Joshua 24:15

_AND IF IT SEEM EVIL UNTO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE; WHETHER THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED THAT WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, OR THE GODS OF THE AMORITES, IN WHOSE LAND YE DWELL: BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15._And if it seem evil unto you, _etc It seems here as if Joshua were paying little regard to what becomes an honest and right-hearted leader. If the people had forsaken God and gone after idols, it was his duty to inflict punishment on their impious and abominable revolt. But now, by giving them the option to serve God or not, just as they choose, he loosens the reins, and gives them license to rush audaciously into sin. What follows is still more absurd, when he tells them that they cannot serve the Lord, as if he were actually desirous of set purpose to impel them to shake off the yoke. But there is no doubt that his tongue was guided by the inspiration of the Spirit, in stirring up and disclosing their feelings. For when the Lord brings men under his authority, they are usually willing enough to profess zeal for piety, though they instantly fall away from it. Thus they build without...

15-28 It is essential that the service of God's people be performed with a willing mind. For LOVE is the only genuine principle whence all acceptable service of God can spring. The Father seeks only such to worship him, as worship him in spirit and in truth. The carnal mind of man is enmity against God, therefore, is not capable of such spiritual worship. Hence the necessity of being born again. But numbers rest in mere forms, as tasks imposed upon them. Joshua puts them to their choice; but not as if it were indifferent whether they served God or not. Choose you whom ye will serve, now the matter is laid plainly before you. He resolves to do this, whatever others did. Those that are bound for heaven, must be willing to swim against the stream. They must not do as the most do, but as the best do. And no one can behave himself as he ought in any station, who does not deeply consider his...

Verse Joshua 24:15. _CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE_] Joshua well knew that all service that was not _free_ and _voluntary_ could be only _deceit_ and _hypocrisy_, and that God loveth a _cheerful giver_. He therefore calls upon the people to make their _choice_, for God himself would not _force_ them - they must serve him _with all their_ _heart_ if they served him at all. As for himself and family, he shows them that their choice was already fixed, for they had taken JEHOVAH for their portion....

CHOOSE - Service of God in sincerity and truth can only result from a free and willing allegiance of the heart. This accordingly is what Joshua invites, as Moses had done before him (Deuteronomy 30:15 ff)....

EXPOSITION THE LAST RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT.— JOSHUA 24:1 TO SHECHEM. The LXX. and the Arabic version read _Shiloh _here, and as the words "they presented themselves (literally, _took up their station_)_ _before God" follow, this would seem the natural reading. But there is not the slightest MSS. authority for the reading, and it is contrary to all sound principles of criticism to resort to arbitrary emendations of the text. Besides, the LXX. itself reads Συχέμ_,_ in Joshua 24:26, and adds, "before the tabernacle of the God of Israel," words implied, but not expressed in t

AND IF IT SEEM EVIL TO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD,.... Irksome and troublesome, a burden, a weariness, and not a pleasure and delight: CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE; say if you have found a better master, and whose service will be more pleasant and profitable: WHETHER THE GODS YOUR FATHERS SERVED, THAT [WERE] ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD; the river Euphrates; these may bid rid rest for antiquity, but then they were such their fathers had relinquished, and for which undoubtedly they had good reason; and to take up with the worship of these again was to impeach their wisdom, judgment, and good sense: OR THE GODS OF THE AMORITES, IN WHOSE LAND YE DWELL: but then these were such as could not preserve their worshippers in the land, or the Israelites had not dwelt in it, and therefore no dependence could be had upon them for future security. The Amorites are only mentioned, because t...

THE SECOND ADDRESS CHAPTER 24:1-28 _ 1. The gathering at Shechem (Joshua 24:1)_ 2. Historic retrospect and exhortations (Joshua 24:2) 3. The answer given by Israel (Joshua 24:16) 4. Joshua's answer (Joshua 24:19) 5. The promise made (Joshua 24:21) 6. Joshua's appeal and the repeated promise (Joshua 24:22) 7. The covenant made and Joshua's final word ...

_choose you this day_ Like Elijah afterwards on Carmel (1 Kings 18:21), the Hebrew leader challenges the people with the utmost freedom to decide once for all that day whom they would serve. He gives them their choice between the old worship of Penates or household gods practised by their fathers, and the Baal-worship of the Amorites, if they would not serve Jehovah, Who had brought them out of Egypt. _as for me and my house_ Whatever may be the decision of the people, Joshua tells them what he and his family are resolved to do. "_I and my house will serve Jehovah_." Compare the words of the Lord respecting Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment," Genesis 18:19....

_VER._ 15. _AND IF IT SEEM EVIL UNTO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD,_ &C.— Satisfied that the Israelites, as a nation, are very far from falling into atheism, or being averse from serving God; Joshua cannot think them so blind and ungrateful as to desire to serve any other God than Jehovah. This, and nothing more, is his meaning in this place. He speaks like an orator; he invites them to choose, merely because he supposes the choice already made. Just as if he had addressed the Israelites thus: "Put away from you every object of idolatry, and determine only to serve the Lord. Ah! whom will ye serve, speak candidly, whom will ye serve, if ye refuse Him your homage? Where could you hope to find a god worthy to be compared to him? If the worship of those gods which your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates has the sanction of antiquity, ye know, on the other hand, that Abraham openly abjured th...