Joshua 24:29-33

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to finish up the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 24. We're going to talk about the death of Joshua Eleazar and who's going to lead God's people from here on. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and we thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit. God, we pray that you would please teach us to walk in your ways, teach us to learn from this passage, and please teach us to know how we ought to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, here we go.
Joshua chapter 24 beginning at verse 29 to the end of the chapter. being 110 years old, and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Asera, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of the Egypt they buried at Shechem, and the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in a hill belonging to Phineas the son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim. So, three concluding things that happen. A, what's this about? There's the death of Joshua, 110 years old. I misspoke the other day when I was speaking to Nathan. He's not 120, 110 years old. He dies.
Those elders who were with him, as long as they were alive and they had seen all the things in the wilderness, they kept faithful. And they buried the bones of Joseph. So that's the second thing that happens is they bury the bones of Joseph that they had brought from Egypt with them as he had made them promise. And so they bury him at Shechem, which is the place where Jacob had bought that piece of ground.
And then the third part that happens here is Eleazar, Aaron's son, dies. And they bury him. So that's what this is about. These three different sections all dealing with death. Joshua dies. Burying the bones of Joseph. Eliezer dies. So who's going to lead? What's going to happen? That's it. It's the end of the story. It's the end of Joshua. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I'm going to leave that one up to you, but last see calling. What's this calling us to do? Every single great leader that we've ever had in all of human history has died. They're gone.
As up to the next generation, who's going to lead them? What are they going to do? What will they live for? What will their society be based on? What will they be driven towards and for? What will they love and whom will they serve? What direction will they go?
For Israel, it wasn't ever supposed to be about Just that one leader. It wasn't ever supposed to be the focus on Moses. It wasn't ever supposed to be the focus on Joshua. The focus was supposed to be on God himself, who is the covenant king, and the people latching onto his kingship, latching onto his covenant, and them going and following the Lord.
Each generation has to own it for themselves. God's covenant would be faithful from generation to generation, but the question is, would the generations be faithful? God would be there. Would the people follow him? This was a remarkable generation that had come up. They were not the generation that died in the wilderness. That was their parents. But this generation took the promised land. We can't live on our parents' face. We can't live on our parents' coattails. But we love the Lord. Well, we recognize that God has given us a Joshua, Jesus Christ, who died.
He was our leader, and yet now we know he lives, and he ascended up into heaven, and he is still our king. But we live in a very similar way in which they do, or they did. We have not seen him, yet we love him. We know our king of kings is alive. But even though we can't see him, well, we follow him. We stay in His covenant. We walk in His ways. We go in His path. We desire what He desires. We love what He loves. We seek what He seeks. We hate what He hates.
Will we go the way of Christ? Or will we go the way of those in the wilderness? We're back to Shechem, aren't we? Whom will you serve, Christian? Which way will you go? Who will you love? Will you take heed of the Lord? Or will you go the way of the world?
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can follow Him. We can pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can lead the way by knowing we've been forgiven, and we can forgive others. We can know that our Father provides for our daily bread, and it's only by His grace that He is able to not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, because He gets all the power. He gives all the glory, because it's His kingdom forever and ever. So serve Him, follow Him, Christian. Walk in the way of Christ by the power of His Spirit. Let's pray.
Father, we thank You. We thank You, Lord, that You are our King. You are our ruler. You are our leader. You're the one we follow. It's literally what it means. Lord, we follow after you because we are your disciples, and you have promised to be with us even to the end of the age. And so, Father, we pray that your spirit would be with us, and that you would encourage us and enable us to follow in your ways, to love you and go in your paths. You are good, Lord. Help us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy of following Jesus Christ, loving him. I'll see you next time, bye.