If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
Joshua’s farewell
Joshua’s farewell to the leadersI am very old. You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. Joshua 23:2,3
If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow and you had a chance to say something to all your friends. What would you say? Joshua begins by telling them to remember what God has done for them in the past. He then tells them to do three things:
• ‘Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. (22:7)
• hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now. (22:8)
• be very careful to love the LORD your God. (22:11)
The main themes of Joshua’s address are to urge the people not to forget what the LORD has done for them (V 3, 9) and to stress again the imperative of loving the LORD and serving him alone.
Israel’s uniqueness lies in the fact that she serves only one God, the LORD. The people around them have many gods – territorial gods, gods of fertility, military gods etc. Joshua follows the command to serve the LORD by warning the people of four temptations. They are not to invoke the names of other gods or swear by them. They are not to serve and worship them. This is similar to Paul’s exhortation of the Romans (4): ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ or as JB Phillips translated it ‘Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould’. The challenge is as real for us as for the ancient Israelites.
The balance between God’s part and our part in divine strategy is important. Joshua rehearses what God has done and then lists the obligations of God’s people: obedience to God’s law, separation from idols, loyalty to and love for God. To retain God’s favour the people must remain faithful.
For us, as in the ancient world, sex, power and material possessions remain the greatest temptations to our faithful walk with God. It is naïve to think that we are immune to their attraction. The daily battle to choose God is as real for us as for the Israelites
What ‘idols’ in the world of sport or in life challenge our commitment to God? In what ways are we tempted to let contemporary society squeeze us into its own mould?