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The Call to Serve the Lord
Joshua 24 concludes the book with a covenant-renewal assembly at Shechem. Joshua recounts God’s acts from Abraham through the exodus and conquest, calls Israel to exclusive service of the LORD, records the covenant witness, and closes with the deaths and burials of Joshua and Eleazar and the burial of Joseph’s bones.
Joshua 24’s demand for exclusive service to YHWH provides strong covenant background for Jesus’ warning that no one can serve both God and mammon; both passages expose divided allegiance as impossible.
Jacob commands his household near Shechem to put away foreign gods before worship; Joshua later demands that Israel at Shechem put away foreign gods and serve the LORD. Shared place, action, and covenant-renewal setting create a strong intergenerational narrative pattern.
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve” presses the exclusive covenant loyalty commanded in Deuteronomy: fear and serve YHWH rather than the gods of surrounding peoples. The decision is public, exclusive, and covenantal.
Judges 2 tragically reverses Joshua 24: after Israel publicly chooses to serve YHWH, a later generation arises that forsakes him and serves Baal and Ashtaroth, turning Joshua’s warning into immediate covenant failure.
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