Run With It: Whom Will You Serve?

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Whom Will You Serve?

I am reading in Joshua 24 (Old Testament) some of the history of the physical nation of Israel, the Jews, how God led them and provided for them and protected them and fought for them over many years. And now those who survived the time in wilderness, and the battles which followed, were in the Promised Land that God had prepared for them. And Joshua then spoke these words to the people:

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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.” (Joshua 24:14-15 ESV)

Now we read this in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Now, not all Scripture applies to us specifically today, such as we are not under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, and dietary laws and restrictions, including the requirement of circumcision of all males. All that was done away with when Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin and to empower us to live holy lives, pleasing to God. For we are now under the New Covenant relationship God has with us who believe in Jesus Christ (Jew and Gentile).

But we can still learn from the Old Testament many biblical teachings that do still apply to us today, for they are retaught for us in the New Testament. We just need to read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament teachings so that we are not putting ourselves under the Old Covenant, and so that we are not applying to our lives what only applied to specific people at particular times in history. For we should read the Scriptures in context to see to whom they apply and if the message is consistent with New Testament teaching.

So, is Joshua 24:14-15 consistent with what is taught to Christians in the New Testament? Absolutely! We are taught in the New Testament to walk in the fear of the Lord, to honor and revere God with our lives, and to serve him in sincerity (in truth) and in faithfulness and righteousness and godliness. And we are taught in the New Testament to put away all idols (other gods) and to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. And we are taught the difference between lip service and genuine faith in Christ.

Now, once we make our initial decision to believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, do we have a choice as to whether or not we serve him with our lives? Yes, we do, but we are instructed that if we choose to continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living, that we will NOT inherit eternal life with God. So, yes, we have a choice, but with that choice comes consequences, for all God’s promises have stipulations (requirements, conditions) we must adhere to.

And it was the same for the Israelites of the Old Covenant. For we read in the New Testament that God was not pleased with most of the Israelites when they were in the wilderness for 40 years, and so they were overthrown. For the majority of them were idolaters, revelers, drunkards, and the sexually immoral who put Christ to the test, and who grumbled against God and against his servant Moses. And so most of them died in the wilderness and did not enter into God’s eternal rest (salvation from sin).

But these things were written down for us who profess the name of Jesus today as examples for us, and for our instruction, in order that we might not desire evil as they did. We are not to be idolaters, revelers, drunkards, and the sexually immoral who put Christ to the test and who grumble against God when life does not go the way we want it to go. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, we will not enter into God’s eternal rest, either. We will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God if we walk in sin and not in obedience to our Lord.

[1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 12:1-2]

So, if the Lord says to us today, “choose this day whom you will serve,” he is letting us know, too, what it means to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God, and what it means for us if we decide to continue living in sin and not in walks of faithfulness and obedience to our Lord. If we honor him with our lives, and we surrender our wills to his will, and if we forsake our sinful practices, and we now obey his commands, in practice, in his power, we have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to him, we will not have eternal life.

The Battle for Truth