Joshua 24 · a question people ask
Joshua told the people, "You can’t serve the LORD" (24:19). What did he mean?
The people have just said, "we also will serve the LORD; for he is our God" (24:18). Joshua answers, "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" (24:19), and "If you forsake the LORD, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil" (24:20). The text doesn't explain his words. It says the people answered, "No, but we will serve the LORD" (24:21), and Joshua made a covenant with them (24:25). His "He will not forgive your disobedience" uses the same verb and the same word for disobedience as Exodus 34:7, where the LORD is "forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin" and "will by no means clear the guilty". Christians read 24:19 in more than one way. All agree on what the verses say, and that "Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua" (24:31).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A warning about their hearts
Some read Joshua as saying that Israel, left to itself, would not keep its word. Moses had said, "the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day" (Deuteronomy 29:4), and "I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves" (Deuteronomy 31:29). Judges tells what came after Joshua's generation: "The children of Israel did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and served the Baals" (Judges 2:11).
Deuteronomy 29:4 · Deuteronomy 31:29 · Judges 2:10-11
A call to count what it means
Others read Joshua as pressing the people to choose knowing what they were taking on, not saying it was impossible. They note that his next words are an if: "If you forsake the LORD, and serve foreign gods" (24:20). Moses had said of the commandment, "this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant" (Deuteronomy 30:11). Joshua takes the people's answer, calls them witnesses (24:22) and makes the covenant (24:25).
Joshua 24:20 · Deuteronomy 30:11 · Joshua 24:22 · Joshua 24:25
Not beside other gods
Others read the reason Joshua gives, "He is a jealous God" (24:19), as the point: the LORD can't be served alongside other gods. Joshua's next command is, "Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you" (24:23). The Law had said, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3), and "the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14).
Joshua 24:19 · Joshua 24:23 · Exodus 20:3 · Exodus 34:14
The verses
“Israel 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.”
“keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.””