Joshua 24:25

_SO JOSHUA MADE A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT DAY, AND SET THEM A STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE IN SHECHEM._ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day - he induced them solemnly and voluntarily to renew the national covenant (cf. Nehemiah 10:1)....

25._So Joshua made a covenant, _etc This passage demonstrates the end for which the meeting had been called, namely, to bind the people more completely and more solemnly to God, by the renewal of the covenant. Therefore, in this agreement, Joshua acted as if he had been appointed on the part of God to receive in his name the homage and obedience promised by the people. It is accordingly added, exegetically, in the second clause, that he set before them precept and judgment. For the meaning is corrupted and wrested by some expositors, who explain it is referring to some new speech of Joshua, whereas it ought properly to be understood of the Law of Moses, as if it had been said that Joshua made no other paction than that they should remain steadfast in observing the Law, and that no other heads of the covenant were brought forward; they were only confirmed in that doctrine which they had f...

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 24:25. _JOSHUA MADE A COVENANT_] Literally, _Joshua cut the_ _covenant_, alluding to the _sacrifice_ offered on the occasion. _AND SET THEN A STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE_] He made a solemn and public act of the whole, which was signed and witnessed by himself and the people, in the presence of Jehovah; and having done so, he wrote the words of the covenant in the book of the law of God, probably in some part of the skin constituting the great roll, on which the laws of God were written, and of which there were some blank columns to spare. Having done this, he took a great stone and set it up under an oak-that this might be _ed_ or _witness_ that, at such a time and place, this covenant was made, the terms of which might be found written in the book of the law, which was laid up _beside the ark_. See...

MADE A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE - i. e. he solemnly ratified and renewed the covenant of Sinai, as Moses had done before him Deuteronomy 29:1. As no new or different covenant was made, no sacrifices were necessary....

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

SO JOSHUA MADE A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT DAY,.... Proposing to them what was most eligible, and their duty to do, and they agreeing to it, this formally constituted a covenant, of which they selves were both parties and witnesses: AND SET STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE IN SHECHEM; either made this covenant to have the nature of a statute and ordinance binding upon them, or repeated and renewed the laws of Moses, both moral and ceremonial, which had been delivered at Mount Sinai, and now, upon this repetition in Shechem, might be called a statute and ordinance there....

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 ...

MADE. COVENANT: i.e. by sacrifice. Compare Jeremiah 34:18; Jeremiah 34:19....

Solemn Renewal of the Covenant 25. _So Joshua made a covenant_ "Percussit ergo Josue in die illo fœdus," Vulgate. "Thanne Josue smoot a boond of pees," Wyclif. A covenant had been concluded by God on Sinai with Israel (Exodus 19:20) and solemnly ratified with (_a_) burnt-offerings and peace-offerings at the foot of the mount; (_b_) the reading of every word of the Law in the ears of the people; (_c_) the sprinkling of one half of the blood of the victims on the altars and the roll containing the covenant conditions, and the other half on the people (Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:19-20). This covenant Moses had renewed in "the field" of Moab ...