A Tendency Observed

Joshua has lived long enough to observe what is surely one of the strongest tendencies among his people: syncretism. His comments in today’s study suggest that, although the Israelites have not yet fallen into serious idolatry, they have shown a certain vulnerability to the allure of the Canaanites’ idolatrous ways. It is this tendency that Joshua is most anxious to urge his people to resist.

Again, his advice is nothing the Israelites do not already know, but they (like us) need to hear it again and again. The faithfulness of God to Israel demands a response, Joshua declares. Yes, they must have the courage to fight as God fights for them, but they also need a much more significant form of courage—the courage to obey the law of God in the face of the sin of their Canaanite neighbors. God Himself gave Joshua the same challenge upon his succession to the leadership (1:7), and he now extends the challenge to the nation as a whole. The alternative is to “ ‘turn aside from the law to the right hand or to the left’ ” and to “ ‘go among these nations.’ ” This would go against God’s very purpose for Israel, for He called them out and set them apart to be a people for His own name, holy and different (Deut. 7:1–8; Ex. 19:3–6). They must follow God’s handbook for life—His law. This is the great antidote to idolatry; after all, the first of the Ten Commandments is “ ‘You shall have no other gods before Me’ ” (Ex. 20:3).

Joshua then gives a more specific exhortation: Have nothing to do with the Canaanites’ gods. These gods should not even be mentioned, and they certainly shouldn’t be used as a substitute for God’s name to seal oaths. “They must not show the least respect to any idol, nor make mention of the name of their gods, but endeavour to bury the remembrance of them in perpetual oblivion,” Matthew Henry writes.

Third, they must practice the opposite: Hold fast to God. As much as they are to shove the gods of the pagans away, they should strive to draw themselves close to God. Here Joshua compliments them: They have been doing this, he says. “There might be many things amiss among them, but they had not forsaken the Lord their God,” Henry writes, “and it is in order to insinuate his exhortation to perseverance with the more pleasing power that he praises them.” In other words, Joshua is saying they must keep on keeping on.