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Commentary on Luke 9:46-50

Following on Jesus once again telling his disciples that he was going to be “handed over” to suffering and death, we were told in our previous reading that they did not understand what he meant. It did not make sense to them.

Now, almost as an indication of how far they were from Jesus’ thinking, they began arguing among themselves which one among them should be seen as the greatest. Why should they be arguing about this? Was it because, whatever difficulties they had in accepting what Jesus had said about his future, they were wondering what was going to happen after Jesus had been taken away from them? If they were to remain together as a group, which of them would be in charge?

Perhaps Peter was already beginning to think that he should be the one. Perhaps some of the others felt it should be one of them. But Jesus, who, of course, was not present during these sensitive discussions, was well aware of what was going on. He took a child and put it in their midst, saying:

Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, for the least among all of you is the greatest.

It is interesting that the greatness is to be seen in the child rather than in the one who ‘welcomes’ the child. The child represents all who are vulnerable and weak and powerless. To ‘welcome’ such persons is to treat them with the utmost dignity and respect and to accept them and lift them up.

In Jesus’ eyes, such little people are truly great because, to those who have eyes to see, they are the ones in whom we can especially meet Jesus and love and serve him. St Francis of Assisi, who kissed the leper (a particularly daring thing to do in his time), or St Teresa of Calcutta, tenderly picking up a decaying, barely living body off the street, knew this well. To find Jesus in such a person is to make direct contact with God himself.

Jesus himself will reach the peak of his own greatness when he hangs dying and helpless on the cross. This is the lesson the disciples will learn to see and accept in time. We have to keep working on it too, because it does not come easily to any of us.

The second part of today’s Gospel points to another area where the disciples have to change their outlook. John, the brother of James, who both come across in the Synoptics as somewhat hotheaded (they had the nickname “sons of thunder”), tells Jesus they saw someone driving out devils in Jesus’ name. They had told the man to stop because he “does not follow with us”. Perhaps there was also an element of jealousy, because in Mark’s Gospel (9:14-29) we are told that the disciples were unable to drive out an evil spirit from a boy.

Here we have something of the arrogance of the insider, of the elitist. John and his companions felt that the exorcism of evil spirits in the name of Jesus was something only they were allowed to do. Jesus did not agree. Jesus tells them:

Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.

In doing so, he enunciated this principle for them to follow.

It is a constant temptation among more devout religious people to set themselves apart from ‘others’. It can happen to bishops or priests or religious. It can happen in a parish to members of the parish council or some parish group—a prayer group, charismatics, the liturgy committee or whatever.

We can find ourselves developing a two-tier community of ‘us’ and ‘them’. We can find ourselves looking down on those who come in late for Mass and hang around the back door, or who only come occasionally, or maybe even only turn up at Christmas.

Even more, we can be tempted to set ourselves apart from non-Catholic and non-Christian groups. We can fail to see God working in all kinds of people, religious and non-religious, atheists, agnostics and people who apparently do not believe in anything.

Of course, as Christians, we do have a distinctive understanding of life and its meaning coming from the teaching and life of Jesus and it should not be compromised. But at the same time, we do not have a monopoly on the truth—no one has. The full Truth is beyond all of us. We are all searching.

Still less do we have a monopoly on good works. God can and does use any person to build the Kingdom. And it is our responsibility to work hand in hand with such people. Ultimately, our aim is not to promote our Church, but God’s work and God’s plan for the whole world.

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Living Space is an established part of Sacred Space. The daily commentary on the readings have become an important part of the day for for some seven thousand people every month. The texts are written by Frank Doyle, and Irish Jesuit priest, and regularly updated and revised.

The new format makes for easier management of Living Space and allows many possibilities of enhancing the presentation of the daily reflections. The user of the site will find a dynamic calendar to allow quick access to the readings. The resource can be shared readily with others through the facilities for printing and emailing that are on each page.

In time, we hope to be able to add a calendar to make days easier to find. It helps too that, as days are added into the new system, they are available to the search facility.

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These weekday commentaries are not meant to be homilies for preaching, rather they are intended to give some background to the daily readings to help both the homilist and the faithful have a sense of continuity as we go through the readings each day. The elements of this reflection are as follows:

The arrangement of the Scripture readings
Weaknesses in the arrangement
Towards a better understanding
Our purpose
The Liturgy of the Word
Role of the Reader

It is possible for each day’s commentaries to be considered as separate and stand-alone. There are always people in a weekly congregation who do not come to daily Mass, or if they come, perhaps only occasionally. But in many parishes, there are a regular number of people who attend every day. I believe it is helpful to walk with them through the passages of the different books of the Bible as they are read each day. And, there will be other people, those who cannot get to daily Mass, who will hopefully want to visit this site every day. The commentaries can be view as an introductory course to the Bible as well as a source of personal prayer.

The arrangement of the Scripture readings
For Sunday readings during the three-year cycle (A, B and C), we read the Gospel according to Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B and Luke in Year C. John’s Gospel is scattered through the seasonal feasts of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter – and especially during the Sundays of the Easter season. On Sunday, the First Reading (except during the Easter season) is normally taken from the Old Testament, and the theme of the reading normally has some relationship to the Gospel. The Second Reading is taken from letters in the New Testament. The letters are read through continuously. For example, parts of the Letter to the Romans will be read in sequence on a number of Sundays and then on the following number of Sundays the readings will be from, say, the Letter to the Ephesians. Usually, there is no direct link between the Second Reading and the other two.

Weekdays readings follow a different pattern and have a two-year cycle, Cycle I and II. In each cycle, we read through the whole of the Gospels, but the Infancy and Resurrection narratives are kept for the Christmas and Easter seasons, respectively. Mark, Matthew and Luke follow one another in that order. Readings from John’s Gospel are scattered through the ‘non-Ordinary Time’ weeks of the liturgical year, especially during the Easter season. The First Reading is taken from either the Old or the New Testament in a two-year cycle. Old and New Testament books tend to alternate, and not in the order in which they appear in the Bible. Generally too, during the Ordinary Time weeks there is no intended connection between the First Reading and the Gospel. The two sets of readings run parallel to and largely independent of each other. However, during the seasons of Advent, Lent and Easter there is normally a link between the First Reading and the Gospel.

Weaknesses in the arrangement
If there is a weakness in the present arrangement of the Scripture readings it is in the Sunday readings. On the Sundays during the year, the Gospels are pretty well covered and they are read in sequence. The New Testament letters are also covered and read in some sequence but the Old Testament loses out. As I said, the Old Testament text is usually chosen with a theme which correlates with that of the Gospel reading. But this means that the Old Testament texts are picked at random and out of context. A person going regularly to Sunday Mass and listening carefully to the readings would not get much understanding of the content and structure of the Old Testament. And it is not surprising that many Catholics (unlike many Protestants) have a very poor acquaintance with the Old Testament beyond some well-known stories, especially those featured in movie epics like Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘The Ten Commandments’.

With the weekday readings the situation is rather different. A person going to daily Mass will hear sections of Old Testament books read in sequence over the two-year cycle. However, we have to realise that, in spite of the many readings, we still only dip into what is there. Only selected passages can be chosen and, after one’s appetite is whetted, it is for each one to read the whole text of the book being read.

And, unfortunately, even when the celebrant does give a reflection at Mass, the First Reading, and especially the Old Testament, tends to get put aside. In fact, because the two weekday readings are not related, most celebrants concentrate on the Gospel reading which is more familiar to most people and rated more important.

Towards a better understanding
The purpose of these commentaries, then, is to suggest a way by which all the weekday readings get a little more attention and help both Mass goers and those who use these notes for personal reflection to have a better understanding of the whole Bible.

I feel strongly that, all things being equal, no Mass should ever be celebrated without some kind of reflection, however brief, on the readings of the day. I always experience a certain sadness when I see a priest turn away after reading the Gospel without saying anything. It is probably true also that, among those celebrants who do say something, they are inclined to speak only about the Gospel. And, part of the reason for that, we might have to confess, is that even priests are not as familiar with the other New and Old Testament readings as we might be.

Our purpose
Part of the purpose of these commentaries is to help celebrants be able to say something about the first reading and the Gospel, though not necessarily in the same homily. Weekday homilies normally should be fairly brief! Because the two readings are often on very different subjects, it can be somewhat forced to squeeze both of them into one short reflection.

I have found that people can be very appreciative of being given a “thought for their day”. In the long term, where one is celebrating Mass for the same community every day, a better picture of the whole Bible can begin to emerge if all of the readings are given an ‘airing’. It is a small step towards drawing Catholics into a better appreciation and a greater familiarity with the Bible from the Book of Genesis to Revelation. In time, it should to creating an appetite for a deeper understanding by attending Scripture courses or forming Bible-sharing groups.

The Liturgy of the Word
I am a strong believer in the importance of the Liturgy of the Word as a genuine source of nourishment for our people. But the Word of God does, like the eucharistic bread, need to be broken open so that those, who are very often not very familiar with large portions of the Scripture, can be fed.

Some parishes have developed the excellent custom where people bring along their own Bibles and read from that. While it is, in a sense, better to listen to rather than read the readings, using one’s own Bible helps one to become familiar with its “geography”. I am frequently amazed at how many otherwise well-informed Catholics are totally lost when a Bible is put into their hands.

I believe that, if we had to make a choice between having either the Liturgy of the Word or the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but not both, there would be a strong argument for choosing the Liturgy of the Word. Effective participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharist depends very much on who Christ is for us. As St Jerome is supposed to have said many centuries ago, “ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. And, if I have only a very imperfect understanding of who Christ is, what happens when I go to receive him in Communion?

Unfortunately, some often tend to rush through the readings, drop any thought of a homily, so that we can get to the “real” part of the Mass, the Consecration and the Communion and the Real Presence of Christ. But we must realise there is also a real presence of the Lord in the Scriptures. At the end of each reading we say: “The Word of the Lord.” It is not the reader we have been listening to, but it is the Lord himself who is speaking to us.

Role of the Reader
Which raises another issue – the importance of the Reader being able effectively to communicate, to proclaim the Word. When the nearest available person is called on to read and, though they may be well-intentioned, they are sometimes difficult to hear. Sadly, we tend to be very tolerant of low standards in this part of the liturgy. But the Scripture Reader is a ministry and a minister should be chosen for his/her aptitude and ability to effectively proclaim the Word of God.

As St Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome a long time ago:

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom 10:13-15)

Let us then pay greater attention to God’s Word, listen carefully to what it says, try to understand its meaning in the context of our present lives, and then to share our experience of the Good News with those we meet.

Finally, let me emphasise that aim of these commentaries is to whet your appetite to have a deeper understanding of the Word of God, to go to the original sources and also to consult the many other commentaries which are available. And, better still, to join or set up a group which will study the Word of God together with the help of the many guides which are available.

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Commentary on Matthew 13:24-30

Today’s passage from the Parables of the Kingdom is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. It is about the planting of seed, but the concern is quite different, and it again reflects the experience of the early Church.

A man has sown good seed in his field but, unknown to him, an enemy has come and planted weeds among the wheat. As the plants come up the farmer sees the weeds growing all through his wheat. His slaves want to pull them out, but the farmer tells them to wait until the harvest time. The wheat and the weeds are similar in appearance in the early stages and it will be much easier to differentiate them as they mature. In the meantime, let both grow side by side.

This is a picture of the Kingdom and also of the Church which is trying to be part of it. For the early Church, more distressing in many ways than persecution from outside, must have been betrayal and shortcomings on the inside. There would have been a strong temptation immediately to get rid of such people. But wiser heads prevailed: “Wait…let God be the judge and, in any case, people can change”. The sinner of today may be the saint of tomorrow.

This has been a problem all through the history of the Church and today is no exception. There is always a strong temptation among those who feel themselves more committed to living out the Gospel to adopt an elitist approach to the faith. This can take two forms, either: 1) members who are seen as falling short of the Church’s requirements in faith and behavior are gotten rid of, or 2) and perhaps more commonly, those who see themselves more committed form a relatively closed group, i.e. a church within a church. There has been a certain amount of tension over such situations with the appearance of a number of Catholic movements in recent times.

Today’s parable reminds us of something very important, namely, that the Church is, and always will be, a Church of sinners and for sinners. Our Church is, as Paul puts it, “a vessel of clay”, leaking and easily broken. At the same time, we have been called to help bring about the Kingdom in our world and we have constantly to try to do that. But we need to distinguish between the vessel and its contents—the weeds and the wheat—to distinguish between the Christian vision and the Church which tries to communicate it.

Some have been disturbed by the scandals of our age (and scandal has existed all across the time of the church) and have left the Church because of them. To do so is to not understand today’s parable. These scandals, far from undermining the Christian vision, only affirm it. That vision remains a shining ideal. But the Church, which is not to be identified with the vision, is the flawed and fragile bearer of that vision. It has always been so and always will be. The Church is called to proclaim the Kingdom, but it has to struggle to realise that Kingdom in itself also. Today’s parable is a call for tolerance, patience, compassion and understanding while not compromising on the vision that comes to us from Jesus.

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Commentary on Luke 13:10-17

Last Saturday we saw Jesus telling people that they should not be distracted from their own obligations by getting caught up in tragedies which happened to others. Rather than wonder about the eternal salvation of others, they should pay more attention to their own situation. Today we have an example of people so busy criticising what others are doing that they are totally unaware of the emptiness in their own lives.

We are told that Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on a sabbath day. In the congregation was a woman who was suffering from what seems to be curvature of the spine for 18 years. There is a certain symbolism in the fact that she was badly stooped and was not able to stand up straight. Spiritually speaking, is that not also our problem too? So many of us are bowed down with the burdens and worries of our lives.

In fact, nearly all the healings done by Jesus can be seen as symbolic of deeper afflictions from which all of us can suffer, and even at the same time! For example, we might be deaf (we can’t hear God speaking to us), blind (we cannot see the truth or understand the Word of Jesus in the Gospel), mute (we can’t or won’t proclaim our faith), or paralysed and have other crippling afflictions (we are not able to do the things we ought to be doing). We might suffer from leprosy (we are cut off from relating with others or we cut other people off), or be possessed by evil spirits (in the grip of various compulsions and addictions).

Jesus saw the woman, called her to him and told her she was free from her affliction. Her affliction was seen as caused by an evil spirit and Jesus had liberated her. He laid his hand on her and immediately she stood up straight and began thanking God.

One might expect that everyone present would also start thanking and praising God for what had happened to the poor woman. But alas no, the chief of the synagogue was indignant that the healing had taken place on the Sabbath because medical services were not allowed on the day of rest. He said, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.”

The ruler of the synagogue was not a priest. He was responsible for conducting services, inviting people to read the Scriptures and preach, and in general maintaining order. He was a layman who also had administrative duties such as taking care of the building. Normally, only one person held this post, but sometimes it could be simply an honorary position.

In a way, of course, the ruler was perfectly right. A woman who had lived with this kind of ailment for 18 years could easily have waited for just one more day to be cured. But that was not the point, as Jesus made perfectly clear. He accused the synagogue head and his like of pure hypocrisy:

Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?

They put the needs of animals before that of a human being. All the synagogue head could see was the letter of the law. He could not marvel at the healing power of Jesus and the deep compassion behind it. He could not see that he was in the presence of God’s very power.

It would be like someone at Mass criticising the brevity of a lector’s dress while being totally oblivious to the Word of God she was reading—perhaps this very text!

There is also the sinister possibility, which was the case on other similar occasions, that the woman had been put there deliberately to see whether Jesus would violate the Sabbath. It was not the Sabbath that some of the religious leaders were concerned about, but rather the gathering of evidence to convict Jesus of heresy. The story is an example of taking the beam out of our own eye before dealing with the speck in someone else’s, or of none being so blind as those who refuse to see.

In the end, we are told that Jesus’ critics were “put to shame”, while the ordinary people, often with far more insight than their religious leaders were:

…rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

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Commentary on Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28

There is a strong parallel between the stories of Joseph and Jesus in today’s readings. In both cases the words quoted from the Psalm apply:

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone. (Ps 118:22)

Joseph is the favourite of Jacob’s twelve sons, the sons who would later become the patriarchs of God’s people. His brothers became jealous of him and grew to hate him. They hated him even more for the dreams he told. In one of these, he said he had a vision of the family bringing in the harvest. In the dream, all his brothers’ sheaves bowed down before Joseph’s sheaf. This, of course, did happen later when the brothers came to Egypt during a time of famine in search of food. Unknown to them at first, Joseph was the grand vizier of Egypt in whose presence they paid homage.

In today’s reading, when Joseph, at the instructions of his father, went to visit his brothers in the fields, they conceived a plot to kill him. However, one of the brothers, Reuben, intervened and suggested instead that Joseph be thrown down a dry well, hoping to give him back to their father later. Reuben was the eldest son, but later fell out of favour after committing incest with his father’s concubine. Judah subsequently took over leadership of the family. The other brothers agreed to Reuben’s suggestion because they did not want to have the blood of their own brother on their hands. Perhaps they remembered what happened to Cain.

Eventually Joseph is either sold to Ishmaelites on their way to do business in Egypt or discovered in the well by Midianites and sold for 20 pieces of silver to traders on their way to Egypt. In later times, this sum was the value of a male of Joseph’s age who had been dedicated to the Lord (see Lev 27:5). The father is later told that his son has died from an attack by animals and is given back, as proof, the famous multi-coloured coat stained with (goat’s) blood.

Joseph should have ended up in obscurity as a slave in Egypt, but thanks to his ability to interpret dreams, he was to win the favour of the Pharaoh and become the chief minister in Egypt and ultimately the saviour of his own people from famine—a famine which Joseph had foretold and helped to prepare for.

The story prepares us for the coming of Jesus, who is clearly the son in the parable featured in today’s Gospel. Jesus, too, was a ‘man of dreams’, with a vision of life which was rejected by many close to him. He, too, was sold into the hands of enemies precisely because of that, to become the saviour of his own people.

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Commentary on Matthew 23:27-32

We come today to the last two of the seven ‘Woes’ which Jesus throws against pharisaism.  Again it is an attack on hypocrisy and he gives two examples:

6. …you are like whitewashed tombs… (vv 27-28)

On the one hand he compares the Pharisees to “whited sepulchres” (“whitewashed tombs” in the NRSVue translation), a phrase (like many others) that has found its way into everyday English through the King James version of the Bible. In other words, they are like the tombs that people in Palestine could often see spotlessly clean in their whitewashed stones, but which inside were full of the decaying and rotting bodies of the dead. 

One reason they were whitewashed was because a person who unwittingly stepped on a grave became ritually unclean.  Whitewashing made them more visible, especially in the dark. The Pharisees put on an external show of religious perfection down to the tiniest detail, but inside, their hearts and minds were full of pride and hatred and contempt for their fellow man.  It was epitomised in the story that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to the Temple to pray.  The sanctimonious prayer of the Pharisee was:

God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
(Luke 18:11)

It was, of course, to some extent true, but it closed his mind to a different kind of sin altogether—his pride and imagined self-sufficiency.  As Jesus will say in another place, the greatest sin of the pharisaical is their sheer blindness, the inability to see themselves for what they really are. This, I suppose, is the most dangerous sin of the pious in any age, and yet the one least likely to be confessed and repented. And it can happen to any of us.

7. …you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous… (vv 29-32)

On the other hand, mention of tombs leads Jesus to comment on the Pharisees’ pride over the tombs they have built in memory of the prophets and other holy people. They congratulate themselves that, if they had been present, they would never have partaken in the actions which brought persecution and death to the prophets.  Yet here is Jesus, the prophet of all prophets, whom they are preparing to kill. 

In the last verse of our reading, Jesus tells them to go ahead and complete the murdering of the prophets, referring to what is going to happen to himself.  This is another classic example of the blindness of the self-righteous. The more committed we are to our Christian faith and to the behaviour that it expects, the greater the danger that we, too, can fall into the same trap and see ourselves on a higher level than others whose behaviour we deplore and perhaps even attack. 

Whole groups of such people have been appearing in recent years, people who claim to know the Church better than the Pope, who still deplore the ‘heresies’ of the Second Vatican Council, or who close themselves off into elitist groups afraid of being contaminated not only by the ‘world’, but even by other Catholics!

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Commentary on Joshua 24:14-29

This is the last of our readings from the book of Joshua. It is an immediate continuation of the previous passage (vv 1-13) as Joshua gives his final words to the tribes gathered at Shechem. Today’s reading consists of the second and third parts of the whole passage.

In part two of the reading (vv 14-24) all the people declare for Yahweh and renounce pagan gods, and in part three (vv 25-29) a covenant is adopted and its statutes committed to writing.

Having reminded them of all that Yahweh did for them from time immemorial down to the present, Joshua urges the people to “fear” the Lord and to serve him truly and sincerely. ‘Fear’ here means to trust, worship and serve in a spirit of deep respect for the immensity of God. There is no place for fear in the ordinary sense before our loving God:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:18)

They are to get rid of the gods their polytheistic ancestors served those days long beyond the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia and later in Egypt. In Ur and Haran, Abraham’s antecedents, Terah’s family, would have been exposed to the worship of the moon-god, Nanna(r) or Sin. The sin of building the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai was primarily that of making an image of Yahweh, but it probably was also influenced by Apis, the sacred bull of Egypt.

With a slight touch of mockery, Joshua tells the people that, if they find serving Yahweh is not a good thing, let them make up their minds which gods they want to serve, whether those of their ancestors in Mesopotamia or those of the Amorites, in whose land they are right now. There is a suggestion that they are not totally committed.

As far as Joshua and his family are concerned, they will continue to serve Yahweh. Joshua publicly makes his own commitment, hoping to elicit a similar commitment from Israel.

With one voice, the people affirm their allegiance to Yahweh:

Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.

It was Yahweh who kept them safe among all the different people through whom they passed. It was Yahweh, too, who drove out all the nations so that they could take over the land. They conclude:

Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

Joshua, however, is somewhat sceptical of their promises and warns them that they will, in fact, not be able to serve Yahweh. He is warning them of over-confidence. Fidelity to God’s service is not easy, and therefore those who take such solemn obligations on themselves must be ever vigilant against human weakness. Time will show just how attractive the Canaanite gods were to the Israelites.

They must remember that Yahweh is a holy God, a jealous God who will not tolerate their misdeeds and sins. If they desert Yahweh and turn again to the gods of other peoples:

…he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.

But again the people insist:

No, we will serve the Lord!

To which Joshua replies:

You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.

They cry out with one voice:

We are witnesses.

In that case, retorts Joshua:

Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.

This was a direct challenge. It was likely that some of them did have around them other gods represented by idols of wood and metal, which could easily be thrown away and destroyed—if they were really sincere.

But once again the people make their pledge:

The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.

Our reading concludes with the third part of the verses where Joshua makes a solemn covenant between God and the people and lays down a statute and ordinance for them there in Shechem. This consisted of the pledges they had agreed to and the decrees and laws from God. All was solemnly recorded in the Book of the Law of God and a large stone set up as a memorial.

Joshua set it up under the oak tree in Yahweh’s sanctuary at Shechem. Finally, he said to the people:

See, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you if you deal falsely with your God.

The stone was set up as a witness to the covenant renewal that closed Joshua’s ministry. It will be the seventh memorial in the land to remind Israel of what the Lord had done for them through his servant. To these memorials were added the perpetual ruins of Jericho (Josh 6:26). This refers to the famous occasion when Joshua and the Israelites marched round the walls of Jericho blowing trumpets, causing the walls of the city to collapse (see Josh chap 6).

Thus the promised land itself bore full testimony to Israel (seven being the number of completeness)—how she had come into possession of the land, and how she would remain in the land only by fulfilling the covenant conditions. The land shouted its own story.

Joshua then dismissed the people, everyone to their own heritage. Joshua’s work was done and he was ready to go. He died at the venerable age of 110, just 10 years short of his superior and mentor, Moses. Ancient Egyptian records indicate that 110 years was considered to be the ideal life span. It was also the age at which Joseph died.

Joshua was buried at Timnath-Sera, which lay in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash (and about 30 km north of Jerusalem).

We are also told in this passage (though not in the reading) that the mummified remains of Joseph, which had been brought all the way from Egypt at the time of the Exodus, were now buried in Shechem, near the borders between the two Josephite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and:

…in the portion of ground that Jacob had bought from the children of Hamor, the father of Shechem (Josh 24:32)

This fulfilled a final request Joseph had made before he died (see Gen 50:25).

With the death of Joshua, the great epic of the Exodus is complete and the people are in their Promised Land, committed to serving Yahweh faithfully as his people forever. As we shall see, it will not quite work out like that.