“Choose this day whom you will serve.”
–Joshua 24:15b
One day thirty years ago, I had a revelation in a department store. It wasn’t visible to anyone else, nor did it have theological import, but rather came in a moment while shopping for blue jeans. Unlike school days, my typical wardrobe as a pastor doesn’t include jeans very often which meant the last time I had purchased a pair prior to that particular day had been eight or nine years previously. On that earlier trip, the only decisions were straight-leg or flared, pre-washed or that stiff dark blue. Yet I learned in my 1996 shopping outing that things had changed.
I found the size needed, but was then confused by another shelf that seemed identical. The pants had the same shade of blue and range of sizes. They even had the same kind of pants leg, but upon looking closer I saw that they were cut differently; something called “Relaxed Fit.”
Thinking it would just be interesting to see the difference I grabbed one of those and one from the regular cut pile and went to the dressing room. It was a humbling moment, for when I emerged minutes later I put the pair with the regular cut back on the shelf and purchased the ones which implied I should be relaxed about buying them. It didn’t have that effect though, as it was shortly thereafter that I started jogging again, something I had last done regularly when my jeans were also regular! And in the years that followed, not only did I continue to run on a a regular basis, but saved time in my online shopping for jeans as I could now skip over one whole category of options.
The passage we just read speaks of a moment with a far more significant matter than the right cut of blue jeans. Yet even so it tells of a time when a choice had to be made, too; a decision that was also intended to be repeated as those individuals moved forward.
By the time of that moment from centuries ago, the Israelites fully occupied the land of Canaan. Joshua, the one who had led that effort, was nearing the end of his life when he brings the people together and calls for a decision. In particular, he wants them to declare which god they will serve moving forward. He gives them four choices. They can serve the gods “beyond the River,” the land from which their ancestor Abraham emerged. They can serve the gods of Egypt, the place their parents and grandparents had been enslaved. They can serve the gods of the Amorites, native people from Canaan. Or, they can serve the one true God, the God of Israel. Were he to issue that challenge today, Joshua might tell persons they could follow the god of power or the god of technology, the god of beauty or the god of money, but the call would be the same. “Choose this day whom you will serve,” he says “but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
In response, the people recount the innumerable ways God has blessed them and say “we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” It is clearly the response Joshua sought, but he is not finished. “You cannot serve the Lord,” he goes on “for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God…if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods then he will turn and do you harm” and the people answer “No, we will serve the Lord!” “You are witnesses against yourselves,” Joshua pushes and the crowd shouts back “We are witnesses.”
One might think that such affirmations would have sufficed, but Joshua is not through. “Then,” he says “put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” Even though the people have three times declared their loyalty to God, Joshua knows there are some ways they have not made the change and he tells them that contradiction must end. The people reply “The Lord our God we will serve and him we will obey” and with that answer Joshua makes a covenant with the people. He adds their words to the law of Moses and creates an enduring memorial using a stone. He tells the people that the stone will bear witness to their vow, sends them away, and soon thereafter Joshua breathes his last. It was a fitting end for his time of service, calling upon the people to make that choice, but in the repeated way he issued the challenge, revealed that such a decision must be re-affirmed from time-to-time.
We know that to be the case as in our lives we make important choices, too. The choice to attend a particular college. The choice to marry. The choice to accept a job. The choice to become a parent. Decisions like that and countless others are significant ones, but they require further choices for any to continue.To be a faithful spouse does not involve one time of speaking vows, but a choice day after day to honor that commitment. The decision to be a good employee does not end on the first day of work, but in all the days that follow as one continues to give fully of her or his abilities. All of the important choices in life call for one to re-affirm the decision or make a different one and that is what Joshua sought on that day long ago.
Today is as good of a time as any for you and me to do the same with God.
Eternal One, you are the only god I need. Help me again on this day to break free from any other force that pulls me away from you. Amen.
Leave a Reply