Joshua 24:19

"And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve Jehovah; for he is a holy God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins. If ye forsake Jehovah and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve Jehovah. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you Jehovah to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto Jehovah, the God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, Jehovah our God will we serve, and unto his voice will we hearken. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Jehovah. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold this stone shall be a witness against us; for it hath heard all the words of Jehovah which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest ye deny your God. So Joshua sent the people away, every man unto his inheritance."

"He will not forgive your transgression nor your sins ..." Harsh as this may sound, there was no forgiveness of sins in any absolute sense under the Mosaic Law. Although, the particular sin that God here said He would not forgive was identified as the "worship of other gods," yet, in its larger dimensions, it applied to any breaking of the covenant. As Sizoo said, "`He will not forgive your transgressions' refers specifically to the worship of foreign gods and more generally to any wrongdoing, for to transgress any commandment of God is to violate the covenant."[33] Nowhere else in the history of the whole world is there any such thing as the forgiveness of sins except that which is available through the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage categorically denies that there was to be any forgiveness of sins under the Mosaic Law. As a matter of fact, Jeremiah made forgiveness of sins to be the unique element of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Joshua 24:20 is a reference to the curses and blessings that characterized the ancient suzerainty-covenant treaties. Thus, we continue to find in almost every verse evidence that this renewal ceremony strictly followed the ancient pattern.

"He (God) will turn and do you evil ..." (Joshua 24:20). This reference to God's turning does not at all conflict with other statements in the Bible, such as, "I Jehovah change not" (Malachi 3:6), or, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation nor shadow that is cast by turning" (James 1:17). What is meant of course, is that the conduct of men, in becoming wicked, can change their relation to God, and that change is here called God's turning. We follow the same kind of idiom in referring to the sun's going down. It is not the sun's going down that is denoted but the earth's changing its position with reference to the sun. So when we think of God's turning to punish men, it is NOT God who changed but the sinners who deserve the punishment. Woudstra pointed out that these two ideas: (1) God's changelessness and (2) His `turning' "sometimes occur in one and the same chapter (1 Samuel 15:11,29)."[34]

Here again in Joshua 24:23 we find evidence that the children of Israel still indulged a secret reverence and respect for heathen gods, actually having some of these idols in their possession at the time of these glib assertions of their loyalty to Jehovah. Keil and others have supposed that Joshua here spoke of the inward, mental retention of such idols, but we cannot accept that. As Plummer said, "There can be little doubt that, although Israel dared not openly worship strange gods, yet [~teraphim] and other images were retained by them, and if not worshipped, were nevertheless accorded a respect and veneration that could in the future lead them into apostasy."[35] And, of course, that is exactly what did happen later.

"The book of the law of God ..." (Joshua 24:26). If this is not the O.T., particularly the Five Books of Moses and the Book of Joshua, then what is it? The commentators seem to have trouble with this "Book of the Law of God," but, just as the ancient covenant-treaty of the Hittites required a document to record the terms of the covenant to be prepared and deposited in a safe place, the same thing, exactly, occurred here. The simple meaning here is that the Book of Moses (commonly called the five books) was supplemented by this book we are studying, containing especially this final solemn ratification of the covenant and renewal of the covenant status of Israel.

"Under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Jehovah ..." (Joshua 24:26). The efforts of some to translate "in" instead of "by" in this verse derive from their desire to get an oak tree into the tabernacle, which is the "sanctuary of Jehovah" mentioned here. If we had needed any proof that the tabernacle had indeed been moved to Shechem for this ratification ceremony, here it is. Of course, Keil denied that the word rendered "by" or "near" in this verse could ever mean "near." But Plummer's comment on that should enlighten us:

"It is difficult to see how Keil could have denied this with so many passages against him, as in Joshua 5:13; 1 Samuel 29:1; Ezekiel 10:15, etc. He wishes to avoid the idea of the sanctuary being in Shechem!"[36]

What can the critics do with "the Book of the Law of God" mentioned in this paragraph? Well, here is the way Holmes handled it:

"If there had been such a book of the law there would have been no necessity to erect a stone for a witness; the book would have been a much better one."[37]

The new light now available regarding the type of covenant-treaty in view here shows that the ancient Hittite kings (about 1400 B.C.) had no trouble at all getting their covenants written down in a book, and the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 B.C.) was written and even engraved on stone. So, what kind of blindness is it that can deny what Joshua plainly declared here?