Servants are Loyal to the Master
We saw yesterday how Joshua said to the Israelites: “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.”
Turn away from the other gods, says Joshua. LEAVE THEM BEHIND! And serve the one true God.
When the Israelites had been freed from slavery in Egypt years before, we read page after page after page after page in the Old Testament of one theme: do not be swayed into following false gods.
Remember the first of the 10 commandments? “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3 NIV). God was at pains to tell His people if you serve the wrong gods in your life, it will not go well for you. He would repeat over and over in His word: you can trust ME. I love you. I know what’s best for you. Serve me and find life!
Modern-Day Idols
But the Israelites didn’t listen, they kept doing their own thing apart from God. And they never found peace, freedom and healing – the things God promised them – because they kept forsaking the one who held those very things in His hands.
Joshua stood up in the midst of all of this and said: If you want to go serve the false gods, fine, do that, but as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord. HE will be our God! We will be loyal to Him and serve Him.
Now, in those times, the false gods and idols were different to today. In those cultures, the people would actually build statues and totem poles and things like that, and bow down to them, trusting in dead structures for deliverance and help. In our time, this is not the norm. But we have made idols of other things:
- Money is the big one. We are so often controlled by our money, believing that only money will get us through.
- Possessions is another. We love to get bigger, better, newer, cooler toys. We love to try and compete with our neighbours in getting more and more and more.
- Success is another idol. Many of us go so hard after success, we make it the be-all and end-all of our lives.
- Entertainment is an idol for many of us. We spend far more time on our leisure activities than with God. God is an add-on to our entertainment-filled lives, rather than entertainment being an add-on to our God-filled lives.
- Relationships are also idols for many of us. When we place our relationships before God and nurture our relationships more than we ever nurture our love for God.
Serve the True God
And while these are all good gifts, they are terrible masters. If we treat these things as masters in our lives, as most important, they will let us down because they are fragile. They come and go.
By all means, have these things in your life, but not as masters, not giving them your ultimate affection and love. Pursue them as gifts from the true Master. The one true God!
And say with Joshua today: as for me and my house, we will not serve the false gods of our culture, we will loyally serve the LORD and Him only!
