ESOCS Devotional 19 August 2024 – Total Surrender
MEMORY VERSE: “Now then, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel.” Joshua 24:23 NIV
TEXT: JOSHUA 24:14-25
“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up 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. 18 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.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
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At the end of the forty years journey to the Promised Land and before they could settle down for normal life, Joshua addressed the people of Israel and urged them to make the choice of total surrender and total loyalty to the Almighty God: “Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness”.
It is a resolve each and every one of us must make. It does not pay to be in Church, claiming to be a Christian but subscribing to idol worship and cultism. We are required to practically trust, serve and worship God alone.
The God we serve does not fail to discipline those who have received His goodness and mercy but wilfully divert loyalty to other gods and live in sin. The Scripture says, “The Lord is a holy God, he is a jealous God” (Joshua 24:19). He does not tolerate double standards. He hates hypocrisy and eye service.
We have to consciously throw away our sinfulness and yield our hearts to Him (Acts 2:18). God is capable of doing all things that men desire in pursuit of idols and occultic powers. You just recall your past and see how good and merciful God has been to you all these years.
In our text, we see the resolve of the great people of Israel: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out from Egypt…… and performed those great signs before our eyes… we too will serve the Lord because he is our God” (Joshua 24:16).
We misbehave sometimes and sin against God when we forget the past about our dealings with God. The act of sitting down to recall the past before we determine how to respond to the present challenging condition will help us not to go astray. This is more so, if we know the worth of thanksgiving in prayer and supplication. God does not fail to respond to those who show gratitude for the past (Psalm 50:14, 15).
- Looking at the past, do you find the need to lean on God in all situations?
- Father, I am satisfied that what you cannot do in my life does not exist. I will trust, serve and worship you forever, in Jesus name. Amen.
Further Reading: Luke 7:11-23; John 4:1-end; Acts 20:17-end
ESOCS Devotional 19 August 2024
