Joshua 23:12-16: a reflection

12“But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; 13know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you. 14“Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. 15It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which the LORD your God spoke to you, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you, 16when you disobey the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the LORD’s anger will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”

In his farewell address, Joshua warns Israel about the danger of entangling themselves with the surrounding nations. If you turn back and cling to these nations, he says, and intermarry with them, know for certain that they will become a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes. The close entanglements they were tempted to form would not remain harmless; they would become traps that eventually brought them to ruin.

Notice the warning about entanglements: what seems harmless becomes a snare. Joshua does not warn against casual contact with the nations, but against clinging to them, intermarrying, forming the close bonds that would draw Israel into their ways and their gods. Such entanglements, he warns, start out looking harmless but become snares and traps, thorns that wound; the close involvement that seemed innocent becomes the very thing that ensnares and ruins.

That is a warning worth heeding about our own entanglements. There are involvements, relationships, and commitments that seem harmless, even attractive, but that draw us away from God, and that become, over time, snares we cannot easily escape. What we cling to and bind ourselves to shapes us; and the close entanglement with what draws us from God becomes a trap. Be careful about the entanglements you form. Guard against binding yourself closely to what will draw you from God, however harmless it seems at first; for such entanglements become snares and thorns. Not every close involvement is safe; be wise about what you cling to and bind yourself to, lest what seemed harmless become the snare that ensnares you.

Lord, Joshua warned Israel that if they entangled themselves closely with the surrounding nations, those nations would become a snare and a trap, a scourge and thorns; what seemed harmless would become the very thing that ensnared them. Help me heed that warning about my own entanglements. There are involvements, relationships, and commitments that seem harmless, even attractive, but that draw me away from you, and that become, over time, snares I cannot easily escape. What I cling to and bind myself to shapes me. Make me careful about the entanglements I form. Guard me against binding myself closely to what will draw me from you, however harmless it seems at first, for such entanglements become snares and thorns. Not every close involvement is safe; give me wisdom about what I cling to and bind myself to, lest what seemed harmless become the snare that ensnares me. Keep me from entangling attachments that draw me from you.