God deserves our undivided loyalty to Him. Observations and Interpretation:
(1) Joshua spoke from His own experienceIn chapter 1, God told Joshua to be "very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep. Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do." 1:7
Now, after he observed all those things that God had done in front of them v.3, 10, Joshua encouraged Israel to do the same thing. "Be very strong! Carefully obey all that is written in the law scroll of Moses so you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left,"
Application: Joshua must have good experience of what God had told him to do and therefore he gave the same command to Israel. What sweetness you have experienced from obeying the LORD you can now share with others?
Joshua also encouraged Israel from their own history of the battle. What evidence can you see God has been doing in your children's life that you can encourage them to obey God?
(2) Do not worship other gods v.7, 16, do not associate v,7, or make alliance with nations remaining, intermarry, or have friendly relationship v.12,
v.7 ...you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left, 7 or associate with these nations that remain near you
God had driven out some of the nations in the Promised Land, but not all. There were still nations that remained. However, the allotment of the land had finished but Israel did not possess them until they fought with them. In the meantime, they needed to live separately from them.
Application: The main reason not to associate with the remaining nations was not to follow them and worship their gods. Even some of the remaining nations' citizens became the labor force for Israel 17:12-13, but the risks of association with them and worshipping their gods increased, too. Was it worth the risk? Of course not. How about us? Whom do you choose to be your close friends? Maybe you will get benefits from some people, but watch out that they may pull you away from your faith.
(3) When reading ch 24, I encourage you to underline all the "I" in v.3-13. Then you will see how many things God had done before Joshua encouraged them to
“14 Now obey the LORD and worship him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and worship the LORD."
God deserves the undivided loyalty from Israel.
(BKC) Joshua 24 contains, in the standard suzerainty treaty form of that time, a covenant renewal document in which the people of Israel were called on to confirm their covenant relationship with God (cf. “Structure” in Introduction to Deut.). The parts of the covenant renewal, like a suzerainty treaty, included a preamble (vv. 1–2a), a historical prologue (vv. 2b–13), the stipulations for the vassals with the consequences of disobedience (vv. 14–24), and the writing of the agreement (vv. 25–28).
Application: What are the moments in your life that you recognize that, "not I, but God did that..."? How we are able to enter a good school? How we are able to graduate? How we can hear about to hear about the Gospel? How we can meet such a nice husband?
The important thing is all these things tell us that God deserves our undivided loyalty to Him. Are we loyal to Him, our single-minded devotion, and calculate everything we do to please Him?
Audrey
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