This week lets look into God's word to study and learn about being genuine and making choices which we all do all the time. Interesting when we make decision/choices we do so deliberately and in doing so do we chose to trust and obey God or are we just going to rely on our own strength. I think all choices are made deliberately. In our study this week we will look at choices that were made by the Israelites as reported in the book of Joshua which is found in the Old Testament of the Bible. We will take a close look at the choices Joshua was urging the people of Israel to make. Specifically we will be looking at Joshua Chapter 24: Verses 1-33.
I would recommend you read earlier chapters of Joshua for background information. The Israelites have crossed over the Jordan River into the promised land. They have fought many battles and have not tasted defeat. Joshua has divided up the promised land among the Tribes of Israel and it was given to them as an inheritance. Joshua called the people of Israel to Shechem where he reminded the people of the many ways God had led and protected them. For instance, mentioned first of all, how God had freed them from slavery in Egypt and then led them on their way to the promised land. He mentioned how God had protected them at the Red Sea form Pharaoh's army and how God had opened the Red Sea so they could cross over on dry land and then destroyed the pursuing army. Joshua again called to memory how God led the Israelites through the wilderness. How he fed and protected them and now how he has given them the land of Canaan. Now Joshua tells them they have a choice; they can be true to God and remain in the land of Canaan or they could worship the false gods and forfeit the land. The people promised to be true to God. A while after this Joshua died and was buried on his own inherited land
At this point we need to understand what genuine means. When we talk about a product we have purchased what does genuine mean. I have heard people say " this is the genuine article ". If we are talking about a relationship what does genuine mean? Is it real, authentic, sincere, wholehearted. If so, then it is not fake like money, jewels, furs, and so forth. I would think that most people would want something that is genuine.
In our discussion today we want to deal with us having a genuine relationship with God. that is, not fake, put on , or make believe. If we are to have a genuine relationship with God we have to deliberately choose to have that kind of relationship and along with that goes deliberately choosing to trust and obey God.
Lets first look at Joshua 24: verses 1 and 2 which reads as follows: If you have your bible grab it and follow along. I am using the King James Version of the Bible.
Verse 1. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
Verse 2. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods.
Contained in verse 2 is a startling statement that I am sure most of us have never realized and that is the fact that Terah, the father of Abraham, served other gods. I think we believe because of what we know about Abraham we just assume that his father was a godly man. Not so, he served other gods.
You might wonder why did Joshua choose Shechem as the place for the people to gather for this meeting. I suspect there were a number of reasons it was more or less centrally located about 40 miles north of Jerusalem. In olden days it was a significant city. There was special meaning of the place with the patriarchs. This was the place where God spoke to Abram ( remember Abraham was renamed Abram ) and Abram built an altar at the site to worship God. Jacob came to this area when he returned from Mesopotamia and it was here that Jacob's bones were reburied after they were brought out of Egypt. You may recall in the movie ( The Ten Commandments ) which tells about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. There is a beautiful scene of Jacob's remains ( bones ) wrapped and reverently being carried past the great buildings and monuments which the slaves worked so hard to build. They may have been called here to worship before this old altar in Shechem.
Through verses 3 - 13 Joshua continues to relate to the people what God has told him to say and the actions he took for them from the time of Moses to their present time.
Now lets look at Joshua 24: verse 24.
Verse 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
Joshua gave the people three commands. What were they and do we understand their meaning. If given to us what would we be expected to do?
1. Fear the Lord. We read these words and hear them so often. They do not mean to be in terror of the Lord but to reverence the Lord. Obey him.
2. Serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. Sure we do this in prayer but it also means to adore him and to sacrifice in worship through charity and honesty in all our human relationships. God, then and now, required their/our worship to be sincere not half hearted. It bears to be noted here that to engage in worship and at the same time ignore God's moral and ethical commands is not worship; it is blasphemy.
3. Put away false gods. Some of these people still had some of the false gods and they were to told to get rid of them. Does this have any application to us today? Do we have any false gods we worship? Unfortunately we do. Many, many of them. In fact they are so commonplace we never stop to think about them as false gods or idols. To name a few possessions, employment/job title, hobbies/sports, the list goes on and on. The command applies to us today. This does not mean we cannot have a good job, nice home, car and enjoy our free time . It does mean that it has to be put into proper perspective to our relationship to God. It cannot be placed in first place and God second.
Now lets continue on in Joshua chapter 24.
Verse 15. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
A very plain and simple choice was placed before the people and we have choices we have to make today. I have a couple of questions for you to consider.
1. Do you like to make choices? Yes or no.
2. How do you make choices? Flip a coin, evaluate all aspects of the situation or ask advise.
3. Does it make any differences if the results of your choice doesn't matter much or if it may matter a great deal and have a long and lasting impact on you or someone else? There was a news story the other night of a driver that choose to pass another car on a hill in a no passing zone and plowed head on into an oncoming car resulting in one death.
4. Does it make any difference if the choice involves someone or something that someone may, can or has done for you?
It seems that some of us today in this modern sophisticated world we live in have lost sight of the fact that to enter into a genuine relationship with God we have to make a deliberate choice. In the verses above Joshua told the people to get rid of the false gods. He realized that for many of these people they had known no other gods but the ones they had in their home and they were so devoted to these gods that it might seem evil to stop worshipping them. But they had to choose between them and the true God.
So again we come back to the central questions we confront today and that is the same one the Israelites faced. Will we serve God or go our own way?
This central question is whether we will choose God and God's way. God offers love and acceptance through Jesus Christ. We must choose to accept or reject that love. The world we live in today offers and encourages so may alternative lifestyles. For example lust is offered for love and money for success. If we listen we can still hear Joshua saying to us today and encouraging us : " choose this day whom you will serve, the gods of pleasure or the gods of material gain. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Many Christians today, as I do, have a plaque with these words hanging in a prominent location in our home " As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. "
It is one thing to hang a plaque in our homes but we as Christians have greater responsibility and that is to encourage others to commit their lives to the Lord. Our testimony is strong when we show our commitment to God by our lifestyle. I have often heard it said that we may be the only Bible some people will ever see.
When a decision is made there is a promise or commitment made along with it indicating that the decision will be carried out. In our discussion today certain promises were made by the Israelites. Recall back in verse 15 Joshua called on the people to choose which god they would serve and worship. Lets look now at Joshua chapter 24 verses 16 - 18
Verses 16: And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
Verse 17: For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed;
Verse 18: And the Lord drave ( drove )out from before us all the people, even the Amorites, which dwelt in the land; therefore will we also serve the Lord, for he is our God.
So the people after hearing Joshua remind them of all that God had done for them and their fathers made a deliberate decision that they would follow God. Do you see any promises made in this regard. Certainly, in verse 16 there is a very emphatic promise. " God forbid that we should forsake the Lord ". They promise to be loyal and faithful to the Lord.
Lets look at another part of this study and read Joshua 24 verses 19 and 20.
Verse 19: Joshua said to the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Verse 20: If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
Does it appear to you that Joshua was questioning the sincerity of their promise to put aside strange gods and serve only God? It appears to me that the answer is Yes. Joshua knows how fickle these people are having dealt with them for years and years personally and along side of Moses. He has seen them promise over and over again to be true to God. He has seen them go their way, get into serious trouble and come back begging to be saved from their trouble. So, yes Joshua had reason to question the validity of their promise.They must be totally committed. You know there are some relationships, take marriage for example, that require a total commitment. It is sacred and exclusive.The people's commitment must be the same.
When you consider commitments what do you see as some indications of insincere spiritual commitments? Would lack of faithfulness to commitments, absence of change in values and priorities, selfish seeking of your own recognition and praise, negative influence on others make your list. Speaking of influence have you ever thought about your influence on others? Oh yes, you do have influence on others whether you realize it or not. This influence may be positive or negative. That is, it may be a good influence or a bad influence. It is said that the most shy and quiet person in the world will influence 10,000 people over a life time. Consider your position in life you may influence many time that number of people. John Maxwell has made a career of teaching leadership and the part that influence plays in leadership.
In verse 19 above Joshua's statement that God will not forgive your sins must not be taken out of context. As long as the people were trying to serve their old gods and God they were not in a position to receive God's forgiveness. God will not forgive unrepentant sinners. God cannot ignore sins as unimportant. There is no such thing as " just a little sin " just like there is no such thing as " a little lie ". You can see just how seriously God looks at sin when you look at the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. In Jesus, God took all human sins upon Himself. Because of this we absolutely cannot take God's gracious provisions of salvation in Christ as a license to sin.
You know aren't we the same in our relationship to God. We seem to be very dedicated for a period of time then slowly drift away only to get into trouble which is always of our own making and we come running back to God asking for forgiveness and help. God wants us to stay committed to him but he does promise to forgive us when we stray away.
Lets continue by looking at Joshua Chapter 24: verse 21.
Verse 21: And the people said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord.
So here it sounds like the people are committing themselves to serve the Lord. What does it take for them to make this commitment more than just words? The same applies to us today. It takes more than just saying the right words. Declaring a commitment can be easy in fact so easy it takes no effort. The Israelites, and we as well must work and be loyal. Today christian lives don't just happen just like good marriages don't just happen. Both are the result of long term loyalty, unselfish service, sacrifice and hard work.
Let us continue in looking at Joshua Chapter 24: verses 22 - 23.
Verse 22: And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses.
Verse 23: Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.
So now when we come to where the rubber meets the road what is actually hindering the people serving the Lord? The answer is that some of the people were still serving and worshipping other gods.
In our society today we know that a person cannot be compelled to testify against himself. But, here what does it mean that the people are witnesses against themselves? It means they have freely made these commitments and knew when they did so what the consequences would be if they failed to keep their commitments. So if they did wrong they had no one to blame but themselves. They could not plead ignorance. They were in fact witnesses against themselves in the truest sense of the word.
Now we will look at Joshua chapter 24, Verse 25.
Verse 25: So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statue and an ordinance in Shechem.
What is an covenant? Today we would call it an agreement, promise, pledge or a contract.
What did this covenant Joshua made with the people represent? God made a covenant with the people when he gave them the Ten Commandments. He renewed that covenant when the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan River into Canaan and now He renewed it again as the people face the challenge of life in the promised land.
Interestingly is the fact that the covenant Joshua wrote was written on the scrolls of the five books of Moses. Shortly after this Joshua died and he was 110 years old. He was buried in the land he had chosen for his inheritance. To me the life of Joshua was a life truly lived for God. We talked earlier about influence. Consider this and the influence Joshua had on the people of Israel. The scripture tells us that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. What an influence he had and the influence of how he lived his life.
In closing lets think about our relationship to God. Remember when we started today we were talking about what is genuine and what genuine means. Try to make this personal. Is your relationship with God genuine. If not it can be by calling on God to confess your sins and asking for His forgiveness and asking Him to save you. I pray that you will do this.
I will close this as I always do by saying the God loves you and so do I.
Grandpa Bill
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