“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of 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.” Joshua 24:15
Joshua is coming to the end of his journey and is exhorting God’s people to serve the Lord. You would think they would not need any encouragement or even a reminder to serve God after all He had done for them. Finally, when this verse was written, God’s people were at that very moment in possession of the promises of God — houses, land, vineyards. All of these things had been provided by God for His people and still they need this exhortation.
Joshua was certainly qualified to throw down this challenge to the people. He and Caleb were among the twelve chief men of Israel whom Moses sent into the Promise Land to check things out and bring back a report of their findings. Upon their return, they were the only two who had a good report for Moses and the people, the other ten brought back an evil report and confessed that they were not able to possess what God has promised.
Joshua had a front row seat, as it were, to all of the happenings as Moses led God’s people out of Egypt. Being the assistant to Moses, he saw and heard all of the abuse by the people as they complained time and again. He was witness to the golden calf carefully fashioned by Aaron and the people’s quick reversion back to worshipping false gods.
Then, as he led God’s people across the Jordan river into the Promise Land, Joshua saw the various ways the pagans worshipped their so-called gods and had the heart-breaking experience of watching people redeemed by the strong arm of the Lord act like there is no God.
Everyone has a choice. All the way back to Adam, we find God desperately wanting fellowship with His creation and telling us clearly what needs to be done in order to maintain that relationship. But, we also see that God created us with a free will; we always have a choice.
Sometimes, it might seem as if that choice is already made for you. Perhaps you were raised in a non-Christian religion and everyone in your family is a part of that tradition. It is expected, if not explicitly stated that to be a member of the family is to be a member of that religion. But you have a choice.
It may be that you find yourself surrounded by people who do not serve the Lord; it could be people you work with or are acquainted with in some other way. At any rate, it could be that not even one of them serves the Lord. But you have a choice.
Rise to the challenge of Joshua, choose to serve the Lord. Even if no one else in your family goes along with you, even if every one of your acquaintances is going in a different direction, choose to serve the Lord. The choice is yours — choose for yourself!
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