Passage Study
Choose Whom You Will Serve at Shechem
Joshua 24:1–24:33
Joshua 24 gathers Israel at Shechem and rehearses the Lord’s story from Abraham beyond the Euphrates through exodus, wilderness, conquest, and gift of land. Joshua calls Israel to put away foreign gods and serve the Lord, while warning that a holy God cannot be treated casually. The chapter ends with covenant witness, Joshua’s death, Joseph’s burial, and Eleazar’s death, directing readers to Jesus, who fulfills God’s saving story and calls for whole-hearted allegiance.
- In this study
- 33 verses · 5 movements
Joshua 24
24:1Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
24:2Joshua said to all the people, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor. They served other gods.
24:3I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring, and gave him Isaac.
24:4I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
24:5“‘I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
24:6I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.
24:7When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. You lived in the wilderness many days.
24:8“‘I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you.
24:9Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you,
24:10but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.
24:11“‘You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.
24:12I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.
24:13I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you didn’t build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you didn’t plant.’
24:14“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve the LORD.
24:15If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
24:16The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
24:17for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed.
24:18The LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD; for he is our God.”
24:19Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.
24:20If you forsake the LORD, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”
24:21The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.”
24:22Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD yourselves, to serve him.” They said, “We are witnesses.”
24:23“Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.”
24:24The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God, and we will listen to his voice.”
24:25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
24:26Joshua 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 that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
24:27Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the LORD’s words which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”
24:28So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
24:29After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old.
24:30They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.
24:31Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of the LORD, that he had worked for Israel.
24:32They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
24:33Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
CONTEXTUAL OVERVIEW
Joshua 24 is the book’s covenant climax. At Shechem, a place associated with Abraham’s first altar in the land and with earlier covenant renewal, Joshua brings the tribes before God. The chapter does not begin with Israel’s decision; it begins with the Lord’s speech, recounting how He took Abraham, multiplied his descendants, sent Moses and Aaron, brought Israel out of Egypt, fought for them, and gave them a land they did not labor for.
Only after that history of grace does Joshua say, “choose this day whom you will serve.” The choice is not between self-salvation and grace. It is a call for a people already rescued by the Lord to reject the gods their ancestors and neighbors served and to live under the God who has acted for them.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
Shechem lies in the central hill country between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim and carries covenant associations from Genesis and Deuteronomy. Joshua’s gathering there follows the book’s earlier concerns for public hearing, written law, and shared allegiance. The sequence of ancestors, exodus, wilderness, and land gives Israel a theological history rather than a story of national self-creation.
Joshua’s statement that God is holy and jealous warns against shallow pledges. The point is not that God refuses repentance; the chapter itself calls for turning away from foreign gods. It is that Israel cannot add the Lord to a divided religious life and expect covenant words to become harmless ceremony.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
- I took, I gave, I brought · Joshua 24:3The Lord’s repeated action establishes that Israel’s story rests on divine initiative and gift.
- Choose whom you will serve · Joshua 24:15Joshua demands a decisive allegiance rather than inherited or mixed worship.
- This stone shall be a witness · Joshua 24:27The covenant is publicly remembered so Israel cannot treat its pledge as private sentiment.
CHRIST IN THIS PASSAGE
Joshua 24 traces the saving story that reaches its fulfillment in Jesus. God’s initiative with Abraham, the exodus rescue, and the gift of inheritance all prepare for the Son who brings the promised blessing to the nations, delivers from sin, and gives eternal life. The chapter does not say that Israel’s covenant pledge can save them; it reveals why they need the faithful Savior they repeatedly lacked.
Jesus calls people to wholehearted allegiance, but He also bears the judgment of covenant breakers and gives the Spirit who changes the heart. His mission is not to recruit a tribe against its enemies. He gathers worshipers from every people who serve the Father through His saving death and resurrection.
REFLECTION
Joshua 24 confronts the habit of wanting the Lord’s benefits while leaving other loyalties untouched. The people are not asked to admire their history; they are told to put away foreign gods. Every Christian should hear the same searching question wherever comfort, power, family approval, or national identity competes with Jesus.
Begin by remembering the grace that has brought you here. Then ask Jesus to name the god you excuse and to make your response concrete: remove an object, end a practice, confess to another believer, or reorder a habit so that your life says, “We will serve the Lord.”
Original Hebrew Word Study
Joshua 24:15
עָבַד
avad · H5647
Usually translated: to serve or worship
Avad means to serve. Joshua’s call to choose whom Israel will serve makes worship a decisive allegiance that shapes the whole household.
Follow the Scripture trail
Choose Whom You Will Serve at Shechem in the larger story
The connection: Joshua 24 gathers the whole story of God’s grace toward Israel and calls for exclusive service. Jesus fulfills that saving story, bears the failure of covenant breakers, and gathers people from every nation to serve God through faith in Him.
Respond to the passage
Remember one concrete mercy God has given you through Jesus, then identify the rival loyalty that contradicts it. Turn from that rival and take a visible step of allegiance to Christ today.
- Why does the Lord’s history of grace come before Joshua’s call to choose?
- What does God’s holiness add to the people’s pledge to serve Him?
- How do Joseph’s bones at Shechem connect the ending of Joshua to the exodus story?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You fulfill God’s saving story and deserve my whole allegiance. Thank You for the mercy that brought me near; expose every rival god, and make my life a faithful witness that I serve You. Amen.