Joshua 24:29-33 – Where Are They Now?

These verses seem like a dry way to end an otherwise exciting Biblical book. Why chose an obituary column as a conclusion? These burials are probably placed at the end of the book to underline some key concerns.

Again the reliability of God’s promises is emphasised. Notice where Joshua, the bones of Joseph, and Eleazer are said to be buried (v30, 32, 33) – each one of them in the land that God had promised them. Joseph had died in Egypt but was now buried in the Promised Land (see Gen. 50:25, 26). The tombstones of these men were monuments to the faithfulness of God to His promise of the land – one of the great themes of the whole book of Joshua.

The passage hints at a test for the LORD’s people. V31 records faithfulness but hints at wavering. The deaths of Joshua and Eleazer represent the passing of that great ‘conquest generation’. What now for Israel? Will they still serve the LORD once Joshua, Eleazer the priest (see 14:1), and the elders were gone? The book of Judges follows this and paints a bleak picture of what happens next (see Judges 2:10). How will our church respond when the current leaders are gone? Faithfulness or wavering?

We also see in this section the need for the LORD’s victory. The graves of these men do mark the LORD’s promise-keeping faithfulness, but there is also an incompleteness – a sense of tragedy – as the close of the book is marked by deaths. Genesis ends with Joseph’s death; Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ death; now Joshua ends with his death. Surely this is a reminder of the sting of sin in the midst of the faithfulness of God. How wonderful it is that, in contrast, each of the Gospels end with resurrection rather than death (Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24 and John 20-21). For all the triumphs in the book of Joshua, it still ends with death. But Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death.