Sermon
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Choosing God When Times Are Good!
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Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Choosing God When Times Are Good!
This is Joshua’s last great speech to the Israelites. God had chosen Joshua to lead the Israelites. Joshua had been a good leader, but his time was near. He had realized that he was about to die.
Joshua spoke to the Israelites in the hope that he could point them in the right direction. He could not help them forever, but he could at least set them on the right course before he died. He started by recounting all that God had done for them:
• God had chosen Abraham to be the father of a great nation, and had blessed him with a son in his old age.
• God had led the Israelites into Egypt to escape a deadly famine. There they had become a great nation.
• When the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, God had forced Pharaoh to let them go.
• When they came to the Red Sea, God pushed the waters aside to create an escape route.
• God had fed them with manna in the desert.
• God had protected them in battle.
The Israelites clearly had reason to trust the Lord, so Joshua challenged them:
“Now therefore fear Yahweh,
and serve him in sincerity and in truth.
Put away the gods which your fathers served
beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.
If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh,
choose this day whom you will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served
that were beyond the River,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell:
but as for me and my house,
we will serve Yahweh.” (24:14-15).
“Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose! Make a decision!
• We can’t say, “It doesn’t make any difference,” because it does make a difference.
• We can’t say, “I won’t choose one or the other,” because not to choose is a choice.
• We can’t say, “I can’t decide,” because not to decide is to decide.
Caroline Yeargain told in the Reader’s Digest about flying on a small airline. The flight attendant asked the man in front of her if he would like dinner. He said, “What are my choices?” She answered, “Yes or no!”
Sometimes life is like that—pretty clear-cut! But we prefer not to choose. We would like to keep our options open. We don’t want to say “Yes” to one possibility if it means saying “No” to another.
A wonderful cartoon some years ago pictured two frogs sitting on a lily pad. One frog says to the other, “You know, I tried that Prince bit for a while. But frankly, I missed eating flies.” That tells the story, doesn’t it! We would like to be a prince or princess, but sometimes we would like to be a frog. We would like a seat at the banquet table, but we would also like the freedom to eat an occasional fly. But princes and princesses do not eat flies. Sometimes we have to choose. Shall we be a princess—or a frog.
“Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose God! It makes a difference. It really makes a difference. A sign alongside a frozen, rutted road in Canada reads:
“Choose your ruts carefully.
You’ll be in them for the next twenty-five miles.”
Not many of you have ever driven on roads like that, but I have. I have driven on mud roads that thawed during the day and froze at night. Cars that passed during the day cut deep ruts, which froze solid when the sun went down.
Driving such a road was a wrenching experience. You couldn’t steer. The ruts jerked the steering wheel back and forth, directing the car’s path. If you were quick, you might change ruts at some point. But your first choice of a rut might well be your last. That rut would determine where you went.
“Choose this day whom you will serve,” because that decision will determine where you will go—where you will be tomorrow—where you will be next year. “Choose this day whom you will serve,” because that may well set the direction for the rest of your life.
Joshua concluded his speech by saying:
“Choose this day whom you will serve…,
but as for me and my house,
we will serve Yahweh” (24:15).
“We will serve God!” That sets a clear direction, doesn’t it! When we start by deciding to serve God, that decision affects every other decision.
• When we decide to serve God, that helps us to choose our life-work.
• When we decide to serve God, that helps us to choose our husband or wife.
• When we decide to serve God, that helps us to raise our children.
• When we decide to serve God, the Lord will bless us.
C.S. Lewis says,
“There are only two kinds of people in the end:
those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’
and those to whom God says, in the end,
‘Thy will be done.'”
It makes a difference whether we say to God, “Thy will be done” or God says to us, “Have it your way!” It makes a difference whether we choose God’s path or demand that he let us choose our path. If we will truly put God first in our lives, he will save us a thousand disasters and ten thousand heartaches.
“Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose today! Don’t wait for tomorrow! If we won’t choose God today, we aren’t likely to choose him tomorrow.
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And tomorrow might be too late! We need to prepare for the hard times before the hard times hit. We need to prepare for the hard times when times are good.
That is what Joshua was calling the Israelites to do. Times were good. They had entered the Promised Land. They were settling into their new homes. It was an exciting time. And it was in these good times that Joshua called them to choose God.
Nobody had to tell them to remember God when times were hard. In a foxhole, everyone prays. But now they had won the battle. Now Joshua was calling them to remember the one who had given them the victory.
We need to make good choices when times are good, because those choices help us to avoid hard times, and they help us to survive hard times.
Choosing God today helps us to avoid hard times tomorrow. Including God in every decision will help us to avoid a thousand self-inflicted wounds and ten thousand heart-aches. How much easier would the past ten years have been if we had included God in every decision? How much easier would it have been for us? For our families? How many disasters and heart-breaks would we have avoided? Choose God today to avoid disaster tomorrow!
And choosing God today helps us to survive hard times when they come. Hard times are part of life. Good people get hurt; good people get sick; good people die. How will we handle it when the hard times hit us? If we have walked with him, we will be strong for the rough road.
Julian of Norwich was a great Christian of another century. She spoke of life’s hard times. She said:
“God did not say, ‘Thou shalt not be tempested,
thou shalt not be travailed,
thou shalt not be afflicted.’
He did say, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.'”
Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose to serve the Lord!
Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.
Copyright 2006, Richard Niell Donovan