Vital Decision
Notes
Transcript
The Choice to Serve God
Joshua 24:14-24
Subject: Choice
Central Theme: Choice to Serve God
Objective Statement: Every believer must choose this day whether they will serve the Lord or serve idols:
1. The Choice Is Unavoidable (v.14-15)
2. The Choice Is Costly (v.16-20)
3. The Choice Is Visible (v.21-24)
Intro:
Every year, millions of people make a New Year's resolution to change something significant in their lives—their health, their finances, their habits. Statistics tell us that the overwhelming majority of those resolutions fail within a matter of weeks. The problem is rarely a lack of sincerity in the moment the resolution is made. The problem is that a resolution spoken once is not the same thing as a commitment lived out day after day.
Joshua understood this difference better than most. As an old man nearing the end of his life, he gathered all of Israel one final time, not to ask them to make a resolution, but to press them toward a decision they could not avoid, a decision that would cost them something, and a decision that would either be proven true or exposed as empty by what they did next.
Two weeks ago, our study in Joshua 14 found Israel still in the process of dividing the promised land tribe by tribe. Now, many years later, that same land has been settled, and Joshua stands before the nation one last time. He does not simply ask Israel to remember what God has done. He forces them to answer a question every generation must answer for itself: whom will you serve?
Every believer must choose this day whether they will serve the Lord or serve idols.
THE CONTEXT OF JOSHUA 24. Joshua 24 records the final chapter of Joshua's life and leadership. Chapters 1-12 detailed the conquest of Canaan, while chapters 13-24 detailed the division of the land among the tribes. By chapter 23, Joshua had already delivered one farewell address, warning Israel not to intermarry with the surrounding nations or adopt their gods, lest they experience covenant curses rather than covenant blessings.
In chapter 24, Joshua summoned the tribes to Shechem, a location rich with covenant history, nestled between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. There, Joshua rehearsed God's gracious dealings with Israel from the call of Abraham through the conquest of the land (vv.2-13), reminding the people that they now lived in cities they did not build and ate from vineyards they did not plant. Every blessing they possessed came from the Lord's hand, not their own effort. On the strength of that reminder, Joshua turned from recounting the past to demanding a decision about the future.
Every believer must choose this day whether they will serve the Lord or serve idols:
I. THE CHOICE IS UNAVOIDABLE (JOSHUA 24:14-15)
A. The Command to Total Devotion (v.14).
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
Joshua began with a direct charge: "fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth."
The word rendered "fear" carries both the idea of reverent awe and, when necessary, a sobering dread of consequences.
The word "serve" is closely related to the Hebrew term for a servant or slave, yet true service to God is never bondage; it is the very thing that sets people free from lesser masters.
Joshua qualified this service further, insisting it be offered "in sincerity and in truth"—language elsewhere used of an unblemished sacrificial animal, signifying wholeness and completeness.
God does not want a divided heart. He commanded Israel to "put away the gods which your fathers served" both in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, making clear that lingering idolatry from prior generations had no place in genuine devotion to Him.
B. The Confrontation with Real Alternatives (v.15a).
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell….
Joshua did not pretend the choice was easy or theoretical: "if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve."
He named the real competitors for Israel's loyalty—the gods of Mesopotamia, and "the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell." The Amorites' fertility religion offered an appealing shortcut to agricultural prosperity, a temptation for a people just beginning to farm the land God had given them.
Joshua refused to let the decision remain vague. He forced Israel to reckon with specific, real alternatives rather than an abstract idea of unfaithfulness.
C. The Conviction of a Settled Man (v.15b).
….but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua then declared his own resolve: "but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Notice what Joshua did not do. He did not manipulate the crowd, threaten them, or make the decision for them. He simply set his own household as an example and let his choice stand as a testimony, regardless of what the rest of Israel decided.
Every person listening that day faced the same reality every person still faces: neutrality is not an option. To not decide for the Lord is, in effect, to decide against Him.
Application:
We live in a culture that prizes open-mindedness and resists appearing too settled on anything, especially matters of faith.
Yet Joshua models something our culture desperately needs to see again—a man whose devotion to God was not tentative, was not still "figuring things out," but was fixed.
Every believer faces the same unavoidable choice Israel faced at Shechem, though our modern idols rarely look like carved images.
They look like career, comfort, approval, or control—things we serve with our time and attention long before we would ever admit to worshiping them. Joshua's example reminds us that clarity of conviction, held without arrogance or coercion, is itself a powerful witness to those watching our lives.
Application Questions:
What competes most for the devotion that rightfully belongs to God alone in your life right now?
Like Joshua, could you say with confidence, "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? Why or why not?
II. THE CHOICE HAS CONSEQUENCES (JOSHUA 24:16-20)
A. The People's Immediate Affirmation (vv.16-18).
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; 17 For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: 18 And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.
Israel responded to Joshua's challenge with an emphatic refusal to abandon God: "God forbid that we should forsake the LORD."
They rehearsed His mighty acts on their behalf—rescuing them from Egyptian bondage, performing "great signs," preserving them through the wilderness, and driving out the Amorites before them.
Their answer sounded sincere, and it likely was, in the moment. They rightly recognized that the Lord alone had proven Himself faithful, and they concluded, reasonably, "therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God."
Before going further, we need to pause on verse 19, because Joshua's response can sound troubling on first hearing. Joshua told the very people who had just pledged their loyalty to God…
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Read in isolation, this could sound as though God refuses to forgive His covenant people at all—a statement that would seem to contradict the entire testimony of Scripture regarding God's mercy, including Moses's own description of the Lord as one who forgives iniquity and sin (Ex. 34:6-7). That is not what Joshua meant.
Joshua was not declaring an eternal, absolute refusal to forgive; he was warning Israel that God would not overlook covenant unfaithfulness without consequence. If they treated their pledge casually and then drifted into idolatry, they would experience real, painful discipline within the covenant relationship, not automatic pardon simply because they had once said the right words.
The full sweep of Scripture, including Paul's later teaching on God's mercy toward His covenant people even in their unfaithfulness (Rom. 11:11-24; Eph. 2:11-22), confirms that God's forgiveness of genuinely repentant sinners was never in question.
Joshua's point was narrower and more urgent: cheap, thoughtless commitment carries real consequences, and God takes His covenant, and Israel's coming unfaithfulness to it, with total seriousness.
B. The Character Behind the Warning (v.19b).
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Joshua grounded his warning in who God is: "he is an holy God; he is a jealous God." God's holiness means He is set apart from sin and cannot treat it casually.
His jealousy is not the petty insecurity we associate with the word, but a consuming, protective love that will not tolerate a rival for His people's devotion.
A husband who did not care whether his wife was faithful to him would not be displaying a virtue; God's jealousy for undivided worship flows from the same kind of protective love, magnified infinitely.
C. The Consequence of Broken Commitment (v.20).
Joshua spelled out plainly what would happen
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
This is a sobering statement of covenant reality—blessing was never unconditional prosperity regardless of faithfulness. The very history recorded in the book of Judges, which follows immediately after Joshua's death, proves that Joshua's warning was not exaggerated.
Commitment to God that is not sustained by ongoing obedience will eventually be tested, and found wanting, by exactly the kind of costly consequences Joshua described here.
Application:
It is easy to make a heartfelt promise to God during a worship service, a crisis, or a moment of gratitude, much like Israel did at Shechem.
The harder work is living out that promise on an ordinary Tuesday, months or years later, when the emotional high has faded and old temptations resurface.
Joshua's warning reminds us that our commitments to God are not empty words He simply overlooks if we later abandon them; He takes our promises as seriously as we should. This is not meant to produce fear that undoes the assurance believers have in Christ, but rather a sober seriousness about the weight of what we claim when we say we will serve the Lord.
Counting that cost honestly, before making the commitment, protects us from the kind of casual faith that collapses the moment it becomes inconvenient.
Application Questions
Has there been a time when a commitment you made to God felt easy in the moment but proved costly later? What happened?
How does understanding God's holiness and jealousy change the way you think about half-hearted devotion?
III. THE CHOICE IS VISIBLE (JOSHUA 24:21-24)
A. The People's Renewed Resolve (v.21).
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.
Despite Joshua's sobering warning, the people did not waver: "Nay; but we will serve the LORD."
Their resolve to serve God only deepened in the face of the cost Joshua had just described.
This was likely a genuine, heartfelt response in the moment, even though the book of Judges would later reveal that Israel's follow-through did not match this declaration once Joshua and his generation had died (Judg. 2:7-13).
7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. 13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
B. The People's Self-Incrimination (v.22).
Joshua responded by making the people accountable to their own words:
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
In the ancient world, treaties commonly called on the gods of both parties to witness an agreement.
Since no other god had any real authority, Joshua turned the people into witnesses against themselves. Their own affirmation, "We are witnesses," meant they could never later claim ignorance of what they had promised.
C. The Command to Act, Not Merely Speak (v.23).
Joshua then moved from words to action:
23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.
This is the hinge of the entire passage. A verbal commitment that leaves idols sitting untouched in the household is not genuine devotion; it is empty talk.
Joshua demanded a visible, tangible break with divided loyalty, not merely a verbal one.
D. The Final Affirmation (v.24).
The people responded a final time:
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
Notice the addition of obedience to service. The Hebrew word for "obey" literally means "to listen," carrying the sense of listening that results in action, not mere mental agreement.
Genuine service to God is inseparable from obedience to His voice; one cannot claim the first while ignoring the second.
Application:
Talk is genuinely cheap when it isn't backed by action, and this passage will not let us pretend otherwise. It is not difficult to say "I will serve the Lord" in a Bible study, a testimony, or even a moment of sincere emotion.
It is far harder to identify the specific idol quietly occupying space in our hearts and actually remove it—whether that's an unhealthy attachment to comfort, a besetting sin we've made peace with, a relationship we've placed above obedience to God, or simply the subtle idol of self-reliance.
Joshua would not let Israel's words stand alone as proof of their devotion, and neither should we let our own words stand alone as proof of ours.
The choice to serve God is ultimately revealed not in what we say we believe, but in what we are willing to put away.
Application Questions:
What would it look like, practically, for you to "put away" a specific idol this week rather than simply acknowledging its presence?
How would someone who knows you well be able to tell, from your actions rather than your words, whom you have chosen to serve?
CONCLUSION: Every believer must choose this day whether they will serve the Lord or serve idols.
The Choice Is Unavoidable: Joshua forced Israel to name real alternatives to the Lord and to decide, refusing to let the matter remain vague or unaddressed.
The Choice Is Costly: Genuine commitment to God carries real weight; He does not overlook covenant unfaithfulness simply because we once said the right words.
The Choice Is Visible: True devotion to God shows up in what we remove from our lives, not merely in what we affirm with our lips.
Joshua stood before Israel as an old man who had already made his decision and lived it out for a lifetime. His challenge still confronts every believer today. The idols competing for our devotion may not be carved images, but they demand the same unavoidable choice, carry the same real cost, and require the same visible obedience Joshua demanded at Shechem. The question Joshua asked Israel remains the question every generation must answer for itself: whom will you serve? As for us and our house, may we say with the same settled conviction, we will serve the Lord.
