Verse 19
19. Ye cannot serve the Lord Joshua utters these discouraging words, based on the waywardness of the people’s hearts, to draw out from them the expression of strong purpose to serve Jehovah. Thereby he elicits their energetic We will, in Joshua 24:21, and their self-pledging witness in Joshua 24:22.
He is a jealous God He demands, like a husband, the undivided affection and service of the people who have avowed their fidelity to him. The word jealous, as applied to God, involves evident anthropomorphism.
He will not forgive This seems to represent God as implacable, in direct contradiction to that wonderful revelation of his attributes made to Moses in Exodus 34:7, as “forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” But the same revelation declares that he will by no means clear the guilty. The explanation is, that while God is forgiving to the truly penitent through the blood of sprinkling, he vigorously punishes all incorrigible sinners.
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