Joshua 24
“Thus says the
Lord.” When Joshua gathered the people one last time to give them
his final message, it was not the word of Joshua alone that came to
their ears. God spoke through this great leader of Israel, and He
Himself reviewed for them all His mighty acts of deliverance,
beginning with Terah, the father of Abraham, who “served other
Gods.”
God had led Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and his sons. God sent Moses and Aaron. God fought
against every enemy and had now brought them into this great land as
He had promised to do so long ago.
Then Joshua applied
the word of the Lord to their current situation and called upon all
Israel to worship the Lord alone, and to put away foreign gods that
they still had among them, and to truly serve the Lord. If they were
unwilling to have a wholehearted devotion to the God who had worked
such great wonders for them, then they should just serve the false
gods of the Syrians, or the Egyptians, or the Canaanites. This was
Joshua's surprising challenge. He would not give up on this line of
reasoning until they had affirmed solemnly for themselves that they
were willingly committing their lives to serve the Lord.
In this message
Joshua noted that they still had other gods after all these
centuries. He said that they were not able to serve the Lord. He told
them that if they pledged to serve the Lord now but then turned away
from Him that it would bring about great disaster for them. But the
people insisted that they would serve the Lord.
He called on them as
witnesses of one another to their full commitment as a people to
serve the Lord. He urged them to put away all their foreign idols,
and to obey the voice of the Lord, their God. They made that
wholehearted commitment in this time of covenant renewal. This
important event was recorded in writing and Joshua set up a stone as
a witness. “This stone shall be a witness against us, for it has
heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it
shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”
Joshua died shortly
after this covenant renewal. But the people were faithful to the Lord
in the immediate years that followed. The story of the nation's
decline will be told in Judges, the next book. For now, we hear the
word of challenge to the people of Israel, and we do what we must
every time we meet together in solemn assembly. We reaffirm our own
commitment to the God of Israel, and to His Son, Jesus Christ, who
has gone before us into the Promised Land of heaven. He lives
forever, and is our constant reminder of His promises to us, and our
pledge to serve the Lord.
We sense our own
mixed record of disobedience and obedience; of faithlessness and
faithfulness, and we are ashamed. But if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
As the Lord is our
ever-present help, we join Joshua in his determination, in as much as
it depends upon us, “As for me and my household, we will serve the
Lord.” What is shocking is this: that when our bones are buried
like the ancient remains of Joseph, and our lives go to be with the
Lord in that better existence above, we will not hear a mixed report
of our failures and partial victories. We will hear a resoundingly
good report of our obedience as seen through the perfect holiness of
our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Well done, thou good and
faithful servant!” What a great day that will be, when all that is
partial and incomplete now must give way to what is full and perfect
in the land where our Messiah reigns forever and ever.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home