Joshua 24:1

1. Preamble 24:1

Shechem was a strategic location for this important ceremony. Joshua called on the Israelites to renew formally their commitment to the Mosaic Covenant at the site that was very motivating to them to do so.

"If you were to put Plymouth Rock and Yorktown and Lexington and Independence Hall together, you would not have what Shechem is to Israel." [Note: Clarence Macartney, The Greatest Texts of the Bible, pp. 74-75.]

At Shechem, God had first appeared to Abraham when he had entered the land and promised to give him the land of Canaan. In response to that promise Abraham built his first altar to Yahweh in the land there (Genesis 12:7). Jacob buried his idols at Shechem after returning to the Promised Land from Paddan-aram. He made this his home and built an altar to Yahweh there (Genesis 33:18-20), and later God moved him to Bethel (Genesis 35:1-4) where he built another altar.

"As Jacob selected Shechem for the sanctification of his house, because this place was already consecrated by Abraham as a sanctuary of God, so Joshua chose the same place for the renewal of the covenant, because this act involved a practical renunciation on the part of Israel of all idolatry." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, pp. 226-27.]

At Shechem the same generation of Israelites that Joshua now addressed had pledged itself to the Mosaic Covenant shortly after it had entered the land (Joshua 8:30-35). They had also built an altar there.

"For the Christian, regular presentation before God in worship is an essential feature of a life of faith (Hebrews 10:25)." [Note: Hess, p. 300.]