Joshua 23:15

11-16 Would we cleave to the Lord, we must always stand upon our guard, for many a soul is lost through carelessness. Love the Lord your God, and you will not leave him. Has God been thus true to you? Be not you false to him. He is faithful that has promised, Hebrews 10:23. The experience of every Christian witnesses the same truth. Conflicts may have been severe and long, trials great and many; but at the last he will acknowledge that goodness and mercy followed him all the days of his life. Joshua states the fatal consequences of going back; know for a certainty it will be your ruin. The first step would be, friendship with idolaters; the next would be, marrying with them; the end of that would be, serving their gods. Thus the way of sin is down-hill, and those who have fellowship with sinners, cannot avoid having fellowship with sin. He describes the destruction he warns them of. The...

Verse Joshua 23:15. _SO SHALL THE LORD BRING UPON YOU ALL EVIL THINGS_] His faithfulness in fulfilling his _promises_ is a proof that he will as faithfully accomplish his _threatenings_, for the veracity of God is equally pledged for both....

EXPOSITION JOSHUA'S SOLEMN CHARGE.— JOSHUA 23:1 WAXED OLD AND STRICKEN IN AGE. Literally, _was old, advanced in days _(see Joshua 13:1). But this refers to a more advanced age still, when the patriarch felt his powers failing him, and desired, as far as his influence went, to preserve the Israelites in the path in which they had walked since their entrance into Canaan. Calvin has some good remarks on the "pious solicitude" shown by the aged warrior for those whom he had led in time of war and guided in time of peace. He seems to have sent for the chief men in Israel to his home at Timnath-Serah, where apparently he had led a retired and peaceful life, only coming forward to direct the affairs of t

THEREFORE IT SHALL COME TO PASS, [THAT] AS ALL THE GOOD THINGS ARE COME UPON YOU WHICH THE LORD HATH PROMISED YOU,.... Of which there was full proof, and it could not be denied: SO SHALL THE LORD BRING UPON YOU ALL EVIL THINGS; calamities and distresses, by his sore judgments of famine, sword, pestilence, evil beasts, and captivity, in case of disobedience to his commands: UNTIL HE HAVE DESTROYED YOU FROM OFF THIS GOOD LAND WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD HATH GIVEN YOU; for as he is faithful to his promises, so to his threatenings; and from his punctual performance of the one may be argued and expected the sure fulfilment of the other, and which has been abundantly verified in that people; see Leviticus 26:1 and the notes there....

2. JOSHUA'S TWO ADDRESSES The First Address CHAPTER 23 _ 1. The people gathered (Joshua 23:1)_ 2. God's faithfulness remembered (Joshua 23:3) 3. Exhortations to obedience (Joshua 23:6) 4. Warning (Joshua 23:12) 5. Conclusion of first address (Joshua 23:14) It was about eight years after the Lord had given rest unto Israel, that the aged Joshua called for all Israel and their elders to assemble in his presence. He was very old and the time of his departure at hand. The purpose of his first address is

EVIL THINGS. the evils threatened....

_it shall come to pass_ He reiterates his solemn warning against backsliding, and recalls to their minds the promises and threats contained in the last address of Moses to the people. _all evil things_ "whateuer thing of yuelis he manaasside;" Wyclif. Comp. Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Deuteronomy 29:14-28; Deuteronomy 30:1-15. The sublimity of the denunciations of the Hebrew lawgiver contained in these passages "surpasses anything in the oratory or the poetry of the whole world. Nature is exhausted in furnishing terrific images; nothing, excepting the

_Warnings of Punishments for Disobedience Joshua 23:12-16_ 12 Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 13 Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. 14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. 15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things

23:15 land (a-42) Lit. 'ground.' fulfilled (b-14) Lit. 'hath come upon.'...

THE FIRST FAREWELL ADDRESS OF JOSHUA This discourse was probably delivered at Shiloh or Timnath-Serah. Unlike the Second Discourse, which is mainly a historical retrospect, it dwells chiefly upon the political future of Israel, laying special emphasis on their separateness, and the danger of social and religious intercourse with the remnant of the Canaanites. Joshua 23 is from the same source as Joshua 1 and Deuteronomy 27....