And behold, I am going this day the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your heart, and in all your soul, that not one thing hath failed of all the good words that Jehovah your God hath spoken concerning you all are come to pass unto you -- not one thing hath failed thereof.
Joshua is old and knows he is about to die. He gathers Israel's leaders and asks them to check God's record against their own memory. His claim is total: nothing God said He would do has gone undone.
A man whose strength is fading speaks to a people whose war is not over. He points them past himself to the Lord, whose years do not fail.
The great warrior had been weak in body for some time. He was "going the way of all the earth," and he felt it. So he gathered Israel around him — elders, heads, judges, and officers — to pour out his heartfelt words in their ears once more. Earlier, in Joshua 13, the Lord had said to him, "You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess." The work was still unfinished, and the leader's strength was fading. Parts of Canaan were still untrodden by the people, and he himself was about to leave them. So he committed Israel to their ever-present Strength — to the Lord, who is always the same, and whose years do not fail.
Joshua does not ask them to believe a report. He appeals to what they already know in their own hearts and souls. The whole book has said the same thing.
The book of Joshua shows the wonders of the Lord's outstretched arm in the sight of the nations and on behalf of His people. He led them in triumph from city to city and subdued kings before them, until Joshua their captain had taken the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses… And again, Joshua, when about to go the way of all the earth, could stand before Israel and say, "You know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you." So the book of Joshua declares again and again the truth of the Lord and His covenant faithfulness.
Joshua sets the good that came true beside the evil he warns of. Both rest on the same word.
The path of prosperity and the path of destruction are both laid down clearly. The good will not fail; neither will the evil. Israel knew in all their hearts and in all their souls that not one good thing the Lord had promised had failed. They were warned also that not one word of the Lord about evil would fall to the ground.
Two verses later, Joshua stops treating Israel's turning away as a possibility. Older translations of verse 16 read "when you have transgressed," where the ESV reads "if you transgress":
He does not say, "If you have transgressed," but "when you have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them." This breakdown began soon after Joshua's death, though God was very patient with Israel.
This verdict stands on record. So no one can lay Israel's later ruin at God's door.
The age of the kings failed just as the nation had failed under the earlier order that made way for the king (see Judges 2). The Lord had failed in nothing; Joshua 23:14. David and Solomon showed what kingship could be in victory and peace. Rehoboam and Jeroboam are only witnesses of its complete failure, while patience and mercy still continued.
Joshua's method — look back, then count — is one any believer can repeat.
Look back, dear reader. Remember the way the Lord has led you. Look up, and hear Him saying to you, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Take any of the great promises that shine on the sacred page. Take the ones you know best, for they will yield you the greatest blessing. Then ask, at the opening of a new year: has one good word that God has spoken failed you?
The same words wait to be said one last time, at the end of the journey:
We need not fear that anything truly of Christ can ever be lost. What our hearts have treasured of Him here, we shall find and enjoy with Him there… When we reach "the land," we shall gaze on that divine One who in lowliness fed us in this desert scene. Then we shall exclaim with Joshua of old, "Not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you."
- Not one. At the end of his life Joshua checks God's whole record and finds no gap. Everything promised arrived.
- You know. The proof is not argument but memory. Israel's own hearts and souls are the witnesses.
- Both edges. The word that never failed in blessing will not fail in warning; the good came true, and so will the threatened evil.
- Whose failure. Israel later collapsed under judges and kings. The record already stood: God failed in nothing.
- Your turn. Run the same check over your own life now, and expect to say the same words again when you reach the land.
But it shall come to pass, that as every good word hath been fulfilled to you, that Jehovah your God spoke to you, so will Jehovah bring upon you every evil word, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which Jehovah your God hath given you;
Joshua is old and near death. He has just told Israel that every good promise God made came true, and now he turns that fact around: the same God will keep His warnings, until a disobedient people loses the good land He gave them.
The whole force of the verse lies in a comparison. God's words of blessing all came true. His words of judgment will come true just as surely.
Joshua in his old age warns Israel that the word is as sure in its warnings for the rebellious as in its promises to the obedient.
Earlier generations had already proved it. They ended up confessing that God's word had caught up with them.
We learn from this that the word of God never returns to Him empty; it must do what He pleases. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word will never perish. So it is a serious thing to neglect it and to walk by your own will instead of by the light it gives. Sooner or later such a person must confess, as these fathers did, that the word was sure. Despise its warnings, and its threats will surely come true.
Here Joshua's words turn from warning to prediction. The evil things He threatens are harmful dealings that end in the loss of the land. One writer points to the exact wording of the next verse.
Though he has been exhorting them, his words become more prophetic in verses 15 and 16. He says that God had fulfilled His word in blessing to them. In the same way He would in the future bring harmful things on them, ending in their destruction from the land which in grace He had given them. He does not say, "If you have transgressed," but "when you have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God." This breakdown began soon after Joshua's death, though God was very patient with Israel.
Even as He speaks of destroying them, God still calls it "this good land that the LORD your God has given you." The gift was real. Staying in it was another matter.
God brought them out of Egypt by divine power, and into the land too, in fulfilment of the LORD's promise. Their entrance into Canaan and their possession of it did not depend on their obedience. But to remain there, keeping the covenant was absolutely necessary.
Nobody wakes up having transgressed the covenant. Joshua had already traced the slide, step by small step, earlier in the chapter.
Israel neglected the word, and so sank by degrees to the level of the idolatrous nations and their disgusting practices. See in verse 7 how gradual, and how slippery, the downward path is. First they come among these nations, forgetting separation from the world. Then they mention the name of their gods, and we become familiar with the ruling principles of the world. Then they cause others to swear by them, as if it were natural that others should acknowledge them. Then they serve them, and at last they bow down to them. A downward path indeed!
Israel did lose the land. But that loss was not the end of the story.
… So it has been with the nation. Still, the days of the millennium will see them restored to their possession, dwelling in safety and rest under the peaceful reign of the Son of David.
This pattern of privilege abused and privilege lost is not limited to Israel. One writer applies it to those who took Israel's place, and marks its limit.
The Jewish branches of the olive tree were cut off because of unfaithfulness, as everyone knows. But what of the Gentiles, who have taken their place as wild branches grafted in? … This does not touch the question of individual salvation, which is secured for ever in Christ. It is a question of responsibility for the place now held on earth. Who will claim that Christendom has continued in the goodness of God?
- Sure — Every good word came true, so every warning word will too. God's threats are as reliable as His gifts.
- Given — God's promise alone brought them into the land. Keeping the covenant is what kept them there.
- Gradual — Nobody falls in one step. First they mix with the nations, then name their gods, then serve them, then bow down.
- Certain — Joshua does not say "if" you transgress but "when," and the collapse started soon after his death.
- Still standing — Losing the land did not cancel God's promise. Israel will yet be restored to it, in peace under the Son of David.
when ye transgress the covenant of Jehovah your God which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow yourselves unto them, so that the anger of Jehovah shall be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
Joshua ends his farewell with a warning, not a congratulation. God had kept every promise. He would be just as exact with His threats, and Israel could lose the land they now held. Two questions press out of the verse. What was the covenant they could break? And how does a people who have just received everything end up bowing to other gods?
The same word that gave Israel every promise now stands behind this threat.
The path of prosperity and the path of destruction are both laid out clearly. The good will not fail; neither will the evil. Israel knew with all their heart and soul that not one good thing the Lord had promised had failed. They were also warned that not one word of the Lord about evil would fall to the ground. If they served other gods, they would stir up the Lord's anger and perish "quickly from off the good land" that He had given them.
Everything up to this point had been a gift. So what is the covenant Israel could break? It set the terms for keeping the gift.
Grace had led them this far. It was the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had brought them out of Egypt. He carried them through one wilderness after another. Now they have crossed the Jordan and are planted in the Canaan promised to the fathers. But grace set them in the land, just as God long ago in His goodness set Adam in the garden. They must now hold it on the terms of their own covenant, that is, on condition of obedience. It was the same, I may add, with the throne of David afterwards... and we know they lost the throne, as the tribes of Israel lost the land, and Adam the garden.
Joshua gathers the nation's leaders and sets the promise and the danger side by side. Notice who is now the one in danger of perishing.
In Joshua 23 Joshua calls for all Israel — their elders, heads, judges and officers. He lays before them what the Lord had done, and what He would do for them if they were faithful. He warns them against intermarriage or religious fellowship with the Canaanite. Otherwise Israel must perish — not their enemies — from off the good land He had given them.
Bowing down to other gods is the last step on a road, not the first. Here are the steps that lead there.
It is the word which is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance, but above all to sanctify us. It was from neglect of it that Israel sank by degrees to the level of the idolatrous nations and their abominations. See in verse 7 how unnoticeable, and at the same time slippery, the downward path is. First they come among these nations, forgetting separation from the world. Then they mention the name of their gods; we grow familiar with the ruling principles of the world. Then we cause others to swear by them; it seems natural that others should acknowledge them. Then we serve them, and finally we bow down to them. A downward path indeed!
Joshua's warning looks past his own death. He was not the only leader who saw what follows once a faithful man is gone.
How like man in every age! Man corrupts himself and all committed to him at the first opportunity. Moses and Joshua foresaw Israel's turning away after their departure (Deuteronomy 31:29; Joshua 23:15-16); and Paul could say to the Ephesian elders, "I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."
Does a threat like this put a believer's own security at risk? One writer draws a clear line between the individual and the community.
It is true that in God's dealings with His individual children He will bring each one safely to His home above. It is no less true that what a man sows he will reap. It is good to stay silent about people one by one. But in the histories of communities, and of God's people at large, we see His dealings according to corporate responsibility. The evils they allow among them become at last scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes. And the good things they once richly enjoyed perish from among them.
- One word, two edges. Every promise had come true. The same word stands behind every warning about evil.
- Gift, then terms. Grace put Israel in the land, as it put Adam in the garden. Keeping it depended on obedience. Israel lost the land, Adam the garden, and David's line the throne.
- The reversal. Joshua aims the warning of perishing at Israel — not at their enemies, but at Israel, in the land God gave them.
- The slope. No one starts by bowing down. You mix with the nations, name their gods, let others swear by them, then serve them. Neglect of God's word carries you the whole way.
- The legacy question. Moses, Joshua and Paul all saw the drift coming once they were gone. What a community tolerates becomes the thorn that costs it what it once enjoyed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.