Joshua 24:1-3, 14-24: Can't Hedge Our Bets

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac

“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.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” - Joshua 24:1-3, 13-24

There are a world of options that we can choose when we look for someone we can follow. There were those chosen by those who came before us. There were those we have seen others around us take. And I guess we could tally all the pros and cons of following the Lord. Frankly, he isn't terribly visible and easy to follow. And he doesn't trade favors or take advice from me. So maybe he isn't the best choice.

My grandparents and parents did pretty good with their options. I am here and fairly healthy. So they must have done something right. 

My neighbors seem to be doing pretty good with their options, too. They have nice houses, nice cars, good jobs, beautiful families. So if I chose like they chose, I should get at least what they got and, if I'm focused, I might even do a little bit better.

The Lord tells Joshua that he is holy, he is different and really doesn't appreciate it when we flirt with other options. They can't be special at the same time when he is special. If we try to hedge our bets, he tells us to stay in the hedges.

 

Joshua 24:15: Choose For Yourselves

Within my own experience, working for a company that is based out of Taiwan, there is a chasm between the concepts about spiritual life held by most of my colleagues and the concepts about spiritual life found in the Bible. This gap will not be bridged by a basic gospel presentation because the terms are not readily intelligible.

Many of the key ideas, such as God, sin, Jesus, repentance and faith are fading into the dim cultural awareness of those in the West. We must assume that to discuss these ideas, we must introduce them.

Sometimes we look at a quote from Joshua "...then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve" (Josh. 24:15) we focus on the "this day" aspect of the choice. However, we neglect the experience of Joshua's audience (Israelis) over the preceding years whereby he could make the appeal to them. "...choose...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." They had a wealth of other spiritual alternatives they could choose from, all with ancient pedigrees, impressive achievements and persuasive prophets. But they also had been led across the Jordan River in Joshua's company. This was a process of small and large decisions in which they learned about God's story that led them to this point of decision.

We often neglect the years of process in our rush to the day of decision.

Tim Keller, in his book Center Church, says, "many people process from unbelief to faith through 'mini-decisions'." (p. 281) There is a moment of trust but also there are steps that typically bring an individual to a point of trust. In post-Christian and non-Christian cultures, the steps are often far apart in time.

Keller lists six typical steps or "mini-decisions:

1. Awareness: "I see it." They begin to clear the ground of stereotypes and learn to distinguish the gospel from legalism or liberalism, the core from the peripheral.
2. Relevance: "I need it." They begin to see the slavery of both religion and irreligion and are shown the transforming power of how the gospel works.
3. Credibility: "I need it because it's true." This is a reversal of the modern view that states, 'It's true if I need it." If people fail to see the reasonableness of the gospel, they will lack the endurance to persevere when their faith is challenged.
4. Trial: "I see what it would be like." They are involved in some sort of group life, in some type of service ministry, and are effectively trying Christianity on, often talking like a Christian-even defending the faith at times.
5. Commitment: "I take it" This may be the point of genuine conversion, or sometimes a person will realize that conversion already happened and they just didn't grasp it at the time.
6. Reinforcement: "Now I get it." Typically, this is the place where the penny drops and the gospel becomes even clearer and more real.

This is not a linear process, because relationships are not linear. But each mini-decision crosses a line where a person can imagine themselves as a Christian.

My question for myself is how to help my friends, neighbors and colleagues towards the next mini-decision. Some of it is the way I live my life. Some of it is the conversations we share. Some of it is the things we do together. All of it is intentional: Deliberately loving people.