Joshua took a stone as witness

19Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” 21But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” 22Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. 23“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” 25On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. 26And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. 27“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” (Joshua 24:19-27)

Right from the beginning of the chapter Joshua gathers the children of Israel, and reminds them of the favours which God did for them. He reminds them from the time of Terah all the way down to pharaoh the children of Israel went through much hardship, but God kept his promise and saved them. After making mention of all past happenings, Joshua called them to reject all false deities and worship the only one true God. he made a covenant with them and they accepted his request.

Now here comes the interesting part. We read in verse 26-27 Joshua recorded all these things in the book of Law and took a large stone place it under the oak, and said those people were present there with him “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”

Joshua made a Stone as a witness? Not only did me make a Stone witness the stone also heard all the words spoken by Joshua and his people, and will be a witness against them if they break the covenant.

Now I want to specifically ask my Christian friends. How can a stone hear the words and be a witness? Now just for the record I want to make one thing clear. Muslims don’t have a problem with such narrations of Stones hearing or made as a witness or even speaking against someone. I’m only trying to make a point to my Christian friends because of their understanding with certain issues, like Muslims kissing the black stone, or Jews kissing the western wall etc. I’m trying to show that for a Jew Joshua taking a stone as witness which someday would peak against those who broke the covenant is not something detrimental. Rather for Jew or Muslim it’s God Almighty who has created this stone, and with his power be able to make it speak. On the other hand our Christian friends may find it hard how a stone can talk and reject this by saying it’s not literal, but rather symbolic. The problem we have with that ruling is, why would Joshua make it clear that if the covenant it broken then the Stone will speak against them? If this wasn’t a literal meaning then the Jews could of easily said, this Stone can’t hear or speak so even if we broke the covenant how would this Stone testify against us? The Jews believed Joshua spoke in a literal sense, that this Stone is real and would real speak against you.

Now to the second point which does raise a problem to us Muslims, unlike the stone hearing or speaking. We read in verse 26 “26And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God.” . again reading from context, Joshua wrote all these words i.e. the meeting he had with the Children of Israel all in the Book of the Law. The question is, where in the Book of the Law is this conversation between Joshua and the children of Israel recorded? The verse is clear that Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law, not in the Book of Joshua. Also, the Book of Joshua is not the Law. It’s ironic, how the very book of Joshua called the Book of Moses the Law

7Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 8This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:7-8)

Was Joshua even allowed to write anything in the Book of the Law? Deuteronomy 4:2 tells us:

Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

It’s clear from the Book of Deuteronomy, to add or subtract anything to the command of God prohibited. One may say Joshua didn’t add or subtract a new law, rather he merely wrote down the agreement he made with the children of Israel. but note the Law would be out of place if a agreement between Joshua and the children of Israel was added. Was it a marginal note? If so why is it absent from the present Torah? Also, which scroll did Joshua write this marginal note on? If a marginal note was written in the Book of the Law wouldn’t this nullify the Book to be from God, as man has added his own words? Why didn’t Joshua write this agreement in a different parchment and keep it safe for al generations to see.

Here’s another problem added to Joshua found in the Book of Deuteronomy:

24After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, 25he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: 26“Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. (Deuteronomy 31:24-26)

Notice how verse 24 reads “After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end,” this is evidence from the Bible that Moses finished writing the law and place in the ark so it would be safeguarded. Did Joshua take the scrolls out of the ark and write his agreement on it? Or did he have his own law scrolls which Moses did not make mention of or verify it as authentic? The ultimate question is where is those written agreement which Joshua wrote in the Book of the Law that is the Pentateuch. Note during the time of Joshua there would of only been the Law of Moses as scriptures. Psalm, Isaiah, Ezra, were not available during Joshua’s time, which means the only Law would have been the Law of Moses.