Are You In or Are You Out

Introduction

There are seasons where you wonder if people are "in" or "out…" because everyone who begins in ministry do not reach the new season with you. The next “level” or “season” of life and ministry does not include everyone and everything, and until you’re okay with losing people and things, then “order in the house” and moving forward are nearly impossible. Even if you move forward, there will difficulties beyond measure. This season, your question is “Are You In or Are You Out” and depending on people’s answers, you will know how to proceed not with caution, but with faith in God’s direction. Order in the house is not pushing authority, but it is about knowing who’s in and who’s out, then, getting those people there in order according the Scriptures, the ultimate authority of the church. The church has too many “tumble weeds” that roll by with every wind…The church has too many “fence sitters” where one right or wrong thing will knock them off…the church has too many temperamental …the church has too many people who are still half in and half out....God wants to know are you in or out?

Trace the Israel History

Abram is commanded to leave his home on a promise from an unseen God to become a nation that no one could number...he’s promised a son, yet waited 25 years later because of disobedience...Isaac is born....Esau and Jacob are born...Jacob steals the blessing and birthright...Israel ends up in Egypt in Goshen...Pharoah is petrified and make the serve with rigor and hard bondage.....the firstborn sons are cast into the Nile...Moses is spared...becomes a fugitive...meets God on the backside of the mount...returns to release the people...crosses the Red Sea on dry land...travels in the wilderness...provide bread and water…complained they wanted meat...built a golden calf because Moses was gone too long...wandered thirty eight more years...the older generation died except for Caleb and Joshua...Moses dies....Joshua is reassured...The walls fall..Achan sins...sun stood still...their enemies vanquished and their enemies conquered…Now they’ve found rest…Joshua reminds them of the covenant

The Last Chapter

The proper response to God’s gracious dealings was for Israel to forsake other gods and follow him, the one true God. Joshua himself would lead the way by example (vv. 14–15). The people’s response was one of commitment (vv. 16–18), after which Joshua warned them about the consequences of this commitment, which the people were willing to accept (vv. 19–21). A formal covenant renewal or covenant ratification ceremony seems to be in view in vv. 22–24, with the people testifying as witnesses to their own actions, although these verses only report on such a ceremony (i.e., they may not contain the entirety of what was said and done).

Now God left off speaking directly, and Joshua addressed the people, charging them to be faithful in serving the God who had been so faithful in helping them. He again mentioned the gods of their ancestors (cf. v. 2) and urged the people to remove them (“throw away”) from their midst. In v. 14 the NIV’s “serve him with all faithfulness” is literally “serve him with integrity (tāmîm) and truth (ʾĕmet).” The NASB renders the phrase here as “sincerity and truth,” the NRSV as “sincerity and … faithfulness,” the REB as “loyalty and truth,” the NLT as “wholeheartedly.” The word tāmîm connotes the idea of wholeness, blamelessness, integrity, even “perfection,” and thus Joshua’s exhortation is a passionate one that the people should be totally devoted—blameless—in their worship of their God. The first part of v. 14 contains a concentration of theologically freighted words: the Israelites should fear (yrʾ) the Lord, and they should serve (ʿbd) him with integrity (tāmîm) and truth (ʾĕmet). Joshua was urgently impressing on the people what they should do.

The phrase “in Egypt” in v. 14 adds something new here. In v. 2 we have learned that Israel’s ancestors had worshiped other gods early on, when they were still in Mesopotamia (see comments on v. 2). However, Joshua now stated that this also had been true in Egypt. There is no direct reference to such false worship from the narrative texts in Exodus about Israel’s time in Egypt. However, twice reference is made in the Pentateuch to the gods the Israelites had worshiped there: (1) Lev 17:7 mentions goat idols that the Israelites had sacrificed to, and (2) in Deut 32:16–17 they are charged with worshiping “demons,” which were foreign gods, idols, which had not been worshiped in Israel until recent times (i.e., in Egypt, or the wilderness). In v. 15 Joshua added a third set of gods, “the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.” Thus, false worship had been a hallmark not only of Israel’s distant ancestors or of their more immediate ancestors in Egypt, but even of themselves, here in the land of Canaan. Joshua’s implication was that the nation had never truly rid itself of false worship, and he was urging the people in the strongest terms possible to do so now.1

1 David M. Howard Jr., Joshua, vol. 5, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 434–435.

Perspective-- “How You View God determines how you will serve God”

“if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord”

be distressed, be disturbed, be miserable, i.e., have a feeling or attitude of anxiety or distress1

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

abod: work, labor, do, i.e., expend considerable energy and intensity in a task or function1

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

He says to the ones gathered at Shechem that if it seems...

Preference with Promptness-- “It is not a hard decision to choose God”

“choose you this day who you will serve”

choose, select, desire, prefer, i.e., make a selection between two or more options

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

Priority-- “It’s Family Decision to maintain Order in the House”

bayit: household, i.e., a very small unit of a clan or tribe, consisting of parents, children, close relatives, including servants, living in relatively close proximity1

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

Do people know who you serve?