The Living Torah - Reflections on Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25, 24th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

by John C. Holbert on Wednesday, September 9, 2026

         When the Bible was read in the previous century, it was common for interpreters to attempt to discover the historical roots of what they were reading. The book of Joshua was seen to be a semi-accurate historical record of the entrance of the former Israelite slaves into the land of promise, their near-complete defeat of the former inhabitants of the land, and their subsequent establishment of the beginnings of the Israelite kingdom, soon to be led first by a coalition of 12 tribal units, and finally by a monarchy, existing for the next 600 years. Archaeologists dug in the soil of the land, attempting to find proof of such a biblical reading. Up until perhaps the middle of the 20th century, this view was the primary one in the field of biblical history.

         An obvious problem with this approach was to be found in the book of Judges, where the text plainly says that many of the large Canaanite cities of the north were not in fact defeated by the invading Israelites (Judges 1:27-36), suggesting that Joshua’s account may have been more propaganda than history. The question of early Israelite historiography is an increasingly vexed one, finding roughly two camps: in the first are those who cling tenaciously to history, however tenuous it may be when examined with care, while the second camp goes so far as to say that the entire story is little more than a piece of created publicity designed to announce a tale of Israel’s past that never occurred, but that serves as a way to shore up a sagging faith in the power of YHWH in the exile of an Israel in Babylon far from its homeland in the 6th century BCE. I am inclined to stand with those in the second camp, although there may exist shreds of historical knowledge in the text, however small and relatively insignificant they may be. It is, to me, in the main a great propagandistic narrative that calls all who wish to serve YHWH to pay careful attention to YHWH’s ongoing care and love for the people YHWH has chosen for divine purpose. 

         An early signal that this text was not written in the 13th century BCE, the time many assumed that Israel entered the land of Canaan after their desert wanderings, is to be found in Joshua 24:1: “Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the leaders, the judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.” This assembly supposedly occurred after the complete defeat of the land’s previous inhabitants, and happened at Shechem, an apparent worshipping sanctuary in the northern hill country in the conquered land. This is, in reality, the very first mention of Shechem as a place of worship in the biblical story, though later in that story Shechem was to play a significant role in the nation’s ongoing tale. Furthermore, in Josh.24:8 and following, the inhabitants of the land are called “Amorites,” a generic term for peoples not well known or remembered as dwellers in the land of Canaan. Indeed, the ubiquitous list of those who lived in the land prior to Israel’s coming invariably includes the “Amorites,” but that name exists alongside other groups whose existence in the land is far more certain: e.g., “Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, etc.” “Amorites,” since the long time since the supposed “conquest,” has become a name that is used in place of all the others, perhaps because the exact names of those others have been forgotten in the swirling mists of time. For the author of Joshua “Amorites” will serve as a designation for those other peoples who preceded Israel in what they now claim to be their land. 

         Joshua now charges the assembled crowd at Shechem with the following famous words: “Now, therefore, stand in awe before YHWH, serve YHWH with integrity and faithfulness. Reject the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river, and in Egypt, and serve YHWH” (Josh.24:14). This ringing demand comes after the tale of Israel’s escape from Egypt and its miraculous salvation at the Sea of Reeds has been recounted (Josh.24:3-13). However, Joshua shows himself immediately suspicious of these people by going on to say, “Now if it is evil (or “bad” or “troubling”) in your eyes to serve YHWH, then choose for yourselves now whom you will serve, whether the gods in the region beyond the river your ancestors chose, or the gods of the Amorites in the land you now live in; but I and my household will serve YHWH” (Josh 24:15). After you have witnessed the power of YHWH in the choice of Abraham, the freedom from Egypt, and the rescue at the Sea, you may choose some other gods, chides Joshua, but “I and my household” will serve YHWH.

         Frankly, it seems ridiculous that any God but YHWH might be chosen after the vast wonders YHWH has performed for them, but Joshua in this story knows all too well just how attractive all those other gods have been through the ages. If this story is being written in Babylon, and is designed to shore up the fainting faith of the exiles from Judah, then this god-choice must again be made. And in reply to Joshua’s challenge, the people shout, “Far be it from us to abandon YHWH to serve other gods, because YHWH is our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and has performed before our eyes those amazing signs, and protected us along the way we traveled” (Josh.24:16-17). What fool would abandon YHWH after all that!

         But Joshua is not convinced. “You are not capable of serving YHWH, because God is holy, a zealous God, who will not forgive your sins or transgressions. When (NRSV “if”) you abandon YHWH, and serve foreign gods, YHWH will turn and enact evil against you, and will consume you, after having done you good” (Josh.24:19-20). And though the people plead with Joshua that they will serve YHWH, Joshua insists that if they make such a claim to service, and fail it, they will be “witnesses against themselves” (Josh.24:22). In other words their failure to serve will be obvious; all will see their dereliction written on their own lives. All this contract, this dialogue, is “written in the book of the Torah of God,” and is commemorated by a “huge stone set up near the oak which is in the sanctuary of YHWH” (Josh 24:26). 

         This grand scene served the exiles in Babylon with a promise and a warning that they, even in the far country of Babylon, must be certain never to forget what YHWH has done for them throughout their sacred story, lest that story be lost in the sands of the desert. It is the story of the neglect of YHWH and YHWH’s refusal to give up on them even now. And all of it is written in God’s Torah, YHWH’s teaching, available always to those who need the reminder about YHWH’s eternal presence. It is noteworthy that it was in Babylon that the exiles of Judah who did not return to their homeland wrote one of Judaism’s most important books, the Babylonian Talmud, that guided Judaism for centuries as the faith moved from country to country, always threatened by “other gods,” but nevertheless surviving against astonishing odds to maintain a Jewish existence down to our own time. The lesson for us Christians is that convictions about who God is and what God has done are central to our own survival in lands and against people that challenge us to abandon what we have known to be true.