The thing about spiritual pageantry
By Tom Pfingsten | Read the verses.
Joshua has been faithful and flawless—a brilliant tactician, an inspiring leader, and a devoted servant of the Lord. So it’s significant that his final act is not a battle, but a fatherly moment of spiritual leadership as he shifts the focus from his own legacy to God’s faithfulness. His life’s work has not been about conquering Canaan, but pursuing God.
Nobody would fault Joshua for enjoying his retirement and leaving Israel’s problems for the next guy. But he’s concerned for Israel. For all of his diligence, he sees trouble ahead: He knows he hasn’t created lasting faithfulness in God’s people.
Verses 1-13.
First, God speaks through Joshua to the assembled leaders of Israel, recounting their history.
I took your father Abraham… I gave him Isaac… I sent Moses and Aaron… I brought your fathers out of Egypt… I destroyed… I delivered… I gave…
This is a record of Israel’s utter helplessness in the miraculous journey from slavery to conquest, of their constant dependence on God. Clearly, Joshua has not missed the point. Despite Israel’s repeated failures, God had carried his people all the way to the Promised Land.
Verses 14-18.
Joshua baits his people with three options: They can either serve their parents’ idols or the idols of the native Canaanites—“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The Israelites—bless their hearts—answer with a rousing, “We also will serve the Lord!”
What comes next is all wrong. An effective leader would never end his ministry by telling his followers they are incapable of following through on their promises. Would he?
Verses 19-24.
You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.
Why would Joshua deliberately kill the buzz? This is not a rhetorical trick and he’s not trying to inspire them to merely follow his example. The moral of this story is not that God’s people should try harder to be like Joshua. The covenant becomes a curse when sinful people rely on their “service” to please a holy God.
He knows his people and he knows his God. The Israelites, high on winning, are in a mood to make splendid vows and promise unfailing loyalty. But Joshua is a wise old man with no patience for spiritual pageantry.
Joshua can’t save Israel from God’s inevitable wrath; he can’t even keep them on the right path. Sure enough, the very next generation of Israelites “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.”1
From Moses to Daniel, the best efforts of Israel’s best leaders always fail to save God’s people from the curse. Unless God sends a greater leader than Joshua, we are doomed to repeat Israel’s mistakes. And he has.
Jesus is the true and better Joshua who takes the curse hanging over his sinful people. He is the leader who finally succeeds in creating authentic, lasting faithfulness in every generation.
And this means whatever monument he leaves behind for his people will be the last reminder we will ever need.
Verses 25-28.
Joshua’s standing stone at Shechem is “a witness against us.” Jesus’ cross testifies to our sinfulness, but also establishes our exceeding worth in God’s eyes. The covenant becomes a blessing when a holy God comes and serves sinful people.
Whenever we work to please God, our relationship with him takes on the weight of the curse. But the message of the cross is not that God will only love us if we’re as faithful as Joshua. It’s that God loves us even though we’re as unfaithful as Israel.
1 Judges 2:10-11