith. People Aaron, Amorites, Balaam, Balak, Beor, Canaanites, Egyptians, Eleazar, Esau, Girgashite, Girgashites, Hamor, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jebusites, Joseph, Joshua, Nachor, Nahor, Nun, Perizzites, Phinehas, Seir, Serah, Terah, ZipporPlaces Canaan, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gaash, Gibeah, Jericho, Jordan River, Moab, Red Sea, Seir, Shechem, Timnath-serahTopics Bondage, Bringing, Egypt, Entire, Fathers, Journey, Journeys, Kept, Midst, Nations, Passed, Peoples, Performed, Preserved, Prison-house, Protected, Safe, Servants, Sight, Signs, Slavery, Traveled, WhereinDictionary of Bible Themes Joshua 24:17 5246 captivity
5357 journey Joshua 24:14-23 5541 society, negative Joshua 24:14-24 7160 servants of the Lord
8466 reformation Joshua 24:14-27 8145 renewal, people of God Joshua 24:16-18 7223 exodus, significance Library February the Tenth Registering a Verdict
"The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey." --JOSHUA xxiv. 22-28. Here was a definite decision. Our peril is that we spend our life in wavering and we never decide. We are like a jury which is always hearing evidence and never gives a verdict. We do much thinking, but we never make up our minds. We let our eyes wander over many things, but we make no choice. Life has no crisis, no culmination. Now people who never decide spend their days in hoping to do so. But this kind of life …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling YearA Summary of Israel's Faithlessness and God's Patience
'And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3. Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The Promise to the Patriarchs.
A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. Luther says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). In our last chapter we considered at some length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown that the will of the natural man is neither Sovereign nor free but, instead, a servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner's will-its servitude-is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God And for Your Fearlessness against them Hold this Sure Sign -- Whenever There Is...
43. And for your fearlessness against them hold this sure sign--whenever there is any apparition, be not prostrate with fear, but whatsoever it be, first boldly ask, Who art thou? And from whence comest thou? And if it should be a vision of holy ones they will assure you, and change your fear into joy. But if the vision should be from the devil, immediately it becomes feeble, beholding your firm purpose of mind. For merely to ask, Who art thou [1083] ? and whence comest thou? is a proof of coolness. …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius Covenanting Performed in Former Ages with Approbation from Above.
That the Lord gave special token of his approbation of the exercise of Covenanting, it belongs to this place to show. His approval of the duty was seen when he unfolded the promises of the Everlasting Covenant to his people, while they endeavoured to perform it; and his approval thereof is continually seen in his fulfilment to them of these promises. The special manifestations of his regard, made to them while attending to the service before him, belonged to one or other, or both, of those exhibitions …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Moses and his Writings
[Illustration: (drop cap W) Clay letter tablet of Moses' time.] We now begin to understand a little of the very beginning of God's Book--of the times in which it was written, the materials used by its first author, and the different kinds of writing from which he had to choose; but we must go a step farther. How much did Moses know about the history of his forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, and of all the old nations and kings mentioned in Genesis, before God called him to the great work of writing …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making "The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. So Then they that Are
Rom. viii. s 7, 8.--"The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is not the least of man's evils, that he knows not how evil he is, therefore the Searcher of the heart of man gives the most perfect account of it, Jer. xvii. 12. "The heart is deceitful above all things," as well as "desperately wicked," two things superlative and excessive in it, bordering upon an infiniteness, such …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Joshua
The book of Joshua is the natural complement of the Pentateuch. Moses is dead, but the people are on the verge of the promised land, and the story of early Israel would be incomplete, did it not record the conquest of that land and her establishment upon it. The divine purpose moves restlessly on, until it is accomplished; so "after the death of Moses, Jehovah spake to Joshua," i. 1. The book falls naturally into three divisions: (a) the conquest of Canaan (i.-xii.), (b) the settlement of the …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Joshua 24:17 NIVJoshua 24:17 NLTJoshua 24:17 ESVJoshua 24:17 NASBJoshua 24:17 KJV
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