Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1229
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.
JOSHUA knew that the people who surrounded him, while ostensibly serving Jehovah, were, many of them, secretly worshipping the ancient idols of their Mesopotamian fathers—those seraphim which were once hidden in Rachel’s tent and were never quite purged from Jacob’s family. Some of them, also, harbored the Egyptian emblems. And some had even fallen into the worship of the gods of the people whom they had displaced and were setting up the images of Baalim in their homes. The people were nominally worshippers of Jehovah, but in reality, many of them had turned aside unto strange gods. Never in their best days had the children of Israel been quite divorced from idols, for, as Stephen said of them, even in the wilderness they took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of their god Remphan, figures which they made, to worship.
Now, being a thorough-going, decided, down-right man, Joshua could not endure double-mindedness and, therefore, he pushed the people to decision, urging them to serve the Lord with sincerity and, if they did so, to put away, altogether, all their graven images. He demanded from them a determination for one thing or the other, and cried, “If it seems evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites among whom you dwell.” He shut them up to a present choice between the true God and the idols and gave them no rest in their half-heartedness. Anticipating the cry of Elijah upon Carmel, he demanded, in effect, “How long halt you between two opinions? If God is God, serve Him, but if Baal is God, serve him.” He demanded a decision and rightly so.
Can either earth or Heaven be quiet while such a matter is in suspense? To compel them to assert their decision, he declared his own. A man’s own personal example is eloquent beyond the power of words. Hear the grand old man! He cries, “You may hesitate, but my mind is made up once and for all. Judge you as you will, my verdict is already given and my children agree with me—as for me and my house we will serve Jehovah. We have no reverence for the demons of Canaan or the myths of Egypt who could not preserve their own worshippers—our hearts are loyal to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who brought us up out of Egypt and gave us this land for an heritage. So far as myself and my sons and my daughters are concerned, the die is cast and Jehovah, alone, will we serve.”
This clear avowal on the part of Joshua was not a trick of eloquence or a resolve made, for the first time, in order to influence his audience—he had so lived that his declaration carried weight with all who heard it, else it had been idle to have uttered it. He had always been a man of firm steps and determined mind. Probably this was one reason why Moses chose him to be his servant and kept him in personal attendance upon himself. His firmness comes out very clearly in his conduct as one of the 12 spies. The others brought up an evil report of the land, but not so Joshua and Caleb! Though they were only two against 10, yet they boldly maintained their testimony! And when the people spoke of stoning them, they did not falter for an instant, but remained faithful to their consciences.
These two men, alone, survived the graves of the wilderness, because they, alone, were untainted with the wilderness sins. Take Joshua as a warrior, too, for he was called to fight the Lord’s battles and you find him always a good soldier of the Lord. What a soldier he was! Saul, in later times, might spare the condemned seed of Amalek, but not so Joshua! As long as Moses held up his hands to pray, the sword of Joshua stayed not in the work of execution. When Israel had crossed the Jordan to attack the Canaanites, he had a commission from the Lord to destroy these outlawed nations and he made thorough work of it! So zealous was he in this war that the day was not long enough for him—he bade the sun and moon stand still till the Lord’s battle was fought to the end!
Joshua, like his friend, Caleb, “followed the Lord fully.” He might have taken for his motto the word, “thorough.”” He belonged to Jehovah, heart and soul, and mind and strength. As the successor of Moses and the type of the Lord Jesus, he put on zeal as a cloak and girded himself with fidelity as a garment. His appointed duty was fulfilled with martial strictness and unswerving steadiness. He had a single eye and a firm hand. He was strong and of good courage—and the Lord was with him. It was no idle boast when the old warrior and prince in Israel said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
We admire fidelity in Joshua and we confess that he needed it. But we may, perhaps, forget that there was never an age in which a decision for God was not equally required. It is well to admire this in another, but it is far better to possess it ourselves! In all times it is imperative upon men to take their stand for God and His Truth. In the first household outside of Eden, Abel protested against his elder brother’s example and died in consequence. Enoch, when all around walked according to the course of this world, dared to be singular and walked with God. Noah believed God amid universal wickedness and persevered for long years in preparing the Ark, though all men mocked his warnings. Abraham forsook country and home, at the command of God, and became a pilgrim and a stranger, dwelling alone and not numbered among the peoples. His was a grand life, for decided faith made him not only a mighty man, but a king among Patriarchs.