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

When we read the account of Joshua’s farewell speech to the Israelites, we typically focus on the choice which Joshua gives them, and his decision on that same choice.  Those are good things for us to take to heart, because we have the same choice to make, but we often misstate what the choice is, or how we arrive at which options we have.  Actually, Joshua gives two speeches here.  It is not clear to me whether or not they were to different audiences, or, if perhaps, they were recorded by different people who were present and later compiled into the single account which is the Book of Joshua.

In any case, in both Joshua recounts the great things which God has done for the Israelites, things which he had witnessed (and which many of them had witnessed many of as well).  Then he tells them that they should faithfully obey the commands which God had given them.  If you are reading this, God has done great things to bring you to this point in your life, and He has probably done at least some of them in ways which you knew were Him blessing you as He did them, so, Joshua’s suggestion applies to you (and me) as well.  We should fear God, serve Him with all faithfulness, and destroy all other gods which we might be tempted to serve in His place.  However, if we think serving God is not desirable, we need to decide which set of gods we will serve instead.  Do we believe that if we serve the government, it will deliver a better life for us than what God will give us if we serve Him?  Will we be better off, if we just pick the right man, or woman, to be our ruler (or group of them to be our rulers)?  Or, maybe we will be better off if we spend our life in the pursuit of physical pleasures?  However, I agree with Joshua, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

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