Context No. 3980 of 4322 · Joshua

Joshua 24:1-7: in context

1Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2Joshua said to all the people, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor. They served other gods. 3I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring, and gave him Isaac. 4I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5“‘I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 6I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea. 7When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. You lived in the wilderness many days.

Near the end of his life, Joshua gathers all Israel and, before calling them to renew their commitment to God, does something significant: he recounts the whole story of God's faithfulness to them. Speaking in God's name, he retells it from the beginning, how God took Abraham from beyond the river, multiplied his descendants, gave the land, sent Moses and Aaron, brought them out of Egypt, parted the sea, and cared for them in the wilderness.

There is wisdom in this order. Joshua does not begin with a demand for commitment; he begins with a rehearsal of God's grace and faithfulness through their history. The call to serve God rests on the memory of what God has already done for them. This is how faith is nourished, by remembering. When we recount God's faithfulness, in the history of his people and in our own lives, our hearts are strengthened to trust and follow him. It is easy to forget what God has done and so to grow faithless; the remedy is to remember, to retell the story of his grace.

Do I regularly remember and recount God's faithfulness, in the history of his people and in my own life, letting the memory of what he has already done strengthen me to trust and follow him?

Sources

Joshua 24:3: "I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring."
Joshua 24:5: "I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt... and afterward I brought you out."
Joshua 24:7: "When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them."