Me and My House

Our roosters became men in the last few weeks and they want the whole world to know.  They do not follow the "crow when the sun comes up" rule.  They crow sometimes as early as 5 am and once they start they DO NOT STOP.  It is particularly loud and strong in the morning, when everyone is wanting to sleep.  I'm just glad our closest neighbours aren't very close.  To top it off, there are FOUR of these boys running around making noise.  We have really become an Old Macdonald's Farm with a cluck cluck here and a moo moo there and a neigh neigh here and a meow meow there!  Better than reading about the sounds in a book!

So in the final chapter of Joshua, he finishes his pep talk off with a complete review of all that God has done since the exodus of the Israelites, reminding them of many details just in case they forgot.  He closes with the classic choice and what he and his family will choose,

¹⁴ “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. ¹⁵ 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.”

What I didn't notice before was their response.

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, ¹⁷ for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. ¹⁸ And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

It seems obvious!  That is the answer we would expect from the Israelites.  "Of course we'll serve the Lord!  We remember all that He's done for us!  We know the danger in turning away from the Lord.  We would never serve another God! "  But no, it isn't like that.  Joshua gives them a very unexpected response, too:

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God."

I really loved that.  "You think you can serve the Lord, but you can't.  You are too sinful and He is too holy."  I think what he might have been trying to say is that you are not able to in your own strength, without acknowledging how sinful you are, without acknowledging His holiness and how far off the mark you are.   For us, reading this today, thankfully we have the knowledge of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  We can say every day, "I will choose to serve the Lord."  But we know very well, we won't or we can't, not in our own strength.  I can barely make it out of bed without His strength let alone co-parent a group of 8 or get out of debt or anything!  I'm so grateful I have the benefit of knowing what Christ has done for us and for the gift of the Holy Spirit that I can call on any minute of the day, all day.

Fortunately, though Joshua gives them the bad news that they aren't able to serve God how they think they can, they still say they will.  

"And the people said to Joshua, 'No, but we will serve the Lord.” ²² 

I appreciate this statement.  They know they are hopeless and not very good at serving Him.  They know they will fail.  They know they can't match His holiness, but they want to try anyway!  I can relate to that sentiment so well.  I know I fail in so many attempts at trying to serve the Lord.  I know I can't reach His standards.  I just can't do it most of the time, but I still say, "I will serve the Lord."  I then rest in His mercy towards me as He knows my heart.

That's it.  Joshua pretty much ends there.  The people were given a choice, they made the right choice (at least for the time being!).  It ended on a high for sure.  They are in the Promised Land, all the inheritances have been allotted.  They've made a covenant to serve the Lord faithfully.  If it had been a movie it definitely had a happy ending.  I really loved studying this book and the story of all the tribes fighting for what God longed for them to possess.  It inspired me in our journey to keep fighting, to not give up, to persist in prayer, to rely on my one man, and to choose to serve the Lord, me and my house.