“So What Have You Done for Me Today?”

Scripture: Joshua 24:14-27

Last week, we were in the first 13 verses of this chapter, considering the Lord’s reminder to the people of just what he had been doing for them for the last few hundreds of years. He had promised them the new home that they were currently living in, and had delivered on his promise in a grand way. He had carried them into Egypt to spare them from famine; he had carried them out of Egypt to free them from slavery; he had sustained them in the desert for 40 years, even though they had turned a deaf ear to his grace; he had lead them into this new land; and, when they were faithful, had brought them a victory in every battle they had fought.

Faithful action must always begin with faithful questions.
-- Carol Richardson, Sojourners, January-February 1997, 13.

And so, we begin our quest today with a question – “What does the Lord expect from me?” The simple answer is that the Lord has exhibited great faithfulness to Israel, and he has shown that same faithfulness to his people in Jesus Christ, and he desires nothing less from us. But we need to consider how we show that faithfulness to God. Today, we consider the response that Israel was to offer to the Almighty, as well as the response that we are to give to him.

Read Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua seems to be telling us that regardless of all that the Lord God has given to us, we still get to choose, not only how we will respond to him, but whether we will show him honor or not. Notice that the people aren’t threatened with dire consequences if they choose to serve other gods, and neither are they promised great rewards if they do choose the great Jehovah! Joshua simply tells them that they have to choose!

An elderly deacon at the local Baptist church wore the same suit to church week in and week out, year after year. Some of the more affluent members of the church got together and contributed some funds to buy him a new suit, since the old one was so tattered and worn.
The deacon took the money quietly and without much fanfare. The patrons worried if they had offended him. But since it was a small town, they soon learned that he had gone to the best store in town to buy a new suit, and in the process had enough money left over to buy new shoes, a new shirt and a new tie to complete the outfit.
The entire congregation was waiting for him on Sunday morning. The faithful old deacon, though, never arrived. Now, sure that they had offended him, the benefactors sent some of the other deacons to his home to see what happened.
When they asked him about his new suit, he admitted that he had bought one. And, he told them, it looked good on him. “In fact,”, he said, “ it looked so great on me when I got ready for church on Sunday morning, that I looked at myself in the mirror - at all my new clothes and how well I looked - and I just decided to go to the Episcopal church instead.”
--Thanks to Steve Palmer, (5 July 1995). ECULAUGH, A000000S.MSG.

Strange choice, but a choice, none the less!

But what if Israel had refused to choose - if they had chosen neither the other gods nor Jehovah? In most instances, the failure to select an option just puts you in a “holding pattern” – neither in nor out, and some decisions make little or no difference for our lives. But the choice of a divine benefactor is one that is vitally important because it has a default. Our failure to choose is, by definition, a decision to stay with the other gods. God had chosen the children of Israel as his own thousands of years before, but now they were being given the opportunity to decide who they wanted to follow.
And ever since then, people throughout the earth have had to make their own choice. In our case, Jesus went to Calvary for the forgiveness of all people – that is a fact - but unless people decide to claim that divine sacrifice as one made for themselves, the default takes place, and the outcome of that non-decision is not a pretty one.

Joshua wanted the people to make the right decision, and he reassured them of the one he was making. “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua made the right choice. But would the people?

Read Joshua 24:16-21

The people say that they choose the Lord, but Joshua seems to doubt the sincerity of their words. It’s easy to speak the words “I will serve the Lord!”, but unless they come from the heart, they have little significance.
Question number 2 for the day is this – “Where is our loyalty?” In those days when I was gainfully employed in industry, payday was of particular interest to all of us. Loyalty was quite evident, as we collected our checks, or in later years, when we received the stub saying that our salary had been deposited in our checking account. But were we just as loyal and committed between paydays? Pens, pencils, and pads of paper were always sliding out the door and winding up in employees homes. Copies of personal papers and documents were constantly being made on company copiers. Personal time wasn’t always accounted for – it was routinely taken on company time. And many times, business decisions seemed to be based more in personal gain than in company need. True loyalty, at times, was questionable at best, and at other times was completely lacking.
Joshua knew the hearts of the people – during the 40 years of wilderness living, they had turned their backs on God time and time again. And he challenged them – “You aren’t able to serve the Lord!” And then proceeded to tell them just what would happen if they turned away again. But the people were adamant – “No, no – we mean what we say. We will serve our Almighty God!”

Loyalty is easy to talk about when everything is working to your favor, but how about when the going gets rough? Is our faithfulness just as firm when the storms of life begin raging? Is our devotion to the true God still unshakable when the rivers dry up and the crops shrivel in the field and it seems that God has, for some unknown reason, decided to withhold his goodness? Israel was staring peace and prosperity right in the face, and God was looking pretty good to them at that moment. But how about tomorrow? How about next year? Would faithful lives still prevail then?

Read Joshua 24:22-27

The people claimed to be sincere, so Joshua tells them to prove it – get rid of all the worldly trappings that were cluttering up their lives. For just a moment, think about the “foreign gods” that each of us has in our life. Where is our vision? Where do we spend our money? Where do we put our time? Are we good and faithful stewards of the creation that God has placed in our keeping? Are we faithful when it comes to caring for our bodies and the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters?
Have we made a covenant with our Almighty and Gracious Lord, to follow his lead and to set all other gods aside?

Joshua set Israel’s covenant in place – that they would faithfully worship and obey their one and only Lord regardless of what may come up against them. And as a reminder, he placed a large stone under the tree for everyone to see.
Israel was always setting up a stone as a marker or an altar whenever something significant happened in their lives. Jacob set his “pillow stone” up to mark the place he had his dream (Genesis 28:10-22); twelve stones were removed from the Jordan and set up as a marker when the people entered the Promised Land (Joshua 4:4-9); the covenant at Shechem was dedicated with a stone marker, and so on. The tradition of the stones would help the people to remember whenever they saw these symbols of God’s faithfulness, but would they be enough to ensure the people’s faithfulness?

What do we have as “stone memorials” in our lives? What reminds us of God’s great gifts to the world? What reminds us of the commitments we have made to our Lord Jesus Christ? How are we reminded of what the fullness of faithfulness is all about? Are we “living stones” to help others in their faith walk?

So let’s return to our original question – “What does the Lord expect from us?” All too often, we think that the Lord wants us to accomplish such great acts that we will never be able to do it! But the truth is that he simply wants us to go when he asks us to go, and to do the things he asks us to do. He knows our limitations intimately, so he never asks more of us that we can give! The point of it all, though, is that when he asks us to go, he will always go with us, and when he asks us to do, he will be there doing all the heavy “doing”. If we simply give him our confidence, our trust, our faith that he is greater than whatever else may come our way, that will be sufficient.

Can each of us give our loving and gracious God that much? Can we give him any less? That’s what he wants us to do for him.