I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 23-24.

    Scattered throughout the Old Testament I see passages which acknowledge that the people of Israel will need to interact with those who do not worship God. Here Joshua tells the Israelites in his final address that there are still many people in the land who they have not yet conquered. Joshua told them not to worship their gods, not to even talk about their gods. I struggle with gaining meaning from passages like this. Throughout the Old Testament I find hints which suggest that God intended for the people of Israel to assimilate their neighbors, while at the same time avoiding being corrupted by them. My interpretation of this passage is that we need to avoid getting pulled into discussing issues framed from the perspective of our non-Christian neighbors.

    In the latter part of his address, Joshua tells the people that they need to choose what god(s) or God they will serve. Here he makes a powerful statement which often distracts us from the heart of his message (I will get back to that statement in a minute). Joshua’s primary message to the people of Israel was that they needed to pick one, and only one, religious and cultural tradition to follow. They could choose the gods and cultural mores of the Egyptians, or those of their ancestors beyond the Euphrates, or those of the people living in the land, or they could choose to follow God. They could choose any one of these, but if they did not choose one they would cease to be a people. This is true of any and every nation, they must choose one religion and the morals that go with it, or in short order they will cease to be a nation.
    Having told the people that they needed to agree on what religion they would follow, he told them that he would not follow their lead. Joshua proclaimed that no matter what choice the rest of the Israelites made, he and his family would choose the Lord. In many ways what Joshua did here is something we are called to do today. Our nation (here I am speaking of the United States, but this is true of many other nations as well) no longer agrees on a single set of basic moral principles. We need to remind our neighbors that they need to, as a group, choose what moral philosophy they want to follow. Then we need to tell that no matter what one they choose, we have chosen, and will continue to choose, to follow God and His moral code.