Take Your Stand
Joshua 24:14-25
8/24/2003
Every child goes through a stage when the favorite word is "no." "Terrible twos," it's called.
"Darling, dearest child," we say, "would you please stop smearing peanut butter on the cat?" Quick as a flash, back comes the answer: "No! No! No!"
However long that stage lasts, it is still too long. But hot on its heels is another developmental stage -- the "I want" stage. Unfortunately, this fixation seems to last a little longer than the "no" stage -- like from age 2 until about 106. "I want" is the cornerstone of our consumer culture. Because we are never satisfied, the marketplace can always expand.
Our culture has done a good job at leaving the "no" stage far behind. Technological advances have helped us come to the point where we don't have to say "no." We don't have to accept boundaries and limitations, or to pick and choose. We don't want to "give up" anything or "lose" one thing. "We want" it all, and we've come up with all kinds of ways to make that dream a reality.
Want to live in some beautiful, remote area and yet still be able to make a living? People do it all the time -- filling rustic isolated cabins with their computers, faxes, home copiers, CD-ROM hookups, and perching a satellite dish out back in the garden.
”Both/and” is the preference of today’s world, not “either/or.” We resent the word "no" and so find ourselves taking on more and more commitments, while refusing to ever let go of the old ones. Obviously, none of this is inherently bad. Our culture offers great opportunities for personal freedom and creativity. It can allow us to see and appreciate tremendous diversities of thought while revealing the underlying similarities that bind so many ideas together.
But for all its benefits, our "I want," world and its refusal to take "no" for an answer, can also lead to moral and ethical fuzziness, to the wrong-headed notion that one answer is always just as good as another. As Christians in this world, we must be able to witness to others that issues are not always gray. Sometimes things really are good or bad, right or wrong. Sometimes the answer is "no." (PAUSE)
Joshua chapter 24:14-25 contains a couple of those famous verses, ones that practically everyone has heard but can’t remember where it is in the Bible. Listen as I read this scripture passage: (READ) Chapter 24 of Joshua reveals that at the end of his term as leader, at the end of his life, Joshua knew his people well. Joshua is speaking to a selected audience of "the elders, the heads, the judges and the officers of Israel" -- in other words, the elite of leadership. The distinguished nature of his audience makes Joshua's attitude in chapter 24 all the more surprising -- for these are supposedly the best minds and hearts of Israel.
Nevertheless, after delivering a quick historical synopsis of all the Lord has already done for Israel in the first 13 verses of the chapter, Joshua then challenges these leaders to "choose this day whom you will serve" (15). His words suggest that some of these high-ranking leaders had already been observed worshiping the gods of their ancestors or the local Amorite gods.
Things had been going smoothly for the Israelites. They were well on their way to creating the country they had been promised. But despite their apparent obedience and contentment, Joshua knew how fickle, how stiff-necked, his people could be. He remembered how tempting the Canaanite and Amorite gods still were. So, Joshua presented the Israelites with a straightforward decision, "... choose this day whom you will serve."
Despite the people's compassionate promise to serve God, Joshua was unimpressed. Instead of congratulating them for their commitment, Joshua warned them that "if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you ...." Apparently Joshua was wise enough and experienced enough to realize there is a tremendous distinction between being a devoted follower and transformation. When you say "yes" to God, that "yes" means you are also saying "no" to something else. A "conversion" or transformation suggests an "aversion" or loathing for something else. When you convert you automatically put into effect an intense dislike for other things—an aversion.
Choosing to be a devoted follower of something, an adherent, on the other hand, makes no such demands. Adherents don't turn away from anything. They just add to an already conglomerate stockpile of assorted spiritualities and commitments.
Joshua suspected his fellow Israelites of being merely adherents, not converts. He challenged them to put teeth into their "yes" to God by demonstrating a big fat "no": "Put away the foreign gods that are among you,” he said, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." The Israelites had been toting those same idols around for years. But as long as they thought those foreign gods might yet come in handy, they were not true converts, not genuine servants, to the God of Israel.
Do you see the difference here? When you say “Yes” to God, your commitment needs to be a total transformation of your life. It involves turning towards a particular way of faithfulness and purposely turning away from all that lies outside its established boundaries.
Jesus pressed hard decisions on would-be disciples all the time, testing the depth of their conviction or the shallowness of their devotion to Him. When the rich young man was told to "go, sell all you have and follow me," his devotion quickly dried up. Jesus didn't say, "There are lots of ways, choose one." He claimed, "I am the way, the truth and the light." The apostle Paul found nothing as distasteful as those who were "lukewarm" in their faithfulness to a God who had sent Son-Jesus to die for us and redeem us from sin and death.
Taking "no" for an answer does not cut us off from enjoying diversity or putting limits on our freedom. Saying "yes" to Christ's gift of life opens us up to the unlimited choices of God's love. Our world today offers so many options, so many possibilities, that it is easy to become convinced that "more-is-better" in loyalties as well as bread choices on the supermarket shelves.
Joshua's bitter response to the sweet-sounding words of the people still shocks readers today -- think how stunned the Israelites must have been as he threw these words in their faces: "You cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins" (v.19).
God is not some celestial meet-your-needs sugar-daddy! Too often the only time we even think about talking to the Lord is when we need something—I want, I want. God is God! That’s why God should be served. Furthermore, Joshua continues, there can be a definite downside to promising service to this jealous God. Faced with disloyalty and disobedience, this God will "turn and do you harm" (v.20), regardless of the good God has done before. Verse 20: “If you forsake the Lord and serve (other) gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, (even) after having done you good.”
It is not out of a sense of full-bellied well-being that the Israelites confess their service to the Lord once again when they say, “No, we will serve the Lord!” (v.21). Joshua's sharp words have reminded them of the consequences that lie behind their words. Yet Joshua's response is ambiguous -- it is still not clear whether he is convinced that this confession will hold. He doesn’t say, Well, okay then! Good! You are good and faithful servants!” Instead, Joshua still seems to be challenging the people's conviction as he says, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve Him.” (v.22)
It is not until verse 23 that Joshua finally drops his bombshell. After the people eagerly say, oh yes, "we are witnesses," Joshua says, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."
Despite all their confessions, both the people and Joshua know that lurking in the backs of their tents, lying underneath their pillows, there are stone idols, which are being worshiped in secret. What are some of your idols? Your work, perhaps? Television? Volunteering? Money? Land? Prejudice? Pornography? Shopping? Alcohol? Drugs? We all have our own form of idols, from wrong priorities to a love of pretty things. And our idols get in the way of worshiping God. God isn’t satisfied if we merely hide these idols, He wants us to completely remove them from our lives.
You know, many times I have brought a message to the people and afterwards, someone will say to me, “That was a good message. I wish so-and-so would’ve been here to hear it.” Today’s message is for each and every one of us.
The permanent contract between Israel and the Lord was that the people would worship and obey the Lord alone. Their purpose was to become a holy nation that would influence the rest of the world for God. Their conquest of Canaan, which they accomplished with God’s help, was a part of God’s plan for them to achieve their purpose, but Israel became preoccupied with the land and lost sight of the Lord, their God. The very same thing can happen to us. We spend so much time on the means that we forget the end, we forget our purpose—to become holy, transformed people who can influence the rest of the world for Christ. Congregations make this mistake as well. We can be so caught up in our daily lives, all the things we have to do and want to do which have nothing at all to do with our God-given purpose, that we don’t even remember our church except on Sunday mornings.
It is so easy for us to go about life in our own ways. But the time comes when you have to choose who or what will control you. The choice is yours. Will it be God, your own limited personality, or another imperfect substitute? Remember that the world is watching those of us who claim to be Christians. Is the way you live showing the strength of your commitment to your god? (PAUSE) And what God would that be?
I pray that when faced with a universe of god-options, you still able to say "Yes"; "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
PLEASE PRAY WITH ME: O Lord, you alone know what is best for each of us. Test our thoughts and all we do by your wisdom, Father, so that our souls may always be serving you as you will, and not as we choose. Let us die to ourselves, so that I may serve you; let us be transformed so we may live for you. In the name of Jesus, who died so that we may have life. Amen.
We are going to sing the closing hymn, “Soon and Very Soon, We’re Going to Meet the King,” #611 in the Blue Hymnal. If God has shown you this morning that you indeed have been serving an idol-god, I invite you to come forward now and receive His forgiveness and blessing. Maybe you just need to renew your full commitment to the work of His Kingdom. Come, don’t wait another day! Make a fresh start at His altar right now. Allow me to pray with and for you.
Benediction
O God, stay with us; let no word cross our lips that is not your word, no thought enter our minds that is not your thought, no deed ever be done or entertained by us that is not your deed. Amen.
--Malcolm Muggeridge (b.1903)
