Scripture Daily

Context No. 829 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 24:14-18: in context

14“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve the LORD. 15If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” 16The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 17for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed. 18The LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD; for he is our God.”

At the very end of his life, Joshua gathers all Israel at Shechem for one last charge, and he will not let them stay comfortably undecided. Fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, he says, and put away the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt. And then he presses them into a choice they cannot dodge. If it seems bad to you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served or the gods of the land you now live in. He lays the real alternatives on the table, the ancestral gods and the local gods, and demands a decision, today, not someday.

And he does not wait to see which way the crowd leans before committing himself. But as for me and my house, he says, we will serve the LORD. His own choice is made and staked out loud, regardless of what anyone else decides. That is the thing this scene keeps asking of everyone who reads it. Serving God is not a default you drift into or a background setting that runs on its own; it is a choice, made deliberately, and made again. The people answer well, remembering all God has done and vowing to serve him too. Joshua will even warn them, in the next breath, that this is not a decision to make lightly. But the summons stands over the whole passage: stop wavering in the middle, and choose, today, whom you will serve.

Joshua refused to let the people drift, and made his own choice out loud: as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Have I actually decided whom I serve, deliberately and today, or am I quietly drifting in the undecided middle?

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