10/4/26 Weekly Bible Lessons: Commitment to God's Way

Joshua 24:18–27 (NASB) 

Background — In our text today, we see the end of Joshua’s life. Joshua was given the tall task of leading the nation of Israel into the promised land after the death of Moses. Throughout his life, Joshua served as one of the faithful spies, led Israel across the Jordan River to conquer Canaan, and even managed to split up the inheritance afterward. Joshua lived his life committed to serving the Lord and leading the nation toward God. His last words reflect that. Knowing he was about to die, Joshua calls the people to remember what God had done for them and to stay faithful to the Lord. 

24:18-20 — Words of Caution. We all have a choice we must make: follow God or trust in the things of this world. This is a decision the Israelites faced. Now in Canaan, they could choose to obey the Lord or worship the foreign gods of the land. Joshua pleaded with them to make the right decision. The people acknowledged all the things God had done for them. They remembered that God brought them out of Egypt, protected them in the wilderness, and gave them victory over the people living in the land. They acknowledged Him, but that is not the same as obedience. Many in the world today recognize there is a creator, but not many make Christ their Lord. 

Joshua then cautioned the people by reminding them of the nature and character of the God they serve. God is holy and jealous. Joshua warned the people that if they forsook the Lord, the Lord would “turn,” “harm,” and “consume them.” Joshua told them that they cannot serve the Lord and continue in their worship of the foreign and false idols! God is still the same God today! Those who follow the Lord must leave behind the idols of the world and strive to be holy like God is holy. 

24:21-24 — Words of Commitment. What comes to mind while reading these verses is “why?” They heard and saw God do incredible things. They witnessed the walls of Jericho fall! Why would they worship anything else? Sadly, the answer is simple. Everyone else around them was doing it. All the other nations had many gods they created and worshiped, and the Israelites had just one. Some wanted to worship the Lord and the others at the same time. We must be careful not to fall into this same trap, keeping one foot in the Word of God while the other one is trapped in the sin of the world. 

This is the same thing Paul commands us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Even since the time of the Israelites, God has called His people to be separate from the world they live in. 

What’s encouraging is the Israelites made the right decision and chose God over the foreign idols. Notice what it took for the Israelites to follow the Lord. This relationship included the people “inclining their hearts to the Lord,” “serving the Lord,” and “obeying His voice.” God is a jealous God. He wants all our hearts. He wants us to serve Him with all we have. He even wants us to obey everything He has said. We cannot confess Christ but ignore God’s Word. God expects us to make this same vow the Israelites do here: to serve the Lord and to obey His voice. 

The Israelites were not perfect at this, and neither will we be. We must strive to do the holiness of Christ, and remain thankful that, as Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

24:25-27 — Words of Covenant. Joshua did not want the people to just make a vain promise. He called the nation to reconfirm the covenant that God had previously made to their forefather Abraham. He wanted all to be faithful to God from that point on, remembering that God had been faithful to them for generations. However, Joshua understood that people have incredibly short memories. To remedy that, he took a large stone that was sitting nearby and set it under an oak tree as a kind of monument or memorial. That stone had heard all that had been said that day, and every time the people passed by it, they would remember the promise they made with the Lord their God. 

It is awesome to think that God, in this same way, set something up for the church today so we would never forget what God has done for us. He called it the Lord’s Supper. Every time we take communion, we are remembering what Christ did on the cross. 

Let’s be like the Israelites and commit to remember what God has done for us through Christ and choose to serve Him faithfully. What areas in your life could be considered idols that you worship instead of God? How can you better commit yourself to the Lord?