Three Choices
Brent Smith
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. (Joshua 24.15)
1st Choice – We can live our lives the way our relatives have before us. We can serve God in the same way that they did, with the same zeal or lack thereof. We can worship like they worshipped. We can do all in religion, just the way our relatives have, just because that is what they did, regardless of the right or wrong of it all and regardless of what the Bible says. Before Joshua died, he recognized the temptation the people would face, the temptation of falling away from Jehovah and going back to the idols of their ancestors. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matt. 10.37).
2nd Choice – We can live our lives like everyone around us. You can call it peer pressure, social pressure, cultural pressure – but it is really all the same, the temptation to be like everybody else. Many of the idolaters remained in Canaan. The false gods often promoted fornication, gluttony and drunkenness, and all sorts of self satisfying depravity. The land in which we now dwell is full of idolatry and covetousness and there is a great deal of pressure put on Christians to conform and compromise the truth of God’s Word. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6.33).
3rd Choice – Regardless of what dad and mom believe and do, regardless of what people around us are doing, we can choose to follow Jesus. Like Joshua, we can choose to lead our families in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6.4). Because of God’s authority as the creator, the blessings and goodness of his love, and his severity as Judge, may we all declare as did Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"
