Joshua 22-24
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).
We have had Joshua’s unwavering words prominently “plaqued” in our home since the boys were babes. We wanted them—and anyone else who entered the house—to know our Priority. And we wanted to remind ourselves, as well. This was the theme verse for our wedding—and it is the theme verse for our marriage.
What we have done on a small, family-sized scale, Joshua did on a massive national scale.
Long after the Lord had given them “rest on every side (Joshua 21:44; 23:1),” and a certain amount of security in their new land, and after a major misunderstanding had been cleared up (Joshua 22:10-34), old Joshua summoned all Israel to Shechem, a city that lay between Mounts Ebal and Gerazim, where the Covenant of Blessings and Curses had been enacted years earlier. There, Joshua called the people to renew the Covenant. Chapters 23 and 24 contain some powerful exhortations that culminate with Joshua 24:14-15:
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region 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.
Would that families and churches everywhere would join in truth with the ancient Jews who cried, “We will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:18, etc.)
But what Joshua said to them is true for us: You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God (Joshua 24:19).
Their (and our) inability to save ourselves is yet another Old Testament cry for a Savior!
Until tomorrow, when we begin the sad cycle of Judges,
Pastor Gary
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