MONDAY 2nd
Joshua 24:14-28
NIV (v15) – ‘But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.’
ESV (v15) – ‘And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.’
Yesterday I asked us to note what it said in Joshua 24:2 about Abrahams family when they lived beyond the River (that is the river Euphrates) ‘they served other gods.’ But something must have happened in Abrahams experience because he heard the LORD God speaking to him and he heeded the instruction and left the land where they were living for a land that the LORD God was going to show him.
What a transformation his encounter with God had upon him, so much so that the phrase became a well know phrase, ‘The God of our fathers, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Not the gods from the other side of the River, for that is what they would have been, just gods, worthless idols. (see 1 Chronicles 16:26 / Psalm 96:5 ‘For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.’)
After being reminded of what the LORD God had done for them in the verses we looked at yesterday, Joshua now gives to them a challenge, three options, In a nutshell ‘are you going to serve the gods from over the River, the gods of the Amorites or are you going to serve the LORD?’
Joshua made his intentions very clear, ‘As for me and my house we will serve the LORD’ Looking at the evidence thus far, it was plainly clear to Joshua (to use a modern phrase) it was a no brainer to choose the LORD, after all, what had the gods beyond the river achieved ‘nothing’, what had the gods of the Amorites achieved, ‘nothing’, what had the LORD God achieved, absolutely everything. He had proven beyond any shadow of doubt that he was who he says he is, the ‘Great I am’. ‘Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say this to the people of Israel: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’
We are living in a multi faith society, it may sound like a contradiction to say the next phrase, but it is true, we are living in a godless society that is full of gods! Society is saying we don’t want your God, but we will create our own, making idols out of anything and everything and the sad fact remains the more gods the world creates the less fulfilled people’s lives seem to be. That is simply because there is only one God, and he is the God who has revealed himself through the Bible and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the vacuum that is in every person who is ever born will only truly be filled when God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is asked to fill it.
As we come to the end of our look at the first five books of Scriptures, as you may have been following through with the devotions, can I challenge you with the same challenge that Joshua asked, ‘Choose today whom you will serve’.
We may have all heard the words of the song ‘don’t dilly dally on the way’ (no it is not found in our hymn book!) When it comes to choosing who we are going to serve it is essential not to dilly and dally, we cannot be perched on a fence, we cannot just hope that fate will decide for us, we cannot rely on chance, we have to be determined to make the decision to either remain in bondage serving the gods of the world or come into the place of true freedom and eternal hope by serving the LORD God. My prayer is that each one of us will either decide perhaps for the first time or reaffirm again today ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.’