Joshua 24:15
THe American family has been coming apart at the seams in recent decades. For one thing, the marriage institution has been much ignored by young and old alike; so, fornication abounds. For another, married people are increasingly engaging in “serial polygamy”—they may not live with many spouses at once, but they do it one at a time. And the plague of divorce, long commonplace in the world, has now been spreading in Christendom.
Against this background, we followers of Christ have the responsibility of showing the world that the Christian home is still the pillar of society. And helpful to us in this respect is the key final advice Joshua gives to the Israelites after he has driven out the pagans from the Holy Land, and given the land to them. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he says In Joshua 24:15:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
A living religion
As the head of his household, Joshua is well aware of the fact that the Living God that he loves and serves is altogether unique. Anyone who doesn’t want to serve this God will have to serve one of the pagan gods, who are nothing but useless idols. The Israelites that perished in the wilderness were among those who worshipped idols.
This difference between our God and all idols is repeatedly underscored in the scriptures. We read, for instance, in Jeremiah 10:10:
The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Our true and everlasting God is the One who will someday come in glory and power to judge the whole world. By way of contrast, all the idols will perish because they have no life in them. Thus, verses 14 and 15 state:
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
A personal religion
To Joshua, Christ is not just a God living some where out there, He is his personal Lord and Savior. Can you fathers say that about yourselves?
If I ask you, “Is Christ first in your life?” I suppose many of you would be swift to answer, “Yes.” But if I ask further, “What have you done for Christ, say, in the past week?” I’m afraid many will have to say, “Nothing at all.” Not one has done anything to send forth His gospel, spent one hour of service to advance His kingdom, or commit one act to glorify His name.
Too many of us take for granted that we are Christians simply because our parents or grandparents were believers. But unlike ordinary clothing, Christ’s robe of righteousness cannot be handed down from one generation to another. God has no grandchildren. Salvation is by grace, not by genes. In His mercy, God adopts us individually as His children. That’s why our Lord tells us to pray, “Our Father, which art in Heaven...”
Marriage vows. The first thing that a Christian family needs is for the father (or the mother, if the father is not saved) to personally know Jesus Christ and to commit himself to serving Him. Part of that commitment is to carry out the responsibilities that the parenthood role requires. We parents have been placed in that role by God Himself.
A great fallacy of our time is the idea that marriage is based all upon love—that romanticized, emotional something that Hollywood pawns off to us. But marriage is much more than that. It is based also upon commitments—commitment to God and commitment to the spouse.
When a couple weds, they vow to love and care for one another for good or for ill; in prosperity or in adversity; in health or in sickness. They commit themselves, saying, “I take this woman (or man) to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband)...till death do us part.”
If households are headed by God-fearing fathers who honor their wedding vows, divorce would not have become the scandal it now is in the Christian community.
A family religion
Joshua’s religion is a family as well as a personal one. He says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua knows that God set him in and over a family. As its authorized head, he dares to say: “My house will serve the Lord.” It is a family religion. We find here a covenant theology. We read in Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Although each member must be personally called by God, Christ does often break into families. Many young people have become saved through the prayers of their parents, the godly example they set before them, and the teaching they have instilled in their minds. I wonder how many of you fathers really understand what it means to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
Lost children. Perhaps you have children whom you took to church when they were young, but who have since apostatized themselves from the faith. They have no interest in the things of God, and you wonder why.
Perhaps you yourself went to church just to put in your duty for the week. Perhaps there was never any attempt to discuss in the home the word of God, never any admonition for every family member to do the will of God and never any effort to send forth the gospel of Christ. Do you know what your children saw? Hypocrites!
Joshua has included his house in his relationship to God. He doesn’t leave the religious aspect of his family up to the mother or the Sunday School teacher. He speaks of “me and my house”. As the father, he is going to see to it that his children are trained up in the way they should go so that they will not depart from it when they grow up.
We need fathers and mothers who are committed to showing the love of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit in their homes. We need fathers and mothers whose obedience are used by God to save their families.
A practical religion
For Joshua, it is not only a personal and family religion, but a practical religion as well. He said, “...we will serve the Lord.”
As parents, we usually spend a great deal of time trying to teach our children to be good. But we don’t teach them how to do good. How much are your children serving God? How much are you yourself serving God? Is the kingdom of Christ the first priority in your family’s life?
As we live in this world, we are surrounded by unbelievers who need to hear the gospel. And in our Christian fellowship, there are new believers who need to be discipled. These are just some of the ways our homes can be used to advance the kingdom of Christ.
Just recently, a couple who love the Lord shared an experience they had when they first joined our fellowship. Being new in the area, they had no friends. But after a Thanksgiving Day service, three different couples approached them and invited them over for lunch that day. They were overwhelmed by the hospitality of these couples that opened their homes, and were impressed that Christ was a key part of their conversation.
A confessed religion
Finally, with Joshua, his is a confessed religion. He brings tens of thousands of the children of Israel together and there, before them all, he confesses his faith: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Now, I would ask you: How many people know that you are a Christian?
I remember well a man who had been a vice-president of a large bank. He retired and I had the joy of witnessing to him and later finding him saved. He visited the bank where he had served for forty years. While talking to the president of the bank, the latter claimed that he was a Christian! This man was so overwhelmed that he asked him: “For forty years, why didn’t you ever talk to me about Christ?”
How many people, I wonder, would be astounded to learn that you are a Christian?
We live in a time when evil is extraordinarily bold. We have people marching down the streets with placards saying, “Prostitutes’ Rights!” or “Homosexual Rights!” Everybody has come out of the closet—except, I’m afraid, many who call themselves Christians. These people regard themselves as believers, but are ashamed of the one person in all this world worthy to be proclaimed to all the earth—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Biblical example. Do you confess Christ boldly? We read in Scripture, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
One way that you can tell if a person is in Christ and whether he is much in the Word of God is whether or not he is bold for Christ.
My friend, may I say that if you are living for anything other than to serve Christ and advance His kingdom, you will find that at the end it will all turn to ashes in your mouth. You will see that you have been deceived and deluded; that your life has been a lie and that Satan has won the victory over you. Instead of the heaven that you have anticipated, you will find yourself far from the presence of God, in the eternal lake of fire.