Made to serve.
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” // Joshua 24:14-15
This text is very interesting to me because it reveals a challenge in the human component regarding faithfulness and dependability. In Exodus 24, the people of God had heard the words and laws of the Lord and had agreed that they would be faithful to these laws and to God (the LORD).
When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do” (v.3).
In essence they said, “we will be the people of God; we will be completely devoted to God.” OK, that sounds awesome. These people are determined to follow God and serve him completely. Every Sunday we approach worship and meeting with God’s people by espousing that same ideology: “we will serve God.”
And as a kid, I grew up thinking that these Israelites were stalwart in their service to God. They were to be admired and looked up to. After all, they conquered the Promised Land under the careful watch and provision of the LORD. It seemed like, with a few exceptions, they were completely devoted to God. But then Joshua pipes up with these words:
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ” // Joshua 24:14
What is Joshua saying and why does this matter? Does it have anything to do with us?
Here is what Joshua is sharing: the Israelites had a devotion to God that did set them apart from all the other nations, including the nations that had been a part of Canaan where they were now living. But they had wandering eyes; their devotion to God contained some old baggage. They were still carrying something along with this fervor and devotion to God. They saw God give them victory after victory, and they did have a staunch loyalty God. But they also harbored a taste and a devotion for other gods and it acted like a nagging sense of longing from their past. Joshua locks onto this and even names it for them so that they would know about this internal struggle. Joshua names two categories of “gods.”
The one category is “the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River” (v.14). This refers to the gods that Abraham and Sarah worshiped before God called them out of Ur in Genesis 12. These were probably gods related to the moon, the sun, the stars, etc.
For our own context, we could call these the “original gods.” These “gods” are the default setting of the human heart. In our world, these might be the gods of possessions, money, body and beauty, pleasure, success, power, and intellect. You may not even recognize your adherence to these attractive sensations, but they (or something similar to them) are those original gods which we subconsciously serve.
Then Joshua talks about another set of gods—the gods they worshiped in Egypt. These gods were “learned.” As the Israelites became more and more settled into the culture of Egypt, they learned by osmosis an adherence to the gods of Egypt.
It’s a very natural thing to take on cultural sensitivities. And what happened to the Israelites happens to all humans. We have a set of “gods” that come with us from our birth, but we also “learn” to love another set of “gods.” We long after certain things like beauty and financial security, instant gratification, or pleasurable pursuits.
We can love God and also adopt the servitude to an additional set of gods that come from our culture. What would be the cultural gods of 21st century America? Would they be status, ease of living, freedom from exhausting work, devotion to television or media distraction, independence, family, dominance, complacency, or autonomous freedom?
What are “gods” by definition? “Gods” are those wellsprings from which we attempt to draw out meaning, richness, and purpose for living. They give us a reason to get out of bed in the morning. They drive us along and cause us to pursue certain careers or certain lifestyles. If family is our “god,” then we strive to gain all our meaning and happiness from the success and closeness of our family. Our gods could be success, achievement, status, allure, pleasure - all of which are good pursuits. But the dangerous crossover is when we move from enjoying these things to recklessly pursuing them despite the costs.
I’m not writing this to be an alarmist but to simply point out the reality of my human heart and your human heart. Our hearts are naturally inclined to serve “gods” from conception on. It is the natural default of our hearts.
Joshua presents a choice to the people of Israel and to us. Choose today whom you will serve. We are to elect or decide today, where will our allegiance be solidified. Where will we devote our time, our energy, and our giving? Where will our free time be sacrificed? What will be the goal of our life’s greatest pursuits? Will it be for God the LORD or for one of these lesser gods?
Joshua is giving us an alarming and freeing alternative to serving the default gods of our human nature, and he is saying we can safely navigate the rocky roads of our culture by choosing a god, the God, who stands out among all the rest. This God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the incarnate version of the LORD from the Old Testament.
Joshua chooses to serve this God, the LORD. “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). This God is personal. This God is not fluctuating in character. This God is not going to swallow you up when you can’t measure up. This God is there in good times and in harrowing times. This God will not leave when we disappoint him; he draws closer. This God will not allow us to be squashed under the weight of his power—he uses his power to uphold us and protect us.
David Foster Wallace, one of the most promising writers of the late 20th century, writes it this way: “pretty much anything else you [serve] will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. “ (link)
Joshua calls us to make a decision as believers. Will we pursue a deeper and more personal connection to a loving and forgiving God (Jesus Christ)? Or will we continue to assume that there is no other devotion in our hearts. The human heart is fickle and obscure; it is petty and seductive in its ability to hide its allures from us. But Joshua does not want us to be duped. Stand up today and realize you have other gods festering in your heart and life. Stand up today, with God’s deep, strong promises to strengthen you. Stand up today and pursue the God of faithful and abounding love for you.
Whom will you serve? “As for me and my house,” Joshua says, “we will serve the LORD.”
Blessings,
Pastor Al