A few years ago, Bill Cosby began his book, "Fatherhood," with these words: "So you’ve decided to have a child. You’ve decided to give up quiet evenings with good books and lazy weekends with good music, intimate meals during which you finish whole sentences, sweet private times when you’ve savored the thought that just the two of you and your love are all you will ever need.
"You’ve decided to turn your sofas into trampolines, and to abandon the joys of leisurely contemplating reproductions of great art for the joys of frantically coping with reproductions of yourselves. Why?"
He goes on, "Poets have said the reason to have children is to give yourself immortality; and I must admit I did ask God to give me a son because I wanted someone to carry on the family name. Well, God did just that and I now confess that there have been times I’ve told my son not to reveal who he is. `You make up a name,’ I’ve said. `Just don’t tell anybody whose son you are.’"
We laugh at that passage, because we can relate to it, both when we were kids and now as adults. I mean we’ve all done things that were embarrassing, and our kids, even though Sarah is an angel, have all done things that we find embarrassing too. But here is the truth and the burden of parenthood. Our kids do carry our names. It’s not just the letters on their birth certificate; it’s that they are a reflection of us. We have a responsibility to teach them the way that they are supposed to go in life. Yes they are individuals and we can not be held accountable for all of their actions and thought processes, but we are responsible to do our best to teach them what they should do, teach them right from wrong and most importantly teach them about God and impress upon them the need to follow Him. It is the one decision that they have to make in life. The one thing that everyone must do in this life is to accept a relationship with God. If not then they are doomed to an eternity without God.
But this is a choice that they have to make. It is one that we can prepare them for, it is one we can educated them about, but it is one that they must make for themselves. The choice that we have is will we prepare them, in advance to make the right decision? That is where we find Joshua in this passage. Many of us our familiar with the end of verse 15 but when we look at the context it is a much deeper and more challenging passage.
Joshua 24:14-18, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, 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 fathers 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.’”
When we look at this passage we often think about the choice the Joshua gives them. But notice that before he gives them the challenge, he gives them a background for it first, he gives them instructions. Look at verse 14, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods (lower case g) your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and Egypt, and serve the LORD.” This isn’t a choice he is giving them right away, he starts by telling them what they should do. You understand that this is Joshua’s going away speech to the nation of Israel. He realizes he is coming to the end of his life and so he is saying goodbye and giving them his final words of advice, and expressing his final wishes for them. Like anyone who has known the joy of walking with God for many years, his deepest desire is that those who he is leaving behind will know the same joy and follow the same path.
You’ll remember that Joshua began as a protégé of Moses. He was one of the spies who scouted the Promised Land. He and Caleb were the only two of those scouts who returned and said, ‘The land is excellent, the people are fierce, but God is bigger, we can take ‘em let’s go.’ But the people were afraid, they listened to the other scouts and so they didn’t go. Because they lacked faith, God caused them to wander in the desert for 40 years.
God did that because He decided that He didn’t want the people who lacked the faith to follow His vision to see the fulfillment of that vision. But Joshua and Caleb, they had faith and because of their faith they were able to enter the Promised Land. Joshua let the people in Caleb was still there playing and important role. Joshua not only led the crossing of the Jordan but he was the leader of the people, not just through the conquest of the land, but in the settling of the land, and creating a nation.
He has filled the role of leader and prophet and done it well. But now it is time for them to leave and he wants to make sure their feet stay on the right path. So he gives them his final instructions, but these are instructions that are consistent with the way that he has lived his life. See when everyone else was afraid of the people in the Promised Land, Joshua was more afraid of God. God had told them to enter and take the land and that was enough for Joshua, what God said, he followed.
Now at the end of his life he reiterates the message that was testified to by the rest of his life, “Fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness.” It was the message of his life and it was the message of his lips. Men this is an example that we need to follow. Not just with our own children but with the people around us who are looking at us. Joshua, taught this to his household as he would later say, but also to everyone whose life he influenced. Our children carry on our name, but also our reputation, they will be a reflection of us because it is our job to teach the.
So then the question is, what are we supposed to teach them? That’s a broad subject but for today there’s three things that I want us to focus on. First we need to teach our children and others the commandments of God and the wisdom of His word. This goes all the way back to Deuteronomy 6 we’ll look in a moment at what was commanded but I want us to start with who was commanded, this isn’t directed towards the children but to the adults, Deuteronomy 6:7, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lied down and when you get up.” Parents are supposed to be the ones teaching their children
Then we look at what are they supposed to be teaching? Verse 6, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” We talk so much about the love of God, and the grace of God, but we need to remember that Jesus didn’t destroy the law He fulfilled it. The calling on our lives is to be like Him, we may not be perfect, but in His strength we are supposed to try. We are to teach our kids the commandments of God, to teach them what He said is right and wrong. We live in a time when people want to talk about grey areas, when people note, correctly, that doing the right thing is sometimes hard. The problem is that the difficulty of doing the right thing is now being viewed as an excuse not to do it.
But difficulty doesn’t give us an excuse not to do it. There’s a line in an old baseball movie a young player asks a veteran why baseball is so tough, not just the game, but all the life issues that come up around it. The veteran replies, “It’s the hard that makes it great.” It’s a great line because it is true, if something is easy then everyone would do it. Following the call to holiness that God gives isn’t easy. God didn’t call us to do the easy stuff He called us to be great. Greatness comes with a price, but in the struggle, in the victories and the defeats we are alive. The call to follow the commands of God is a call to greatness. When we allow the difficult to be an excuse, when we allow ourselves and those we influence to take the easy path what we’ve really done is trade the higher call of God, for the lesser call of the mediocrity of the world.
We need to teach our children to follow not just the commands, but the wisdom of His word. It’s interesting but in every area of life, God has already spoken. What’s great is that when we really allow ourselves to take an objective look at what He has said, his path was always the best. God didn’t speak to us through His word about how to live because He is a control freak. He did it because He wants what’s best for our lives. The best thing that we can do for our families and those we influence is to teach them to follow the commands and wisdom of God.
Next we need to teach them to love God. It sounds simple doesn’t it? It makes sense too because when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He referenced back to verse 5, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Love God, it sounds so simple. But do we really do it? I mean it? Is this a driving force in our life or an after thought? Do we serve God, and try and follow His commands because we are afraid of Hell? We should be, but is that more motivating to us then the love of Him? Do we serve Him, because that’s what we’ve been doing for so long that we don’t know what else to do? It’s just become a habit. Do we get up on a Sunday because we want to be in the House of God and worship Him with other believers, or do we do it because that is what we’ve always done? Do we come to church on a Sunday to hear from God or to see our friends?
We need to love God. The Christian life is meant to be a love affair between God and us. He crossed time and space to be with us. The New Testament authors call the church the bride of Christ. This is a love story, God loves us and we need to love Him back and teach our children to love Him as well. You know what the difference is between serving God for any reason and serving Him out of love? Real simple, joy.
When I was growing up and living at home my parents couldn’t get me to eat vegetables for anything. They not only tried threats, they followed through. It didn’t work. Then I met Linda, we started dating, her parents had me over for dinner. She would look at me and say, “Aren’t you going to eat your vegetables.” I would, and I wouldn’t even think about what I was doing. Until one Sunday we went out to a buffet with my parents. We were going through the line and my plate was almost full, when Linda looked at me and said, “Aren’t you going to have a little broccoli?” Bam, on to the plate it went. As I did it, I saw my mother grab my father’s arm, HARD. I asked what was wrong. She simply said, “You’re eating vegetables.” Later she told me, “I knew you were in love when you were willing to eat your vegetables for her.” Love makes us do things that we wouldn’t normally do and we don’t get burned out on doing it. We need to teach our children to love God.
We also need to teach them to love the people around them. That was the command of Jesus from John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Again, it’s not just a matter of obedience it is a matter of joy. A person who chooses to live a life of love is just happier then someone who wants to carry around the weight of the world, it’s too big for us to carry any way. When we choose to live a life of love we choose to concentrate on the good rather then the bad. We are willing to over look the faults of others, because we take joy in their strengths. As an added side bonus, when we choose to live a life of love, to live a life of grace towards the people around us. People tend to look at us the same way. When we give love and grace to others we tend to get it back. When we give judgmentalism to others we tend to get it back.
We need to teach our children to love others, to love God, and to follow His commandments and wisdom. That is the first lesson we take from Joshua, but notice, he doesn’t just tell them what to do, then he brings them to a point of decision, he gives them a choice and like a good father he gives them advice about the choice, look at the first half of verse 15, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the Gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.?
“But” is an important word in scripture, it means that there is an expectation for what has come before it, but the outcome might not be but is expected. Here Joshua has called on them to follow God, it is spoken as a command, but he then gives them a choice, they have to choose if they will do it or not. And he then lists for them the alternatives, we have these alternatives but let’s understand them for what they really are, they are obstacles to doing the right thing. So let’s look at them.
First they need to avoid the lie that there are other god’s. You’ll notice a couple of things about this passage, first is that as you look whenever Joshua talks about the God of the Bible it is always capitalized, but when he gives them the choice of other god’s it is lower case, why? Because he didn’t believe in them, he didn’t really think that they were real. Just to make sure that they understood the decision, look at how he ends this part of the offer, “Or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.” You want to serve another god, that’s fine but where were those god, when our God, the one true God, enabled us to come in and take over there territory.
There is only one God who has moved in history. Oh other religions, the followers of other gods, lower case g, can tell us about their prophets who talked about their gods, but no other religion can talk about and point to a time in recorded and observed history where their god walked the earth. Only one’s who can do it is us, because in Jesus the one true and living God came down to be among us. There is this lie that religion is a matter of opinion, that we as people can’t really define who God is. The simple rebuttal to that is, that it’s true we can’t tell you on our own who God is, but we don’t have to because He has done it for Himself. Don’t fall for the lie that there are other god’s or that the Bible tells of a way to Heaven, it tells of the way to heaven because it was written by the one true God.
That is the choice that Joshua was driving them to, but then he goes on, don’t create god’s in your own image. That is what he was referring to when he referred to the god’s of the Amorites, and before that the Egyptians, and even at times there own forefathers. In their case he is talking about actual god’s. Making or carving an idol and then bowing down to it and worshiping it, as it somehow it can do something for you.
That’s got to be one of the most nonsensical ideas in history and yet in a way we still do it. People decided to become “spiritual” they decide what they think god must be like and choose to meditate to that god. Whether there’s an actual idol involved it’s still the same thing. Or worse we make stuff that we can do or achieve into a god. Benjamin Franklin believed that money equaled freedom. From an economic standpoint he was right, but there’s more to life then economics. The problem is that so many people are living as if that isn’t true. If I can just make enough money, if I can just afford to buy or to live, if I can just get a promotion, or a position, so many things we seek after, and they become god’s to us. Or relationships become god’s to us, if I could just find that special person, or if that person would just get into a relationship with me, then. And we put our faith in all of this stuff that doesn’t last. We need to put our faith into the one true God, follow Him, and teach others to do the same.
We also have to avoid the traps of sin and temptation. Sometimes we get so caught up in the grace of God that we miss the concept of sin, but we are called to be holy, we are called to be like Christ. But what that really comes down to is a choice, do we want Christ in our lives or sin? That was part of the attraction of those other god’s, those other belief systems. They took the morals that God calls us to and dropped them. They even took things that God calls sin and called them worship. So that people ended up worshiping the creation instead of the creator. Today we still fall for this trap. Sin can be so attractive and we can fall for it. But it only feels good for a while, one day we end up suffering the consequences of what we’ve done/ I’m not just talking about in this world, remember the wisdom of God is to better us. The stuff that God has called us out of, the stuff that He has commanded us not to do, is stuff that is harmful for us. We need to not only teach our children to avoid those traps, but we need to avoid them ourselves, not just to be an example for them, but fore their benefit and ours.
That can be a scary proposition though because there is a battle going on, between the forces of darkness in this world and God. It is a struggle that goes back to the beginning, it exists today and it existed then. Look at what the people say, “It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers 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.”
They list off the people who opposed them and the protection of God. When you live for God there are people in this world who won’t like it. Just understand this by you living your life for God, you are bringing them into conviction. They don’t like it so they will resist it, whether you’re trying to do anything or not. But don’t let it defeat you, the Israelites were literally opposed by armies, but God was there deliverer and they took the land they were promised. We will face obstacles too, but don’t let them defeat you, and don’t just settle for taking your stand with God. Find His vision for your life, and travel with Him to the place that He has for you, and take others with you on the journey.
When you do that you will leave a legacy that lasts. Look at the words of Joshua at the end of verse 15, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” It was the voice of a father speaking with authority about his family, but it was also the voice of a confident father who knew that he had passed on a Godly legacy to his family so that even when he was gone they would continue.
This sentiment was echoed by the nation. Look at the end of verse 18, “We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” This is the answer that Joshua wants, but he wants them to understand the depth of this commitment. Look at the next verse, “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.”
There’s three things you have to do and pass on if you want to leave a legacy that last and we see them in these verses. You must realize that this is a choice you must make everyday. Joshua tells them you can’t do it. Why? It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it, it was that he realized that they weren’t taking it serious, they were saying the right things, but they weren’t doing the right things. A couple of verses later he tells them to throw away their foreign gods, their idols, they say that they will obey the LORD, which sounds good but if you read the passage, it doesn’t say that they did it.
If we want the best for our lives and our children we need to not just talk about serving the LORD we have to not just talk about doing it, we have to choose to do it everyday. We also have to realize and teach our children that if you make the wrong choice there will be negative consequences. Look at those words again, “if you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make and end of you.” Listen I’m not saying that every bad thing that happens in life is the discipline of God on your life, not everything bad that happens is the result of sin. But I am saying that if you are sinning sometimes, God will bring discipline into your life. You can’t say LORD I will serve you and then not do it, He takes that serious, because when you give your life to Him, you’ve invited Him to shape your life. That’s the bad news.
Here’s the good news, if you chose and follow God then you will receive the blessings He promised. Look at the end of the verse, “After He has been good to you.” God was there “Father” He desires to be our “Father” and Dads want to give good gifts to their children. Listen God may give discipline but what He really wants to give our blessings. The invitation to follow God, is not just one to follow a bunch or rules or commandments, it is not just one to fulfill your duty to the one to created you and paid the ultimate price for you mistakes. It is to enter a loving relationship with the creator of all things, who wants to make you into the person you wanted to be, and lift you up from the mediocrity of the easy path to experience the greatness of living with a holy God. He wants for you what Joshua did for Israel, for you to experience the best that life has and to be the best version of yourself that you could possibly be. If you’ve never made Him a part of your life will you do that today?
