‘As for Me and My House, We will Serve the LORD’

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

There is a pastor couple in the United States whom my spouse and I cannot forget.  We cannot forget the love of God that the pastor couple showed us.  Especially when our first baby, Charis, was lying in the intensive care unit due to illness, the pastor's mother personally wove a blanket and sent it to our home along with a letter.  As far as I recall, the pastor's mother personally wrote a letter to our first baby, Charis.  Additionally, the pastor gave us a mat to place in front of our house, on which was written the Bible verse from Joshua 14:15, "but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."  In fact, the American pastor couple I know truly served only God and found refuge in His arms.

I intend to receive three lessons on how we should serve God from Joshua 24:14-15 and Joshua 23:8, 14-15, deep in my heart. Hoping that God, who has bestowed great grace upon us all, will grant us guidance through His Word so that we may serve Him appropriately and obediently in His sight.

First, we must serve God in fear, sincerity, and truth.

Look at Joshua 24:14a - “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth …”  When reflecting on this word, I asked myself 3 questions: (1) ‘Am I truly serving God in truth?'  One memory that still lingers is when I visited an elderly apartment complex in Koreatown, Los Angeles, with my grandmother many years ago to meet a pastor known to her. As my grandmother walked ahead with the pastor, introducing me as her grandson who would become a pastor in the future, the pastor turned back to me and uttered just one word: "Be truthful."  I cannot forget that one word.  I remember it well.  And I want to become a truthful Christian.  (2) ‘Am I truly serving God in sincerity?’  Perhaps not just me, but anyone who believes in Jesus as a Christian would hardly confidently say, "I am serving God in sincerity."  The reason is that we, as imperfect beings, cannot claim to be perfect.  (3) ‘Am I truly serving God in fear?’  When I meditated on this, Proverbs 8:13 came to mind: "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.  Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate."  If I am truly a Christian who fears God, then I must also hate the evil that God hates. I should hate the pride, arrogance, wicked conduct, and deceitful speech that God detests. However, I am not doing so. Therefore, I cannot say that I serve God while fearing Him.  Joshua said to the Israelites: "Now 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" (Joshua 24:14-15).  Upon hearing these words, the Israelites responded, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!" (v. 16), "We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God" (v. 18), "No, we will serve the Lord" (v. 21).  So Joshua said to them, "Now then, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel" (v. 23).  Already in verse 14, Joshua said, "Now 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."  Similarly, in verse 23, he again emphasized, "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."  The lesson we learn here is that when God's servant speaks to us with words that are consistent with God's commands, we should not accept them as human words but as God's words (1 Thess. 2:13), and faithfully obey them, love our God, live according to God's will, and obey God's commands.  And we must be loyal to God, serving Him with all our hearts and with all our soul (Joshua 22:5).  Thus, Joshua twice instructed the Israelites to completely remove their idols, but their response was simply, "We will serve our God, the Lord, and obey His voice" (Joshua 24:24).  The Bible does not mention that the Israelites removed all their idols as Joshua had commanded.  When considering this fact, I believe that although the Israelites said with their lips, "We will serve the Lord our God and obey his voice" (v. 24), in reality, they did not remove their idols as they had said, but kept them while serving God.  And indeed, the Israelites "served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel" (v. 31; cf. Judg. 2:7).  However, as we know, during the time of the Judges, after Joshua died, "all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel" (Judg. 2:10).  Therefore, "the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals" (v. 11). 

When I meditated on this passage, I was reminded of Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."  We should not serve God alongside money while loving money in our hearts like the Pharisees who loved money (Lk. 16:14).

Second, we must continue to follow and serve only our God as we have done thus far.

Look at Joshua 23:8 - ‘You must continue to follow and serve only your God, the Lord Jehovah, as you have done thus far.’  Here, the phrase "as you have done thus far" means that we must be faithful in serving God.  Joshua, who spoke these words to the Israelites, indeed served God faithfully.  He was one of the twelve spies Moses sent to the land of Canaan, and along with Caleb, he remained faithful to God.  Moreover, he remained faithful before God until the day "when all the people of the world would go the way of all the earth" (14:1).   Because of this, he was able to say to the Israelites, "You must continue to follow and serve only your God, the Lord Jehovah, as you have done thus far."  However, I cannot do so.  Unlike Joshua, I have not faithfully followed and served only God, so I cannot say to you, as Joshua did, "You must continue to follow and serve only your God, the Lord Jehovah, as you have done thus far" (23:8).  I am merely an unfaithful servant of God who can only acknowledge and confess my faithlessness by writing such contemplative words.  However, Joshua, the servant of God mentioned in the Bible today, was a faithful servant of God. Therefore, we should humbly heed his counsel. Therefore, like Joshua, "as we have done thus far," we must continue to follow and serve only our God.  We must follow only God, exerting effort to diligently observe the commandments of God recorded in the Scriptures and not deviate in the slightest (v. 6).  To achieve this, we must be careful to love our God (v. 11).  We must not become one with the people of the world, marry them, or associate with them (v. 12).  If we do so, these people of the world will become dangerous threats to us, like traps or snares, and they will become painful burdens on our sides, like whips or thorns in our eyes (v. 13).

Third and last, we must serve God with faith that all the good things promised by Him will come to pass.

Look at Joshua 23:14-15a - “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.  It shall come about that just as all the good words which the LORD your God spoke to you have come upon you, ….”  Our God is a faithful God. The faithful God will surely fulfill the good words He has promised to us faithfully, in His time and in His way.  Especially, the good God will work together to bring about good in everything, according to His good will for us and the good words He has given us (Rom. 8:28; 12:2).  The promise of the Lord given to me is found in John 6:1-15 (personal) and Matthew 16:18 (church).  The Lord who gave these promises is a faithful God, so He will surely accomplish them in His time and His way.  The reason why God fulfills the words He has promised to us is not because we keep His commandments, but solely because by God's grace, we have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom.4:13; Eph.2:8).  The faithful God even uses our unfaithfulness (faithlessness) in the fulfillment of His promises.  When we disregard and disobey God's teachings and commands, the Lord may punish our sins with the rod of His love.  However, He does not withdraw His love and faithfulness from us, and His promises remain unchanged and will surely be fulfilled in His time and His way (cf. Ps. 89:30-34). 

As a notable example, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, did not believe in God's promise and, after 10 years, gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to her husband Abraham as a concubine in the hope of having children through Hagar (cf. Gen.16:1-3).  Clearly, God had promised to bless Sarah and give her a son through Abraham (17:16, 19) and had said, "I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will already have a son" (18:10-12).  Despite hearing this, Sarah laughed to herself at the entrance of the tent, saying, "Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex?  And besides, my husband is old too" (vv. 10-12).  Then the Lord said to Sarah, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Can I really have a child now that I am old?'  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son" (vv. 13-14).  Upon hearing this, Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, "I did not laugh." But the Lord said, "Yes, you did laugh" (vv. 14-15).  However, despite that, as God had promised, He blessed Sarah, so she conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken (21:1-2).  Another example is Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and the son of Isaac. He worked for seven years to marry Rachel, but in the end, he not only married Rachel's sister Leah but also took their two maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, as concubines, and through these four women, he bore children (29:20-29, 30).  This too was fulfilled as the method by which God fulfilled His promise to Jacob, as stated in Isaac's blessing, "May God Almighty bless you and make your descendants fruitful" (28:3), and the promise to make Jacob's descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth (v. 14).  God also used the deception by Jacob's uncle Laban to ultimately fulfill, as wished in the blessing of Isaac, the prosperity of Jacob's descendants.  Thus, the faithful God also employs human unfaithfulness in the fulfillment of His promise.  Look at 2 Tim.2:13 - “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”  We must believe this word wholeheartedly. Even though we are unfaithful, we must believe in the Lord's faithfulness, knowing that He can never go back on His promises.  We must serve God with faith in the faithful God and the assurance that He fulfills what He has promised in His own time and in His own way.