Choose You This Day

Feb. 16

Read: Joshua 24:14-33

Choose You This Day

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness…choose this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (v.14,15)

“Choose this day whom you will serve.” Joshua’s declaration to the people of God is clear. What a call to action. He is calling the people to a point of inflection… a point of action… to a moment in time that will serve as a channel marker in their lives. He is calling them to choose. In a way, this is a daily question for each and every one of us. Moment by moment we must choose who we will serve. Will it be the “gods on the other side of the river and in Egypt” or will it be YHWH the Lord Most High?

Egypt is the place where the Israelites were once enslaved… trapped. While in the land, the people of Israel fell prey to the gods of Egypt. When God frees them, they flee across the Red Sea and then eventually across the Jordan River. Twice God miraculously parts the waters so his people can walk through them. God brings his people out of slavery, into freedom, onto the other side of the river. The river is this sort of boundary line between brokenness, wandering in the wilderness, slavery, and the worship of lesser gods. Christ has done the same for us. He has rescued us from our slavery to sin, death, and the devil. We too have been set free, and God has brought us across the proverbial river into the promised land of relationship with him… into his KINGDOM. So who will we serve?  Are we running back to the gods on the other side of the river… back into slavery? Or do we “fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness”?

When it comes to who we serve and worship, it seems as though we have a choice. This is not something that happens automatically. Our experience of this reality is one of making a commitment and endeavoring to serve and remain faithful. It also means doing something different than those before us. In this passage, that picture is the “fathers” :

“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…” (v.15)

Remember that these people whom Joshua is speaking to… their fathers died in the wilderness. There is a parallel here with our “old selves” in Christ. (Gal. 2:20) Our old self dies when we come to Christ and a new self is born. This new self will never find life in living the way that the old self lived. (cf. Col. 3:1-11) Joshua says the same to Israel here. “Are you going to live like your fathers lived… which is a way that led them into wandering and death even though they had been set free from the slavery of Egypt? Or are you going to live fearing the Lord and faithfully serving him in this new land of promise?” There is no fullness of life to be found for Israel in living like their fathers did on the other side of the river… and there is no life to be found living like your old self after crossing into newness of life on Christ. (cf. Rom. 6:4)

Who will you serve today? Who will you lead your household and those around you into serving? Who will you worship? You have a choice. When we are set free in Christ, but choose to serve the gods of the old self we end up dying in the wandering-wilderness despite having been set free. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Let go of the idols… the gods of Egypt… the gods of the people around you… and sincerely and faithfully choose to serve God Most High. If you have a “household”, lead them in this way. “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” Love you guys. - JDP