Joshua Chapter 24 (ESV)
Choose Whom You Will Serve
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.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.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
Joshua’s Death and Burial
29 After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. 30 And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.
31 Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.
MEDITATION:
Joshua gave his people the choice to serve the God who had chosen, liberated, and provided for them or to fall back into worship of the false gods of their ancestors on the side of the Euphrates before God called Abraham. In v15, Joshua declared his intention to serve the Lord and told the people to choose whom they would serve. This choice is the one for us as well; we must “choose this day whom we will serve”. If we choose false gods, such lapses today are a reversion to what we too had once been but for the grace of God.
Meditate on the phrase, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” What does it mean for a family to “serve the Lord”? Where should we begin? When? How? Use this song Hi-Ne-Ni as your response to God’s calling you through Joshua.
PRAYER:
The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. You will honor those who honor You, but those who despise You will be disdained. (Num 18:20, Josh 24:15, 1 Sam 2:30)