Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
God’s “Grand Narrative” is the story of God at work in our world accomplishing HIS purposes, but the “Grand Narrative” is also the story of mankind struggling with God’s involvement in our world. On almost every page of the Bible significant things happen all through history.
Today another great hero comes to the end of his significant life and uses his farewell address to challenge those present with him in about 1375bc. But Joshua also challenges all of us, every person who has ever read Joshua 23 & 24, since those days. Please join me in those very significant two chapters.
Most Bible scholars agree it was perhaps 40 years of time from Joshua 4, when Joshua led the ‘next generation’ out of the desert, across the dried Jordan river, into the Land of God’s Promise… until Joshua chapter 24 when Joshua died at the age of 110.
Joshua 23 is Joshua’s final message to the LEADERS of the nation of Israel challenging them to remember all God had accomplished in their lifetimes and before. Joshua said: “I am very old. You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done…” (Joshua 23:1-3)
Joshua and Caleb would have been the two oldest men alive in all Israel at that time… for they were the only two adult men whom God protected from the dying judgment poured out on the first generation who came out of Egypt. (Numbers 14:30)
Many of these standing before Joshua that day would have been little children as God rescued Israel from Egyptian slavery, so it should not be difficult for us to replay in our minds all that these old adults had seen in their lifetimes going back to before Moses walked into Egypt announcing God would rescue them! It required Moses & Joshua 5 books of the Bible to tell us their story! (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua)
So here’s an important question: how do you REMEMBER the work of God in our world, in your country, in your family and in your own life… the things you’ve SEEN and HEARD about, going back to the time of your childhood and before? And what DAMAGE have you and I done to ourselves and our descendants if we DO NOT make great effort to REMEMBER God’s works, but rather we FORGET some of those great things?
So Joshua started his farewell messages as Moses had (Deut. 4:9), challenging God’s people to prioritize finding ways to REMEMBER!! (Joshua 23:4; 24:26) Next, Joshua repeated God’s commissioning words, which he had received when Moses died and the mantle of leadership was passed to Joshua: “Be very strong; be careful to OBEY all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or left.” (Joshua 23:6)
Oh my! Is that a priority, a passion, a commitment in your life and mine? If so, do you see the benefit it has brought to your life? If not, do you see the damage which has resulted? And what is our message to our descendants about following all that God has given us, written in His Word?
Joshua then gave a very strong warning to these leaders: “Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve or bow down to them…if you do, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.” (Joshua 23:7-16) This great warning was a common theme throughout Joshua’s lifetime and a central focus to both his and Moses’ farewell message.
WHY? Because it was true then as it is today. The dark kingdom always seeks to draw people out of or away from the light of Truth, drawing them like a magnet into the self-destructive darkness of doubt and evil. God’s people MUST develop strong defenses against that continual pull into darkness. This warning from God continued with every prophet throughout the rest of the “Grand Narrative” story of God reaching to humanity!
It’s important my friends that we embrace Joshua’s message for us today, especially if you are in any leadership role or role of influence. How are you resisting the pull of the darkness in your world?
I notice a different audience in Joshua 24, do you? Seems it is no longer only the leaders, but “Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem.” Obviously not everyone came, but representatives from every tribe, every family, every corner of Israel, including those on the East side of the Jordan, gathered to bid Joshua farewell. As you see in Joshua 24:1-13 Joshua recounted a summary of the entire story of the history of Israel, beginning with Abraham, all the way to that day, Joshua’s farewell day.
And then Joshua spoke these immortal words which you may have hanging on a plaque in your home: “…as for me and my household we will serve the LORD!” (Joshua 24:15) But, my friends, that line is only a small portion of Joshua’s final challenge and it’s so powerful, let’s look more closely at what Joshua said: “Now fear the LORD and serve HIM with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped 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 of your ancestors or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD!!” (Joshua 24:14,15)
Oh my, do you see Joshua’s several calls to ACTION? This is not a passive statement, not an idea or theory! And watch this friends, not a once in a lifetime action, but several EVERY DAY, intentional, decisive action steps!
Who are the gods of your ancestors or the gods the people worshipped in the various places where you have lived, including where you are now?
Are they man-made ‘gods’ or are they captivating priorities like entertainment or materialism or consumerism or politics or personal fame?
What have you passionately pursued that has consumed your heart, your ambitions?
And honestly now, where has Jesus Christ fit in among all your life priorities, your passions and your pursuits?
As you read through the final paragraphs of Joshua’s farewell message and the people’s response, it is amazingly similar to Exodus 24 and the Israelites’ response to Moses giving them God’s challenge to be His people, living by His commands. Joshua did as Moses had done, and made a covenant for the people, recording their commitment to God. Then he raised up a large stone there at Shechem as a witness pillar of this day.
The final summary words of Joshua’s story are very significant: “Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had EXPERIENCED everything the LORD had done for Israel. And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried there at Shechem…” (Joshua 24:31-33)
When tomorrow we turn the page to the Judges, the next era in the “Grand Narrative”, we will very quickly recognize the significance of Joshua’s carefully worded statement about Joshua and the elders who had experienced what the LORD had done for them. You see this is a ‘succession plan’ issue.
Sadly, as we will see, the next generations quickly turned away from God. Evidently for them it was all only stories, not personal experience with God, and the stories were not powerful enough to hold them, as they drifted away!
So as we close this powerful part of the Grand Narrative with Joshua’s farewell and death, but also the burial of Joseph’s Egyptian coffin, after more than 300 years since his death back in Egypt. Here we come to the end of a very, very significant part of God’s great story!
Let’s spend this weekend thanking God for all we’ve experienced in God’s story thus far, and let’s respond to Joshua’s challenge… choose you this day whom you will serve! My wife and I celebrate that in our family we have 4 currently living generations of Anderson’s who have lived “as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”!… how about you, my friends?
Here’s a great worship song built on Joshua’s challenge to us this weekend, and of course wonderful additional notes are in the Grand Narrative link below. Oh, let this weekend be a defining moment in your life journey as you respond to Joshua’s challenge, and I’ll be here waiting for you on Monday…
Today’s Scripture: Joshua 23 & 24.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Joshua 24
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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