Sermon: The Farewell Sermon of Joshua (Joshua 24:14-26)

Happy New Year! As we bid farewell to 2025, let us take a look back in the Old Testament to a time when a great leader said farewell to his era and ushered in the age of the judges. Joshua was a transitional figure. He took over for Moses, for all intents and purposes the founder of Judaism. He seems to be the last person to lead all of Israel (and not just this or that part of Israel) until King Saul, or perhaps Samuel. Joshua's final sermon shows that he feared that the Israelites might slip into all the sins and trends that indeed would play out in the age of the judges. And so Joshua told the people to be witnesses to their own commitments to God and hold themselves accountable. Let us too - both individually and as communities - do likewise.