**The Last Charge of Joshua: A Covenant Renewed at Shechem**
The sun hung low over the hills of Shechem, casting long shadows across the gathered assembly. The air was thick with the scent of olive trees and the distant murmur of the Jordan’s waters. Before the people stood Joshua, son of Nun, his frame bent with age but his voice still strong as a trumpet blast. The weight of decades of leadership rested upon his shoulders, and the time had come for his final charge to Israel.
The tribes had assembled—men, women, and children—from the great to the small. Elders with faces lined by years of wandering and warfare stood beside youths who had only known the land of promise. Before them all, Joshua raised his hands, and a hush fell over the crowd.
**”Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,”** he began, his voice carrying like thunder over the valley. **”Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates—Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor—and they served other gods. But I took Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan.”**
The people listened intently as Joshua recounted the mighty acts of the Lord—how He had delivered Isaac, blessed Jacob, and brought Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders. The memories were vivid: the Nile turned to blood, the pillar of fire by night, the Red Sea split asunder.
**”You saw with your own eyes what I did to Egypt,”** Joshua declared, his eyes blazing. **”You dwelt in the wilderness many days, and I brought you into the land of the Amorites. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land, for it was I who destroyed them before you.”**
A murmur of remembrance rippled through the crowd. Some had been there when the walls of Jericho fell. Others had heard the tales of how the sun stood still at Gibeon, and how kings had fled before Israel’s advance.
Then Joshua’s tone grew solemn. **”Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord alone!”** His voice rose like a prophet’s cry. **”But if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve—whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”**
A great shout erupted from the people. **”Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!”** they cried. **”For it was the Lord our God who brought us up from Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He protected us on all our journeys and drove out all the peoples before us. We too will serve the Lord, for He is our God!”**
But Joshua, wise and discerning, saw the fervor in their words and tested them. **”You cannot serve the Lord,”** he warned. **”For He is a holy God; He is a jealous God. If you forsake Him, He will turn and bring disaster upon you and consume you, after having done you good.”**
Yet the people stood firm. **”No! We will serve the Lord!”**
Joshua nodded slowly. **”You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”**
**”We are witnesses,”** they replied.
**”Then put away the foreign gods that are among you,”** Joshua commanded, **”and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”**
With one voice, the people pledged themselves anew. **”The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”**
That day, Joshua made a covenant with them at Shechem. He set up a great stone beneath the oak that stood near the sanctuary of the Lord. **”See!”** he proclaimed. **”This stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us. It shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”**
Then the people dispersed, returning to their inheritances—to the hills of Judah, the plains of Ephraim, and the forests of Naphtali. But the words of Joshua lingered in the air like the scent of sacrifice, a solemn reminder of the choice they had made.
Joshua, the faithful servant of Moses, the conqueror of Canaan, had led them one final time—not in battle, but in devotion. And when at last his days were fulfilled, he died at the age of one hundred and ten. They buried him in the land of his inheritance, in Timnath-Serah, in the hill country of Ephraim.
And Israel served the Lord all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and all the days of those who had known the works the Lord had done for Israel.
But the stone remained. Silent. Unmoving. A witness to the covenant sworn beneath the oak of Shechem.
