Joshua 24:13–14
I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them;
you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’
“Therefore, fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth.
Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt,
and worship Yahweh.
I was struck this week by the connection between the last chapter of Joshua and the first chapter of Judges. Here we have the Gracious Father explaining to Israel through Joshua how He had brought them through Jericho into the land of Canaan and in many ways done the fighting for them. They would NOT have been able to achieve this feat without His wisdom, direction and presence. And yet here we have a command, “Get rid of the gods!” Wow. There would have been no need to speak this command if they were not currently, at that time, worshipping foreign gods… after watching God accomplish this great victory for them! Just a little later in the passage, after the people say, “We choose to follow Yahweh!” Joshua says this:
Joshua 24:19–20
“You will not be able to worship Yahweh, because He is a holy God.
He is a jealous God; He will not remove your transgressions and sins.
If you abandon the LORD and worship foreign gods,
He will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you,
after He has been good to you.”
You will not be able to worship YHWH! Wow! As I read through this it seemed to me that Joshua was desperately trying to communicate to these people that they could not possibly worship Him without first surrendering their foreign gods to the flames. It seems that the whole time they were saying, of course we want YHWH on our side. But Joshua is trying to say, He is not like other gods. You cannot have Him on your side. You can only choose to be on His side.
When you flip the page to the book of Judges, we find evidence of the fact that they had not abandoned their foreign gods. We read in Judges 1 about several victories that the tribes of Israel accomplish in obedience to YHWH’s command; however, as the list of tribes comes nearer to the end, we read many times, “[They] failed to drive out the residents of” such and such a city. I couldn’t help but remember the battle against AI. Because ONE MAN had brought home the foreign idols into his tent, God prevented the entire nation from achieving victory. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the reason that they were unable to drive out the residents. And the repercussions of this? The land remained full of venomous men and women who did not fear YHWH. This was not His plan. The people failed to surrender completely at the very beginning of their time in the promised land, which only led to a spiral of disobedience until one day, there were no copies of the Scriptures to be found in the land!
This is a strong message for me. Especially the statement, “You will not be able to worship YHWH!” How my heart desires to worship Him, to follow Him, to feel His strong hand leading mine. However if we allow these tiny little idols in our lives, we cannot expect to achieve the victory that He has planned for us. We must maintain a heart of complete surrender. A heart that allows Him ACCESS to the deepest darkest parts of our hearts and our lives. It hurts to allow Him this access, but it is a necessary part of serving Him. And the truth is … despite our own wisdom, His way always brings the most joy in the end!
