Joshua 24:14

Gods. The LXX and Syriac read, “foreign gods.” It was at Shechem, the very place where the tribes were now assembled, that Jacob had put away the strange gods that were in his family, and had buried them under an oak (Gen. 35:2, 4). The Israelites may have preserved some of the idols of the subdued Canaanites as curios or as souvenirs, and hence now stood in danger of regarding them with reverence. The tendency toward idolatry began to develop in Egypt (Eze. 20:6, 7). It continued to be a marked characteristic of the people in the wilderness (see Ex. 32; Amos 5:25, 26; Acts 7:39-43), as it had been in Egypt (Eze. 20:6, 7). Joshua knew that even now idolatry was secretly practiced by some of the Israelites even though outwardly they had only recently expressed great zeal against any appearance of it (Joshua 22). Many who today make high pretensions of Christianity, like the Israelites, cherish some secret idol in their hearts. Eventually such an idol, unless removed, will nullify the whole Christian life and prove ruinous to the soul.