JOSHUA 23-24 - CHOOSING TO SERVE GOD

Joshua 23-24

Joshua was the courageous leader who was called by God to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. At the end of his life, advanced in years, he wanted to leave the people with some final words (23:1-3). If you knew that your days were coming to an end, what would you say to the people you love most?  

Joshua gathered the leaders to remind them of God’s faithfulness to his people, and charged them that they should remain faithful to God. Since God was faithful to drive the inhabitant out of Canaan, the people should be diligent not to invite them back in (23:4-5). As Christians, we need to abide in the things that God has already accomplished for us. 

If we have been given something good from God, we must receive and enjoy it, and not give it up so quickly and thanklessly. 

The best way to abide in what you have received from God is to abide in his word (23:6). To abide simply means to remain in or live in. The temptation for the Israelites was to see the other nations who serve other gods, and therefore live differently than how God instructs his people, and then to try and live as they live. God calls his people not to mix with the ungodly and their gods, but to cling to God (23:7-8). 

God’s people must cling to God, which means being very careful to love the Lord your God. Being careful to cling to God, means not carelessly allowing the world to cling to you, or you to it (23:9-11). Joshua made certain to let the people know that if they clung to other nations and mixed with them that it would become a tortuous snare to them (23:12-13). 

God wants every child of his to know that compromise with sin is a torturous thing.

In all of Joshua’s reminding of God’s faithfulness and strength, the people had to make a decision. Would they serve other gods, like their ancestors, or would they serve the Lord God? Joshua made it clear whom he would be serving: But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (23:14-15). This is a decision that each person, family, and community, has to make. It starts on an individual level, but it most definitely should be done on a collective level. 

God loves when one person follows him, but his desire is for all people to follow him. God gives people many opportunities to choose him – and they should. 

As Joshua was at the end of his life and about the go the way of all the earth, which is death, he could stand confident in the choice he had made. Joshua chose to serve God. He couldn’t understand why anyone would not choose to follow God, since God had been entirely faithful. Not one word of God had failed of all the good things that he promised concerning his people. All came to pass for them; not one promise had failed. 

Knowing God’s faithfulness will make you realize why you should live your life faithfully to him. Do you know it in your heart and soul that God has been faithful? He has, but you need to know it and not doubt it. 

God promised the Israelites that if they obeyed him he would bless them, and if they disobeyed him he would curse them. He was faithful to do that. But, that was the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was the covenant that Joshua renewed at the end of his life (Joshua 24) by tracing back to all of God’s faithfulness (24:6-13), and again repeating the choice that each person needed to make about who they would serve (24:14-15). Joshua didn’t hide the seriousness of this choice to follow God. God is Holy, and so his people must be holy. The people agreed to do it and they put the covenant in writing. Joshua died at 110 years old and he was buried in the hill country of Ephraim. The people served God faithfully for a generation, but the generations that followed soon became unfaithful to the covenant. This cycle went on for centuries with Israel. 

Then God brought forth his Son, Jesus, the new and better Joshua, who established a new and better Covenant.

The New Covenant has different terms than the Old Covenant – it is established only on blessing, because Jesus took away the curse at the cross. Like Joshua, Jesus courageously lived, died, and was buried. However, Jesus was also raised from the dead; the ultimate act of faithfulness to his promises. The endless blessings of the New Covenant should make it plainly obvious whom you should serve. Today you can cling to God by clinging to the cross, and when you do he will never let you go.