Joshua 24 and Book Conclusion

Chapter 24

As I might have mentioned before, I jog. As I'm getting ready for a half-marathon, I run three times a week and, for one of those days, I run between 7 and 14 miles. What I've found is that the first couple of miles are a bit of a slog--I'd probably do horribly at short-distance running any longer than a quarter of a mile. But after those first two miles, I get into a kind of groove that lasts for the next ten miles or so. Once I hit 11 miles, I start to feel truly fatigued, and at 12 or 13, wretchedness starts to set in. It's during those last one or two miles that I start thinking that perilous thought, "Please, God, let me get through this and I promise…" But I never finish because I know darn well that once I won't keep that promise, especially once I stop running, return home, and take a gloriously soothing shower.

The Israelites do promise to God and Joshua that they will serve and not forsake the God who has provided them protection, succor, and military victory. Joshua, in a bit of unfortunate prescience, says, "You are not able to serve the LORD" (verse 19). Indeed, the Israelites will soon prove capricious, turning away from God in favor of the hedonistic pleasure of the Canaanites.

Joshua even sets up a stone to remind the people of their covenant with God, a visible manifestation of and witness against their faith (verses 26-27). And you'd think that such a visual aid would help the Israelites remember, just like how (and I'm going to get a little geeky here for just a second) diagramming sentences can help one visualize the function of each word in that sentence. Granted, the vast majority of the Israelites didn't live at Shechem where the rock was, so they probably didn't get to gaze upon its rugged features a whole lot. Still, they have the vivid memories of God's miracles--shouldn't that be enough? Lest you think I'm standing on a pedestal judging the Israelites, I fully acknowledge that I too am often not as faithful to God as I could--and should--be.

Book Conclusion
Joshua is, in some ways, a paradoxical book. On the one hand, it proves the spectacular feats that are possible if one just trusts in God. On the other hand, most of those feats involve war and conquest, a messy business. Maybe that's the problem--the Israelites were all gung-ho when God told them to go fight. But when it came to the day-to-day minutiae of following all those decrees in the Book of the Law, well, maybe that didn't seem quite as exciting. Of course, that's just supposition on my part, and one should take it as nothing more than such.

I was also surprised that the author really only described the battles of Jericho and Ai; he whittled the bulk of the five years of fighting down to a couple of chapters. Indeed, much of the book comprises meticulous (and, in all candor, dull) descriptions of the borders of each tribe's land. In short, not really the stuff of good drama. Judges, though, will change all that--a book of strife, violence, and disobedience that becomes downright sordid at points.