Joshua 24:15, commentary and pictures

Joshua in his final farewell after the conquest and rest from enemies called Israel to make a willing and decisive choice between the Lord and false gods, whether those beyond the flood or those of the Amorites whose land they now dwelled in. The call followed God's merciful deliverance from Egypt, preservation in the wilderness, and giving them the land of peoples destroyed for abominable sin, and it demanded putting away all idolatry still secretly cherished. True service must spring from love and wholehearted devotion rather than fear, hope of reward, compulsion, or divided halfway allegiance, for God forces no will yet accepts nothing less than the entire heart. Each person must choose for himself this day without delay or neutral indecision, beginning in the home, for the decision fixes eternal destiny between life and ruin as probation closes. Joshua's own resolve that he and his household would serve the Lord stands as the model for parents to govern by God's Word, train children for Him, and witness openly by a consistent life.

Historical Setting and Occasion

The call belongs to Joshua's final farewell appeal just before his death, given after the conquest when the land had been given rest from surrounding enemies and he had gathered Israel with its tribes and leaders. He spoke as a wise leader of unstained holy character whose life was wholly devoted to God, loved and respected by all Israel and much lamented at death, following the example of Moses. Like Moses before his death, he assembled the host and reviewed their wilderness travels and God's merciful dealings since Israel was called to be His people.

That rehearsal recalled bringing them and their fathers out of Egyptian bondage, great signs done before them, preservation all the way they went among all the peoples they passed through, the war of the king of Moab who called Balaam to curse them but God would not listen to Balaam and blessed them still, and giving them the Amorites' land. Near the end of his life this review was meant to awaken gratitude for God's providential care and humility over past complaints and failure to follow God's revealed will. This final rehearsal of what God has given and taught is what God's people must now repeat and repeat in the warfare between the forces of light and darkness, to meet errors that unsettle confidence and to stand firmly in defense of the truth and understanding given by the Holy Spirit.

The people answered by refusing to forsake the Lord for other gods and renewing their covenant to serve Him and obey His voice, which Joshua wrote in the book containing the laws and statutes given to Moses. The appeal aimed to bring Israel to a decision that would banish idolatry still secretly practiced among them, urging them to put away former gods. It warned them to avoid idolatry and all close ties with idolaters including intermarriage and even the borders of sin, because exposure to their practices could corrupt them and lead to sin, ruin and desolation, for God is faithful both to His promises and His threats.

God had joined the Hebrew nation to Himself to reflect His character and be a light to other nations, who through communion with Him could be purified and ennobled, but by transgression could become wholly debased. Israel needed to leave Egypt and choose the true and merciful God, though many accustomed to Egyptian ways preferred bondage to the difficulties of leaving.

False Gods to Forsake

The call lays out three distinct masters and demands a willing, deliberate and decisive choice between them: the gods served by the fathers beyond the flood, the gods of the Amorites in whose land Israel now dwelt, or the LORD Himself. Service to the LORD is not to be rendered from compulsion, and against those two forms of false worship stands Joshua's settled resolve that he and his household will serve the LORD.

To turn to the gods of the Amorites would be utter folly, for they had no power to bestow peace, prosperity or protection upon their worshipers. Those who honored them wrongly credited them with blessings that in truth came from God alone.

The Amorites had been destroyed because of their degrading and abominable sins, and their land had been taken from them and given to Israel. It is therefore a rebuke to Israel even to consider the deities whose worship was bound up with that wickedness and ruin.

Willing Service Through Love

The call comes after setting out God's goodness toward Israel, spoken in His name to settle whom they will follow and to bring them to a decision that banishes idolatry still secretly practiced among them. Service to God must be willing and never compelled, for He does not force the will or judgment of any person and no one is compelled to be saved. Each person must choose for himself whom he will serve, freely giving mind and heart to Christ, and those who give their hearts to Him find rest in His love. Listening to Satan's suggestions leads to looking at matters as he does and reasoning in the same manner, ending in the same course of stubborn resistance to light that he pursued in the courts of heaven.

Love to God is the very foundation of true religion, freely given through an intelligent appreciation of His wisdom, justice and goodness, whose requirements are just and merciful, and not slavish obedience. Service prompted only by hope of reward or fear of punishment is not true religion, avails nothing, and brings no peace or assurance of His favor. Hypocrisy and mere formal worship are no less offensive to Him than open apostasy. He accepts no divided heart or halfway commitment, but only faithful, wholehearted service, and those who choose Christ become His servants and representatives, working with Him to rescue others.

Because God does not compel obedience, no ruler has civil or moral right to threaten people with death to force them to worship God. The will is the power of decision and choice, and every rational person can place the will on God's side and choose what is right and obedient. Linked with divine help, no force can make that person do evil, and even children and youth can with His help choose integrity and a useful life.

Personal Decisive Choice Today

Serving the Lord is a deliberate, decisive, personal choice each one must make for himself, for no one can choose for another or be carried to heaven by proxy, and the choice stands between serving Christ who gave His life and serving Satan and a path leading away from Him. The will is the power of decision and choice, and every rational person can place the will on God's side and choose what is right and obedient, so that linked with divine help no force can make him do evil. Even children and youth can with God's help choose integrity and a useful life. The commitment extends to the household, taking precedence over joining others in sin even when following God's commands makes a person stand apart from the majority. The choice must begin at home, first bringing one's own heart and household under God's will and then working for others, for seeing God's power at work in the family gives evidence of divine help for service beyond the home. Those who give their hearts to Christ in this choice find rest in His love.

The choice must be made this day, now, without delay, as a clear decision about whom to serve between God and wealth or other false gods and between the Lord and Satan with everlasting life at stake. Its words express a firm personal commitment to follow Christ and to give oneself to Jesus without reserve, choosing Him even at the cost of everything else and living for future immortal life. It is a definite decision to be made personally and within the family, as parents are urged to unite with their children in preparing for eternity and to serve God forevermore through daily consecration, earnest prayer, faithful study of Scripture, and obedience to His commands. The appeal is to be made especially to those who do not yet know the truth, to make a present decisive choice, and it is to be urged with prayer that the Lord will bring conviction to their hearts.

There is no safe neutral indecision, for indecision dishonors Christ, leaves the soul exposed to temptation, and gives Satan an advantage, while the choice is urgent and concerns both present and eternal interests. Halfheartedness leaves people vulnerable to deception and places them on the enemy's side rather than taking a definite stand for the Lord. Present personal decision admits no neutral ground because indecision keeps others back and influence tells either for good or evil. The choice therefore demands taking Christ's side and giving God undivided affection. It means entire sacrifice, loving God and keeping His commandments, aiming high for everlasting life, choosing between heaven with self-denial and the cross and earthly pleasures ending in banishment from the presence of the Lord and death.

The choice demands an immediate, decisive exercise of personal will placed on the side of God's will, breaking off sins entirely and forever including licentiousness and renouncing Satan's company now and forever, since licentiousness and truth cannot occupy the same field and failure to make this break leaves a person lost. It calls for undivided affection rather than continuing in sin, whether framed as God or Baal, and God accepts no divided heart or halfway commitment but only faithful wholehearted service. One who is not serving God wholeheartedly must stop following his own impulses and turn from sin. Serving God means keeping all His commandments and taking Christ's side regardless of cost, for God does not force anyone's service and the choice carries consequences of life or death. Those who choose Christ become His servants and representatives, working with Him to rescue others.

Choosing the Lord means taking a firm stand for the truth and being fully on His side, and standing on the platform of eternal truth amid confusion. It demands an immediate decision of whom to serve that calls those who have grown cold or turned back to renew their commitment to His service. Those who have caused division are required to stop, consider their course seriously, and change their action. The choice in this stand has eternal consequences.

Choosing the Lord rather than following false doctrines that appear appealing but lead away from truth is part of this stand and requires a present definite choice. The final rehearsal of what God has given and taught must be repeated and repeated in the warfare between the forces of light and darkness, to meet errors that unsettle confidence and to stand firmly in defense of the truth and understanding given by the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Consequences and Probation

The choice is between life and death, with everlasting life at stake and eternal destiny decided by whether a person serves the Lord or continues on a course leading to ruin. It affects present happiness as well as future well-being, setting service to the Lord against service to Satan or another master. Serving the Lord means renewing covenant at the cross of Calvary, cleansing the soul-temple of moral defilement, letting the Spirit of God fill the vacuum, and dying to self by crucifying the idol of self that leaves no room for Jesus, light, love, meekness and lowliness of heart. Those who choose to serve God are to stand firmly on eternal truth.

The decision is present and urgent because human probation is nearly ended and earth's history is about to close, and all are now deciding their eternal destiny by this choice. The present day is an invitation to hear God and obey while mercy is still offered, and this call may be the last invitation. Refusing that invitation or persisting in disobedience leaves no second probation, for mercy will not plead forever. The call is to be urged to arouse men to the solemnity of the time and the nearness of the end, while every species of indulgence prevails and men so infatuated with vice will not listen to warnings or appeals but are hurried on to eternal ruin. The choice thus set is between serving God and serving mammon.

God gives no man a message that the end is five or ten or twenty years away, giving no living being an excuse for delaying preparation for His appearing. Saying the Lord delays His coming leads to reckless neglect of the opportunities and privileges given to prepare for that great day. Everyone who claims to be a servant of God must do His service as if each day might be the last.

The choice comes after precious light and abundant instruction have opened duty to the understanding, and it requires prompt, decided, wholehearted action rather than delay or following natural inclination. Receiving and acting on light brings understanding, pardon, and witness for Christ. Understanding duty and not performing it turns light into darkness, adds new sin to past transgression, and writes condemnation in heaven. Punishment is measured in proportion to the light received, so it would be better to have remained in darkness than to refuse obedience after such privilege.

Choosing Christ is rich and glorious, bringing membership in the royal family as children of the heavenly King. Those who give their hearts to Christ find rest in His love. Deciding to serve the Lord means choosing Christ as leader, growing daily more like Him strengthened with all might by His Spirit, and forming a character that will win entrance into the holy city. It means solid character-building that brings in sound timbers and discards every worthless rotten timber until character becomes a beautiful structure, a temple for God, so that blunders and failures need not discourage because errors seen and confessed are forgiven and cleansed by God and can be turned into victories. It is time for a young person with a soul to save or to lose to give his heart to the Lord to serve and glorify Him and to decide under whose banner he will stand in preparation for the future eternal world, whether under the banner of Prince Immanuel or under the black banner of the prince of darkness, deciding for life, eternal life. Choosing the Lord brings something higher and better, a conscious and unconscious influence in right doing and a sacred love more precious than gold, with obligation to return the influence and means lent by the Lord to advance His cause and glorify His name. The choice requires any and every sacrifice to join the heavenly family above, separation from those who love the pleasures of the world, and refusal of the world that crucified Jesus, as present and urgent as choosing between Jesus and Barabbas.

Those who choose God through entire sacrifice, loving God and keeping His commandments and aiming high for everlasting life, are accepted by Christ. The choice is between heaven with self-denial and the cross and earthly pleasures ending in banishment from the presence of the Lord and death, demanding moral courage to tell friends who offer parties, balls and amusements that pleasures are renounced for a peaceful life fitted for the heavenly kingdom. Those who so choose have their names recorded in the Book of Life to be remembered when He makes up His jewels, are acknowledged by the mighty Conqueror before angels as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ in the everlasting kingdom under the whole heaven, are received into the prepared heavenly mansion, and join angels and the redeemed who washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb in adoring the Lamb that was slain and casting crowns at His feet.

Refusing the Lord is departing from the living God and selling eternal life cheaply. Refusing the Lord's instruction is rebellion and leads toward ruin, while choosing loyalty means standing openly for what is right before people and angels so others know where one will stand in a time of trial. The choice is strictly personal, and even the righteousness of Noah, Daniel and Job, which is the imputed righteousness of Christ, can deliver only their own souls and cannot save son or daughter or another person.

Israel needed to leave Egypt and choose the service of the true and merciful God, but many had become so accustomed to Egyptian ways that they preferred bondage to the difficulties of leaving. Those who set aside God's requirements to win the world's favor and lead others to transgress have made their choice between true worship and idolatry, and they are held responsible for it.

In the final decision inhabitants of the earth take their stand on the Lord's side despite agencies combined against the truth. That stand follows arguments already presented and seed already sown through distributed publications, and comes not so much by argument as by deep conviction of the Spirit of God. Rays of light then penetrate everywhere and truth is seen in its clearness, so minds before impressed but prevented from fully comprehending truth or yielding obedience now bear fruit. Honest children of God sever the bands that held them, with family connections and church relations powerless to stay them because truth is more precious than all besides, and a large number stand in obedience on the Lord's side.

Household Covenant and Training

Joshua's resolve is a settled personal example that the decision to serve the Lord must be made deliberately and without delay, today, as a choice between the Lord on the one hand and wealth, false gods, the gods ancestors served beyond the flood, and the gods of the Amorites in whose land Israel dwelled on the other. His determination that he and his household would serve the Lord alone, whatever others choose, is the model for parents and for believers carrying heavy responsibilities to remember God. It gives the household its motto that the whole family will serve the Lord, with the commitment applying to the entire house. Considering the gods of the Amorites is rebuked because those peoples were destroyed for wickedness and their land was given to Israel.

Parents and children alike stand under God's rule, and the home is to be governed by the standard God has set in His Word rather than by impulse, worldly standards, worldly relationships, or children's inclinations. The choice to serve must begin at home by bringing one's own heart and household under God's will before working for others, with parents honoring their obligations and children not disregarding theirs. Seeing God's power at work in the family gives evidence of divine help for service beyond the home. Serving the Lord is therefore a deliberate household commitment to live under His rule.

Parents who pledge themselves to Christ make their children's place on the Lord's side a first responsibility, patiently and firmly training them to serve, honor and obey Christ and to resist evil. Taking children with them in the Lord's service is a victory, for parental example and teaching in obedience or transgression helps determine children's character and destiny. That service must be maintained consistently at home and in daily life, not only during religious meetings nor set aside outside them. It brings the heart into harmony with His works and gratitude for His blessings, and requires openly showing by actions that one belongs to Him, including accepting Christ's cross and doing His will.

Husband and wife are to make a united resolve to make God's will supreme, ruling the house by combined authority and affection and allowing no influence to draw wife or children away. They are to seal the lips against wrong words, cry for the Lord to rebuke the adversary, overcome the devil in fierce conflict, practice kindness and true Christian courtesy, and refuse to listen to relatives on either side who encourage a wrong course. Children, as God's property brought into the world without will or choice of their own, are to be placed under the most favorable conditions to form character for immortal life and shielded as far as possible from influences that would bring them from Christ's side into Satan's ranks. Where this love and fear of God reigns there is restfulness, peace and joy, while being controlled by any other principle leaves hearts unblessed.

Parents are urged to unite with their children in preparing for eternity and serving God forevermore through daily consecration, earnest prayer, faithful Scripture study and obedience. That includes giving children daily lessons in kindness and respect and making determined effort to overcome the mistakes that made the home wretched. Loyalty may require obedience even when a spouse refuses His invitation or relatives press a wrong course, for kindness does not require yielding to wishes that oppose God's Word. Forsaking God's requirements brings judgment, while putting away sin and exercising living faith brings heaven's blessings. The definite choice therefore includes leaving Satan's side, working for one's own spiritual life and family, leading the household in that service, and seeking the Holy Spirit in heart and character.

Faithful Living and Witness

Choosing the Lord means putting away former gods and serving Him sincerely and truthfully, and refusing to advance when greater light comes is itself a failure to choose Him fully. The choice is not only against carved images, for anything that takes possession of the heart and commands its service instead of the Holy Spirit becomes an idol. Such idols include ambition for personal distinction, money, or glory, clinging to idols while pursuing one's own plans, self-worship and sin, unsubdued passions with bodily powers and mental faculties, and devotion to theater that leaves no spiritual hunger, peace, joy, or hope.

No one can claim to serve the Lord while pursuing self-serving schemes for gain, for God does not accept religious or missionary work combined with such conduct that draws away from spiritual life. The decision stands between God and mammon, between Christ and the world, between God's claims and Satan's way. Love of wealth, worldly display and favor cannot be kept alongside love for God, and choosing worldly gain by disobeying His law, even to keep profit or avoid opposition, is choosing Satan's way.

Choosing Christ as Owner who paid the ransom requires stopping robbing God, giving heart and soul in love and service, cutting loose from Satan, and coming to Him as personal Saviour to have life in His appointed way. Mere right feeling that one ought to be a Christian is not enough without going farther into actual choice without further delay. The choice demands leaving the world's ways with wholehearted purpose, separating from lovers of worldly pleasure and from the world that crucified Jesus, making any and every sacrifice to join the heavenly family, as decisive as choosing between Jesus and Barabbas.

Knowing the gift of eternal life must lead to serving God and making that love known to others. Those who choose Christ become His servants and representatives, working with Him to rescue others. The appeal is therefore to be pressed upon those ignorant of present truth to decide for God. The verse urgently calls all to repent, confess mistakes and sins, make straight paths, stop resisting heavenly light, reject other gods, and stand in harmony with God and His work rather than among workers of iniquity. This is a side taken in the controversy between Christ the Prince of life and light and Satan the prince of darkness.

Choosing to serve means renewing covenant at the cross, cleansing the soul-temple of moral defilement, letting God's Spirit fill the vacuum, dying to self and crucifying the idol of self that leaves no room for Jesus, light, love, meekness and lowliness. Choosing loyalty means standing openly for what is right before people and angels so others know where one will stand in trial. It means being singular for avoiding sin as the distinction between purity and impurity, not following prevailing evil or treating as unholy what God set apart, but remembering His dealings and walking in His commandments, even when it makes one stand apart from the majority and from the crowd.

Applied to dress and health, Christians with moral courage should follow biblical principles of modesty and health rather than change to match the world or gain its approval, while avoiding extremes. The choice stands between God's laws of health and fashion's commands, as between serving the Lord and serving Paris milliners. Applied to youth and social pressure, one must choose God rather than mammon, refuse to follow others into sinful practices or yield to ridicule, and hold firmly to principle. This means telling friends offering parties, balls and amusements that pleasures are renounced for a peaceful life fitted for heaven, and aiming high for everlasting life.

In the ruler's case, Christ's invitation required obeying Him in everything and turning from ambitious plans; the choice was his, and Christ longed for him to yield to the Spirit and be converted. Adam and Eve's transgression in choosing disobedience brought loss, while choosing obedience to God rather than sin and selfish gratification leads to recovery of what was lost. Choosing to serve now forms character for future immortal life and is worth lifelong persevering effort. That work means cooperating with God to save the soul, trusting God rather than human agents, weaning the heart from other confidences, clinging to Jesus in faith, being emptied of self, regaining the lost moral image by beholding Jesus, and seeking inward adorning rather than happiness in surroundings or human admiration.

Choosing the Lord brings present happiness and affects future well-being, turning from evil to learn right doing, giving strength in life's struggles and hope of glory in the life to come. It means giving the heart to serve and glorify Him and deciding under whose banner to stand for the future eternal world, whether under Prince Immanuel or under the black banner of the prince of darkness. Deciding for the Lord means faithfully joining Christ and the Father rather than giving abilities to the enemy, growing daily, choosing Him as leader. It lays obligation to return influence and means lent by the Lord to advance His cause, with conscious and unconscious influence in right doing and sacred love more precious than gold.

Each person must choose between serving God and pursuing other priorities, between heaven with self-denial and the cross and earthly pleasures ending in banishment and death.