Joshua's Great Witness Stone at Shechem Photo: Joel Kramer, Expedition Bible.com
The Challenge: Choose Today Whom You Will Serve
Years after the capture of Ai and the defeat of ten kings in battle, Joshua gathers the people of Israel around him as he is about to die and warns them of the dangers of going after the pagan gods of the tribes around them who were still to be defeated.
At Shechem Joshua reminds them of how God has kept his covenant with them from the time of Abraham onwards until the present day.
" “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)
The people are profuse in their protestations of obedience.
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” (Joshua 24:16-18)
Joshua warned them of the dire consequences they would suffer if they abandoned their faith in God, who had saved them, and renewed the covenant he had made with them by setting up a large stone with the ten commandments inscribed on it to remind them of their commitment.
" On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.
“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”
The Discovery of Joshua's Great Stone at Shechem
Archaeologist Joel Kramer of Expedition Bible describes how German archaeologist Ernst Sellin discovered the great stone Joshua erected at Shechem in 1926 (see photo above). He also uncovered the remains of the temple to Baal-Berith which is mentioned in Judges 8:33-34.
" No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them."
So much for Israel's protestation to Joshua they would never forsake the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!