November 12, 2023
“Making Good Choices”
Rev. Robert McDowell
“Choose this day who you will serve, but as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
I love this verse from our appointed Old Testament reading for today. This is definitely a verse that you sometimes see on a Christian coffee mug, or on a church banner, or on a poster in a Sunday School classroom. I think it’s a popular verse because we want people to know that we’re Christians. It’s a bold statement declaring that we believe in God.
This challenge of serving only one God is what Joshua presented to the Israelites who were no longer wanderers in the wilderness but were now residents of the Promised Land. Joshua is telling the people that it’s now time to choose because they have a lot of choices from which to choose.
In Joshua’s day, there was a wide array of intriguing religious possibilities. Thanks to archeological discoveries over the past several centuries, we know that in Canaan, there were 234 different gods who were worshipped by the people who lived there.
Kind of like the number of toothpaste choices you find in the grocery store. There are like a zillion toothpaste choices now if you take a moment to look. Nobody ever says that they have researched all of the different kinds of toothpaste options and here is the best one to buy.
So many choices! And this is what the Israelites were facing now that they were in the Promised Land. 234 different gods. And you might ask why you need 234 different gods, but it would also be like asking why do you need a zillion different kinds of toothpaste?
It’s because they do different things. Do you want more tartar control? Do you prefer more of a mint freshener? But don’t you need to get the one that says it’s the best at whitening teeth?
I would guess that if we took a survey of what brand and specific kind of toothpaste we each use, we would get a lot of different answers. Same with different kinds of deodorant or what bank you should use.
By the way, I looked this up and there are 4,844 different banks to choose from in our country. What if I would say to you that there is only one true bank to use and it’s the one that I use? That would be weird if I would say that because there are many banks from which to choose. We live in a culture with a ton of choices, right?
So, if we were living during the time of Joshua, you might have a next-door neighbor who loves to worship Baal because you want your fields to have an abundant harvest this year and in case there’s a drought, Baal is known to be a god of rain.
Or maybe a buddy of yours has a child who is sick, so you spend a lot of time making sacrifices to Eshmun who is known as the god of healing. Or you know of a couple who are experiencing infertility, and they tell you that they worship Astarte, because that is the god of fertility who can help them have a child someday.
But the truth is that everybody is pretty much worshipping a lot of different gods because they all have different needs depending on what they are experiencing. And pity the person who believes in just one God, Yahweh, and refuses to worship any other god, because if there would be a famine in the land, their neighbors will end up blaming them for not making any sacrifices to Baal, the god of crop fertility.
So, there would have been these extreme social pressures to worship various gods and not just one God. And this was the challenge that Joshua was presenting to the Israelites in our scripture reading for today.
Joshua is calling for the people to make a choice in which God they will ultimately serve, not just which god is convenient for whatever need you may have at the time. I know you have 234 choices of gods in this land to worship and you can worship more than one or maybe even all of them, but today, I want you to choose only one God to worship and obey, the God of Israel. Make a good choice.
And right there on the spot, the people responded to Joshua by saying, “God forbid that we ever leave the Lord to serve other gods!” Now, if I was Joshua, I would feel like mission accomplished. They are all ready to follow just one God and not any of the others.
But notice what Joshua does next! Instead of celebrating with them, he challenges them to make sure they understand the choice they are making. He says, “You can’t serve the Lord because he is a jealous God who will not tolerate you worshipping anyone else.”
But again, the people responded with, “No! The Lord is the one we will serve.”
And then he makes it all binding when he asks them to be witnesses of what they have agreed to do which leads us to the last verse which says, “On that day, Joshua made a covenant for the people.”
This was a choice that would be irrevocable. And the Lord will hold them accountable for their decision. This is some serious stuff, to be willing to put God first in your life, to worship only the Lord, and to obey the Lord in your day to day living. That’s a big choice to make.
It’s probably about time that I share a little of my personal testimony with you.
When I was a freshman in college, I was really struggling with what I was supposed to do with my life. I wasn’t happy with my major, and so I decided to put all of my focus on playing baseball in college. When baseball was no longer fulfilling my happiness, I started to feel really empty. I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was headed down a road without any clear direction or purpose in life.
That all changed one day, when I happened to come across an old cassette tape from a county-wide youth rally that I had attended when I was in my early teens.
After I dusted off that old cassette tape, I listened the speaker at this event challenge the youth who had gathered for that rally to make a commitment to put Jesus Christ first in our lives. He said that if we would put Jesus first in everything we did, that we would experience a sense of peace and purpose in our lives.
Now, remember, I was there at that youth rally and heard that message in person, but when I listened to it on this tape several years later as a struggling freshman in college, it was like I was hearing if for the very first time.
I listened to that tape over and over again, just taking in the message to put Jesus first in everything you do. And then, one afternoon, I’ll never forget it.
One afternoon, I got on my knees, and I made a recommitment of my life to Jesus Christ. While on my knees, I promised Jesus that I would do whatever he wanted me to do. I told him that I had tried to do things my way which wasn’t working very well and leaving me feel empty, but now I wanted to trust God with my life.
When I stood up from that prayer, it was like this huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I felt a peace that I had been missing in my life.
There were two things that Jesus wanted me to do immediately. The first thing was to study and get good grades even though I wasn’t sure about my major. And it worked! I made the Dean’s list the next Semester. My parents were in disbelief!
The next thing Jesus wanted me to do, was to begin a new bible study group by inviting people my age who didn’t have a church home. That bible study group met regularly for the rest of my time in college.
Three people in that group ended up becoming pastors. One of the group members stopped going to parties every weekend and started attending church on a regular basis. That bible study group is what helped me to do my best in keeping Christ first in my life during my college years.
And it wasn’t until my junior year of college, that I felt God calling me to become a pastor and that’s a whole other story, but that would not have happened if I didn’t make the choice during my freshman year to allow Christ to be first in my life. That was my Joshua moment. That was the day when I signed a covenant with God so to speak.
I am so glad that I made that choice. But I also know that it was God who first reached out to me through that old cassette tape.
One of the things that Penny would tell her school students over and over again was, “Make good choices.” She was always reminding them that they always have a choice to do the right thing. And this was something that we reminded our children to do over and over again. Make good choices.
I like that Joshua gave the people a choice and he even tried to talk them out of it just to make sure they understood the importance of saying that they would worship only one God, the God of Israel. He knew that it wouldn’t be easy for them to follow through with their commitment.
And it’s not always easy for us to make good choices. So many options. So many things that can keep us from allowing Christ to be first in our lives.
Joshua actually reminded the people why following God is the best choice. He said that it was the Lord who first reached out to them by calling Abraham to leave his home land to begin a new nation. It was the Lord who freed them from slavery in Egypt. It was the Lord who gave them mighty signs so that they would know he was with them. It was the Lord who protected them as they traveled through the dangerous wilderness and into the Promised Land.
I guess you can say that today’s scripture reading offers us both good and bad news.
The good news is… God lets us choose. And the bad news is… God lets us choose.
With choosing, comes responsibility. But it’s a choice that can lead to a life that is filled with peace, purpose, goodness, adventure, hope, and so many blessings.
What an opportunity for us today… and we get to choose.
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