Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)

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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible

timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of

salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 88.
It is the last day. We are

reading from the book of Joshua. We're reading Joshua chapter 22, 23, and 24.
We're also praying

Psalm 132. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan to follow along with us, prepare your day to know what you're going to be reading or hearing from, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you did that, you would know that tomorrow we're starting the book of Judges and the book of Ruth.
So we're kind of taking a turn in the sense of turning back to what we haven't done for maybe the last eight days or so, which is having multiple books proclaimed to us, multiple books read to us. In the next four days, starting tomorrow, we're reading through Ruth chapter one through chapter four, one chapter a day, following her story, as well as Judges, as I said, today is the last day of Joshua, and we're finding what happens at the very end of his time serving the people of Israel and serving the Lord and helping the people become as prepared as they possibly can be to dwell in the promised land.
If you want to subscribe to your podcast, you can do that, and that would be helpful for all of us involved in this whole thing. Without anything further, once again, it is day 88.
We are reading Joshua chapter 22, 23, 24, and Psalm 132. The book of Joshua chapter 22.
The Eastern Tribes Return. Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh and said to them, You have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.
You have not forsaken your brethren these many days down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren as he promised them.
Therefore turn and go to your home in the land where your possession lies, which Moses, the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Take good care to observe the commandment and the law, which Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes.

Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan.

But to the other half, Joshua had given a possession beside their brethren in the land west of the Jordan.

And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, Go back to your homes with much wealth, and with very many cattle, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.
So the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the sons of Israel at Shiloh,

which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses. An altar of witness by the Jordan.
And when they came to the region about the Jordan that lies in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of great size. And the sons of Israel heard say, Behold, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the sons of Israel.
And when the sons of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the sons of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them. Then the sons of Israel sent to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.
And they came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, What is this treachery which you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord? Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor, from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord, that you must turn away this day from following the Lord? And if you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow. But now, if your land is unclean, pass over into the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us.
Only do not rebel against the Lord or make us as rebels by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, break faith in the matter of the devoted things and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And did he not perish alone for his iniquity? Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, The Mighty One, God the Lord, the Mighty One, God the Lord, He knows.
And let Israel itself know, if it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the Lord, spare us not today. For building an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or cereal offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance.
No, but we did it from fear that in time to come, your children might say to our children, what have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no portion in the Lord.
So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. Therefore we said, let us now build an altar, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you and between the generations after us that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings.
Lest your children say to our children in time to come, you have no portion in the Lord. And we thought, if this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.
Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offerings and cereal offering or sacrifice other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle. When Phineas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites spoke, it pleased them well.

And Phineas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites,

Today we know that the Lord is in the midst of us, because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord. Now you have saved the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord.
Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. And the report pleased the sons of Israel.
And the sons of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them, to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were settled. The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar witness.
For they said, It is a witness between us that the Lord is God. Chapter 23.
Joshua exhorts the people. A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, I am now old and well advanced in years.
And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake. For it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.
Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes, those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off from the Jordan to the great sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you.
Therefore, be very steadfast to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down yourselves to them. But cling to the Lord your God as you have done to this day.
For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to withstand you to this day.
One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you as he promised you. Take good heed to yourselves, therefore, to love the Lord your God.
For if you turn back and join the remnant of these nations left here among you and make marriages with them so that you marry their women and they yours, know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides and thorns in your eyes till you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you.
All have come to pass for you. Not one of them has failed.
But just as all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land, which he has given to you.
Chapter 24. The tribes renew the covenant.
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods.
Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau the hill country of Syir to possess.
But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it.
And afterwards I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea.
And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them.
And your eyes saw what I did to Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan.
They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and invited Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you.
But I would not listen to Balaam, therefore he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand.
And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgash out before you, the two kings of the Amorites.

It was not by your sword or by your bow.

I gave you a land on which you had not labored, in cities which you had not built, and you dwelt there and in faithfulness. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
And if you the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land. Then the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.
He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.
If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn

and do you harm and consume you after having done you good. And the people said to Joshua,

no, but we will serve the Lord. Then Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves

that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses.
He said, then put

away the foreign gods, which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God.

And he took a great stone and set it up there

under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord.

And Joshua said to all the people,

behold, this stone shall be a witness against us.

For it has heard all the words of the Lord,

which he spoke to us.

Therefore, it shall be a witness against you,

lest you deal falsely with your God.

So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance. The death of Joshua and Eleazar.
After these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-Serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.
And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work which the Lord did for Israel. The bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem, in the portion of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money.
It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Psalm 132. The Eternal Dwelling of God in Zion.
A Song of Ascents. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor his humility, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, I will not enter my house or get into my bed.
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah.
We found it in the fields of Ja'ar. Let us go to his dwelling place.
Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. For your servant David's sake, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit upon your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies, which I shall teach them,

their sons also forever shall sit upon your throne. For the Lord has chosen Zion.
He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever.
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions.
I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.
There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon him his crown will shed its luster. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.

We thank you so much for bringing us through the book of Joshua,

bringing us through this story, this history of the way in which you have fought for your people and the way in which you are calling us to faithfulness,

the way in which you are reminding us of the dignity of being your sons and daughters,

the dignity of being chosen by you,

but also the responsibility of having been chosen by you to be faithful, to trust in you. Father, we ask you to please help us, help us to trust in you, help us to be faithful to you because you are faithful.
Your love is unstoppable. And we ask you to please help us to live and walk in that love every day, especially this day.
We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
As I noted, this is the last day. I meant noted a couple of times.
This is the last day of the book of Joshua. And this last chapter is maybe one of my favorites of the entire book that we've just journeyed through, where here is the renewal of the covenant.
And just like Moses before him, Joshua's last words are words of challenge. They're words of saying, listen, I know you.
I know that you are fickle. I know that you will fall away.
I know that you probably will fail to follow the Lord. You will fail to belong to him.
But I know this too. I know that God will not fail.
I know that God will not falter in his love and his choice of you. And I love this.
It's just so powerful. And we'll close with this because we took in the story and we heard all the lessons and we know what happened.
But this piece where Joshua is speaking these words and he's inviting the people, maybe even challenging them. And he this day whom you will serve.
That's so key.

That's so key for us.

Because sometimes we just put off, we put off deciding, put off deciding that, no, I

belong to Jesus Christ.

I belong to the Lord God.

And so we have these other false gods.

We have these other idols in our lives.

And we just put off again, if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose this day whom

you will serve.

Choose whatever your God's going to be.

Is it going to be money? Is it going to be fame? Is it going to be comfort? Is it going to be

whatever? Just choose today so that you can stop pretending, right? And then he says,

as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, which is not just a nice set of words to stitch

on a pillow or to put over your entryway to your home, but our word is to live by.

Yeah, I think it's great to put them on a pillow. I think it's wonderful to put them on

Thank you. words to stitch on a pillow or to put over your entryway to your home, but are words to live by.
Yeah, I think it's great to put them on a pillow. I think it's wonderful to put them on a piece of wood over the doorway to your home or over the window in your home.
They are great words to live with in your sight, but they are even more powerful words to live by. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
What a gift. Oh my gosh, Lord, I thank you for this.
And I thank you all for listening to this and for the journeying with us, journeying with me through the Bible together. It has been a gift so far.
It is day 88. And now tomorrow, day 89, which means 10 days away from our first crack at the gospel of John, which is just talk about gifts.

Man, oh man, I am praying for you. Please keep praying for me.
Pray for each other.