KEYWORDS: catholic; mt19; ordinarytime; prayer; saints;
From: Joshua 24:1-13
Joshua and the renewal of the Covenant
[8] Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of
the Jordan; they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took
possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. [9] Then Balak the
son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel; and he sent and in-
vited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, [10] but I would not listen to Balaam;
therefore he blessed you; so I delivered you out of his hand. [11] And you went
the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and
also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I gave them into your hand. [12] And I sent
the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the A-
morites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. [13] I gave you a land on which
you had not laboured, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell therein;
you eat the fruit of the vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant.’
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Commentary:
24:1-28 The book of Joshua is not so much a report about a military campaign
as a vivid lesson in theology about how faithfully God keeps his promises, and
a call to respond to that faithfulness. This is borne out by the fact that the book
ends with a ratification of the Covenant: the nation that has taken possession of
the promised land renews the undertakings given by their fathers at Sinai. This
ceremony takes place at Shechem. After an historical introduction recalling what
God has done for the Israelites (vv. 2-13), Joshua asks the people about their de-
termination to stay faithful to the Lord (vv. 14-24). Once they have all made a com-
mitment to serve the Lord and obey him in everything, the Covenant is ceremon-
ially ratified (vv. 25-27). Elements of this rite are to be found in Hittite rites of vas-
salage of the second millennium BC. So, the Covenant is not only a religious act;
it also has the force of secular law.
The Covenant lies at the basis of Christian morality, because it implies the con-
viction that God directs the course of history and he chooses people who are to
make a specific commitment of fidelity: “There is no doubt that Christian moral
teaching, even in its Biblical roots, acknowledges the specific importance of a
fundamental choice which qualifies the moral life and engages freedom on a ra-
dical level before God. It is a question of the decision of faith, of the obedience
of faith (cf. Rom 16:26) by which man makes a total and free self-commitment
to God, offering “the full submission of intellect and will to God as he reveals
(Dei Verbum, 5). [
] In the Decalogue one finds, as an introduction to the vari-
ous commandments, the basic clause: ‘I am the Lord your God . . . ‘ (Ex 20:2),
which, by impressing upon the numerous and varied particular prescriptions their
primordial meaning, gives the morality of the Covenant its aspect of complete-
ness, unity and profundity. Israel’s fundamental decision, then, is about the fun-
damental commandment (cf. Jos 24:14-25; Ex 19:3-8; Mic 6:8) (Bl. John Paul
II, Veritatis splendor, 66).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.