So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
Joshua's last public act was to bind the nation at Shechem by a covenant, with statutes and rules to keep. But what could such an agreement achieve with a people who still kept hidden idols?
The covenant closes a long recital of God's goodness, answered by the people's pledge.
In Joshua 24 he recounts all that God had done for them — all His favours and all His goodness. On this the people answer (v. 16), "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD." In verse 19 Joshua says to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD." The people say, "No, but we will serve the LORD." "So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day" (v. 25). This captain of their salvation led them into the land of promise. They enjoy the fruits of grace, and they undertake afresh to obey the Lord.
The place carried memory. Long before, Jacob had buried his household's foreign gods at Shechem.
The Lord's great name and His favour to Jacob had stirred him to purge his household. There they "gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had," and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem… Now, at this last great assembly in Joshua's day, Joshua told them to "put away the foreign gods" that were among them. Joshua's argument for their purging was the great name of the LORD and His great acts of favour to Israel. He made a covenant with them, and set them a statute and a rule at Shechem. He wrote the words in the Book of the Law of God. He took a great stone as witness and set it up there under an oak.
Grace had carried Israel every step to Canaan. From this day the keeping of the land was tied to their own undertaking.
Grace had led them so 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. They crossed the Jordan, and they are now planted in the Canaan promised to the fathers. But grace had set them in the land, as God long ago in goodness set Adam in the Garden. Now they must hold it on the terms of their own covenant, on condition of obedience.
This was not the first covenant Israel had made.
God had made a covenant with Israel on the basis of law in Exodus 19 and 20. He knew full well that Israel would not keep that covenant. In the same way, Joshua now makes a covenant with the people, though he knew they would not keep it (v. 25). The covenant did not really encourage them to obey, but it would be a testimony against them when they disobeyed. Joshua does not make a new covenant. He renews the covenant of law, which Israel had already broken. Instead of confessing their guilt, they were now making a futile promise of doing better.
The people were still trusting themselves, and their words were not new.
They are still confident in their own sufficiency, and still want to stand on a title of their own making. At Mount Sinai they had said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." Now it is, "The LORD our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey." One generation had passed and another had come, but in heart they are the same generation.
Joshua had asked for one thing: put the foreign gods away.
Yet they said not one word about the foreign gods Joshua had told them to put away. It is always easier to say "We will serve the LORD" than to purge ourselves from idols. It is easier to resolve to serve the Lord than to bury our household gods under some oak of Shechem. But God tells us first to bury our idols, and then to serve Him. That is the order of His call to us: "Cease to do evil, learn to do good."
The covenant held, but not for long.
As long as Joshua's personal influence lasted, Israel served the Lord. They served Him too while his spirit still shaped the elders who had been his companions and had known all the works of the Lord for Israel. But no longer, as the book of Judges shows. And so it is in every age, for men serve the Lord as long as the power of God in His servants turns their hearts to Him.
- Grace first. Joshua recounted all God's favours to Israel — the fathers, the exodus, the land — before he asked for anything.
- Pledge second. Told they were not able to serve the Lord, the people promised anyway — standing on a title of their own making, just as at Sinai.
- Covenant third. Joshua's statutes and rules renewed a law Israel had already broken. They would stand as a witness against them, not as power to obey.
- Idols untouched. They promised service but never buried the foreign gods — and God's order is to put away the idol first, then serve.
- Outcome. The land was now theirs on terms of obedience, and the obedience lasted only as long as Joshua did.
And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Jehovah.
This verse records the last thing Joshua is known to have done. It raises two questions: what does it mean for a man to write in the book of God's law, and why does a covenant need a stone as well as a page?
"The book of the law of God" meant what Moses had written. What Joshua does here also points to who wrote the book that bears his name.
In Joshua 24:26 we read: "And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God." That is, he wrote a document and added it to the book of the law that Moses had given the people. This hint points to Joshua as the author. So does the fact that many events are described by an eyewitness (compare chapter 6:25 and 15:63).
That places Joshua in a line of writers rather than at its head. One survey of how the Bible came together sets him second in the sequence, a quarter of a century after Moses:
There is neither book nor monument you can refer to within several centuries of the time when Moses wrote the first portion of the Bible. Then, after a quarter of a century, Joshua, the second inspired penman, wrote the book to which his name is attached.
What he wrote were the terms the people had just accepted, and those terms bound them to the law itself.
Joshua wrote the words of the covenant in the book of the law of God. He did so because the covenant only confirmed Israel's responsibility to keep that law (vs. 26-27). Then he set up a large stone as a memorial of this covenant and as a standing witness to Israel's promise. We may well wonder whether they completely disregarded this stone in their later history. These were the last recorded words of Joshua to Israel, and the setting up of the stone was his last recorded act.
Stones had been set up before at the Jordan, when God brought the nation into the land. This stone stands for something different.
A stone is then raised. It is not like the stones on the banks of the Jordan, at the beginning of the book. Those were a witness that the God of salvation had brought His people through everything that stood between them and the land of promise. This one is a witness that the people had now taken these covenants and obligations upon themselves — "O foolish people and unwise!"
The place was not picked at random. God had first promised the land to Abraham at Shechem.
It was at Shechem, under the oak (or terebinth) of Moreh, that God first promised Abraham to give the land to his offspring (Gen. 12:7). There, close on five centuries later, God's word gathered his descendants. This showed that the promise to their father had been kept. Faithful was He who promised. He had also done it, and they were gathered there as witnesses of it. An oak was there, clearly a well-known tree (Joshua 24:26). It may have been the same one under which Abraham had pitched his tent, for trees live long.
The same ground had already seen a household give up its idols — what Joshua now called the nation to do.
The Lord's great name, and His favour to him, had that day stirred Jacob to purge his household. There they "gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem." … In the same way the nation gathered first at Shechem. … And now, at this last great assembly in Joshua's day, they were told to "put away the foreign gods" that were among them.
Commentators read the stone in more than one way — as a memorial of Israel's promise, and as a picture of Christ:
This stone pictured Christ. Joshua closes his career looking to Him as the only sure Witness, "the faithful and true." His heart was earnest to maintain the works and truth of God. He was hopeless about man, but assured and at rest because of the one great and chief Corner-stone, the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
- Written. Joshua added the day's words to the book Moses had given, which points to him as the writer of the book bearing his name.
- Binding. He wrote down the covenant, and it only confirmed Israel's existing duty to keep the law.
- Standing. The stone was his last recorded act — a permanent memorial of a promise the people made about themselves.
- Reversed. The stones at the Jordan said God had brought Israel in. This stone said the people had taken the obligations on themselves.
- Sure. Hopeless about man, Joshua ends resting on the Faithful and True Witness who never fails.