The Book of Joshua – Part 19, Chapters 23–24

‘We, coming from behind such a great cloud of witnesses’ – Heb 12:1-2

[Study Aired July 8, 2023]

The Book of Joshua’s profound theme, most sternly emphasised from the beginning to its end, admonishes us to keep all the Lord’s commandments. As incredibly patient as He is for our frail frame, persisting in failing to do all His words will guarantee an Elect chastisement. As Achan and others discovered, Old Israel didn’t seem to be blessed with the Lord putting up with even short-term non-compliance. Old Israel’s chastisements were physical. While ours can and often are physical chastisements, they mostly deal to us spiritual blindness.

The overview of these last two chapters of Joshua reminds Israel to remember all the Lord told them to observe before coming into possession of the land. He designed Israel’s inattention and forgetfulness as exsamples for our learning. The Body of Christ is most blessed to have such a multitude of witnesses going before us for our expected attention, not to repeat His first wife’s failures.  

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Every aspect of the Old Testament is replicated spiritually in the New, and even a budding Christ can easily see the physical fundamental representations of the spiritual. The charges Joshua gives young Israel to remember by keeping all the Lord’s words are foundational and easily understood, as any loving father establishes in his early teenage ‘daughter’. 

To obtain the most from Joshua’s book, I suggest a combined reading of this study with Ato Barne’s wonderful studies in the book of Numbers.

Joshua’s Charge to Israel’s Leaders

Jos 23:1 And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. 
Jos 23:2 And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age:
Jos 23:3 And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you. 
Jos 23:4 Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. 
Jos 23:5 And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.
Jos 23:6 Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; 
Jos 23:7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: 
Jos 23:8 But cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day. 
Jos 23:9 For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. 
Jos 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. 
Jos 23:11 Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. 
Jos 23:12 Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 
Jos 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. 
Jos 23:14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. 
Jos 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. 
Jos 23:16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you. 

The Covenant Renewal at Shechem

Jos 24:1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 
Jos 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 
Jos 24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 
Jos 24:4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 
Jos 24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 
Jos 24:6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. 
Jos 24:7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season. 
Jos 24:8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 
Jos 24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 
Jos 24:10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. 
Jos 24:11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. 
Jos 24:12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 
Jos 24:13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

Choose Whom You Will Serve

Jos 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 
Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. 
Jos 24:16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 
Jos 24:17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
Jos 24:18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. 
Jos 24:19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 
Jos 24:20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 
Jos 24:21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. 
Jos 24:22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. 
Jos 24:23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel. 
Jos 24:24 And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. 
Jos 24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 
Jos 24:26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. 
Jos 24:27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. 
Jos 24:28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. 

Joshua’s Death and Burial

Jos 24:29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. 
Jos 24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah [Timnath-heres], which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. 
Jos 24:31  And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel. 
Jos 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 
Jos 24:33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim. 

The Research:

Joshua’s Charge to Israel’s Leaders

Jos 23:1 And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old [85 years old upon crossing the Jordan, and now, 110 ] and stricken in age. 
Jos 23:2 And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age:
Jos 23:3 And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you. 
Jos 23:4 Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. 
Jos 23:5 And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.
Jos 23:6 Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

As secondary school children do and are full of chatter when boarding the bus for a wilderness trip to camp, the last farewells by parents are returned with kisses goodbye and hurried smiles, only to forget parental concerns about disbanding youthful lusts and keeping hands to themselves ~ until that girl or guy sparkles their eyes. We know from historical evidence that Israel’s neighbors did sparkle her eyes.

Israel’s ‘father’, Joshua, did likewise with her. His old age represents our white-haired Lord who has gone before us all these years, killing our enemies within us. He has called the elders, who today represent the Bride of Christ, before the Camp of Israel who, in our time, preach a different Jesus ‘westward’ toward the great sea of humanity. With a holy kiss, He charged His Bride to be very courageous and walk in all His commandments, and, of course, we can because His spirit is with us.

Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [the Church] one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 
Rev 1:14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 

Jos 23:7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods [Eph 5:12… ‘it’s a shame to speak of those things which are done of them done in secret’], nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: 
Jos 23:8 But cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day. 
Jos 23:9 For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. 
Jos 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. 
Jos 23:11 Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. 
Jos 23:12 Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 
Jos 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. 

Of course, and by our Lord’s design, looking over the fence to supposedly greener pastures is precisely what we do; we must go into Babylon to experience her insidious riches; we must experience what physical opulence promises only to have it burned out of us; we must experience unclean flesh to know the spirit.

To know the light, we must experience darkness until we lurch like a drunken man and die from our lusts (Num 11:31-35 re: quails) to repeatedly return to our Lord.

Jer 29:4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; 
Jer 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; 
Jer 29:6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. 

Upon coming out of Babylon, the following is only one broadly based “fundamental” New Covenant rendition of what Joshua said:

Walk in Love

Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Eph 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 
Eph 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 
Eph 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 
Eph 5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 
Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 
Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 
Eph 5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 
Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 
Eph 5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 
Eph 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 
Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 
Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 
Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 
Eph 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 
Eph 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
Eph 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Jos 23:14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth [representing Christ’s death]: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. 
Jos 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
Jos 23:16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you. 

What a classic statement! “When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God.” There it is, the expectation! The Lord designed corruptible flesh to naturally seek itself so that when we inevitably fail, we will call on Him. ‘Perishing quickly’ for the Lord’s Elect is a positive and learned joy. His people are the anointed cherubs, not Satan, who was created a murderer from the beginning (Jo 8:44).

Eze 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets [timbrel, tambourine] and of thy pipes [groove, socket, hole, cavity, settings a. technical term relating to jeweller’s work] was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Eze 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 
Eze 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 

The Covenant Renewal at Shechem

Jehovah, the God of the old covenant and our Lord Christ, is represented as Joshua in the following verses summarising all the phenomenal benefits he has performed for Israel. Fifteen verses down, the Lord asks Israel to choose “this day” whom they wish to serve, the gods of the amorites or the gods of the people on the other side of the Euphrates. One would think that is a proverbial ‘no-brainer’, yet, as we are historically prophesied, we will do precisely the same as fickle Israel and chop and change who we serve subject to the level of pleasure or pain.

Jos 24:1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 
Jos 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood [flooded Jordan River] in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor [= snorting]: and they served other gods.
Jos 24:3 And I [Jehovah represented by Joshua] took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 
Jos 24:4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau [good and evil]: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 
Jos 24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 
Jos 24:6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. 
Jos 24:7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
Jos 24:8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
Jos 24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam [ the son of Beor to curse you: 
Jos 24:10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam, [= not of the people. 1. the son of Beor, a man endowed with the gift of prophecy]; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.

Much later, Nehemiah reminded Israel (Neh 13) of Balaam’s dedication to promoting himself as a prophet in Israel. We remember with amusement the hilarious story of Balaam’s angry conversation with his donkey while on his way to curse Israel (Num 22) when his ass could see the Lord’s angel with his sword drawn, but Balaam, for some time, couldn’t. That story beautifully depicts our blindness before coming out of Babylon, after which we learn to feel blessed to be killed by our Lord’s spiritual sword.

Jos 24:11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. 
Jos 24:12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 
Jos 24:13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

Choose Whom You Will Serve

Jos 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood [the Euprates], or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Jos 24:16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 

The absurdity of that verse initially makes us laugh, yet, our smirk is short-lived since we easily equate our serving other gods.

Jer 29:11 For I know the purposes which I am purposing for you, says Jehovah; purposes of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jer 29:12 Then you shall call on Me, and you shall go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 
Jer 29:13 And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jos 24:17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
Jos 24:18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. 
Jos 24:19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 
Jos 24:20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 
Jos 24:21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. 
Jos 24:22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. 
Jos 24:23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel. 
Jos 24:24 And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. 
Jos 24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 
Jos 24:26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. 
Jos 24:27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. 
Jos 24:28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. 

Joshua’s Death and Burial

Jos 24:29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

Upon crossing the Jordan, Joshua was 85 years old, and it only took 25 years of the Lord’s strength and Israel’s learning trust in their Lord to conquer their inheritance. For Israel and us, it means a double witness between our Lord and us 2 x 20 (+ 5) of whom we will choose as God – Him, or our gods and the subsequent inevitable chastisement and repentance to develop our faith, represented by the number 5. That coming chastisement is also prophesied in multiples of five (5 x 5 =25). The other positive effects of the number 5 are numerous and represented 345 times in scripture. A major one is that all aspects of the Temple’s construction, which symbolizes the Lord’s Elect, are in 5’s or multiples of 5’s.

Exo 26:3 The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.
Exo 26:26 And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 
Exo 26:27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

Many more examples of the importance of grace through chastising faith and our Lord measuring our Temple within can be seen in other elements of the Temple’s construction in Exodus 26 to 38. 

Of course, 50 represents our liberty (Jubilee) upon our Lord’s completion of our refinement in the furnace of affliction so that we, too, can proclaim liberty to our brothers and sisters in the final stages of the Lake of Fire.

Jos 24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah [Timnath-heres = portion of the sun or abundant portion], which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash [ga’-ash = quaking]. 
Jos 24:31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel. 

Likewise, our Babylonian brothers and sisters of the entire world will serve us, first by the rulership under the rod of iron in the One Thousand-Year reign, since we figuratively outlived Christ’s death on the cross. They will similarly learn of all the works of the Lord in our flesh to be elevated to the high office under Christ.

Jos 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem [Shechem = back or shoulder], in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor [Hamor = he-ass] the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 
Jos 24:33 And Eleazar [Eleazar = God has helped] the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas [Phinehas = mouth of brass] his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim. 

The Old Covenant resulted in blessings or curses by the hard ‘mouth of brass’ through the works of the law. If the Israelites did as they said, “The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey” that obedience always resulted in the fatness and riches of the land. Failure to diligently obey the Lord resulted in all kinds of wretched curses.

Deu 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 
Deu 11:27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 
Deu 11:28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. 

The Lord’s purpose has never changed. It began with his first wife’s fickle examples before crossing the Jordan, and today spiritually with his Bride, ‘if we hear his voice’.

Deu 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

Since our Lord’s redemptive work on the cross, our yoke is incredibly light compared to ancient Israel’s since we have God’s spirit to intercede and provide our strength to resist evil if we ask.

Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. 
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

We can easily see that the book of Joshua is fundamental: milk and honey are instructions for young Israel who represents us when we are dragged out of Babylon.

Our Lord is gracious, tender and kind to His lovely ‘girl’ he found in her blood in the field of the world, enjoying every moment of her development into becoming the breathtaking beauty He has for Himself today.

This completes the study series in the book of Joshua. Amen.