“For the LORD has driven out from before you great and strong nations; but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.” (v.9-13)
Here in chapter 23, Joshua is calling together the leaders of the nation to pass on some advice for those in authority before he dies. He begins by speaking to them of God's blessings, "For the LORD has driven out from before you great and strong nations; but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you."
Then comes the warning, "Be careful to Love the LORD your God." Meaning Israel must, as Jude puts it, keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21) if they want to be successful in possessing the land the LORD had promised them. Continually loving the LORD takes diligence. This call to love God is an appeal to the will, which means a spiritual struggle against the flesh. For there are (both then and now) many things that wage war against our will. Joshua's warning here is not only to love God, but to not turn back and cling to other ways (v.12). Israel must hold fast to the LORD their God.
Continuing in God’s love will mean that the people must keep themselves separate from the ungodly influences around them; they must keep themselves unspotted from the world (James 1:27). They must remain separate from other nations and their practices. And if they do not separate themselves from the ungodly influences around them, then those influences will become to them instruments of torture, leading to their destruction (v.13).
Joshua could see the possibility of trouble ahead. He knew what "a little leaven" could do to the nation from within. And his warnings to the people are just as important today as they were then - we need to pay attention to them. It is easy for us to forget the Lord and what He has done for us. It is so easy for us to get caught up in what's going on in the world around us that we forget there is a world to come.
Because there is so much to lose, let’s take to heart the warning of Joshua, “Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God.” (v.11)
The Truth: “The Lord preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.” (Psalm 145:20)
