Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Joshua 24 - you cannot serve
Joshua 24:16 Then the people answered,;" ...18 ... Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God." 19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD,..."
This stark exchange prefigures the exchange between Peter and Jesus, (Mark 14:29-30; Luke 22:33-34) when Peter affirms that he is ready to follow Jesus into prison and even to death, but Jesus foretells that Peter will deny that he knows him three times before the cock crows.
In this passage, the people, and the people are clear on their reasons for their loyalty to God:
Joshua 24:16 "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods: 17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.
but Joshua is equally clear on why the people will forsake God:
Joshua 24:19 "for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins."
It is not enough to know the history. It is not enough to have the right doctrine. It is only the burning, indwelling, personal knowledge of the LORD present in our lives that holds us to him. This book closes with the summary:
Joshua 24:31 Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.
The coming generations, for whom all of this was “just a story” did not, and could not keep faith. The biblical affirmation is that we, the people, cannot cleave to God in our own strength even when we assert with our heart, mind, and strength, that it is our intention so to do. If faith is to be kept, it is all God’s work. It is God who, by God's grace, and God's initiative, and by God's own active work in our lives keeps us close to himself.
So, even here, in Joshua, the book of conquest, we have a foreshadowing of the Gospel -- the decision by God to come to us as Immanuel -- that we might be saved by God's grace, not by our own strength or goodness.
This stark exchange prefigures the exchange between Peter and Jesus, (Mark 14:29-30; Luke 22:33-34) when Peter affirms that he is ready to follow Jesus into prison and even to death, but Jesus foretells that Peter will deny that he knows him three times before the cock crows.
In this passage, the people, and the people are clear on their reasons for their loyalty to God:
Joshua 24:16 "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods: 17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.
but Joshua is equally clear on why the people will forsake God:
Joshua 24:19 "for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins."
It is not enough to know the history. It is not enough to have the right doctrine. It is only the burning, indwelling, personal knowledge of the LORD present in our lives that holds us to him. This book closes with the summary:
Joshua 24:31 Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.
The coming generations, for whom all of this was “just a story” did not, and could not keep faith. The biblical affirmation is that we, the people, cannot cleave to God in our own strength even when we assert with our heart, mind, and strength, that it is our intention so to do. If faith is to be kept, it is all God’s work. It is God who, by God's grace, and God's initiative, and by God's own active work in our lives keeps us close to himself.
So, even here, in Joshua, the book of conquest, we have a foreshadowing of the Gospel -- the decision by God to come to us as Immanuel -- that we might be saved by God's grace, not by our own strength or goodness.
