Fathers Choose Whom You Will Serve

Joshua was quite elderly when he gathered the heads of the families of Israel at Shechem.  He was ready to go the way of all things soon and wanted to address Israel one last time. 

By this point the wars of conquest in Canaan had largely quieted down.  Instead of living as nomads, the people of Israel had begun to occupy their own cities and homes.  Instead of relying on God’s provision of manna and meat, they began growing their own crops and tending their own herds of sheep and cattle.  They were successful as God had promised they would be. 

And yet, something was not right.  Instead of exclusively serving the Most High God, who brought them out of Egypt and sustained them during their time of exodus in the desert, they had begun to incorporate the worship of other gods into their daily lives.  When rain was needed to grow crops, some were tempted to worship the Canaanite deity Baal Hadad or his consort Asherah.  Afterall, it seemed to work for the peoples around them. 

And yet, Joshua could not forget the words that Moses had imparted when he himself gave his farewell address to Israel many years before. 

“Hear, O Israel!  The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  There was no room in this statement for sharing.  One can only serve one master, and yet the Israelites were trying to please many, and in doing so were losing hold of the God who had the power to rescue them. 

Joshua remembered the solemn task that fathers were commanded to faithfully pass on what they had seen with their eyes, that God had saved them, claimed them, and made them his own. 

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them to your sons and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” 

Joshua remembered the solemn warning that Moses had given them of their success, and the tendency to become forgetful and complacent, to rely upon themselves rather than upon the God who delivered them from captivity. 

“Then it will come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat are satisfied, then watch yourself , that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” 

Joshua marveled at the prophetic wisdom of his predecessor.  Israel had been successful.  Israel had grown fat off the produce of the land.  And now Israel was beginning to turn its eyes away from God. 

Now, all the elders and leaders of Israel had assembled before him.  Joshua scanned his eyes over the multitude of men, young and old, before him, and opened his mouth.  He reminded them how God had made a promise to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He reminded them how God, through a mighty deliverance, had rescued them and fulfilled the promise given to them.  Pride swelled in the hearts of the men before him. 

Then Joshua went to the heart of the matter as an arrow seeks the center of a target:

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.  Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  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, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” 

Chastened by the man they loved and respected, Israel’s leaders pledged to put away the gods they had allowed to sneak into their lives and made the choice, for themselves and their families, to serve the LORD. 

I can think of few more inspiring scenes in all of scripture.  Men, humbled by the word of the LORD proclaimed to them, and responding to it, and taking responsibility for their households to faithfully serve God.  The most amazing line in this passage follows:

“Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.”

It is a lesson I learned in the Army.  People have a tendency to adopt the personality of their leaders.  Bold leadership works. 

The men of Israel followed the example that Joshua set, choosing to set aside the practices of the cultures around them to serve God.  And because the heads of the households made this purposeful decision, their families followed. 

Men are the single most important influence in the home.  When a man sets the tone in his home for good, it is a blessing to the whole family.  When men either fail to set right standards for their families, or abandon their family altogether, it is disastrous for that household.  Both secular and parochial studies affirm this. 

Today our families are beset with far more distractions to the singular rule of God than the Israelites ever faced.  There are more -ism’s to be watchful of than ever before.  Consumerism will try to teach your kids that, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”  Scientism will try to teach your family that the world is limited to only the material forces of nature, a concept for which there can be no objective morality or purpose.  Emotivism will teach your kids that there is objective reality or truth, only feelings that change at the drop of a dime.  The greatest idol of the modern era, Autonomy, will teach your kids that the greatest good is to be subject to no one, not God and not one another. 

Like the false gods the Israelites had begun to turn to, none of these idols have the power to save, only to enslave.  Only Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, who put to death our sinful nature, and has called us through the Holy Spirit to be conformed to his likeness can save.  It is this God to whom Joshua appealed before the Israelites.  It is this same God who we today need to appeal in the sight of our families. 

I pray that God would give us the boldness to stand before our families and say, “We are called to choose this day whom we will serve.  In this house, we will serve the LORD.  In this house, we pray as a family.  In this house, we worship as a family.  In this house, we study God’s word as a family.  In this house, we confess Christ as LORD as a family.” 

If we do so, let us stand confident that the Holy Spirit who has called us will keep us in the true faith and sanctify us, as a family.