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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God Himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God."
Joshua 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. If 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."
But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the Lord."
Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord."
“Yes, we are witnesses," they replied.
"Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."
And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him."
On that day, Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things 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.
"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."
Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
After these things, Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.
And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.
And Eleazar, son of Aaron, died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
Joshua 24:16-33
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As the Book of Joshua ends, it does so with the passing of Joshua.
As leaders of Israel go, Joshua was about as good as one could expect, staying obedient and faithful to the Lord’s service while not only guiding Israel into Canaan but seeing them through the conquest of the land…a land that was their inheritance from God.
It was this God that Joshua spent his final moments focusing on and urged the Israelites to do likewise. You may recall how Joshua told God’s people at the start of this chapter that they had a choice to make. They could choose to follow God or reject Him in exchange for any number of false gods that were worshipped by the Canaanites. Indeed, they could decide to follow whatever god they wanted but Joshua left no doubt as to who he was going to follow. For in yesterday’s message, we found him making this declaration:
“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (24:15)
Well, feeling challenged (and maybe a bit obligated) to openly confess their loyalty to God, we read where the Israelites told Joshua:
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God Himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God."
Unfortunately, Joshua knew Israel’s ways all too well and so it’s easy to see how he was skeptical for this wouldn’t be the first time they had promised to do something only to just turn around and not make good on their word. So we find Joshua testing them with the following reply:
"You are not able to serve the Lord.”
In other words, Joshua was essentially telling his brothers and sisters that they hadn’t shown a consistent ability to follow God’s will and way, remaining obedient to His will over their own…and so he saw them as destined to fail in keeping their vow.
You know, I can’t help but wonder if Joshua’s words shouldn’t resonate with many believers today as well. For how often do Christians promise to serve God and follow His ways only to turn around and serve their own selfish desires instead? I’m sure the Lord feels disappointed over and over again from our disrespectful behavior for He deserves better from us, for sure. After all, He gives us His best so why is it so hard for us to not give Him our all in return?
As we continue to look
at what Joshua had to say, we see him underscoring why the Lord should be respected,
revered, and followed unconditionally As the Book of Joshua ends, it
does so with the passing of Joshua. As leaders of Israel go, Joshua was about
as good as they got, staying obedient and faithful to the Lord’s service while
not only guiding Israel into Canaan but seeing them through the conquest of the
land…a land that was their inheritance from God.
It was this God that Joshua spent his final moments exhorting and urging Israel
to do likewise. You’ll recall how Joshua told Israel at the start of this
chapter that they had a choice to make. They could decide to follow God or
choose to follow any of a number of false gods. Indeed, they could choose to
follow who they wanted to but Joshua left no doubt before his people as to who
he was going to follow. For you’ll recall he said, “As for me and my household,
we will serve the Lord.” (verse 15)
Feeling challenged and maybe a bit obligated to openly confess their loyalty to
God, we read where the Israelites told Joshua, “Far be it from us to forsake
the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us
and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those
great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among
all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all
the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve
the Lord, because he is our God."
Joshua knew Israel’s ways all too well. This wouldn’t have been the first time
they said they would do something only to just turn around and not make good on
their word. So Joshua tested them with his reply saying, "You are not able
to serve the Lord.” In other words, you haven’t shown the consistent ability to
follow God’s will and way, remaining obedient to His desires over your own.
I can’t help but wonder if Joshua’s words don’t resonate with many believers
today as well. How often do we say we will serve God and follow His ways only
to turn around and serve our own selfish desires instead? Sometimes I think God
must just look down on us and shake His head in frustration and disappointment.
For God deserves better from us. In fact, God gives us His best so why is it so
hard to give Him anything less than ours? Joshua’s further words tell Israel
and us why God should be respected, revered and followed unconditionally
whether it was ancient Israel or us today. For we read (and are reminded) that
the Lord is a holy and jealous God, expecting His people to worship and serve
Him and Him alone. To that end, He has shown that insubordination won’t be
tolerated and be met with consequences. Both then and now, He will not overlook
any rebellious sin manifested by His people.
The bottom line is that anytime the Israelites forsook God by
worshipping false gods, they saw disaster fall upon them and we shouldn’t
expect to be any less disciplined by our Heavenly Father today if we choose to
go down the same path…the wide path that leads to destruction through willful
sinful behavior.
Well, the people of Israel didn’t allow Joshua’s testing to deter them,
replying with this:
“No! We will serve the Lord."
And so Joshua, knowing he wouldn’t be around to remind them of what
they had said on that day, made all of Israel witnesses against
themselves…witnesses to their promise to serve the Lord and the Lord alone. He
then left them with a final challenge to “throw away the foreign gods that are
among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."
Yield your hearts to the Lord.
What an awesome, powerful command spoken by Joshua to the people of Israel
and to us. For isn’t this really where we find the rubber meeting the road in
regard to faithful, obedient service?
Friends, the only way we can truly serve God in accordance with His will for
us, is if we submit and surrender our hearts to Him…not in part but in whole. After
all, isn’t this at the center of the greatest commandment…the one given by
Jesus when He was asked about it during His ministry?
Here’s a reminder of what He said:
“Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.” Mark 12:30
In other words, we’re to love Him with every fiber of who we are…just as He
loves us with all that He has.
Joshua died knowing he and his household were fully committed to God.
How about you as you read this message today? Where do you stand?
Have you fully yielded your heart to the Lord? Do you love Him with all
your heart and soul and mind and strength?
My prayer is that we all might consider renewing our covenant relationship with
God today, recommitting every part of ourselves to Him. And when we do this, my
hope is that we will yield our hearts while proclaiming these very same words
of the people of Israel:
"We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.”
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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