A Decision of the Heart Joshua 24:1-25
The prime minister of Israel sat down with the leader of the Arab nations with the intention of negotiating an end to their long drawn out conflict. The prime minister asked if he could begin by recounting a story and the Arab leader very politely said, "Of course, go ahead." So, he said, "Years before the Israelites came to the Promised Land and settled there, Moses led them for 40 years through the desert and during this period, the Israelites began to complain that they were thirsty. Lo and behold, a miracle occurred and a stream appeared before them. They not only drank their fill but they also began to bathe their dusty bodies in the stream but when Moses came out of the water, he noticed that his clothes were missing."
"’Who took my clothes?’" demanded Moses. "’It was the Palestinians,’" replied the Israelites. Well, at that point, the Arab leader objected and he said, "Wait a minute. There were no Palestinians during the time of Moses." "Precisely," replied the prime minister. "Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s begin our negotiations."
“And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the LORD God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. And when they cried unto the LORD, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: but I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not, do ye eat.
Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; for the LORD our God, He it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: and the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for He is our God.
And Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the LORD: for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that He hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, nay; but we will serve the LORD. And Joshua said unto the people, ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, the LORD our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.”
A person’s last words are always considered to be important. Oscar Wilde, once said on his deathbed, "Either this wallpaper goes or I do" and he died. And then Woody Allen said " I don`t mind dying, I just don`t want to be there when it happens". So some are comical and others are more profound. Lord Palmerson said, "Die? My dear doctor, that’s the last thing I shall do!" Or Dominique Bouhours, the French grammarian said, “I am about to--or I am going to--die; either expression is correct.” I like what Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary said, “Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.” And then there was a dentist had this on his tombstone, “Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity." And finally, on Matthew Mudd’s headstone was, “Here lies Matthew Mudd, death did him no hurt; when alive he was only Mudd, but now he’s only dirt."
So, there are some who face the subject of death either with humor or the desire to be remembered but when we see the last words of Jesus we notice they were words of complete faith when He said, “Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit.” He knew He would rise again, and even though He felt He was facing eternal separation, He was saying, "Father, I trust you, no matter what."
And here in chapter 24 we have the last words of Joshua and what he’s doing is telling the people who’ve gathered that everyone has to make a choice in life and this choice will impact not only the rest of their time on earth but also where they’re going to spend eternity.
And in verse 1 we find that everybody is gathered at a place called Shechem and don’t confuse this with Shackem because that’s down by Frosty Hollow but this was Shechem and it says Joshua called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they all came and presented themselves before the Lord.
Shechem was known as one of the cities of refuge and a city of refuge was a place where if someone had accidentally killed someone else he could go there to escape the vengeance of either outraged relatives or friends. And the person would stay there until a trial took place to determine whether or not he was guilty or innocent. You see, a city of refuge wasn’t somewhere you went to escape from justice, but it was the place where justice was done. So, that’s where they were gathered and in the first 13 verses we see the reason they were there.
I And it begins with Joshua’s call.
And he calls on the people to make a decision about God and this decision actually has three components or three parts. And he begins with a call for them to remember the faithfulness of God. And he starts by reflecting on the history of the nation in terms of what God had called them to do and how they had responded to this call.
And what he does here is to share a bit of a history lesson and this was a very common practice among the Jews. Do you remember the long passage in Acts chapter 7 when Stephan was on trial before the Jewish council and he stood to make his defense; and what he did was to go through the entire history of Israel and as he went through this he pointed out the faithfulness of God and then the failure of the people and while he did this even those who were about to kill him sat there quietly and listened very carefully because they loved to hear their history.
I like how one philosopher said, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." And so, Joshua wants these people not only to remember their history but he wants to drive home the lessons they should have learned from it as well.
And here he says, there are four things they should have learned.
And he begins by quoting God who said, “I took Abraham” and what God was making clear was that ‘Abraham didn’t go looking for God and find a new religion but it was God who came looking for him’ and Abraham’s meeting with God was much more than some kind of a religious experience because it transformed his life both for time and eternity.
So, when Abraham met God, it was God who first spoke to Abraham and the same thing happens with us. Listen to what Jesus told His disciples in the New Testament when He said, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” And then Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1 that we are, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world" and if you were chosen before you were ever born than what would that decision have to do with you? Then we’re called "God’s elect" in Romans 8:33 and Titus 1:1 and the word elect means that we were called and chosen for a specific purpose. As a matter of fact, Romans 8:29-30 Paul refers to "those" whom God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. And remember, God did all that.
John would later write in his epistle, "We love God because He first loved us." Now listen, I don’t care what position you hold to or what doctrine you’ve been taught in the past, because the word of God is very clear; God takes the very first step in our salvation. In other words, God saved us and when did He do this? It says, He did this before the foundation of the world which means He chose to save you before you were born physically, so, you had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
But, on the other hand, listen, each of us has to come to the place of salvation by repenting of our sin and trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior and if we don’t, then we can’t be saved. So, what God has done before the foundation of the world we confirm by our decision to receive Him.
When people hear about these two doctrines they point out a seeming contradiction regarding our will as to whether or not it’s free but listen, this issue is only contradictory in our minds. It makes complete sense to God. So, these two doctrines, our election by God and our human responsibility for salvation are clearly taught in scripture and anyone who says they understand how these work together don’t really understand these doctrines but God understands them completely and the best thing we can do is to leave them with Him until He chooses to explain them to us. So, the first point Joshua makes is that God took Abraham.
And then second, he also wanted the people to remember, what God did for them in terms of how He brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And remember this was not only a long but also a very difficult journey. I mean, the Egyptian army chased them part way and then they all drowned in the Red Sea, and then through their disobedience the nation spent forty years wandering in the desert and even after they crossed the Jordan River there were several battles they won but remember they lost the second battle which took place at Ai where thirty-six men had died because of Achan’s sin.
So, their lives were a lot like ours in the sense that they had their share of ups and downs and yet for everything they went through and everything we go through God is always using these things to teach us to be obedient Him so we can experience His blessings. I like how somebody said, “We’re either going through problems, we’re just coming out of problems or we’re waiting for the next one to come along.”
Listen, no where in Scripture were we ever promised that life was going to be easy or even that everything would always make sense but we are told that as long as we’re here, we’re to trust God and do His will because He’s the one who knows the end from the beginning. You see, in spite of what you hear from the TV preachers, God never promises anyone a life of cool breezes and sunshine but as I’m sure you know every healthy garden does its best growing in the dark and cold times of winter. And if we had a testimony time this morning, I’m sure that all of us could say that it was the hardest things we’ve had to go through that have made us the people we are today.
And then third, Joshua reminds the people how God had protected them from those who wanted to destroy them and he begins by talking about the Moabites who tried to use Balaam the false prophet to curse them and Joshua took them back and showed them how God didn’t listen to these people but continued to bless the Jews and delivered them. And then he says, after you crossed the Jordan you had victory over Jericho, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And if that wasn’t enough he said, God sent the hornet or wasps ahead of you to drive out you’re your enemies so you didn’t even have to fight.
It’s interesting here that Joshua refers to seven different groups who had been enemies of Israel and all these people had one thing in common; they were all idolaters. They all worshiped hand made replicas of what they thought were gods and every one of these gods were different than the ones that were worshiped by the others. And yet, there was one common denominator between them all and that was sex.
All of these false gods had to be approached by some sort of sexual perversion. So, God destroyed the entire crowd of all these who were listed and then get this, He sent bees to get rid of anyone else. (I don’t know about you, but I find that funny. I mean, I don’t care if you’re Goliath or King Kong, nobody wants to be stung by a bee.)
And then fourth, we see where Joshua said, “God gave you a land you didn’t work for and cities you didn’t have to build and all the food you needed.” So, he says, look at where you’ve come from and all the things you’ve come through and remember this; God has had His hand on you every step of the way.
Can you look at your past and say that? It’s always good for each and every one of us to remember what God has done for us in the past but at the same time we need to remember that we weren’t created to live in the past because what God’s done for us yesterday was meant to prepare us for what He wants to do through us today.
So, first Joshua looks at where they’ve come from and then second, he says, “I’ve said all that to say this” and he them gives three commands.
The first one is to fear the Lord and the fear of the Lord is something we all need to understand. In Psalm 111:10 it says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” and true wisdom is a moral quality, it’s not necessarily a measure of intelligence. I mean, there are some very intelligent people in this world who are really dumb when it comes to spirituality while there are people who have no education at all and they can demonstrate a wiser perspective and more refined morals.
In James 3:14-17 there is a comparison of two kinds of wisdom and one of these is godly while the other one is evil. It says, “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the Truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."
And the first step for anybody who wants godly wisdom is to know the Lord. In Proverbs 9:10 it says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” And then Proverbs 16:6 says, “By the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” So, Joshua is telling these people that they all need to know the Lord and then they’ll not only live better lives but they’ll also have the common sense to do the things they’re supposed to do. And listen, until we understand who God is, and develop a reverential fear of Him, we’ll never get anywhere in life.
Many have the tendency to minimize what’s called ‘the fear of God’ and refer to it simply as “respecting” Him, but listen, there’s more to fear than respect. As children, the fear of discipline from our parents kept us from doing a lot of dumb things and in the same way fearing God will keep us from sin. So, fearing God means that we have such a respect and reverence for Him, but it’s not just an attitude but it has an impact on the way we live our lives. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said to his disciples, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” And let me tell you, that’s more than a healthy respect.
So, how do we demonstrate a healthy fear of God, well, this leads us to his second command where he says we all need to serve Him in sincerity and in truth.
And let me give you some very basic steps in serving the Lord. First, every one of us serves Him when we spend time in His word every day and I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, you can start with five minutes a day and go from there, but, everyone has to start somewhere. I had a friend of mine who said, five minutes is nothing and he decided he was going to memorize the entire New Testament but he got bogged down in the genealogy of Matthew. Then he said he was going to write out the entire book of Luke but he only got part way through chapter one because Luke chapter one has 80 verses. And sad to say, he never did anything in the end. Listen, five minutes a day will be a great start to a new beginning.
And then second, get yourself a prayer list and it doesn’t have to be a special book or anything but simply use the page at either the front or the back of your Bible and write down the name or names of those you want to pray for. I heard a guy speak one time and he said he had a prayer list of twelve hundred people. Listen, that’s foolish. I sat down with a phone book and calculated that it would take about six hours just to read twelve hundred names. So, start with one and add another as you go along. And then, third, find someway to serve God and listen; you might be a public speaker or you might have the gift of cleaning bathrooms. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as what you’re doing, you’re doing it for God.
Did you realize that the command to serve the Lord here, is mentioned fifteen times in verses 14-33 and Joshua uses the phrase ‘serving the Lord in sincerity and truth” in verse 14 and this means that we are to serve Him and Him alone, so, there’s no sense of divided loyalty but we’re absolutely and totally committed to serving God.
After all, God doesn’t just want lip service or people who’ll say they’re believers and then go live anyway they want. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah 29:13 God says of the people in Isaiah’s day, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” Can you imagine a husband saying to his wife or the wife to the husband, “I love you” and not mean a word of it. Well, that’s what the people in Isaiah’s day had been doing to God. But, you see, the problem is, when we talk to one another we can pull the wool over each others eyes but God always sees our heart and He knows exactly what’s going on inside.
And then notice his third command, it’s in verse 14 where he says, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.” And here, he’s telling these people they need to make a clean and complete break from the past. They were to get rid of all the false gods and forget about them.
And as Christians we are to get rid of the false gods in our lives. And I’m talking about the immoral thoughts we entertain and think God doesn’t see or doesn’t care about. Or the hurtful things we say and think God doesn’t listen. Or even the things we do and think we’ve got away with them but God sees everything and He’ll call us to account, and if He doesn’t do it here then everything will be exposed in the last day.
Joshua realized that man is "incurably religious." And if man doesn’t worship the God who created him then he’d end up worshiping the false gods of the nations around him and he knew they couldn’t do both.
D.L. Moody said, “You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you make most of is your god.” And then John MacArthur said, “The Bible is very clear that God does not accept the worship of false gods and God will not accept people into His presence who worship other deities whether they are deities of a religious nature or whether they’re idols such as gold, silver, power, prestige or even self.” So, Joshua told them they had to get rid of the false gods and that tells us that these people who had been through the wilderness and then saw God destroy the city of Jericho still had some.
Listen, his first command was a call to fear the Lord, his second was a call to spend time in His presence and then his third was a call to serve God and God alone. And when you put these three together, these are a call to be absolutely loyal to God.
And we’re called to do the same. Jesus said it so clear in Matthew 6:21 where He said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And in verse 24 He said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”(Or in our terminology, money) So, Jesus was making a simple statement and that led to a question; where is your treasure? Is it in heaven or is it down at the bank?
So, Joshua presents the truth and then he gives them a choice in verse 15 when he said, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Listen, he said, it doesn’t matter what you do in terms of your faith because me and my house are going to serve the Lord no matter what.
Moses said something similar in Deuteronomy 30, verse 19 when he said, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” And then Elisha made the same kind of call on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18:21, where he said, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him...if Baal, follow him.” And this tells us that everybody in every generation hast to make a choice. Moses, Joshua and Elijah all made their choice and that was a choice to serve the Lord.
So Joshua tells them to choose because everybody serves some god or another. It might be the God of heaven or it could simply be the god of your appetites. And he knew these people would either end up serving God or serving the gods of the peoples they’d conquered.
But I want you to notice what Joshua said, he said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He had made a decision. He wasn’t going to have to get up tomorrow morning and decide who or what he’d worship because his mind had already been made.
So, here’s Joshua, a man who has spent his entire life living for and serving the Lord and he’s saying, “I’m not going to quit now.” He served God when he was a slave in Egypt and then He served Him in the wilderness. He served God when everyone else was murmuring and complaining and he served Him in the midst of great victories. He didn’t just serve when everything was going right but he continually served because that’s what those who know the Lord do.
And when he said this, it almost seems like everyone who was listening climbed right in behind him in verses 16-18 because it says, “And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; for the LORD our God, He it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: and the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for He is our God.”
And all that sounds so good but Joshua adds verses 19-20 where it says, “And Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the LORD: for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that He hath done you good.” You see, Joshua knew how easy it is for everyone to promise to serve and obey the Lord, but listen, there’s a world of difference between promising and doing it.
I remember when Sally and I got married and we stood before God, the pastor, our family and friends and we promised to love and obey one another until God took us home. And listen, we really, really meant it. And then we went on our honeymoon and had a great time but I remember driving home and we had just crossed the border at New York and both of us really got cranky and started bickering and do you know what the problem was. We were hungry. That’s all it took to ruin those sacred and special vows that were pronounced before God, the pastor, our family and friends.
So, it’s one thing to say something but it’s another to actually do it. And Joshua’s words were meant to restrain their sense of overconfidence and make them take an honest look at themselves. And in response to what he had to say, the people said in verse 21 that they would serve the Lord and repeated it in verse 24. And then he tells them you need to "incline your heart" in verse 24 and this is a very intensive word and it means to make such a commitment that there is nothing that will be able to turn your heart away.
And then in verse 25 it says that Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. And in this case a covenant was an agreement of trust between three parties and this was between Joshua, the Israelites and God. And the covenant is that each of them would live according to the word of God. You see, the word of God was and is the foundation of everything we believe and how we’re supposed to live.
Over the centuries people have tried to change the message of the church because they felt it didn’t fit in with the particular needs of their day. For instance, in 325 AD, there was a Roman Emperor by the name of Constantine and they said he became a believer and he tried to use Christianity to hold everything together. He made it the legal religion of the empire and in his day everyone had to become a Christian according to the law. And under his reign, an important document that was known as the Nicene Creed was written and this creed included the body of doctrine that all Christians believed, but soon, the creed itself became the gospel. And no longer was it enough to believe the gospel but it was the gospel plus the Nicene Creed.
And then later in 467 AD there was a big argument between two theologians, Arius and Athanasius and the focus of their debate was whether or not the Holy Spirit was truly and fully God. Athanasius won the battle, and a Trinitarian Creed was written to state the doctrinal truth about the Holy Spirit. That Trinitarian Creed was and is a great creed but before long it became more important than the gospel itself.
And then in 1743 the burning issue was whether the earth was the center of the universe and whether or not the earth was flat and this was during the time of Galileo. Gradually, a Christian had to believe the gospel plus that the fact that the earth was flat and the center of the universe and that became more important than the gospel itself.
And then in 1950 the western world became strongly anti-communist and the Christians of the day might have loved the gospel but the hot button of the day was anti-communism. And as always, the hot issue became more important than the gospel. They turned the gospel of eternal life into a political message anti-communism.
Listen, people will always get hyped up and tend to focus on the burning issue of the day and problem is, the burning issue always replaces the gospel. And the gospel is the core of the Scriptures. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then God raised Him from the dead and all who put their faith in His work are fully and freely forgiven of their sins. That’s the gospel and it doesn’t matter what creed or politics you believe in, it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe the world is flat or round. It’s the gospel.
Conclusion
So, Joshua gave the people his final message and this was the one thing that was on his heart. It wasn’t how well they’d live or hoping that they all had a real good time but he wanted them to live their lives in light of eternity. I remember hearing someone say. "You need to live your life in such a way that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral." And I’m sure that when it came to Joshua’s funeral nobody had to lie because he was a man who lived his whole life for God and he even recorded the mistakes he made.
I was reading somewhere last week that at the scene of an accident there are three groups of people and each one has a different response toward those who were involved in the accident. The first group is the bystanders and onlookers. These are curious and they watch to see what happens but the truth is they have little active involvement. The second group is the police officers and their response is to investigate the cause of the accident, assign blame, and give out the appropriate warnings and punishments. The third group is the paramedics. They are the people usually most welcomed by those who are involved in an accident. The paramedics could care less whose fault the accident was and they don’t give tickets or even lecture anybody about their bad driving habits. Their response is to help those who were hurt. They bandaged wounds, freed trapped people, and gave words of encouragement. So, of the three groups - one is uninvolved, one is assigning blame and assessing punishment, and one is helping the hurting. So, tell me, which group are you in?
