[Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18] Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:...‘Fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

Summer is over. That’s not all bad. Summers can be hazardous to the health. I’m not talking about physical health because, very probably, our California summers allow us to blow out some of the built-up carbon that settles into our lungs during the winter months. I also don’t mean mental health because the sunny summer days are fantastic cures for cabin fever. But I do mean spiritual health. Summers are dangerous for our spiritual health. Our allegiance to the call of our Lord and His work tends to waver somewhat as we answer the call of the wild and head for the hills or the beaches. This morning, Joshua will help us get back on the right track. He says, in effect:

SAINTS, PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO THE LORD

1. The Lord Pledged Faithfulness To Us

Aging General Joshua figured it was a good time to gather his people together one last time before His Commander-In-Chief called him home. That old warrior had been through a lot with those people who stood before him. Together, they had charged into Canaan. And together, they had broken the back of Canaanite resistance. Then, they divided their newly conquered country among the tribes of Israel and went their separate ways to settle the land.

Those were the good old days. There was strength and commitment in numbers when they were all together. But when they went their separate ways, their commitment wavered somewhat. God had commanded them to wipe out the Canaanites completely. But, the individual tribes grew lax in carrying out the Lord’s will. Their commitment was wavering, so Joshua called together a meeting of the minds, a meeting of the leadership of the people.

It was a heart-to-heart talk with a people that he had come to love dearly, having fought side-by-side with many of the folks in attendance on that day. The leaders knew that Joshua meant business. They also knew it was more than just General Joshua or even Old Friend Joshua speaking to them. Joshua made that clear with his opening words: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says...” And then he proceeds to paint the picture of the Lord’s faithfulness to Israel down through the course of history. Read the catalog of commitment of the Lord to His people (note how many times the word “I” is used): 

“Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand. Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you -- also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword or bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” 

Whew! “I took...I gave...I afflicted...I brought out...I destroyed...I delivered you.” God gets all the credit. Israel gets none. Israel received the Promised Land not because of her goodness but because of God’s greatness and goodness and grace. Pure, unadulterated grace -- absolutely undeserved love!

Lest the people look back on their now proud history and start patting themselves on the back, the Lord brings their heads back down to size by reminding them that were it not for Him, they would still be entrenched in heathenism and enslaved to gods of wood and clay, or they would still be toting bales in Egypt, or they would have starved to death in the wilderness, or they would have fallen flat on their faces when they tried to take Canaan by storm. Rather, every step they took was orchestrated by the God of their fathers.

There was a good reason why Joshua began his speech with a categorical listing of God’s faithfulness and allegiance to His people. That was to be the motivation for what He was about to request of them -- to Pledge their Allegiance to their faithful God.

Certainly, the parallel here to today is more than a little bit evident. Our God is that same God that Joshua just described. Except that we can add a whole bunch more areas where He has been faithful since the time of Joshua. We can point to how He kept the promise of a Savior alive down through the Old Testament era by the prophets. We can point to how He kept His promise and sent a Savior by the name of Jesus Christ. We can see how this Savior conquered our enemies for us. We can also see how we are saved no thanks to ourselves. We can also see how we believe in Jesus no thanks to ourselves. We can see that the only motivation we need for being faithful to Him is His faithfulness to us. You know the passage from 1 John 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.” 

No question about it. The Lord Pledged Faithfulness To Us, and the Lord has fulfilled His pledge. Now we go back to Joshua and hear him say in effect: SAINTS, PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO GOD. In view of the Lord’s faithfulness to you…

2. Pledge Your Faithfulness To The Lord

Joshua goes on: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.” Joshua says: “Fear the LORD.” Now, that kind of fear isn’t the quivering and cowering kind of fear, but rather a respect and reverence kind of fear. Again, note that the people are not to fear God because of His holiness, but because of His great love and mercy, because of His amazing grace. The Gospel, not the Law, forms the basis of the people’s response.

“Serve him.” Interesting that that word is used hand-in-hand with “fear the Lord.” Their response to the Lord’s love was to show itself in action and attitude. Joshua now stresses that service: “Serve him with all faithfulness.” None of that half-baked stuff. No half-hearted responses accepted. If serving the Lord is a drudgery, by all means don’t do it. The Lord doesn’t want that kind of service. If we serve Him because we have to and not because we want to, we should save our service because it is being wasted. The Lord doesn’t want it. The Lord wants us to serve Him “with all faithfulness.” A joyous experience! 

Joshua goes on: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua says: ‘Choose! What’s it gonna be, folks? You decide. I laid before you all the info that you need to make your decision. Carefully think through the Lord’s actions and their implications for your lives. Will you be a fool, or will you pledge your allegiance to the Lord? God’s love is calling for a response here!’

Saints, Joshua was talking to us, too: ‘Choose! What’s it gonna be? God or gods.’ And you know how enticing this world’s gods can be. You know those gods. The ones that cause the drive for more and more money to keep up a pretentious lifestyle. Or how about the ones that say that summer is for camping and traveling and going to the ocean or the mountains and that God can wait until the fall? Or the ones that convince you that Sundays are for sleeping; or the ones that say you can come to church on Sunday, but for the rest of the week, you can live however you please. The ones that say when you go to church on Sunday, you make up for the times when you don’t quite live up to God’s standards.

As we live our lives, spend our money, and use our time and talents, we choose whom we serve. Every act reflects who our God or god is. And though there may be many gods, the choice comes down to serving the Lord or serving the devil. Joshua leaves no doubt about his choice: “As for me and my household we will serve the Lord.” Indeed, Joshua had served the Lord his entire life; this was nothing new for him. From his days as a spy to serving as Moses’ aide to his days as General Joshua, serving the Lord was a full-time occupation for him. What he had done his whole life, he would continue to do.

Saints, many of you already have made your choice. You didn’t choose to believe in Him of course – that you could never do; that choice was made for you by the Spirit's working faith in your hearts through the Word. But you did choose to follow where the Shepherd would lead. The point here is: if you are faithful, let nothing, nothing in this world rob you of that faith. Let nothing sidetrack you. Let nothing lead you astray. Keep on keeping on!

Then the people answered: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” In contrast to Joshua, the people could hardly claim the same track record. They had a sort of weather-vane allegiance -- they turned whichever way the wind blew. But after that build-up by Joshua and after that review of the Lord’s faithfulness, how could they help but answer in the affirmative? Confronted with the Lord’s faithfulness, their own faithlessness stood out like a sore thumb. They were ready to pledge their allegiance and faithfulness to the Lord. The people had made their choice, but that was easier said than done. Now, they faced the challenge of putting that decision into practice in their everyday lives. No doubt about it, the most difficult part still lay ahead. But here and now, their hearts were in the right place. They were responding to the Lord’s love.

Saints, how about us? Are we too often afflicted with weather-vane allegiance? We, too, have been confronted with the Lord’s faithfulness this morning. How will we respond? I think I know. We will say with Israel: “We too will serve the Lord because he is our God.” We will pledge our faithfulness to Him. Our hearts are in the right place. But now the hard part begins. Now, the real serving begins. Now, the rubber meets the road. Will our pledge hold up under the heat of opposition? Will our pledge hold up under attack? Will our pledge hold up under the allurement of this world’s pleasures and treasures? God grant that it will. 

Saints, let us make Joshua’s beautiful confession of faith and pledge of allegiance a motto for our lives: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Amen.

Rev. Timothy A.Unke, Campus Pastor

Crean Lutheran High School 

campuspastor@creanlutheran.org