AM Bible Study Group; February 19, 2014
Joshua 24:29-33
Theme: Faithfulness to God in one generation impacts the confident trust of God in another.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
We come to the closing verses of this amazing Old Testament book of Joshua. As we have seen, it has been a story of both Israel’s conquest the land that God was giving them, and the possession of the inheritance of that land. The conquest of the land (Chapters 1-12) and the possession of the land (Chapters 13-24) are two different things; but together, they have given us a vivid picture of the victory that God wants us to experience in our Christian life. And as we come to the close—and not surprisingly, to the story of the death and burial of the main figure of the story—we should see that burial too as giving us a vital lesson in victory.
We shouldn’t see the victory that we experience in our Christian life as something that is only for ourselves. Nor should we see it as something that has an impact only in our time. Each generation’s victories set the stage for the experience of victory in subsequent generations (see Psalm 78:1-8). Our faithfulness to Christ in our generation impacts the generations to come. We see this very clearly in the story of three burials at the end of this story.
I. THE BURIAL OF JOSHUA (vv. 29-31).
A. Because the work of God in his life is so prominent in this book, Joshua’s burial is told of first. We have been told in Chapters 23 and 24 of his final words to his people. And so, we read, "Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old" (v. 29). Note that he is here called "the servant of the Lord"; which was the name that the Lord Himself had given to Moses—Joshua’s predecessor—at the beginning of this book (see 1:1, 2, 7). What an honor it must have been to have borne that evaluation from the Lord! No doubt, it testified of the influence that Moses must have had on him. The way that Joshua had been a servant of the Lord—just as Moses had been—was by serving his people. Moses had led the people out of their bondage and through the wilderness, all the way to the border of the land that God had promised them. But it was task of Joshua to then bring the people into that land, lead them in conquering it, and guiding them to take possession of their inheritance. It was at the time of the end of Joshua’s leadership that he could tell them, "not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pas for you; not one word of them has failed" (23:14). What a legacy his leadership had left them of the faithfulness—not of himself!—but of God!
B. We’re told, "And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash" (v. 30). This was the land that Joshua had been given back in 19:49-51—after the other tribes had received their inheritances—
"according to the word of the LORD" (19:49). It’s important to note that Joseph—whose story we consider in verse 31—had asked to be buried in a plot within the promised land that his father Jacob had purchased from the residents. But now, those people groups had been driven out; and the land had been given to the tribes that came from Jacob. Joshua was not buried in land he had to purchase by the works of his hands—as did his ancestor. His place of rest was in the land that had been given to him by God’s grace. What a testimony of victory that burial place would be to his people!
C. And note the legacy we are told of his impact on his people: "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel" (v. 31). It’s tragic that—as the Book of Judges goes on to show us—the people wandered from the faithfulness of their great leader. As Judges 2:10 tells us, "When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel." They forsook the God of their fathers—as Judges repeatedly shows. But while he lived, Joshua brought an influence of great faithfulness to bear on his people; and let’s not let ourselves ignore the lesson of that. While we live, we may yet bear an influence on the generation in which God has placed us! Nor should we fail to consider the lesson that may be found in Joshua’s name; because we too will be faithful so long as we cling to our ever-living Shepherd Jesus!
II. THE BURIAL OF JOSEPH (v. 32).
A. The story of Joshua’s burial points to an influence in the present. But the story of the next burial points to an influence from the past. We’re told, "The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph" (v. 32).
1. The background for this important burial is found in Genesis 33:18-19. After Jacob had encountered his estranged brother Esau, we’re told that he "came safely to the city of Schechem, which is in the land of Canaan . . ." We’re told that "he bought the parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Schechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. Then he erected an altar there and called it El Elhoe Israel" (that is, ‘God, the God of Israel’). We’re told later of how two of the sons of Jacob—Simeon and Levi—brought vengeance upon Hamor and Schechem for the violation of their sister Dinah. This, Jacob said, made him "obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land" (Genesis 34:30).
2. Years later, after Jacob’s second-to-the-last son Joseph had been captured, sold into slavery, and eventually promoted to a position of leadership over Egypt, this plot of land became a symbol of the promises that God had made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Joseph looked ahead to this land as "an inheritance" to his people. And so—in faith—he made his brethren in Egypt promise that, when God brought them out and led them to the land He had promised to his fathers, they would carry his bones with them and would bury them there (Genesis 50:22-26). These instructions about his own bones has been forever recorded in the Scriptures as an example of faith (see Hebrews 11:22). In obedience, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him at the Exodus (see Exodus 13:19); and those bones most have been entrusted to Joshua so that the promise made to Joseph would be fully kept. It’s interesting to note that Joshua was the same age at the time of his death (110 years) as was Joseph at the time of his death (see Genesis 50:26).
B. Just think of how the bones of Joseph—constantly carried by his people in their wanderings, and eventually buried in the land as a confirmation of the promises God had made long ago—were an ever-present testimony to God’s faithfulness. We may not leave our literal bones for our descendants to bear after us (and they may be thankful for that!); but there are other ways that our faithfulness to Christ can leave a lasting impact upon them—an old Bible, our personal spiritual journal, the keepsakes and monuments of our faithful walk with Christ. May God help us to remember that we don’t live faithfully for Jesus just for ourselves, but also for those who will come after us!
III. THE BURIAL OF ELEAZER (v. 33).
A. And finally comes a burial that commemorates the future. We’re told, "And Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim" (v. 33). Just as Aaron the priest died around the sane time as Moses (Numbers 20:22-29), so Aaron’s son and appointed successor died around the same time as Moses’ successor Joshua.
B. At a time of Israel’s unfaithfulness, Eleazar’s son Phinehas arose in zeal to defend the holiness of God (Numbers 25:6-9). The Lord honored him for his act; and said, "Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel" (vv. 12-13). This began to be fulfilled literally in the days of Solomon in the appointment of Zadok to the priesthood (1 Kings 2:35)—Zadok being a descendant of Eliazar (1 Chronicles 6:50-53)—in the place of Abiathar (1 Kings 2:26-27). It was done as a fulfillment of the prophecy made long before to the unworthy old preist Eli in the days of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:27-36). It was through the lineage of Phinehas, born through Eliezar, that the priesthood faithfully served the future generations of God’s people. And as Psalm 106:31 says, "And that was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations forevermore." May our faithfulness also be such as to bear a legacy into the future!