The High Cost of Low Loyalty Text: Joshua 23:1-13
Introduction: The Danger of Peacetime
There are two great dangers that face the people of God. The first is the danger of open war, when the enemy is at the gates, swords are drawn, and the lines of battle are clear. The second, and by far the more subtle and perilous, is the danger of peacetime. After the battles are won, after the land is subdued, and after God has given rest from all enemies, a different kind of enemy begins to creep in. This enemy does not carry a sword; he carries an invitation to dinner. He doesn't shout threats; he whispers suggestions. This is the enemy of compromise, of assimilation, of a slow, comfortable drift into the customs and corruptions of the surrounding culture.
Joshua is an old man now. He has led Israel in triumph, and God has fulfilled His promises. The land is largely theirs. But Joshua, a wise and seasoned general, knows that the greatest threat to Israel is not the remaining pockets of Canaanite resistance, but rather the Canaanite ideas that remain in the air. The temptation would be to relax, to intermarry, to blur the lines, to adopt the thinking of their neighbors in the name of tolerance or pragmatism. The war for the land was over, but the war for their souls was just beginning.
This is a word for the American church. We have enjoyed a long season of cultural "peacetime." We have grown comfortable, and in our comfort, we have become careless. We have allowed the world's definitions of justice, sexuality, truth, and worship to seep into our sanctuaries. We have forgotten that we are in a covenant with a holy God who demands total allegiance. Joshua's final charge to Israel is therefore God's charge to us. It is a call to remember God's past faithfulness, to cling to Him with fierce loyalty in the present, and to understand the catastrophic consequences of spiritual adultery.
The Text
Now it happened after many days, after Yahweh had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years, that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years. And you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you, for Yahweh your God is He who has been fighting for you. See, I have allotted to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. And Yahweh your God, He will thrust them out from before you and dispossess them before you; and you will possess their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you. Be very strong, then, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you will not go along with these nations, these which remain among you, and you will not mention the name of their gods, and you will not make anyone swear by them, and you will not serve them, and you will not bow down to them. But you are to cling to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day. For Yahweh has dispossessed great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. One of your men will pursue one thousand, for Yahweh your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. So keep your souls very carefully to love Yahweh your God. For if you ever turn back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you go along with them and they with you, know with certainty that Yahweh your God will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
(Joshua 23:1-13 LSB)
Remember Who Fights for You (vv. 1-5, 9-10)
Joshua begins his address not with a command, but with a history lesson. Before he tells them what they must do, he reminds them of what God has already done.
"And you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you, for Yahweh your God is He who has been fighting for you." (Joshua 23:3 LSB)
Notice the emphasis. You saw what Yahweh did. Yahweh is the one who fought for you. This is the foundation of all Christian obedience. We do not obey in order to get God to act on our behalf. We obey because He has already acted on our behalf. Our faithfulness is a response to His faithfulness. Joshua is grounding their future obligations in the solid reality of God's past deliverance. They are not being asked to earn the land; they are being commanded to live as a people who have been given the land.
God's work is both past and future. He has allotted them the land, and He will continue to thrust out the remaining nations. The victory is certain, but it is a divine victory. This is why Joshua can say with such confidence that "One of your men will pursue one thousand" (v. 10). This is not military hyperbole; it is covenantal arithmetic. When God is on your side, the normal rules of engagement do not apply. This is not about Israel's strength, but about God's strength working through them. The reason one can chase a thousand is because "Yahweh your God is He who fights for you." Our power, our effectiveness, our fruitfulness in the Christian life is never a matter of our own ingenuity or strength. It is always a matter of God's presence and power. The moment we forget this, the moment we begin to think the victories are our own, is the moment we begin to lose.
The Charge to Cling (vv. 6-8, 11)
Because of who God is and what He has done, Joshua issues a series of commands that can be summed up in one word: loyalty.
"Be very strong, then, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left..." (Joshua 23:6 LSB)
Obedience requires strength. It is not a passive affair. It takes grit, courage, and determination to hold fast to the Word of God when the world is pulling you in a thousand different directions. And this obedience must be total, without deviation "to the right hand or to the left." This establishes the principle of antithesis. There is God's way, and there is every other way. There is no middle ground, no third way, no polite compromise.
This antithesis is spelled out in verse 7. They are not to go along with the pagan nations. They are not even to "mention the name of their gods." This is a radical command. It means you do not give the false gods of the age any intellectual real estate. You do not treat them as legitimate options on the worldview buffet. You do not entertain their foolishness. You do not swear by them, serve them, or bow to them. This is a complete and total rejection of all religious syncretism. You cannot mix Yahweh worship with Baal worship any more than you can mix light with darkness.
The positive command is just as absolute: "But you are to cling to Yahweh your God" (v. 8). The Hebrew word here is dabaq. It is the same word used in Genesis 2:24, where a man is to leave his father and mother and "hold fast" or "cling" to his wife. This is the language of covenant, of marriage, of exclusive, passionate, unbreakable loyalty. It is not a cold, formal religious observance. It is a relationship of dependent love. And Joshua makes this explicit in verse 11: "So keep your souls very carefully to love Yahweh your God." The law-keeping, the separation, the clinging, all of it flows from a heart that loves God. Legalism is trying to obey without love. True Christianity is obedience that is fueled by love.
The Certainty of Curses (vv. 12-13)
Joshua concludes with a warning that is as stark and terrifying as the promises are glorious. The covenant has blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and God is not bluffing.
"For if you ever turn back and cling to the rest of these nations... know with certainty that Yahweh your God will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you..." (Joshua 23:12-13 LSB)
Notice the parallel. They are commanded to "cling" to God, but the great sin is to "cling" to the nations. You will cling to something. The human heart is a clinging mechanism. If you do not cling to God, you will inevitably cling to an idol. And the great idol for Israel was assimilation and acceptance by the world around them. The path to this spiritual adultery is intermarriage, going along with them, becoming indistinguishable from them.
And the consequences are laid out with brutal clarity. If they compromise, God will stop fighting for them. And the very nations they tried to befriend will become their tormentors. "They will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes." This is a profound principle. Whatever you compromise with in order to find peace will eventually declare war on you. The worldly philosophy you adopt because it makes you seem sophisticated will ensnare your children. The sinful habit you tolerate because it brings you temporary pleasure will become a trap you cannot escape. The ungodly political alliances you make for the sake of power will become a whip on your back. The world promises friendship but delivers bondage. The things you refuse to drive out of your life will, in the end, be the very things that drive you into misery and ruin, "until you perish from off this good land." Apostasy has real, tangible, destructive consequences.
From Joshua to Jesus
This entire chapter is a shadow, and the substance is Jesus Christ. Joshua, whose name is Yeshua, is a type of our great Captain, Jesus, whose name is also Yeshua. The first Joshua led God's people into a temporary rest in a physical land. Our Jesus leads His people into an eternal rest in the new heavens and the new earth.
The charge to Israel is the charge to the Church. We are called to remember what God has done for us at the cross. He is the one who has fought for us, dispossessing our greatest enemies, sin and death. Because He has done this, we are called to be "very strong" and to cling to Him. We cling to Christ by faith. We refuse to intermarry with the world, to adopt its idolatrous ways of thinking and living.
And the warning is still in effect. If the church begins to cling to the world, if we seek our security and identity in political movements, cultural trends, or worldly acceptance, then those very things will become a snare, a trap, a whip, and thorns in our eyes. We see this happening all around us. Churches that have compromised on the authority of Scripture or the biblical definition of marriage have not found peace with the world; they have been captured by it, and are being tormented by the very ideologies they embraced.
The call of this text is a call to radical, loving, courageous, and exclusive loyalty to Jesus Christ. He is our good land. He is our inheritance. He is the one who fights for us. Therefore, let us cling to Him, and Him alone, until He brings us safely into the promised rest.