An Ultimatum

When Joshua entered the Promised Land, he laid a kind of ultimatum to the people.

These are his words in Joshua 24:14-15, “Now therefore fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt; serve the Lord. And if it seemed evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (NKJV)

Here’s the amazing response of the people of Israel to Joshua in Joshua 24:16-18, “So the people answered and said, ‘far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.’” (NKJV)

I would like to paraphrase this for our context and this is how we would probably say it today, “Far be it from us that we should forsake you Lord, to run after the things of this world. It is you oh Lord Jesus who died for us, saved us and delivered us from all our sins. You did mighty wonders for us. You are the one who preserved our lives, so we and our families too will serve you Lord.”

This week’s verses:

Judges 4:1-7 God will raise up an army.

Psalm 123:1-4 Endure through the trials.

Matthew 25:14-30 Faithful with time, talents, and skills.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Encouraging and building each other up.