Ver. 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord, &c.— Here it is no longer Jehovah that speaks; Joshua himself addresses the Israelites, and, after all that he had just represented to them in the name of God, concludes with exhorting them to fear Jehovah; i.e. to open their whole heart to his religion, and to render him, in sincerity and in truth, with right and pure intentions, free from all hypocrisy, the worship due to him; and that without any mixture of idolatry, and according to his law, which is truth itself. "Put away from among you," says he, "those idols, the worship of which your ancestors, Terah, Nahor, Abraham, and others, formerly joined with the worship of the true God, while they remained on the other side of the Euphrates. Remove from you that unhappy propensity to idolatry which you acquired in Egypt: in a word, resolve to serve God, and Him alone." To the idols of the Chaldees and Egyptians, Joshua in the following verse adds the idols of the Amorites; and from the manner of his speaking, both here and in ver. 23 it is easy to discern, that the Israelites, notwithstanding all that the Lord had done for them, were by no means clear from the capital crime of idolatry. St. Augustin could not agree in this opinion; for, struck with the fine testimonies which Joshua himself bears to the faith of the Hebrews; and seeing it nowhere mentioned, that on account of the last exhortations of that holy sage, the people removed from them any idols; and being moreover unable to believe that God, who took vengeance of the Israelites for many lesser crimes, would have left their idolatry unpunished; this learned man has thought proper to interpret the words of Joshua conditionally, as if he had said; "If any one of you hath still the least inclination to idolatry, let him pluck it from his heart, and unreservedly devote himself to the worship of the only true God." See Quaest. 29: in Josh. But it is certainly doing violence to Joshua's discourse: to give it so soft a sense. Besides, what greater difficulty is there in conceiving the Israelites to have given way to idolatry under the government of this general, than under that of Moses their legislator? And how, after all, can we controvert a fact so positively attested by the Holy Spirit in divers other passages of Scripture? Ezekiel, Amos, and St. Stephen warrant the truth of the offence here imputed to the Hebrews. See Ezekiel 3:8; Ezekiel 3:27; Ezekiel 20:6; Ezekiel 20:49. Amos 5:16. Acts 7:41. Without doubt, the whole nation was not tainted with it, nor was the scandal of it yet public; but it appears evident, that among the multitude of the Israelites, there were many superstitious persons who privately joined the idolatrous worship of the people of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the land of Canaan, with the worship of Jehovah.
REFLECTIONS.—Joshua seems, at his last meeting of the congregation, to have expected his dissolution at hand; but, God having spared him a little longer, he is glad to make use of the last moments of his life in one more solemn assembly of the heads of Israel. Note; (1.) Whilst God continues our lives, it is a sign that he has something for us yet to do. (2.) They whose hearts are faithful to God will be pleased with the returning solemnities, when they come to appear before the Lord. (3.) God is still in the midst of his people, whenever or wherever they assemble in his name.
The congregation being collected, Joshua opens his farewel sermon, commissioned from God to speak, and therefore deserving the most profound attention: he begins with a recapitulation of the signal mercies that, from the beginning until that time, God had shewn to their ancestors, and to them. Their ancestors, who dwelt beyond the Euphrates, were sunk, as other Gentiles, into gross idolatry; when God, in his infinite mercy, separated Abraham from them, and brought him out from thence into the land of Canaan, where they now were, multiplied his posterity in Ishmael, and gave him the promised seed in Isaac. When Rebekah's barrenness seemed to restrain the fulfilment of the promise, Jacob and Esau were born. Jacob, their great progenitor, with his increasing household, were driven into Egypt by famine; but when his seed were there multiplied and oppressed, with a mighty arm did God rescue them from thence, protecting them with his pillar of a cloud, and overwhelming their pursuers in the sea. Through the dreary wilderness he led them safely, defeated the plots of their enemies, and turned wicked Balaam's intended curse into a blessing. After this also, he wrought his wonders in the land of Gilead, at Jordan and Jericho, casting out their foes before them, not by their sword or bow, but by his army of hornets, which he sent before them; and now at last he brought them into possession of Canaan, where peace and plenty reigned. In return for which mercies, it was not more their bounden duty, than the dictate of gratitude, 1. That they should fear that God whose wonders they had seen, and with a reverential sense of his majesty and mercy walk before him. 2. That they should serve him in sincerity and truth; for he is a heart-searching God, who cannot be imposed upon, who hateth hypocrisy, and expects the soul in simplicity to be devoted to his service. 3. That they should put far from them strange gods. Note; (1.) God requires the heart in his worship; without this, we can do him no acceptable service. (2.) Neglect of God is not only foul disobedience, but base ingratitude. (3.) That is still our idol, to which our affections cleave more than to the blessed God.