Joshua 24 Devotional

Chosen Before They Chose

“But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!””Joshua 24:15 (BSB)

At Shechem, Joshua speaks for the LORD, and nearly every sentence has God as its subject. God took Abraham from a family that served other gods. He gave Isaac and Jacob, sent Moses, brought Israel out of Egypt, defeated the Amorites, turned Balaam's curse into blessing, and gave Israel a land they had not worked and cities they had not built (24:2-13). Only then does the call come: fear the LORD, put away other gods, and serve him (24:14-15).

The people answer eagerly, but Joshua warns that they are not able to serve this holy and jealous God (24:19). Israel served the LORD as long as Joshua and the elders who had seen his works were alive (24:31), but a later generation did not know him (Judges 2:10). Human pledges to serve God do not hold on their own. That is why God himself promised a new heart and his own Spirit to move his people to obey (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Your service begins where Israel's did, with what God has already done.

To think about: What has God already done for you that could be the starting point of your service to him today?