The Protogospel of Joshua 24:19: "You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God."

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In an earlier post I had described the Torah (including its stories) as "terrible" news, and said that Calvary and Sinai stand and fall together, tht you can't fully grasp grasp one without the other. People naturally responded very rightly that the Torah was good. It is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, sweet as honey, by it we as God's servants are warned. And that is perfectly right.  The reason it's terrible is because its realistic about us. We see this soon after at the end of Joshua, in the larger context of the famous passage where Joshua says (as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord).

In the larger context he is warning the people that they must choose between God and their idols. They all strongly affirm they have chosen to faithfully serve the LORD and keep his covenant. But then, in a passage that passage that is a much a protoevanglium as Genesis 3:13, Joshua does not say, "That's great guys! Let' do it!" No, he drops a bombshell that begins to prove true almost immediately:

"But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God..." Joshua 24:19

And yet, as the people had already learned, this had nothing to do with the God's commandments being "too hard" or too many to keep track of. That was made clear already in Deuteronomy 30:11, where God said, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach." As Paul would later explain in the book of Romans, the problem was not with the Law but with us.

Anyway, then Joshua sets up a stone there with the words of the covenant the people had just to done promising to keep. But gain, he doesn't say, "Alright guys. This stone is here to encourage and remind you of the fervor and determination you are feeling today, so that whenever you see it you will be encouraged to reaffirm this great committment you are making today, and so keep the fire of faith forever burning brightly in Israel!" Nothing like that. No. That day wasn't anything like a Tony Robbins event, or if there were any tendencies in that direction, Joshua immediately squelched them by what he said about the purpose of the stone:

"This stone shall be witness against us." (Josh 24:27)

No wait a minute: "'a witness AGAINST us?" omeone might say, "Wow. What a downer! What negtivism. Maybe you could have given them just a little encouragement for their good intentions there, God! I mean, really."

As we read this God might even seem petty, which no doubt some will conclude who read the passage and perhaps close the book right there. Like that time in Jesus' ministry when hearing his "hard words" it says "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him" (John 6:66). And yet, there is another possibility, namely that with Joshua's impending death, it was a time not for pep talks or raising false expectation, but for hard realistic words. Like the doctor who is willing to tell you the bad news and even show you the x rays: "You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God."

In the bigger, overarching story of the Bible there is only one way to find out which it is. Turn over the page, and start reading the first chapter of Judges, that dismal account of the people's perpetual backsliding into idolatry and folly, the time when "there was no king in Israel" and "all the people did what was right in their own eyes."

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