And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, a hundred and ten years old.
Joshua's story ends not with a battle but with a burial notice: he dies at 110, and the verse gives him one title — servant of the LORD. Commentators take up that title, the length of his life, and what happens to a people once a faithful leader is gone.
The verse does not call him a general or a judge. It calls him a servant, and one writer weighs that service against the people he served among.
Joshua, the son of Nun, and Eleazar the priest, glorified the God of their fathers, and served their day and generation well. They still had many misgivings about the people they had travelled with for forty years, and about their ways towards the Lord... When Joshua was old and far on in years, he called for the elders and judges and the heads of Israel. He rehearsed before them the faithfulness of the Lord. He sought to stir them up again, to strengthen their confidence in God, and to deepen their mistrust of themselves.
One writer links what Joshua took hold of to who had already taken hold of him.
Joshua was a man who lived in the holy presence of God. His soul was completely taken possession of for God. So it was a simple thing for him to take possession of what was his. Let God capture my soul and I will want to capture everything for Him.
The number lets one writer work out how long Joshua lived after the fighting stopped.
This would make the time from the Jordan to Joshua's death thirty or forty years. Say he was thirty, a young man, when Caleb was forty. Add the thirty-eight years in the wilderness and he was sixty-eight. Then 110 minus 68 leaves forty-two. So he outlived the wars perhaps thirty-five years; compare chapter 24:29 and chapter 23:1.
Two other deaths stand beside his, and one writer reads meaning into who did the burying.
The Lord buried Moses, the instrument through whom the law was given. That is no doubt a hint that one day the Lord would put away the law with its curse, as we learn in the New Testament. The people buried Joshua in his own inheritance. He died ten years younger than Moses, that is, at 110 years old. Joseph had reached the same age, having died some 200 years before.
Joshua's grave lies inside his own inheritance. One writer does not stop at the grave.
He was buried on the border of his inheritance in Mount Ephraim. There his dust rests until Jesus, of whom he is such a striking picture, will raise him from the dead.
The grave carries two different names in Scripture. One writer treats that difference as deliberate.
You have often been reminded how Joshua's burial place in the book of Joshua is Timnath-serah, and in the book of Judges it is Timnath-heres. When the point is the inheritance he had entered by faith, as the representative of the people of God, the name is Timnath-serah, "an abundant inheritance." And when the point is the people failing and departing from God, what is the portion where Joshua's grave is? Timnath-heres, "a portion of clay." The abundance turned into a little handful of earth. That tells us the difference between a living faith and formal profession.
Israel served the Lord while Joshua lived. One writer asks what was holding them, and what happened when it went.
As long as Joshua's personal influence lasted, Israel served the Lord. It lasted, too, while his spirit still influenced the elders. They had been his companions, and they had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel. But no longer, as the book of Judges shows. And so it is in all days and times. Men serve the Lord as long as the power of God in His servants turns their hearts to Himself, whether these are Judges or Kings — Moses, Joshua, or David... The leader gone, the mass relapses into departure from the living God.
- Servant. The title Joshua dies with sums up a life that glorified God and served its own generation well.
- Source. That service grew out of a life lived in God's presence. His soul was possessed for God, so taking possession of his inheritance was simple.
- Span. At 110 he had outlived the wars by an estimated thirty-five years. He died ten years younger than Moses, and at the same age as Joseph.
- Soil. The people buried him in his own inheritance. That abundant portion is later called "a portion of clay" — living faith against mere profession.
- Successors. Israel served the Lord as long as Joshua's influence lasted. When the leader goes, borrowed faithfulness collapses.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the mountain of Gaash.
Joshua's story ends with a grave, not a battle. The man who led Israel into the land now lies in it, and the place where he lies carries its own meaning.
One writer reads this spot as a place of waiting, not an ending:
He was buried at the edge of his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim, where his dust rests until Jesus, of whom he is such a striking picture, raises him from the dead.
Another writer sets this burial beside the burial of Moses:
Moses was the one through whom the law was given, and the Lord buried him. This is no doubt a hint that one day the Lord would set aside the law with its curse, as we learn in the New Testament. The people buried Joshua in his own inheritance. He died ten years younger than Moses, at 110 years old.
Commentators take Joshua's inheritance as a picture of what belongs to Christ:
His name is the same as Jesus in Greek, meaning "Jehovah is Savior," so Joshua pictures Christ as the Leader and Completer of faith. If others have their own possessions, how fitting that Christ should have Timnath-serah, which means "an abundant portion." It is His voice we hear in Psalm 16:6, "The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance." In Ephesians 1:18 Paul prays that believers may "know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." Those who are redeemed by His blood, their hearts purified by faith, form His inheritance, which is so valuable and glorious to Him.
Three parties had a hand in Joshua's portion, and the timing matters:
Self-seeking was not found in Joshua any more than in Moses. Each had his share in what was given to their leader — the word of the LORD, Joshua's request, and Israel's gift: but not until they had finished dividing the land.
Three graves close the book. Together they say something the conquest itself could not:
Joshua dies, his influence lasting only to the end of his generation — a telling limit. Joseph, his forefather, has his bones buried at Shechem. Last of all, Eleazar dies: and these three graves are a sign that the Great Deliverer has not yet come. These pictures are only the shadow, not the substance — yet faith follows where they point. Thank God, for us the Deliverer has come, though not yet the full deliverance.
Yet these graves are sown in expectation, not defeat:
The book of Joshua closes with the burial places where they laid the heirs of promise, each in his own inheritance. In this way the seed of a coming and glorious resurrection went into the ground. It was sown in hope of that day when they will all come out to sit down together with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. These men won a good report through faith, yet did not receive the promises. They saw them from far off, were sure of them, welcomed them, and owned that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Judges tells the story again and calls the place Timnath-heres. One writer hears a warning in the change of name:
When the point is the inheritance he entered by faith, representing the people of God, the name is Timnath-serah, "an abundant inheritance." But when the point is the people failing and turning away from God, what is his grave called? Timnath-heres, "a portion of clay." The abundance turned into a little handful of earth. That tells us the difference between a living faith and formal profession.
Israel's faithfulness outlived Joshua, but not by much. One writer sees the same pattern in every age:
As long as Joshua's personal influence held, Israel served the Lord. It lasted while his spirit still shaped the elders who had been his companions and had seen all the works the Lord did for Israel. But no longer, as the book of Judges shows. And so it is in every age. People serve the Lord as long as the power of God in His servants turns their hearts to Him. The leader gone, the mass slides back into departure from the living God.
- Portion. Joshua's grave lies in Timnath-serah, "an abundant portion." God named the land, Joshua asked for it, and Israel gave it — last of all.
- Picture. Joshua's name is the same as Jesus. His rich portion pictures what Christ receives — and Christ's inheritance is His redeemed people.
- Grave. The people buried him in his own ground. God buried Moses in a hidden place.
- Shadow. Three graves close the book — a sign the true Deliverer had not yet come, and seed sown in hope of resurrection.
- Clay. Judges renames the same grave Timnath-heres, "a portion of clay." Abundance shrinks to a handful of earth where living faith fades into empty profession.
And Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose days were prolonged after Joshua, and who had known all the works of Jehovah, which he had done for Israel.
This verse reads like praise and like a warning. Israel stayed faithful while Joshua and the elders who had seen God act were alive — so what held the nation steady, and why did it not last after them?
The verse dates Israel's faithfulness instead of just stating it. It lasted as long as the men who had seen God act.
As long as Joshua's personal influence lasted, Israel served the Lord. It lasted too while his spirit still influenced the elders, his companions, who had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel. But no longer, as the book of Judges shows. The leader gone, the mass slips back into departure from the living God.
The verse does not credit the elders with office or talent. It credits them with experience.
They did not know God as their fathers did. They had not seen the mighty works of the Lord as their fathers had. Forty years in the wilderness left its mark on the souls of those who had experienced God's power, compassion, and patience. And so soul-history proved to be the barrier against soul decline.
The next generation still had the same truths. What they lacked was the way those truths had reached them.
The second generation of any movement is a time of failure. Israel under Joshua and the elders was faithful, outwardly at least, and living in the fear of God. But a second generation came in. They had not seen the works of the Lord. They had received the truths from the elders second-hand. Those truths had not come straight down to them from God. They learned them in an indirect way — in their heads, I might add, rather than in their hearts.
The verse reads like a compliment to Joshua. Mackintosh takes it as a warning about what Israel was leaning on.
As long as Joshua and the elders lived, their presence and their influence kept Israel from openly abandoning God. But once those moral barriers were gone, the dark tide of idolatry rolled in and swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Human influence is a poor prop, a feeble barrier. The power of God must hold us up, or sooner or later we will give way. A faith that rests only on the wisdom of men, and not on the power of God, will prove poor, flimsy and worthless.
If the next generation grew up not knowing God's works, someone had skipped a duty. Moses had already named whose duty it was.
In Deuteronomy, Moses told the fathers and mothers of Israel this: when your child asks what these things mean, you are to explain them and tell your children the history behind each event in Israel's story. So if a generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works, it means the teaching of the fathers and mothers had lapsed. They were in the position, but had no living interest in it, and it is easy to give up something we are not concerned about.
Darby applies the same pattern beyond Israel.
All the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, Israel walked before the Lord. It is the history of the church. While the apostles were there, that walk was kept. But Paul and Peter both warned believers that unfaithfulness and rebellion would sadly follow once they were gone. These evil principles were already there.
So who can help a generation that has no Joshua?
Believers cannot keep to the heavenly path on the momentum of the faith of men who are now at rest with Christ. The true helpers of God's people are those who know all the works of the Lord in their own souls, in practice. They live out what they believe. They have the principles and doctrines of Scripture in their minds, and they also have the power of the Spirit of God filling their hearts.
- Known — the elders served because they had known God's works first-hand. Experience of God, not information about Him, held them.
- Knowing holds — that first-hand knowledge was the barrier against decline. A faith that rests on human wisdom, not God's power, gives way.
- Knowing must be taught — Moses told parents to explain God's acts to their children. Where that stopped, a generation grew up in the position with no living interest in it.
- Second-hand knowing fails — truth picked up from others sits in the head, not the heart. That is why the second generation of any movement is a time of failure.
- Knowing again — no one coasts on the faith of people now at rest with Christ. The true helpers of God's people are those who know His works in their own souls today.