Next: Remembering the Past, Embracing the Future (Joshua 24:14-28)

Introduction

The image we see with our eyes does not necessary reflect the deeper reality. In September of 1983, an art dealer by the name of Gianfranco Becchina approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. Malcolm Gladwell shares this story in his book titled, Blink. Becchina claimed to have a marble statue dating from the 6th century BC. It stood close to seven feet tall. It gave off a special glow, and it was an extraordinary find. Becchina’s asking price was just under 10 million dollars. Given the price, the Getty moved cautiously. It borrowed the statue and began a thorough inspection. Was the statue consistent with other, similar statues? The answer appeared to be yes. The style seemed reminiscent of a statue in the National archaeological Museum of Athens. So where and when had it been found? No one knew precisely, but Becchina gave the museum’s legal department numerous documents relating to its history. They stated that it had been in private collection of a Swiss physician since the 1930s. He had acquired it from a well-known Greek art dealer. Then the investigation invited in a geologist from the University of California. He spent two days examining the surface of the statue with a high-resolution stereomicroscope. He then analyzed a core sample using an electron microscope, electron microprobe, mass spectrometry, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray fluorescence. The statue was made of dolomite marble from the ancient Cape Vathy quarry. The statue was covered in a thin layer of calcite. This was significant because dolomite turned into calcite only over the course of hundreds, if not thousands of years. In other words the statue was old. It wasn't some contemporary fake. So the museum was satisfied. 14 months after their investigation began, they agreed to buy the statue.

However, things weren’t as clear as they appeared. An Italian art historian was the first to notice this. Next, Evelyn Harrison, one of the world's foremost experts on Greek sculptures viewed it. Harrison took one look at the Statue and said, “Have you paid for this?” But before the curator of the museum could reply, she continued, “If you have, try to get your money back. If you haven't, don't.” Another expert said that when they saw it, they felt an immediate, “intuitive repulsion.” It turns out that the letters that described its history were frauds, one was even written to an address that didn’t exist. Another mentioned a bank account that hadn’t been opened. The more experts analyzed, the more it appeared to be a mosaic of styles from different time periods. Which for the museum unfortunately meant, it was a fraud. Today, you can find a picture of it listed in the catalogue of the J. Paul Getty art Museum. Underneath it says, “Dating back to 530 BC, or, a modern forgery.”

Just as the marble statue wasn’t what it first appeared to be, Joshua in today’s passage points out that the Israelites weren’t always what they appeared to be. He’s talking about heart and head integration. Do the words we see reflect the deeper reality of who we are? Jesus quotes from the prophet Isaiah when we says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” This morning we end our journey through Joshua. Over the past several months, God’s People have triumphed over their foes as they transition into a new phase of community life. We’ve seen them suffer defeat, only to bounce back and return to the mission God gave them. Joshua is the story of moving forward into the life that God has given them. As we look at the mission that God has sent Joshua and the Israelites into, we learn what God has for us. Last week, we heard Joshua’s message to put aside idols and to follow God. As we have been finishing up Joshua, we see how Joshua and the Israelite victory is incomplete, which points to final victory of Jesus at the Cross. Once, for all time. Today in our final Sunday in Joshua, he shows how the people have failed to serve and to love God, despite their words. Yet, God has made a covenant with his people, a deep and abiding agreement to love them and care for them in spite of their failures. Similarly, out of God’s covenantal love for us, we serve him. How do we profess faith with our lips, yet need to be drawn back to him anyway? Joshua points to three examples of how we profess Christ with our lips, yet stray in our actions. As we learn about this, we learn about the amazing work of God.

We say we fear & serve, yet we embrace false gods

Joshua says in verses 14-15, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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.” As Joshua tells this to the people of Israel, I believe he is challenging them in one very simple way. He is challenging them to live what some would call Coram Deo. Coram Deo simply means before the face of God, or you can also say, before the presence of God. Living before the presence of God means loving, living, and serving each day as Christ would. Joshua calls them and calls us to a Holy fear of the Lord. Not in that we are scared of him, but that we live each day revering him and honoring him with our lives.

One author has put it this way. The world in which we live is full of countless things that make us afraid. Some fear spiders, others snakes, others heights, others highways, and some even fear tight spaces. As a boy in the third grade, I went on a field trip to a state park to explore caves. In a single file line, we entered a small cave and I remember feeling very anxious about the tight quarters. I also had a fear of the dark and the cave was very dark in some areas. However, when the teacher asked if any of us had a problem with entering the cave, I did not want anyone to think I was scared or intimidated, especially not the girls in line. My fear of other people's negative perception was stronger than my fear of the cave. Paul speaks about this type of fear to his understudy, Timothy, when he wrote in 2 timothy 1:7, "God has not given you the spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” Some fears are due to the fall of man. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord . they failed to live Coram Deo, before the face of God. This led to them stumbling into fear, even hiding from God when he attempted to confront them about it. However, the fear of the Lord should trump all other fears. The fear of the Lord accomplishes two things: A longing to drawn close to him and to love what he loves. Just as that young boy stood before a cave facing his fear, Joshua stands before God having lived a life where God blessed him, even if Joshua’s life was imperfect. Now, Joshua is telling the Israelites to live similarly. Proverbs 9:10 says,"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Or, as Joshua says, “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served.” The first example of professing our faith with our lips, yet straying in our actions is through saying that we fear the Lord, yet embracing the other “gods.” The difference is how we live coram deo, before the face of god.

We profess with words, yet stumble in our actions

The people respond to Joshua in verse 16 saying, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” So then Joshua responds with, “you are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.” Let’s simplify this a bit. The people say, we’ll do it, we will not forsake God. We will serve him alone. And Joshua basically says, no you won’t. You can’t. The people committed because they had seen what the Lord had done...and Joshua still knew they’d turn away.

Our Westminster Confession of Faith gives us some help in chapter 17, section 2 where it says, “this endurance of the saints does not depend on their own free will but on God’s unchangeable decree of election, flowing from his voluntary, unchangeable love.It also depends on the effectiveness of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, on the indwelling Spirit and indwelling seed of God in the saints, and on the nature of the covenant of grace.” The people said told Joshua that they would love and serve the Lord. Joshua rightly says, no you won’t. You can’t. And he’s right. We can’t. It requires God’s voluntary, unchanging love and election and the indwelling Holy Spirit to provide strength and grace each day. Perseverance over the long haul is tough. But God is greater than anything we face in this life.

Back in 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. This was a bold plan because satellites had trouble going beyond Mars. Scientists feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it reached its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much more. Swinging past Jupiter in November 1973, the planet’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. Jaroff comments that “Perhaps most remarkable, those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.' The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going, and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible. So it is when we offer ourselves to the mission of the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. Joshua led the Israelites to conquer nearly all of the Promised Land. But he could hardly take credit for the accomplishments. Rather, it was done through creative tactics such as marching around a city until the walls tumbled down. Or by making the Sun stand still after mighty hailstones hit just the right people on the battlefield. Joshua’s accomplishment was loving and serving the Lord. Joshua’s succeed on the battlefield was wholly the Lord’s.

In Mark 10:45, Jesus says,

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We do not persevere because of what we do. We persevere because of what God does in us and through us. As Joshua replied in verse 19, “you are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.” He is not only holy, he is also gracious and merciful. The God who sent his son to serve and offer up his life as a ransom for those who would believe in him. The second example of professing our faith with our lips, yet straying in our actions is claiming that we have the willpower within ourselves when it is through the love and the strength of God that we persevere.

We commit, yet serve him falsely

The passage says in verses 25-27, “so Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” Dealing falsely with God. Have you ever tried to do that? Praying in a way that suggests that our motives are purer than they actually are, or our actions are holier than they actually are, or that our thoughts are purer than they are. Jesus says in Matthew 15:8-9, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” It’s one thing to profess faith in Christ, it’s another to live a life of repentance and obedience that Christ calls us to. Football coach Lou Holtz points out the difference between being committed and truly being involved. He said, “the kamikaze pilot who was able to fly fifty missions was involved but not committed.” The third example of professing our faith with our lips, yet straying in our actions is expressing commitment to God but serving with false motives. God is calling us to true commitment. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer has said, “when Christ calls a man, he bid him come and die.”

Conclusion

The first example of professing our faith with our lips, yet straying in our actions is through saying that we fear the Lord, yet embracing the other “gods.” The second example is claiming that we have the willpower within ourselves when it is through the love and the strength of God that we persevere. The third is expressing commitment to God but serving with false motives. A few years ago, the Washington Post reported on a study on terms and conditions of many basic contracts we sign. In an experiment sponsored by security firm F-Secure, an open Wi-Fi network was set up in a busy public area. When people connected, they were presented with lengthy terms and conditions. But to see just how little attention we pay when checking that agreement box, the company included a "Herod clause," a clause that offered free Wi-Fi in exchange for the company's permanent ownership of the user's firstborn child. This hapless agreement to terms is pretty common: A 2011 survey found that 58 percent of adults would rather read an instruction manual than go through online terms and conditions. Even the phone book was a better read for 12 percent of those surveyed. This new study isn't the first of its kind. On April Fool's Day in 2010, a host of U.K. shoppers were tricked into signing away their immortal souls. Joshua chapter 24 relates to the covenant between God and Israel. It’s a contract on steroids. This is a chapter where Israel gets to remember what has come before, and they are confronted with their failure to follow God as they claim. But, God in his grace continually reaches out to them and calls them back to himself when they stumble. Similarly, let us remember what God has done over the 200 years of Middle Sandy’s history as we embrace the future he is calling us into. As we started with so many months ago now, let us cross the Jordan.