Doing and undoing

“By commencing the speech in [Joshua] 24:2-13 with the story of Abraham who worshipped other gods, but whom YHWH led out from the land beyond the river, and concluding the speech with Israel’s safe possession of the promised land, all at YHWH’s initiative, it shows YHWH’s favour and gracious calling of Israel; she owes her existence entirely to him. But, rhetorically speaking, precisely because of this ‘grace’, the possibility of a reversal is implied; this sequence of events can be ‘undone’ by YHWH too. Choosing YHWH and serving him (24:14ff) is the response that will be sought, a response that will lead to continued enjoyment of and blessing in the land, whereas choosing to worship idols and other gods will lead to an ‘undoing’, a return to the worship of other gods ‘beyond the river’, outside the land, where Abraham started. Indeed, Abraham is described as living ‘beyond the river’ (בטבר המהר) (24:2), i.e., ‘on the other side’, a notion that has key symbolic significance in Joshua, as we have seen. Those ‘on the other side’ are the ‘outsiders’, whilst those living in the land symbolize the insiders, that is, those who belong to true Israel. Joshua suggests that what makes people ‘outsiders’ here is serving other gods, which is precisely what Joshua has warned Israel against previously (23:16). Thus in 24:2-13, YHWH brings Abraham into Canaan, in other words he bestows upon him the status of an ‘insider’, whilst the description of the Amorites as living ‘on the other side of the Jordan’ (24:8) links them with those who lived ‘on the other side of the river’ as outsiders.226 Thus the characteristics of the insider and outsider are displayed; Abraham is the paradigmatic (or symbolic) ‘insider’, who chose to follow God’s call, whilst the Amorites are the paradigmatic outsiders. By knowing something of the characteristics of Abraham and the Amorites one discovers what insiders and outsiders are like, and thus, positively and negatively, what Israelites ought to be like.

“...what is stressed here is YHWH’s gracious unilateral action on behalf of Israel. For accompanying this is the implication that YHWH can simply ‘undo’ what he has established and return Israel to a pre-Abrahamic existence. This is powerful rhetoric that calls for Israel’s response in what follows. Whatever Israel has done or failed to do before, here, now is the point where response and mutual commitment enters. For if Israel does not respond appropriately now then ‘I’ (YHWH) will return you to a ‘pre-Abrahamic’ existence. So perhaps Israel is to see herself ‘as Abraham’ here; Israel is to respond to God as Abraham did. Moreover, with the book of Joshua set in a scenario of conquest then perhaps there is a sense in which the narrative evokes a picture in which the kind of things that happened in the conquest will happen in reverse to Israel if they forsake YHWH.”—Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, pages 193-194

<idle musing>
I don't know about you, but I want to be on the right side of the Jordan! And, all it takes is responding to the free grace of God in Jesus! Too easy!
</idle musing>