Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, God our rock and redeemer.
Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and and my household we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
Today we come to the end of the book of Joshua and as he prepares to die, he leaves the Israelites with a question. Will they truly commit to follow the Lord after he is gone?
Last week he exhorted them to follow God’s commands, knowing full well how easily led astray they could be. Now in his final speech he calls them to choose, to renew their covenant with God who has been so faithful to them. Will they be faithful to God? His heart must be breaking knowing that he can no longer lead them, for he is now very old…and it seems this time there is no-one who is going to pick up the leadership mantle. There is no passing on the baton as there had been from Moses to Joshua. No-one to help keep them on the right path.
Following the Lord is not easy; Jesus said this to those who sought to follow him…
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me…” (Mark 8: 34)
It doesn’t sound a very attractive invitation! But he goes on to say…
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
What do you choose today?
As we come to the end of our series on Joshua it is good to recap on the book as a whole and how it fits into the big story of God and his plan.
Rather than summarize it myself, we are going to have a look at this video from the Bible Project. I recommend these videos if you ever want to get an overview on a particular book of the bible. They put Joshua in context and hopefully answer some people’s concerns around the idea of genocide in Joshua…
Bible Project summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqJlFF_eU
Joshua asks the Israelites to choose who they will follow, but it seems Joshua already knows they will fail to follow the Lord…And if you keep reading on through Judges you will see how right he was!
In his final speech he tries very hard to get them to commit wholeheartedly to the Lord. He does this by reminding them of God’s faithfulness, not just to them but to their forefathers, he gives a potted history of God’s call of Abraham, of rescuing them from Egypt and finally bringing them to the promised land where they now reside. Note that Joshua tells the history as if it is personally theirs, that they saw the what the Lord did to the Egyptians, that they were brought over the Red Sea.
They only joined the story with the crossing of the Jordan, but they are all part of the big story of God’s salvation. This is our story too as God’s chosen people.
Joshua reminds them again of God’s faithful promise keeping, bringing them to and giving the land that had been promised to Abraham.
After telling them of God’s faithfulness he exhorts them to fear and serve the Lord with all faithfulness. To turn from worshipping other gods.
The people respond in the affirmative, they answer 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 parents 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 travelled. 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 24:16-18)
How does Joshua respond to this speech? Surprisingly, confusingly, he tells them they can’t serve God! He says they are not able to. Why? Because God is a holy and jealous God and will not forgive their rebellion and sins. As I said, Joshua knows full well that they will sin.
But they respond emphatically… “No! We will serve the Lord.”
Joshua has warned them and now he takes their words of commitment and says they are witnesses against themselves that they have chosen to serve the Lord.
After telling them to throw away their foreign gods, he renews the covenant with them and places a large stone as a witness to their commitment. Stones have been used several times now as reminders to God’s people. Reminders of what God has done for them, and this time a reminder of what they have promised God.
What do we look to as reminders of God’s faithfulness. We’ve talked about the new covenant and how Jesus asked his disciples to remember him in the eating of the bread and drinking of wine. We continue to remember him in this way.
And in place of stones, I think we look at the cross.
The cross is our reminder of all that Jesus has done for us, that he died for our sins. Thankfully God’s story does not stop with the death of Joshua and the Israelites living in the promised land.
They did not keep the covenant. They did not follow God wholeheartedly. They did rebel, they did sin and follow other idols.
Thanks be to God that we live on this side of the cross. Thanks be to God that he sent Jesus to die so that our sins may be forgiven. That as we put our faith in Jesus we receive mercy, and salvation and we can be assured of being welcomed into the promised land for all eternity.
And yet we too are given a choice to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. It won’t be easy, to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
What do we need to deny, to turn away from? Wealth (or desiring it if you haven’t got it!). Jesus says you can’t serve both God and money. Is it family? Jesus tells us to put him before our family. (He also tells us to love and care for them…but he comes first.) Is it comfort? Is it pride, is it choosing to do life in our strength? Is it selfishness, putting ourselves first; something this world constantly tells us to do.
Just like the Israelites we will sin and rebel against God. But unlike the Israelites we are not left without a leader to guide us. We read at the end of the chapter that Joshua died and was buried. His death brought his leadership to an end. And it seems that with his death the people stopped following the Lord, we read, Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel. (24:31) After his lifetime, they lost their way and forgot their commitment…they followed other gods and idols.
We read at the end of the Gospels that Jesus died on the cross, was buried… but on the third day he rose again! And then he sent the Holy Spirit to live in us to be with us always. Jesus is unlike any earthly leader, he was fully obedient to God, in fact he is God himself and he came to save us, and he has said he will never leave us nor forsake us.
I pray that as you look back over the message of Joshua you will see a message of God who is faithful to his promises, a God who fights our battles for us, a God who loves us and calls us to love and serve him.
As the Lord commanded Joshua many times, will we be strong and courageous, will we meditate on his word and seek to follow him wholeheartedly? Will we proclaim God’s mighty acts and faithfulness to our friends and family, to the next generation? Will we throw away our idols and look to the cross as a reminder of what God has done for us through his son Jesus Christ. Will we shout of his great mercy, faithfulness, and love?
Will you choose to follow him today?
Let’s pray:
Father God, thank you for your faithfulness throughout all generations. Thank you for the example of your servant Joshua. Above all, thank you for sending Jesus and the Holy Spirit to journey with us in this life, for the assurance that we will one day safely cross over into your promised eternal land. Help us to choose to follow you every day, may we be strong and courageous, knowing that you are always by our side. May we like Joshua choose to say, ‘As for me and my house we will serve the Lord’. In the saving name of Jesus. Amen.