Joshua 23:1-16 • October 20, 2024 • g1304
Pastor Chris Amaro teaches a message through Joshua 23 titled “A Warning From The Wise.”
For those of you who are not familiar with Joshua, let me give you a bit of background. Years prior to what you and I will read in Joshua 23:1-16, there was a man named Moses. Many of you have heard of him. God had used Moses to lead all the people in our text out of Egypt. They had been enslaved in Egypt. Being used by God, Moses led the people out of Egypt. Then Moses led them for the next 40 years. It was supposed to be an 11-day journey from Egypt to where they are in chapter 23 in the land they’re in. The Jews, being proficient at what they do, turned it into a 40-year journey.
It’s not just the Jews; people in general tend to mess things up. Thinking we take a shortcut, we take a long cut. Many of you wives can attest to that when you husband decides to take a shortcut and it ends up taking a lot longer.
What happened was that Moses had grown old and died. Before his death, Moses had passed on leadership of the people to Joshua. Joshua had been Moses’ right-hand man; he had been along for the ride with Moses the entire time. He had been in Egypt as a slave, had been a military guy and had worked with Moses, so when Moses died, the baton had been passed to Joshua. Then Joshua began to lead the people into the Promised Land.
Currently there is a war going on concerning the land of Israel. The land of Israel is the same land mentioned here in the book of Joshua. The Israelites were going into that land. It was God’s land. It wasn’t the Jews’ land or belonging to the Israelites; it was God’s land. It didn’t belong to anybody else. God led them out of slavery and into this Promised Land. It was called the Promised Land because God had promised it to them.
But there were inhabitants in the land already. The Israelites were given the task of going into the land and clearing out those inhabitants. Why would they do such a mean thing? We’ll get to that later.
Joshua had been leading them, but now in chapter 23, he is preparing to die. In chapters 23 and 24, he has parting words of wisdom for the people.
I broke up chapter 23 as follows: in verses 1-10, we have parting words, which has words of encouragement; and verses 11-16 is a prophetic warning.
Starting in verse 1, it says, “Now it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them: ‘I am old, advanced in age.’”
He knew that because a few chapters back and several years earlier God had already told Joshua that he was advanced in age. That was some 20 years before. And when you get into chapter 24, you find out that Joshua was actually 110 years old. When you’re young, you think, That’s cool; I want to live to be 110. And as you inch closer to that you say, “Man, I just want to go home!” So Joshua is now speaking to this generation, because he’s getting ready to go to be with the Lord.
I’ve got four kids who are adults—technically. The parents laugh because they understand. I understand the challenge of trying to speak to younger people and to share things with them. We’ve got a thriving, wonderful youth ministry here at Revival, both high school and junior high. I speak every Wednesday and Sunday to high-school students who generally want to be here. But some of you parents drive by the high-school room, you slow down to 30 and kick your kids out. But most of them want to be here. They want to hear what’s being taught, they want to take notes and they want to hear from the Lord.
But parents of high-school kids understand that sometimes it’s hard with our own kids. I remember being in my teens and early 20s and how foolish my parents were. Then as I got into my late 20s and early 30s, all of a sudden they were endowed with wisdom. But that’s how it goes. So it’s a challenge to attempt to teach somebody younger than you.
Now I want to speak for a moment to our “silver saints.” Just because you cover it up doesn’t mean it’s not silver; it’s under there. Silver saints, you need to understand that you have such an incredibly important role at Revival. You need to understand how important you are to the life and the body at Revival. We need you. We need for you not to be in retirement mode. We need for you to be thinking clearly; to be examining your life and understanding that the point where you are right now in your life is that you have more years behind you than ahead of you. You know that. You understand it is going fast.
And I understand the challenge of attempting to share things with the younger generation, with people who don’t want to listen. But you need to make yourself available to the Lord. Say, “God, use me to speak to someone,” to a youngster or a child or a teen or a young adult or a young husband or a young father or a young wife or a young mother—to someone you can pour into, to somebody who will receive those words of wisdom. Not everyone will receive it, but there are some who are hungry for it and so many more who desperately need it who maybe aren’t at that moment when they are ready to receive it. But they need it. So we need for you silver saints to step it up. Speak to us, teach us, share the wisdom that you have gained through a lifetime of victory and mistakes. Tell us about the goodness of the Lord.
These are the things that Joshua tells us about in chapter 23. He says at the end of verse 2, “I am old, advanced in age.” That’s how he begins talking to the people. Then in verses 3-5, he tells them to remember the faithfulness of the Lord. He begins by reminding them of the past. He says, “You have seen…” past tense “…all that the Lord your God has done…” past tense “…to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has fought…” past tense “…for you.” This is what we call “trophies.”
When I was growing up, I was an athlete. I was in Little League, played a little bit of football and soccer, but mainly baseball. Once I got into high school, I dumped all that and traded it in to become an absolute loser. But many years ago, as a young Christian, a young husband and a young father, I had all my old trophies on a shelf. Then the thought hit me, What am I doing with these things? They were a reminder of some accomplishment throughout the years. Most of them were participation trophies; I didn’t do anything for them. These were a reminder of who I used to be. And being a young Christian, I put them in a box and got rid of them. I didn’t need these reminders. What I needed was to be reminded of the goodness of God.
Our text is a trophy but not a trophy marking some accomplishment over the people; it is a trophy or reminder of what God has done on their behalf. Verse 3 says that they have seen it with their own eyes. God did it. “You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all the nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has fought for you.”
In sharing these parting words of wisdom, Joshua reminded them of the faithfulness of the Lord in the past. And he didn’t stop there; in verse 4, he brought them to the present. He said, “See, I have…” speaking of himself “…divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward.”
Now don’t assume that Joshua is touting his own victories here; he understands that it is the Lord who has done all of this. But what he is doing is that he is reminding them of the past faithfulness of the Lord. Then he also tells them to look where they were standing; they were in the Promised Land. They had land that would become their inheritance but there was work to be done. He makes the transition in verse 4 from the present to the future.
Think about this: what a trip it is that you are sitting in church on a Sunday morning. So many of us can remember Sunday mornings “comin’ down” like Johnny Cash, because it used to be that on Sunday mornings chemicals and the alcohol were wearing off throughout Sunday, and the regrets of the night before were still on you.
But now, look where you are. Like the Gadarene demonic, you are sitting clothed and in your right mind. Look what God has done. Look where you are.
When my kids were little, we had a couple of mini-vans throughout the years. There were times when I would be driving a mini-van with my wife and four kids in the back, leaving French fries and everything else in the cracks. I was driving and sometimes it would hit me: I’d look around and look in the mirror and think, I’ve got a wife and kids and I’m driving a mini-van! Then from my own heart, I’d talk to the Lord and say, God, how could You trust me with these people? Don’t You know who I am?! Don’t You know what I’ve done?!
But in those moments, to stop and realize what God has done! Look where I am! Look who I am! And we’re certainly not what we’re going to be yet, but thank God we’re not what we used to be! It’s the goodness of God, the faithfulness of the Lord.
What Joshua is pointing out to these people is to look at the past, at all the good things God did. And in verse 4, he brings them to the present by saying, “Look where you’re standing!” Then he transitions to the future. “See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain…” they’re in the Promised Land “…to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward.”
What he is saying is that if you were to look at a map of Israel today, you would see the Jordan River and on the west, the Mediterranean Sea. Joshua is talking about that land that the people are still fighting over today. And he is saying, “Look where you are.” Verse 4 says it is “to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward.” He’s speaking of the future here. They were in the land they were possessing, but there was some future work to be done; there was an inheritance for their tribes. There were 12 tribes that made up the children of Israel or Israel.
Then taking them to the future, in verse 5, and still speaking about the faithfulness of the Lord, he said, “And the Lord your God will expel them…” it’s a promise, as good as done “…from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.” So he makes this promise to them; this is what God is going to do.
So what he’s saying is that God has always been faithful, He’s faithful right now and God always will be faithful.
As New Testament believers, this reminds us of Philippians 1:6, where Paul says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” That means that the work He began in you—whether it was last week or 20 years ago or whatever—God is the one who is doing the work, and He will be faithful to do it.
In Ephesians 2:10, we find out that “We are His workmanship” or “poiema.” It sounds like “poem” because that’s what it means. “Poiema” is a work of art, such as a poem, a piece of music, a story, a painting—in other words, a masterpiece. What Paul is saying in this verse is that you are God’s masterpiece, He’s working on you and He’ll finish that work by grace. And He said it to the Philippians: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.”
Remember that when you and I are tripping, stumbling and fumbling in our life of faith, when we are making mistakes and feel like absolute losers. It’s so important to remember that God started the work. I didn’t start this work on my own. I didn’t go looking for God; God came looking for me. He saved me. He began the work. He’s going to be faithful to complete it. He’s been faithful in the past, He’s faithful right now in the present and that means that He will be faithful in the future.
In fact, Joshua begins verse 6 by saying, “Therefore.” That means that whatever was just said we are to build on. Because of what we’ve just learned, now we are to do what verse 6 says. And it says, “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left.”
What Joshua is doing here in verses 6-10—he had just reminded the people of the faithfulness of the Lord—is for the people to remain faithful to the Lord. Because of the faithfulness of the Lord, remain faithful.
“The Book of the Law of Moses” is synonymous with the Word of God. It wasn’t Moses’ Law; it was given from God to or through Moses to the people. It was for all of them. Moses never claimed the Law as his own, but this is how the people referred to it: as “the Law of Moses,” because it was given through Moses but it came from God. It was the Word of God.
So Joshua was saying, in verse 6, that he was getting ready to die and they had to keep the Word of God in its proper place as the most important thing in their life. And is that not what we hear from the Revival pulpit week after week and year after year? Every time we come to church our pastor is promoting the Word of God. He is faithful to the Word of God. You have to know the Word of God. For us as believers, the Word is it, the ultimate. It is God’s love letter to us. It is God’s Word. It is pure, incorruptible, and we need it to govern our lives.
And Joshua tells them to “be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses.” Why would he tell them that? We are well acquainted as to why he would tell them to “be very courageous.” We are living in a society that is increasingly hostile toward the Bible and our Christian beliefs and our faith. I would be one to say that in many cases we welcome that, because Christians are so weird. But we understand that our faith is under attack; we see that everywhere—in school district meetings and throughout society.
We live in southern California and we pay the high prices for gas, clothes and milk and other things, because we like living here. It’s fall and probably 85 degrees outside. We live in sandals and flip-flops, but other family members in other parts of the country are freezing now already. So we pay the high prices because of all the beaches, the mountains, the entertainment and movies going on here.
But we also are in danger of paying a high price because of the faith that we are living out here in society—or at least doing our best to live it out. It’s choking us out and squeezing us in from every angle. And more and more often our belief in the Word of God and our faithfulness to the Word of God and to God is becoming increasingly unpopular. So we understand why Joshua would tell the people to “be very courageous.”
You may not fully understand; you may think that they’re in utopia. They’re God’s people living in the Promised Land. What do they have to be courageous about? We’ll find out.
So Joshua says, “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left.” Obedience to the Word of God will always be an indicator that we are faithful to the Lord. If we are disobedient to His Word, then we are disobedient to Him.
This command in verse 6 reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” But the church has found the gate, yet it is difficult. And we must be very courageous.
Jesus pointed out here in Matthew 7:13-14 that because of the mob mentality, they take the broad road and the wide gate. And many of us have been caught up in that; we want to do what everybody else is doing. Whatever the trend is on Tik-Tok, I need to be doing that. Whatever all the people are wearing on Instagram, I want to wear that. Whatever I see at the mall that everyone is buying, I have to buy that too. Whatever movies they’re watching, I have to watch the same movies. So we get caught up in that mall mentality.
So we must not expect an easy Christian life. And we can only run so far; the Christian “promised land” in Texas is quickly fading. Now we have to find some other state. It’s got to be Oklahoma, Florida or some other place. How far are you going to run? How far are we going to go? Where are we going to go to get away from all the wickedness? There is no place.
What we need to learn to do is to count on the Lord to be faithful to His Word. Yes, it will be difficult, but we must “be very courageous to keep” the Word of God and be obedient to it. So Joshua says in verse 6 that they must remain faithful to the Lord by being obedient to the Word of God.
Then in verse 7, he tells them to remain faithful to the Lord by forsaking idolatry. “…and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you.” Remember that the land they are in Joshua had gone in with a large group of people, the Israelites, and they cleared out the big city-states. But there still are smaller city-states that remain. Joshua had divided up those portions of the land and assigned them to the 12 tribes of Israel, and their responsibility was to go into those portions of the land and clear out the inhabitants. And what Joshua is saying in these verses is that there are some of those people left. So they have to be careful.
Then he says, “You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them.” He is telling them to forsake idolatry. Whatever we love the most, whatever we give most time to, that is our god. We have to be so careful, because we are living in a land of idols. They even have a TV show called “American Idol.” If you can’t find an idol to worship, they’ll give you one on TV. Entertainers, business owners, rich people, the so-called “glamorous”—there are so many things vying for our attention, so we have to be careful that we stay obedient to the Word of God and forsake idolatry.
This is part of the problem; this is why God told Moses, and even Joshua, to go into the Promised Land and clear these people out. And there are critics of the Bible who today say that this wasn’t Israel’s land in the first place; it belonged to this or that people group. It belonged to God. And He decided to give it to the Israelites.
And why did God send in the Israelites in the first place to clear out all the inhabitants, the Canaanites? That seems so mean! That is because you don’t understand who these people were. They were caught up in idolatry. And among other things, their idolatry involved sexual activities of every sort—with men, women, children and animals. They worshipped nature and even went so far as to burn their own babies alive as part of their idolatry.
We’re not talking about Ward and June here; these were wicked, wicked people who had hundreds of years to repent and turn to the Lord, but they would not. They became increasingly obstinate toward the Lord. So God sent in His people to clear them out.
But now the danger is that the people who are left would draw the hearts of God’s people away from Him. So Joshua says in verses 8-10, “But you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations; but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.” Not because of them but because of the Lord. “One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you.”
He said to “Hold fast to the Lord your God.” White knuckle your hand. You grab hold of the Lord and you don’t let go, because everything about our society, our world, in entertainment and even on our own phones, is trying to tear us away from the Lord. So we have to grab hold of Him and His Word and hang on for dear life. God is faithful.
Now we move to the second part of our text, which is the prophetic warning, verses 11-16. Joshua had some words of encouragement mingled with some warnings. First, verse 11 is a warning. “Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.” This is because of what we just heard. He says, “Be careful; keep loving the Lord.”
Do you want to be victorious? Do you want to let go of the things that are holding you back? Do you find yourself struggling with drugs, pornography, some other besetting sin? The key is to “love the Lord your God” or to know more about Him, to come to know Him, to come to understand Him. What happens when we love Him, we will sin less and less. We won’t want to break the heart of God, because He will be so dear to us. That’s what Joshua is telling them here; you’ve got to be careful to “love the Lord your God.”
It’s interesting that in the Bible the words “take careful heed to yourselves” or “be careful” are never used in relation to our faith. We are always encouraged to step out in faith, to exercise our faith, to trust the Lord more and more. The only time we are told to “be careful” is in instances like this: be careful to be obedient to the Lord, to follow the Lord, to “love the Lord your God.”
In verses 12-14, Joshua talks to them about disobedience. He says, “Or else….” Don’t you love those words? “You better clean up after that dog, or else!” As a parent we use that. There’s a mystery behind there; what’s going to happen?
Joshua says, “If indeed you do go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations—these that remain among you—and make marriages with them, and go in to them and they to you….” Even the sacred act of marriage he holds so very dear. They were not to go to those people, become friends or acquaintances with them, not become love interests with them, don’t marry them, but forsake them. In other words, in verse 12, Joshua is telling them not to be disobedient.
Then in verses 13-16, he gives them a Biblical principle: if they are disobedient, then there will be discipline. He says, “Know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you.” God had been doing it, but He’ll no longer do it. There will first be a loss of power, verse 13. The Israelites will become powerless against the people; they won’t be able to drive them out, because God won’t do it.
Then he also tells them that there will be a loss of protection. “But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.” This doesn’t mean, however, that they would “perish from this good land” forever. It would be a temporary discipline, but then He would bring them back into the land. We have seen that many times throughout their history.
Verse 14, “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth.” He was dying. “And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.”
We need some silver saints to remind us of that, to remind some young parents who are struggling with wayward kids. The Lord is faithful; keep praying for those kids. Remember the faithfulness of the Lord in the job situation and in relationships, when sickness and disease has come. We need some silver saints to say, “Hey, I have been through it. The Lord is faithful; you need to keep your eyes locked on Him.” That’s what Joshua was telling them here. God has always been faithful.
In verse 15, he uses the word “therefore” again. He’s building. All of these are building upon one another. He says, “Therefore it shall come to pass…” it’s gonna happen “…that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you….” The Lord has been faithful with all the good stuff. “So the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things, until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.”
He’s saying that there will be a loss of power, a loss of protection and there will be a loss of possession, in verses 15-16. He’s going to excommunicate them from the land. He’s going to kick them out of the land. But He won’t kick them out forever; the land is God’s and He gave it to them. He made that promise. Yet He would remove them from the land as part of His discipline. He has done that many times over the years.
It is believed that this story is taking place around 1450 BC. By 800 BC, the Assyrians had captured the northern kingdom as part of God’s plan to discipline His own people. By 586 BC, the Babylonians had captured the southern kingdom. In 165 BC, Antiochus came in. In 70 AD, it was the Romans. Then in 1948, which for some of us seems so long ago, the Israelis got back into the land again after being out of it for many years.
So what God said He would do, He did. Why did He do that? Why did He discipline? Because He loves them passionately.
If you are a parent, you do not enjoy disciplining your child when they need a spanking. But you enjoy that it will produce good actions, a better life, a better attitude. It’s incredible that a swat on the hind quarters can affect the heart and the mind. So we do it because we love our children. So we discipline them.
Where do we get that from? God didn’t get it from us; we got that from God. That is how God operates. When there is disobedience, then comes the discipline.
Now comes verse 16, where the language changes a little bit. He says, “When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God….” It’s as if Joshua knows. It’s as if he says, “You’ve got to be obedient, or the Lord’s going to discipline you!” And before he finishes he says, “No; you guys are going to be disobedient. It says, ‘When you have.’” Joshua knows these people; he’s been with them all of his life. He’s seen their ups and downs. They’re fickle.
So verse 16 says, “When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods…” given to idolatry “…and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”
That is exactly what happened. Throughout their history, the people would succumb to idolatry—having sex with everything moving and not moving, worshipping nature and even sacrificing their own children. Are we living in those times? We live in a so-called “sanctuary state” where you can just dump a child if you don’t want it. You can kill it, dump it, leave it somewhere. Throw it away. It’s no different for us; we understand what he’s talking about.
This is a Biblical principle; if there is disobedience, then there is discipline. And Paul explained that to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5:1. When he found out that there was a couple in the church, of which the young man was with his father’s wife, they had a sexual relationship—we assume it was with his stepmother—the church was celebrating it! The Corinthians were a mess! Paul corrected them, in 1 Corinthians 5:5, and said, “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” If there is disobedience, then you must discipline.
And we need to understand that this Biblical principle is done out of love. When we understand that it is done out of the love of the Lord for us, we welcome it. “Yes, discipline me. I need to be set straight.”
God is promising here through Joshua that if they are disobedient He would certainly discipline them. He has told them a few times here that He would even remove them from the land. Some may say, “But God promised them the land.” Yes, He did. But He did not tell them they would be there consistently, forever. There were often times when they were removed from the land.
It is believed that this account took place about 1450 BC. By 722 BC, the Assyrians had captured the northern kingdom. Why? Because of their disobedience. So God brought in the Assyrians. By 586 BC, God brought in the Babylonians, who captured the southern kingdom. Why? Because of their disobedience. In 165 BC, it was Antiochus. In 70 AD, it was the Romans. The Jews only recently, in 1948, came back to the land and took possession of it.
So they had been in and out of the land. That doesn’t mean that God had been unfaithful. It means that He had been faithful to discipline His people because He loves them. Amazing.
But here is the good news for us as Christians. If I am disobedient, I must expect discipline. The wonderful news is in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins…” and not just to do that, but “…to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Isn’t that wonderful news?
If you know you are living in disobedience to the Lord right now, you may say, “Give me some hope; does God still love me?” He certainly does but there is discipline to be had. But if you will confess that you are a sinner to him, “He is faithful and just to forgive us ours sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You can walk out of church today changed—clean, free.
It’s also wonderful news to those who may have come in today who are not Christians yet. You came to church for some reason. It may have been because some crazy, family member or friend dragged you in here. Or you may have just come in looking. “What is this thing all about? What is this Bible? What about God?” You may have been looking for hope in a hopeless time.
I’ve got good news for you: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What you need to do is to confess today that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. Confess that to Him. And His Word is true that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I can attest to the fact that after 30 years, I’ve memorized this verse, I’m an expert in this verse, because I need to confess all the time. And I can attest to you that He is in fact faithful, and He is just and He will forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
But the crazy part is that John begins by saying, “If we confess….” You don’t have to. You can walk out of church today carrying all the baggage you came in with. But why would you do that? It’s unnecessary. Give it to the Lord. Leave it in here; we’ll clean it up. Leave it here and walk out of here brand new, free, forgiven.
Pastor Chris Amaro teaches a message through Joshua 23 titled “A Warning From The Wise.”