Joshua 24:14-18 * July 12, 2009 * Pentecost 6 * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

He grew up at a time when his people were suffering under the oppression of forced slavery. His constant prayer during those years would have been the same as all his people – that the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would liberate them from Egyptian bondage.

As a young man, he saw those prayers answered. Through His servant Moses and with a display of powerful plagues and miracles God led his people out of Egypt. This young man was one of approximately two million strong that streamed into the desert and headed for a home they had never seen.

A little later on, as the Israelites neared the Promised Land that God would one day give them, he was chosen from his tribe to be one of twelve spies who were to enter this unknown land, gather intelligence on it, and report back to his leaders. Ten of those spies brought back negative reports and expressed fear that this great land could never be conquered. Only he and one other expressed confidence that with the Lord’s help it could indeed be done.

Through his unflagging faith and courage he rose in honor and status among his people and later became their God-appointed leader. He is among the Great Old Testament Cloud of Witnesses whose life and story God has preserved for our instruction and encouragement. The “he” we are talking about is

JOSHUA, SOLDIER OF THE LORD AND SUCCESSOR OF MOSES

Joshua’s remarkable life was filled with excitement, variety, success and honor. If his obituary had been written in one of our present day newspapers he would probably be described as a grizzled veteran of foreign wars; a man among men who naturally commanded the respect of those around him; a fearless leader whose implicit faith and trust in God must be considered exemplary for all believers who followed him. And that includes us.

Joshua was many things, but we most associate him with is the conquest of the Promised Land. As a military man Joshua must have given thousands upon thousands of orders to his people. Some were routine, but others were breathtaking in their manner and scope.

For example, it was Joshua, instructed by God, who commanded the people to march around the city of Jericho for seven days and on that last day to shout. The strategy was unorthodox, but effective – because the walls came tumbling down.

It was Joshua, instructed by God, who ordered his people into battle against many an enemy who were wrongfully encroaching on the land God had promised Israel and whose wickedness and vileness was not only an abomination to a holy God, but a very real spiritual threat to God’s people. In Joshua chapter 12 you can read for yourself the list of 31 kings Joshua defeated at God’s direction and with God’s help. That’s a lot of campaign. A lot of orders given…

But it can safely be said that of all the orders General Joshua gave during his lifetime, none were more important than the ones we have before us in our text for today. What we read just moments ago is a portion of aged Joshua’s farewell address to his people. In it he issues his final orders followed by a bold and beautiful personal confession of faith. Let’s walk our way through it:

Try to visualize the scene in your mind’s eye. We see an old man who, from the looks of it, has put on some pretty hard miles. We can imagine his weathered face resembling a road map etched into tanned leather. But his eyes are clear, his back is straight, and his voice is strong. And he clearly has something on his mind.

So he calls together all the leaders and people of influence among the Israelites. Then he speaks. Beginning with their forefather Abraham, he reviews all that God had done for them. He wants them to know that it was God and God alone who brought them to this rich and abundant land they now called home. Knowing man’s propensity for taking credit where none is due, he makes it very clear that their position in life was not a matter of human achievement, but God’s grace. And then he issues his final two orders.

The first one is this: ¹⁴ "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. To fear the Lord in this context does not mean be scared of Him or terrified of Him. He is talking to people who have seen direct and irrefutable evidence of the Lord’s work in their lives. To fear the Lord means to rightfully respond to Him by treating Him with reverence and respect and honor.

And giving Him faithful service. When Joshua says they are to serve Him, he is calling for single-mindedness in their devotion. Joshua recognizes the spiritual landscape of their times and that there are other things and other so called (but not real) “gods” that have vied and will vie for their attention. So he gives his second order:

Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

He reminds them that in times past their forefathers had allowed themselves to fall into idolatry and the worship of gods spelled with a little “g.” The incident of the Golden Calf comes to mind. The point: Remove, get rid of, distance yourselves from anything that will conflict with your single-minded devotion and service to the One True God.

Were some Israelites, influenced by the heathen nations they rubbed shoulders with, living in two spiritual worlds? Were they perhaps still carrying around with them little idols, like modern day good luck charms – a temptation, by the way, our foreign missionaries still deal with today? If they were, Joshua says make a clean break now. Throw them away now.

Joshua continues. He moves away from making a command to giving his people a choice. Not in the sense that the choices he presents are equal. They aren’t. But by the very suggestion of it he calls his people to examine themselves: ¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

And then this bold and beautiful personal confession of faith: But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

What was the response to these words? 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 fathers 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 refreshingly clear thinking on the Israelites’ part. What brought them to this conviction was something really quite simple. They remembered. Specifically, they remembered how God had taken care of them. They based their future on the past. And they, too, make a bold and beautiful confession of faith.

There are a couple of things we can take away from this incident in the life of Joshua and apply to our lives today.

First of all, what Joshua (actually God through Joshua) asked of his people then is nothing less than God asks of His people in any age. As Christians it is both our duty and, more accurately, our privilege to honor the Lord who has done so much for us by willingly and faithfully placing ourselves in and at His service.

Furthermore, we as Christians are to also throw away anything that hinders our single-minded devotion to our God. The Israelites dealt with idols of wood and stone. The idols of our culture are different but no less real. We live in a society that idolizes self and things and ambition and comfort and seeks to elevate them to the very top of importance in one’s life.

So there is a warning in Joshua’s words. It is this: Life is full of choices. But not all choices in how we use our time and our money and our energies are equal. We need to be on guard lest unsuspectingly we, like Israel of old, get drawn into the culture that surrounds us and begin to adapt its ways and values. Periodically we need to honestly examine ourselves – to “gut check” ourselves, if you will.

If God gives us the courage to discover that maybe we are blending in too well with the world around us or that we are failing to be distinct before a watching world; if we find that the world is having a greater influence on us than the Word; if we find ourselves defining ourselves by what we have rather than who we are – we need to heed these words of Joshua and make the proper adjustments.

The good news is that this incident also provides us with a simple strategy for making those adjustments. All we need to do is what Israel did: remember.

What shall we remember? Remember the cross of Christ and what it means for us now and eternally. Remember the ways God has taken care of us in the past. Remember His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. Remember that we are never alone but that He is with us always, to the very end of the age.

When we remember those things honor and service and love for God do not become issues in our lives. They become the fabric of our lives. And we will find ourselves echoing the confession of Joshua as well as the response of the people: We, too, will serve the Lord because he is our God.

In keeping with the military theme, perhaps we can put it this way: As soldiers of the cross we haven’t been conscripted into forced service; through the power of the Holy Spirit who has opened our eyes to see and our ears to hear and understand the grand and glorious Gospel message, we willingly and gladly enlist ourselves into voluntary service. And if there is a price to pay for allegiance to Christ, and if indeed we find ourselves at war with the morals and values of the world around us, so be it. Nothing we endure for Him compares to what He endured for us.

Before we close there is perhaps one more lesson the story of Joshua calls to mind. It is a more sweeping lesson that really reminds us of the central teaching of all Scripture.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of John we read: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” We rightfully associate Moses with the Law. He was the one who received the Ten Commandments. He was the divinely inspired author of the first five books of the Old Testament that are oftentimes simply referred to as “the Law.”

But while Moses the Lawgiver could take his people to the brink of the Promised Land, he couldn’t lead them into it. And we are reminded that the Law – that is our own personal performance and our own attempts to keep all of God’s commands as a way of entering the Promised Land – cannot save us.

So who will lead us? Some 3500 years ago it was Joshua who took God’s people there. The name Joshua, incidentally, means “the Lord saves.” 1500 years later a baby born in Bethlehem was given the same name. We know him better by its Greek rendering: Jesus. And He is the One who through His life, death and resurrection takes us into the Promised Land of life eternal with God in heaven.

We know where we’re going. Until then, General Joshua’s confession serves well as a motto for each of us: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Amen.