If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you." If you forsake the LORDThis phrase serves as a conditional warning to the Israelites. The Hebrew root for "forsake" is "עזב" (azab), which means to leave, abandon, or desert. Historically, the Israelites had a pattern of turning away from God, despite His continuous faithfulness. This warning is a reminder of the covenant relationship between God and His people, emphasizing the importance of loyalty and commitment. In a broader spiritual context, it calls believers to remain steadfast in their faith, recognizing the consequences of turning away from God. and serve foreign gods
The phrase "serve foreign gods" highlights the temptation and danger of idolatry. The Hebrew word for "serve" is "עבד" (avad), which implies worship and devotion. The Israelites were surrounded by nations with various deities, and the allure of these foreign gods was a constant threat. This serves as a timeless reminder for Christians to guard against modern-day idols—anything that takes precedence over God in one's life. It underscores the call to exclusive worship and devotion to the one true God. then He will turn and bring disaster upon you
Here, the phrase "He will turn and bring disaster" reflects the consequences of disobedience. The Hebrew word for "turn" is "שוב" (shuv), which can mean to return or change direction. This indicates that God's response to Israel's unfaithfulness would be a shift from blessing to judgment. The term "disaster" is translated from "רע" (ra), meaning evil or calamity. This serves as a sobering reminder of the seriousness of sin and the reality of divine justice. It calls believers to repentance and a life aligned with God's will to avoid such consequences. after He has been good to you
This phrase emphasizes God's prior goodness and faithfulness to Israel. The Hebrew word for "good" is "טוב" (tov), which encompasses kindness, prosperity, and favor. Despite Israel's potential unfaithfulness, God had consistently demonstrated His goodness through deliverance, provision, and protection. This highlights the contrast between God's unwavering goodness and human fickleness. For Christians, it serves as an encouragement to remember and be grateful for God's past mercies, fostering a heart of gratitude and a commitment to faithfulness in response to His enduring goodness. Persons / Places / Events 1. JoshuaThe leader of Israel after Moses, who is delivering his farewell address to the Israelites in this chapter. 2. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who has delivered them from Egypt and given them the Promised Land. 3. Foreign godsThe deities worshiped by the surrounding nations, which the Israelites are warned against serving. 4. IsraelitesThe people of God, who are being reminded of their covenant obligations and the consequences of disobedience. 5. ShechemThe place where Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to renew the covenant with God. Teaching Points The Seriousness of IdolatryIdolatry is not just the worship of physical idols but can include anything that takes the place of God in our lives. We must examine our hearts for modern-day idols. Covenant FaithfulnessGod’s faithfulness to His promises requires a response of faithfulness from His people. We are called to remain steadfast in our commitment to God. Consequences of DisobedienceThe warning in Joshua 24:20 reminds us that turning away from God has serious consequences. We must be vigilant in our walk with God to avoid spiritual disaster. God’s Goodness and JusticeGod’s goodness is evident in His blessings, but His justice requires that He respond to unfaithfulness. We should not take His grace for granted. Renewal of CommitmentJust as the Israelites renewed their covenant with God, we should regularly renew our commitment to follow Christ, especially in times of spiritual complacency. Bible Study Questions 1. What are some modern-day "foreign gods" that can tempt us away from our commitment to the LORD? 2. How does the warning in Joshua 24:20 reflect the character of God as both loving and just? 3. In what ways can we actively renew our commitment to God in our daily lives? 4. How do the consequences faced by Israel in the book of Judges serve as a warning for us today? 5. How can we encourage one another to remain faithful to God in a culture that often promotes idolatry? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 20:3-5The first and second commandments, which prohibit the worship of other gods and the making of idols, are foundational to understanding the warning in Joshua 24:20. Deuteronomy 6:14-15This passage warns against following other gods and describes the LORD as a jealous God, echoing the warning in Joshua 24:20. Judges 2:11-15This passage describes the consequences Israel faced when they turned to other gods, fulfilling the warning given by Joshua. 1 Kings 11:9-11Solomon's turning to other gods and the resulting division of the kingdom illustrate the fulfillment of the warning in Joshua 24:20. Hebrews 10:26-31This New Testament passage warns believers about the consequences of willful sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, paralleling the warning in Joshua 24:20. | Christians Solemnly Reminded of Their Obligations | President Davies. | Joshua 24:20 | | Mercies Abused, the Precursors of Wrath | Bp. R. Bickersteth. | Joshua 24:20 | | The Renewal of the Covenant | E. De Pressense | Joshua 24:1-22 | | Dying Charges | W. E. Knox, D. D. | Joshua 24:1-33 | | Joshua's Last Appeal | W. G. Blaikie, D. D. | Joshua 24:1-33 | | Joshua's Last Farewell | G. W. Butler, M. A. | Joshua 24:1-33 | | An Address to Image-Worshippers | W. Seaton. | Joshua 24:14-29 | | Joshua, and His Zest for the Service of the Lord | G. Woolnough. | Joshua 24:14-29 | | Marks of Being Sincerely Religious | G. Cart, B. A. | Joshua 24:14-29 | | The Last Days of Joshua | Sermons by the Monday Club | Joshua 24:14-29 | | A Great Decision | R. Glover | Joshua 24:16-31 | | A Strict Master | S.R. Aldridge | Joshua 24:19-21 | | Discouragement Useful | A. Maclaren, D. D. | Joshua 24:19-28 | | Entire Change Needed | British Evangelist | Joshua 24:19-28 | | God Declining First Offers of Service | John Ker, D. D. | Joshua 24:19-28 | | Moral Inability | Spurgeon, Charles Haddon | Joshua 24:19-28 | | Moral Inability | George Bush. | Joshua 24:19-28 | | Reasons Why Man Will not Serve God | | Joshua 24:19-28 | | The Covenant Renewed | De Witt S. Clark. | Joshua 24:19-28 | | The Difficulty of Serving God | The Weekly Pulpit | Joshua 24:19-28 | | The Holy Character of God | E. G. Marshall, M. A. | Joshua 24:19-28 |
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 Bring, Consume, Consumed, Cutting, Disaster, Evil, Foreign, Forsake, Gods, Harm, Hurt, Servants, Serve, Served, Strange, Stranger, Turn, TurningDictionary of Bible Themes Joshua 24:20 8345 servanthood, and worship 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 24:19-20 1065 God, holiness of
5790 anger, divine Joshua 24:19-24 5923 public opinion 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 24:20 NIVJoshua 24:20 NLTJoshua 24:20 ESVJoshua 24:20 NASBJoshua 24:20 KJV
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