You've probably heard it said that it is always best to go out strong! In today's chapters, we read about the revival or renewal of the covenant between the Israelites and God. Joshua, who was the leader who took up after Moses, and was told on several occasions, "to be strong and very courageous," is not passing the work on to others. It is always good to read when the Israelites are obeying, remembering and keeping their promises with the Lord! Joshua was able to end his life knowing that he was a faithful servant to his people as well as to their God.
I couldn't help but think of those spiritual awakening/revival times in my life when the Lord had gotten my attention in a very unequivocal manner. (I hope that you have experienced one or more of these times in your Christian life.) It would seem that the Israelites were experiencing something similar to this at Shechem. Here they are, being admonished once again to fear the LORD and not to turn left or right from His commands. They are told to serve the Lord. They re-affirm their trust and allegiance to the LORD and not to any other God. And most of us are familiar with verse 24:15, where Joshua is very blunt with the people. They are to CHOSE this day whom they will serve.
A few verses later, we read that the people chose the Lord. And so Joshua sets up a reminder for them, the stone. He also emphasizes they they have chosen (vs 22) to serve the Lord, so they must be faithful!
We all need to have a Shechem experience in our Christian walk time after time. In this manner, we are no different than the Israelites. We lose sight and need to re-focus and re-prioritize. This is why so many times Scripture tells the Israelites to keep close to the Lord's commandments. Our Lord is a jealous God and He wants our attention!
So who will you serve? Today? Tomorrow? At the end, how will you go out?
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