Joshua 24:1-28 Worship—Renewing our relationship with God

Two weeks ago, we began our series on worship, seeing worship as a time to hear God’s promises to us and to express our faith together as a community of people who are committed to following God. Last week we reflected on Nehemiah and how the people came to worship God and engaged in a time of deep confession and repentance. This week we’re going back to the time of Joshua when he called the people together to remember God’s faithfulness and to call them to renew their relationship with God. This is near the end of Joshua’s life, he’s led Israel in a time of conquest over the nations living in the Promised Land, claiming the land for God and Israel. Joshua didn’t completely succeed in conquering the entire land, but it’s time to end the warfare and to settle into the land and build homes, plant fields, and raise families. Joshua calls the people together in a time of worship and remembrance of God’s faithfulness.

Joshua begins by reminding the people of their history, reminding with them of God’s love, patience, mercy, and guidance from the time of Abraham until now. Remembering is a big part of worship for it gives us the reason and strength to trust God today, we look back to help us believe and trust today. Joshua reminds the people that the reason they’re in the Promised Land right now, getting ready to settle down is all because of God’s commitment to the promises God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s a faithful God, making even pagan prophets bless Israel while delivering the Israelites out of Balak’s power. Joshua wraps up his telling of God’s story with Israel by declaring, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua doesn’t just tell God’s story with Israel, he challenges the people to make a choice, “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped 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 your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.” Joshua’s challenge fascinates me because we see that even though God has done amazing things in providing for his people: leading them out of slavery, protecting them from the nations around them, giving them the gift of the Law, and an identity as his people, the Israelites were still attracted to the gods and idols of the other nations, even hanging onto idols they’ve gathered along the way to the Promised Land!

Joshua even suggests that serving the Lord might be undesirable to them after everything God has done for them! “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’” With everything God has done for them, how can they choose against God, yet I hear echoes here of Adam and Eve who were in a garden they didn’t plant, where life was good and God proved for them in everything, and yet they still listened to Satan over God.

It makes me wonder if there are idols and gods in our own lives that we might be carrying around in our hearts, perhaps not even realizing that they’re there, slowly draining away our commitment and love for Jesus? When we look at the things we spend most of our money, time, energy, and thoughts on, are they the things God is concerned about and engaged in, or they focused more on things that make our lives more comfortable and easier while ignoring many of the needs and brokenness around us? Tim Keller talks about how the good things that God gives us easily become small gods for us, crowding God out of our lives slowly, often without us even realizing it. Adam and Eve saw the fruit was good and desirable because God creates good things; the knowledge that Satan promised them wasn’t a bad thing, knowledge helps us make wise choices.

The problem was that Adam and Eve didn’t trust God’s love for them, didn’t trust that God knew what was best for them, weren’t patient enough to allow God to give them the knowledge they really needed. It’s like when your mother tells you not to do something, but it’s something you really want to do, so you don’t trust your mother’s wisdom or her concern for what’s best for you, and you do it anyway. How often don’t we learn the hard way that our mothers are much wiser than we were or are?

This is all happening in the context of worship, Joshua and the people are gathered together, worshipping God through remembering his goodness and blessings, being challenged to stay true to God and commit themselves to God alone. The people respond to God, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” Worship is not simply hearing the stories of God and Jesus, of hearing how Jesus came to earth from heaven to take our sin in himself in order to make us right with God, of how he died and rose again and gave us his Spirit so we can choose him over all other gods out there; we’re called to respond and recommit ourselves to following Jesus, to committing to allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives, our hearts, and minds.

In worship we recommit ourselves to God and Jesus because we’re God’s children, we’re the body of Jesus placed here in this community to show God’s love for our community, and to serve our community to tells them the stories of Jesus. For Joshua and the Israelites, it means throwing away their idols and recommitting to serve the Lord and serving him with all faithfulness, because he’s God. This looks like recommitting ourselves to obeying Jesus’ call to follow him and to learn to see, love, and bless the people around us.

But Joshua pushes back on the people. Pastor Howard Vanderwell writes, “The people respond to God in verses 16-24. Note the dialog, including both the exhortation and challenge that takes place. "We will serve the Lord” …. “But he is holy and jealous and you have sinned” …. “But we will serve him” … “Then throw away the other gods” … “We will obey him!" Imagine the drama and strength in that dialog!” The people commit to serving the Lord, but Joshua reminds them that the Lord is holy and jealous and they’re sinners, and the people recommit to serving the Lord. Joshua tells them to throw away their other gods, and finally the people go deeper and commit to obeying the Lord. The people move from promising simple service to obedience, to embracing who God is calling them to be as his people by remembering the stories of God’s faithfulness to them.

Joshua makes a new covenant between the people and God and sets up a large stone as a reminder. Every time they see the stone, they’ll remember their promise to obey God and remember all that God has done for them. This is part of our worship services most weeks. We come together, confess our sins, hear the words of God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and then commit together to seek God’s will for our lives. This is the importance, the beauty, and the wonder of worship. In worship, we find encouragement and challenge from each other as we share our stories of how and where God is working in and through our lives.

So how does this all help us as we walk through the days and weeks of our lives? Knowing that God is with us every moment of the day and actively working around us, allows us to walk with confidence that even when things don’t go well. Even when we get things wrong, Jesus is there because he promised to be with us all the time. Even when we end up not being faithful, Jesus remains faithful to us. By renewing our promises to God each week in worship, we remind ourselves that we are God’s people and followers of Jesus who have been called to be witnesses to God’s grace, forgiveness, and acceptance, and to tell the story of Jesus to our world today.