Joshua 23 Bible study: Not one thing has failed

Joshua begins with what Israel has seen: "You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you" (23:3) (tap fought). He says it again: "for it is the LORD your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you" (23:10). And near the end: "You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it" (23:14) (tap failed). The book has already said it in its own voice: "Nothing failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass" (21:45). Now Joshua says it to all Israel and its leaders (23:2), twice in one verse. In the same speech he speaks of "these nations that remain" (23:4) and says, "The LORD your God will thrust them out from before you" (23:5). Chapters 11 to 13 look at how the book sets "the whole land" (11:23) beside "very much land to be possessed" (13:1).

Joshua 23:11→leads toJohn 14:15

Joshua joins keeping and loving: "be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses" (23:6), and "Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God" (23:11). In Hebrew take good heed in 23:11 is the verb of keep in 23:6. It is said by a man who tells them, "today I am going the way of all the earth" (23:14). John tells of the night when Jesus knew "that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father" (John 13:1), and that night Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 23, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some hear in Jesus' words the same joining of love and keeping, now spoken of love for Jesus himself, by one about to leave his own. Others read each in its own setting: Joshua's charge is about the law of Moses and the nations that remain in the land (23:6-7), and Jesus' words go on to his promise of "another Counselor, that he may be with you forever" (John 14:16).

דָּבַקdavaqsay da-VAK

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "cling, cleave, keep close". Strong's: "properly, to impinge, i.e. cling or adhere". It comes twice in this chapter, for the two ways Joshua sets before Israel: "hold fast to the LORD your God" (23:8), or "hold fast to the remnant of these nations" (23:12). The book of Joshua uses it three times; the other is Joshua's word to the eastern tribes, "to hold fast to him" (22:5). Moses had said, "You shall cling to him" (Deuteronomy 10:20), with the same verb, and it is the verb of Genesis 2:24, where a man "will join with his wife". Kings uses it of Solomon and his wives: "Solomon joined to these in love" (1 Kings 11:2).