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Before Sunday

Pentecost XII

Psalm 16 or 34:15-22

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-25

Ephesians 5:21-33

John 6:60-69

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 who land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

This passage comes near the end of Joshua’s life. It was Joshua who literally led the people into the Promised Land, who conquered many enemies there, and who established the Hebrews in the land. As his leadership was coming to a close, it was time to renew the Covenant, and for the Hebrews to remember who they were.

Joshua offers the people of God a choice (every Covenant is based on a momentous choice): They could worship their former gods (those worshipped by their fathers “across the River” – most likely referring to the Euphrates, and thus the land of Ur – or they could worship the gods of the Amorites, which surrounded them in the Promised Land. In other words, they could worship the gods of the past or the gods of the present. They could worship the gods of a former locale, or of the present locale.

Joshua is referring to cultural gods. These gods are limited by time and space. They are fundamentally different from the one true God, the God of all time and the Creator of the universe. This world sounds quiet different from our monotheistic Western culture in which most of us grew up. However, the culture we are so familiar with is not without its own gods that entice and seduce us. There are the gods of materialism, power, wealth, and self-pleasure. Some of these may have been the gods of our ancestors. We were taught to value them and bow down to them. But there are now even more gods with which to contend: the more religious gods of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religious expressions. There are always attempts toward syncretism, to collect all the gods into one basket, and pull out whatever god we need for the moment.

The radical claim to exclusivism by Christians is not culturally tasteful. Note what Joshua said at the beginning of his exhortation: “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord…” In today’s world, it is indeed evil in the eyes of some to make any exclusive faith claim. Jesus’ claim to be “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” is a stark challenge to today’s world. It lays before us a choice of momentous proportions. It puts squarely in front of us a choice for eternity.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua, at the end of his earthly days, knew only this answer. There are plenty of choices out there, but the gods are local and temporal. Joshua sought the one true God, over and above time and space, the Creator of all things and the judge of all men.

As you prepare for worship in the Lord’s house with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day, recognize what a momentous act of “covenant keeping” you are taking upon yourself. You are choosing to “serve the Lord”. You are choosing to worship Him and Him alone. You are following the leadership of Joshua and all those who followed him and his God. You are following the Apostles, Prophets and Martyrs of ages past.

You are following Jesus.

A Prayer

Almighty God, who presented to Your people the clear challenge of choosing You above all gods, grant us wisdom and courage likewise to choose you above all things, and to serve you only, for the sake of Him who died and rose again for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.