Thursday after Septuagesima Sunday
Posted on February 17, 2022 by under
Scripture: Joshua 24:14-25 (NKJV)
24:14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
Devotion
Just like Moses had done before his death, which we heard yesterday, Joshua also gathers the people of Israel together to admonish them before his death. He admonishes the people to put away their false gods. These gods they have carried with them since Egypt, through forty years of wilderness wandering, through the conquest of Canaan, and even now that they have been planted in the promised land. They still clung to their false gods. They would even adopt the false gods of the Canaanites who still lived among them.
This serves as a picture and warning for us. There are many things in our lives that we trust in for rescue, apart from the one true Lord God. Our money, social status, family life, job security, our favorite sports team, and the like are all things from which we seek comfort in times of trouble and sorrow. We fail to turn to the only source of comfort in this life—to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Like the Israelites, when we are asked, “Who will you serve today?,” we readily say, “The Lord.” But our lives tell a different story, just as the lives of the Israelites did. With this realization, let us confess our sins and forsake our false gods, and cling to the works and merits of the Christ, our Lord Jesus, who grants us forgiveness freely for His name’s sake.
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee favorably to hear the prayers of Thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offenses, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
