The Book Of Joshua. Day 62, The Covenant Renewed At Shechem, Part Three

Joshua is providing the congregation with instructions and encouragement in the faith before he passes on. When we closed our last study we found him saying, "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." He's asking them to make a firm commitment, not because they don't already worship the Lord but because he knows prosperity is more of a threat to their steadfastness than adversity. Ever since they came out of Egypt they've had to depend on the Lord for everything, but now they're residing in the land of milk and honey, and in a land where wealth comes easy its possible for a person to begin drifting from the Lord. 

Agur, the man who composed Chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs, realized the threat prosperity posed to him and said to the Lord, "Give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown You and say, 'Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:8b-9a) When a person lacks nothing where money and possessions are concerned, spiritual laziness can ensue if he does not carefully guard his heart. Prayer and the study of God's word may get pushed to the side or ignored altogether so that the person essentially "forgets" God in their daily lives. They may ask (as Agur feared), "Who is the Lord?" Or in other words, "Who needs the Lord? Look how much I have! Through my own hard work and ingenuity I've become wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. Yes, I suppose the Lord gave me my start by bringing me to this good land, but that was a long time ago and I've multiplied my flocks and herds and crops a thousandfold since then. The Lord can step aside now; I have all I need and more besides. I'll call for Him if something comes up." Joshua is afraid this will be the attitude of his people as time goes by and as their prosperity increases. He wants them to firmly make up their minds going forward that no matter what happens---good or bad---they will serve the Lord.

The congregation replies as he hoped they would. "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.'" (Joshua 24:16-18) Their words are sincere. At this point in time they cannot fathom turning from the God who brought them out of Egypt, who sustained them in the wilderness, who drove out the nations before them, and who planted them in the land the Lord promised on oath to Abraham. The generation to whom Joshua is speaking is affirming and renewing their vows to the Lord and they mean the words they are saying. It isn't until later in the Old Testament, when several generations have lived in the prosperity of this bountiful land, that the hearts of many of the citizens will turn cool toward the Lord. Then a number of them will say, "Who is the Lord?" A number of them will begin to doubt whether God is the only god---indeed whether He is even the best God---and will answer the siren song of idolatry.

In tomorrow's study Joshua will warn the congregation about taking their commitment to the Lord lightly. They won't have spiritual success with casual religion. They'll give in to temptation if they don't love the Lord with all their hearts. They won't resist the lure of pagan practices if they don't remain in close fellowship with the Lord. They must lean on Him daily for strength, for if they rely on their own strength to stand firm, they will fall. 

This is good advice for us all because we can't trust ourselves. As the Apostle Paul warned, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Corinthians 10:12) If our faith in our ability to stand firm is in ourselves and is not resting wholly in the Lord, a sudden temptation or unexpected circumstance will knock us entirely off our feet. We could compare this to being at the ocean, standing about hip deep in the water with the waves splashing us at regular intervals and with each wave being about the same height. We might start looking up and down the beach, enjoying the beautiful scenery until we've turned our backs to the water. Then all of a sudden a pretty big wave hits us really hard in the back and knocks us down. It's no fun to be knocked under a wave and come up coughing and sputtering sea water out of our lungs and rubbing burning salt from our eyes. But it happened because we weren't on guard. We got used to the size of the smaller waves and stopped looking at the ocean and allowed our gaze and our mind to wander. We stood firm through the smaller waves and thought we'd stand firm through a bigger wave too, or perhaps we completely forgot that bigger waves happen now and then. That's what it's like when we begin trusting ourselves spiritually. We often manage to stand firm, by the sheer force of human determination, through minor temptations and minor troubles. We may even pat ourselves on the back and take pride in our steadfastness. But this is like turning our backs to the ocean. Sooner or later a big wave will come, and if we have been spiritually lazy it's going to catch us off guard and knock us down.