6/9/13. Joshua 24:1-33.  CHOOSE FOR YOURSELVES – my devotional

Joshua 24:1-33                                                                                    Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 24:15                                                                                6/9/13

“¹⁵ 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.”

    Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for getting me through a very tough three weeks with added shifts and physical hardships etc. Indeed you give me strength day by day. Thank you for the joy you give even in the midst of  hardships. Thank you for empowering your people. Help us to live for your glory in this world, depending on you fully. I pray for the upcoming trip to NW Ontario. I pray that you may open our eyes to your vision. Please help us to grow in love for the people of the region. Call us onto your will. I also pray for the upcoming UBF International Summer Conference. Please raise up missionaries among the new generation. Help the whole ministry to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Please grant me one word of God through this passage. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: Joshua’s Message And Decision (1-15)

In this passage Joshua reviewed the pure grace of God. In his review, we see, in a general way, how God works in the lives of individuals and people groups who turn their hearts to the Lord. Look at verses 1-13, “Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. ² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, ⁴ and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt. ⁵ “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. ⁶ When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen^[a] as far as the Red Sea. ⁷ But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸ “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. ⁹ When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. ¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.¹¹ “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. ¹² I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. ¹³ So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

Joshua assembled the people and reviewed what God had done. God called Abraham and gave him countless descendants. God sent Moses to deliver them, and when the Egyptians pursued, God opened the Red Sea before them. He was with them in the desert. He gave them victory over the Amorites on the east bank of the Jordan. He turned Balak’s curses into blessings. God drove out the Canaanites and gave them cities which they did not build and vineyards which they did not plant. God poured out his grace on them.

This is one of my favorite passages. It is so victorious and within the verses it reveals how God works in peoples’ hearts. For me it truly confirms the teachings of the Bible on how asalcvtion ujnfilds ikn a person’s life, for God has worked in similar ways in my life. My ancestors worshipped other gods. The worshipped the gods of Canada, money, unlimited human freedom, family life (apart for Christ), ceaseless traveling. Jesus was not part of the picture. I basically developed into a  true worshipper of such gods and became a hedonistic young man and a slave to all kinds of vices. If it were not for Christ, I would have continually been part of the deception throughout my life and all things would have come to a crashing halt the moment I ran out of money, or the moment I became weakened by failing health and the moment and the moment I would be left all alone; especially the moment when I closed my eyes in death. Then I would hve to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account on how I lived my life.

But Jesus intervened before it was too late. He called me when I was 22 years old. He forgave me of all of my sins and called me to be his child and his servant. I received eternal life with my Savior, Jesus, forever. He freed me from idol worship, the gods my ancestors worshipped, and he called me to bear much fruit. In 1992 he helped Julie and I to marry. He sent 5 beautiful kids to be part of our lives. There will be many descendants I am sure. There are spiritual descendents in our lives as well. By God’s grace I can leave a heritage of faith in this world that will extend beyond my years. Jesus came to save sinners such as I, from our slavery to sin and death. He sent shepherds into my live to come along side me in my spiritual walk. He sent all that I need to be set free from all that assails my heart and my soul so that I could live for the glory of God and march victoriously into the Kingdom of God.

There were many “desert experiences” in the 27 years that I have been a disciple of Jesus. There was five years of family persecution, the demands of raising 5 little kids, the years of being a steward of a house church with only a couple of other leaders other than my family, the years of change and family struggles. These are all desert experiences. But Jesus has brought me through it all into “green pastures and quiet waters.” Now he is leading me to ministry where I am completely free to exercise the gifts that Jesus has given me and my family with no restrictions. There is the support of church, a missions agency, other Christians in the community, and the Holy Spirit himself. To me this is like being led into a land “…which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” (13b)

Ultimately the land that I did not toil for and build is the glorious and everlasting kingdom of God. I have a heavenly hope to have a room in the mansion of God, in the New Jerusalem, not built by human hands. This is the ultimate land that I am entering given to me as God’s wonderful gift. Jesus went on ahead to prepare a room in his father’s house. Thank you Jesus for this eternal land.

Jesus promises to go on ahead of me. Verse 12a, “¹² I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you…”  I have seen this in our pursuit to participate in Native ministry in NW Ontario. The people are not the barriers, but there are spiritual barriers, doubts, mistrust, closed doors, fear and other spiritual elements that are keeping us from fulfilling the 10 year long prayer topic. Many were skeptical that doors could be open. But Jesus is going on before us. After one year of knocking and seeking and asking, many, many doors are being flung wide open. Jesus is going on a head of us. He will go on ahead of the family and ministry to keep opening doors and ushering victory into our lives.

There is the healthy, natural response to God’s grace. What is it? Look at verses 14-15, “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ 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.”

What should we do when we are touched by the grace of God? It is grace. It is a free gift.  Simply repent of unbelief, believe and accept it. Then God will do the rest by his Spirit. This is kind of hard to accept. We want to say, “God forgave you now you must do this to remain in that state of grace. Change your life according to my standard.” Whole books are written on the subject and I don’t want to get into it. But on a rudimentary level, a response should be to thank God. We should place of hope, faith and love in Jesus Christ. But it is the free gift, just accept it.

But if we must seek after some healthy responses that we might see in people who receive the grace of God with a pure and tender heart then I can see five responses in this passage to the grace of God in our lives.

First, those touched by the grace of God need to fear the Lord.  This does not mean to be afraid of the Lord. It is not walking around thinking that God is going to lower the boom on you any minute for sins you have committed. It means to have a respect for God and have a deep desire to do what is right in his eyes. It involves wanting to please the Lord out of gratitude and knowledge of his greatness.

Second, those who have been touched by the grace of God should serve Jesus with all faithfulness. We should have this goal. Before meeting Jesus we basically served ourselves and our own needs. Everything was about me, myself and I. But after Jesus saved us we need to change our “modus operandi”, “mode of operation”.  The motive of what we do must be to serve our Lord Jesus and build up the kingdom of God. The Bible says that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do it all for the glory of God.  (    )

We are called to serve in all faithfulness? Can we serve with all faithfulness? Not really. We are faithful to feed ourselves and take care of basic needs. But we tend to give up serving the Lord. People can serve the Lord in various degrees. I could decide to live as a campus shepherd for 26 years. That is a quarter century. I gave it my best shot but I gave it up to follow God’s leading in other ways. I try to be faithful to devotions and prayer and the gym and my work. I try to be a faithful dad and husband, but I drift towards isolation. My faithfulness eventually gives way. I cannot serve Jesus faithfully. We can pray for God to help us be a little more faithful today than yesterday. But we are basically unfaithful creatures. That is why we need God’s help to be faithful. We can depend his faithfulness and power, then we can be faithful to Jesus all the way to the kingdom of God.

Third, those touched by the grace of God should throw away the gods their ancestors worshiped.  When Jesus comes into your life, it is a time to get rid of idols that guided your life in the past. I needed to get rid of my gods of hedonism, of loving money, of self love etc and make Jesus my all in all.

Forth, those touched by the grace of God, must choose for themselves, without tarrying, whom they will serve. God calls us to make a choice. We need to choose to serve Jesus according to our calling in life. A child of God must make that choice, “Today” and not wait forever to make a choice to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. A person that waits and waits to give their hearts to Jesus is playing with fire. A person does not know when they will die. They do not know when a crisis will come crashing into their lives, like marriage strife, sickness, accident, loss of finances of child crisis’. Also think about all those wasted years only thinking about self. You just don’t know when. And so to wait and do it “today” is actually foolish.  Today is the day of salvation! (    )

Fifth, those touched by the grace of God must dedicate their families to serving the Lord. Joshua who declared, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” I want to dedicate my life and my family to serve the Lord. We used to serve the Lord together, in a very unified and structured way. But the kids got older and we were not all in agreement. It was not easy to dedicate our family to serve the Lord any longer. It does not mean that I, as a Christian father am helpless to dedicate my family. No I am not. I can still dedicate. I can make my home a Christian home. I can pray for my kids. I can exude a Christian influence towards my family. I can off my family’s future to the Lord, that he may work in all our members by his spirit. I n this way, I can dedicate my family to serving the Lord, even if all are not in agreement.

Craig Smith, in his book, “Whiteman’s Gospel” referred to this passage when he tried to reveal the choices that face the Native people today. He states that Joshua presented his people with three choices, to serve the gods of their ancestors, or serve the gods of the land they now live or to serve the Lord.  Joshua pressed his people to make a decision, “If you are going to do it then do it.” (p. 133) Smith states that the deeper one goes into traditional, ancestral worship the more a person must be willing to sacrifice in order to attain to some power, one gets more into it and there is a price to pay to whoever we end up serving. He get the read to ponder the questions, do Natives believe that just because their people did certain things in the past, that these things are automatically right? He refers to the practice of his own people (the Ojibwe) to roast their enemies over fire until they “pucker up”. Do we evaluate spirituality only from a Native perspective or do we evaluate it in the context of all the communities of the world who were created by one God, the Creator? Does traditional worship bring great peace or keep people in fear? Where will the gods that traditionalists serve, leading them? Do they offer assurance of eternal life? He calls Native people to ask themselves these questions.

What about serving the gods of the land? Canada is filled with many powerful and yet false gods. Worshipping these false gods is seriously wrong. They are subtle and they bind people who choose to worship them. The Baals and Ashtoreths of Canaan have moved to North America and take different forms. (p. 136)

The obvious choice according to Smith, is to serve the lord. “There is really no other option!” (p. 146) The soul of Native people is being attacked from many fronts and they are at cross roads in their spiritual journey. He says eternal salvation will come when Native people surrender their lives to the one the Bible says is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  (John 14:6) Jesus is our only hope. (p. 147) We need repentance, which is a deep sigh and turning our direction. (p.149)  This is true for any culture.

Part 2: A Covenant With God (16-33)

The people responded very well. They were so eager to come to the Lord. Look at verses 16-18, “¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! ¹⁷ 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 traveled. ¹⁸ 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.”

      This is every missionary’s dream…a whole hearted response by the general populace. They made their decision because of pure motives. “Far be it from us” revealed a sense of honor and dignity in their hearts. They knew what it meant to make the right choice. Their hearts were moved by the grace of God. They knew of God’s deliverance and power through personal experience.  For them there was no other choice to make. They were also humble to follow Joshua’s family’s lead. Yes there are people who would refuse to believe and serve simply because they were not the first to decide. But these people were humble.

Joshua gave them full disclosure concerning the decision they had made. he wanted them to be fully aware of their spiritual condition. Look at verses 19-22, “ Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” ²¹ But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” ²² Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.”  Why make them fully aware about what was their hearts were like and who God is? They needed to know themselves and decide if they were all in or not. They needed to be fully aware of their weaknesses and learn to depend on God. After they understood the full picture, they all made an informed consent together, ““No! We will serve the Lord.”  We need tto know how weak we are in the face of temptation and sin and make a decision based on holding onto the grace of our Lord Jesus.

     Joshua helped them to make a decision of faith, something practical so that they may mature and grow. Look at verses 23-28, “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” ²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. ²⁶ And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. ²⁷ “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.”

       He got them to repent of their sin of idol worship and show that repentance practically by throwing away all of their foreign gods. He also got them to make a covenant. This is the difference between a couple living together and actually getting married. There is a difference.  It is like closing the back door of a house so that someone cannot slip away. When the people declared that they too would serve the Lord, Joshua warned them that this was a dangerous decision. If they indulged in idolatry after having covenanted with God, it would be disastrous. But the people decided, and the covenant was sealed. The author of Hebrews warns about similar things about a believer turning to the world. It is like crucifying the Son of Man all over again. (Heb 6:  ) When Joshua was satisfied of their sincerity in their c decision making, he sent the people back home to carry on living by faith in Lord their God.

Joshua is buried in the Promised Land reflecting his eternal hope in God. Look at verses 29-33, “²⁹ After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ³⁰ And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah ^]in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ³¹ Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel. ³² And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants. ³³ And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.”

He was one in a line of forefathers who felt it important for their bones to be buried n the Promised Land. Joshua had faith in the promises of God and he He was buried in the land of his inheritance. This decision really reflected his faith. A person’s death can really make a statement. Where you choose to be buried will tell future generations of one’s hope and commitment.  Our decisions we make concerning important events in our life should reveal our faith in the God and his promised in our lives. For Julie and I, moving to Chicago and DeKalb, marrying by faith, raising our family in DeKalb reveal where our heart is. Where we choose our burial plot to be will also reveal our faith too.  I respect the UBF missionaries. They have found their mission field and they want their bones to buried in the mission field. One wife buried some hair of her husband on the campus he was serving with the Gospel for many years. I frequently heard the expression, “bury your bones there.”

Joshua’s influence lasted a lifetime and beyond. Look at verse 31 again, “³¹ Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.” The nation served the Lord beyond his death. For many servants of God, the fruit of their labors are brought forth after their death. I pray that my kids and my Bible students will serve Jesus even after I leave this world. We all pray for the fruit of our ministry to carry on well after our deaths. And it will, because Jesus will make it so. We pray that the seeds we planted in our years at NIU will bear fruit. We pray that the seeds of pray for NW Ontario will bear abundant fruit for years to come. May the legacy of Frank and Maria Drown’s ministry continue to bear fruit even as they approach the end of their lives on earth.

Prayer: Lord, help me to respond to our grace and keep my covenant with you.

One Word: Choose this day whom you will serve