Joshua's Farewell Address

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1. Observe

   What are the two things Joshua tells Israel to avoid doing with the remaining nations, and what does he say will happen if they fail to avoid them?

   • Avoid trade and shared meals; if they fail, Yahweh will revoke the priesthood
   • Avoid intermarriage with them and serving their gods; if they fail, those nations will become a snare, trap, scourge in their sides, and thorns in their eyes until they perish from the land
   • Avoid speaking their language and adopting their dress; if they fail, exile will come within a year
   • Avoid building cities like theirs and using their tools; if they fail, the priests will lose their pasturelands

2. Observe

   What is the double-edged argument Joshua makes in verses 14-16?

   • That God is faithful only to those who deserve it, so Israel must earn His favor through merit
   • That just as every good promise of God has come to pass without fail, so every threatened consequence will come to pass if Israel disobeys — God's faithfulness functions both as comfort for obedience and as warning against disobedience
   • That God's promises are conditional and may not be fulfilled at all
   • That God's warnings are figurative and need not be taken seriously

3. Interpret

   Why is the internal danger of cultural and spiritual assimilation more severe than military threats?

   • Spiritual compromise undermines the covenant identity that is the source of all blessing; armies can be defeated, but a heart turned away from God forfeits the very source of strength and protection
   • Military threats are easier to ignore than internal compromise
   • Internal compromise has no lasting consequences for nations
   • External enemies always defeat God's people, but internal sin is harmless

4. Interpret

   What does it mean to be "very careful to love Yahweh your God"?

   • Love for God is purely emotional and cannot be planned
   • Careful love is intentional, watchful, deliberate — guarding the heart, the eyes, the company, and the practices that nourish or starve devotion to God
   • Careful love means avoiding all strong emotion in worship
   • Careful love means simply attending religious services regularly

5. Apply

   What are some "remaining nations" in our cultural context that could gradually erode Christian distinctiveness?

   • Cultural values like materialism, sexual license, idolatry of self, tribalism, and the casual normalization of practices contrary to Scripture — which slowly conform our hearts if not actively resisted
   • Only foreign religions practiced overseas
   • Modern technology in all its forms
   • Any interaction with non-Christians whatsoever

6. Apply

   How does reviewing God's faithfulness in our own lives strengthen our motivation to hold fast?

   • It produces pride and complacency that weakens devotion
   • It is irrelevant to current temptations
   • It anchors the soul in evidence of God's trustworthiness, fueling steadfastness when temptation invites us to compromise or doubt
   • It causes us to live in the past rather than the present

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