Joshua 24:19

Ye cannot serve the Lord Joshua checks their hasty impulsiveness and confident protestation of fidelity, by reminding them of the difficulty involved in serving Jehovah aright; and he specially would have them dwell on (i) His holiness, and (ii) His jealousy. His words remind us of our Lord's warnings in the Sermon on the Mount, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).

he is a holy God Comp. Lev 19:2; 1 Samuel 6:20; Psalms 99:5; Psalms 99:9; Isaiah 5:16. Holiness is the principle that guards the eternal distinction between Creator and creature, between God and man; it preserves the Divine dignity and majestyfrom being infringed by the Divine love; it eternally excludes everything evil and impure from the Divine nature. Comp. Isaiah 6:3, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts." See Martensen's Christian Dogmatics, pp. 99, 100. The plural Elohim, here used, "directs attention to the infinite riches and infinite fulness contained in the one Divine Being, and therefore to the fact that, if we were to believe in innumerable gods, and endow them with perfection, they would still all be contained in the one Elohim." Hengstenberg.

he is a jealous God "Deus enim sanctus et fortis æmulator est," Vulgate. "A strong feruent loouyere," Wyclif. Numerous passages in the Prophets bring out the idea of God as One, Who requires of His people, whom He has married, the unbroken fidelity of marriage, and punishes most inflexibly any attachment to another god, any departure from Him, whilst He continues His blessings upon love and fidelity even to distant generations. Comp. Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16:8; Ezekiel 16:22; Ezekiel 16:60; Ezekiel 23:3; Ezekiel 23:8; Ezekiel 23:19; Hosea 2:16. "The Divine zeal is just the energy of Divine holiness. His jealousy turns especially against (1) idolatry, and (2) all sin, by which His holy Name is desecrated." Oehler's Theology of the Old Testament, i. 166, 167.

he will not forgive Compare the words of God to Moses respecting the Angel of the Covenant, "Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions:for My Name is in him," Exodus 23:21; and comp. Numbers 14:35; Deuteronomy 18:19; Jeremiah 5:7. Forgiveness is conditional on repentance and amendment of life.