Choices of Life

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14

God told Joshua to call the Israelites to himself. He told Joshua his death would be soon. The Israelites needed to be reminded of who God is, has been, and will be, as well as what He has done for them as His people. In Joshua 24:14, God, through Joshua, challenges them to recommit themselves to Him.

As we consider this verse, we must notice all the imperatives—fear, serve, cast aside, serve (again). For one verse to have so many commands, this should cause us to ask some questions. The questions that come to my mind are the following four.

·       Who gave these commands? God gave them.

·       Whom did God command? He commanded His people, Israel, and, by forward-pushing, His children by faith.

·       How were God’s people to keep His commands since humanity is sinful and unfaithful? God would give them the will and ability to do what He commanded. God gives absolutes. His ways are bigger than people’s. People must have the desire (will) to follow God through their daily growing relationship with Him, which makes His desires theirs. People also receive God’s empowering to do what He commands, asks, and lays out.

·       What did God command the Israelites to do? He gave four commands by using three words and used one of them twice. God emphasized one command because it was a very important imperative.

God’s first command to the Israelites was to “fear the Lord.” Fearing God comes from the Hebrew word yare’. It means to revere and honor. God commanded the Israelites to revere and honor Him above all else. He would give them the ability to do this. The Israelites would be in awe of God and could only worship and revere Him solely if they grasped onto His power to forsake the self-concerned murmurings of their fickle hearts and minds. God does not require what He does not give the ability to do. People must want to be close to God so that they receive His enabling because of their hearts and minds being attuned to His. God said, “Fear the Lord,” to the Israelites. Draw near and worship God.

God commanded the Israelites to “serve Him.” Again, what God commands people He enables them to do. It requires selflessness, which will lead to godliness. God commanded the Israelites to serve Him, Yahweh (the always existing One), not other gods. Those other gods, which Yahweh said not to serve, include manmade things, self, or other God-created things. He told the Israelites how to serve Him—"in sincerity and truth.” People have a faithlessness that allows them to perform worship acts without involving their heart, mind, and soul. God told His people to serve Him with their whole being (sincerely) and faithfully (in truth). These descriptors of the worship God requires may have caused the Israelites recall what Moses told them. He said in Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Jesus reiterated this in Matthew 22:37. So, God commanded the Israelites to grasp His enabling of them faithfully to serve Him sincerely with their whole being.

God gave a third command in verse 14. He demanded they “cast aside the gods your fathers served.” Cast aside means to put away, remove, turn aside from. God commanded the Israelites to grasp the power He gives them to turn away from the false gods the Egyptian, Abraham, along with his ancestors, venerated. Do not worship them; intentionally turn away from worshipping created things. Instead, be in awe of Yahweh and worship Him, the One who was before time, is now, and will be even beyond time. Choose to revere and serve Yahweh faithfully (singularly) and completely, with your heart, mind, body, and soul.

That third command in this verse leads to God’s final command. The final command is a reiteration of the second imperative. He commanded the Israelites to cast away the gods of their forefathers and the Egyptians and “serve Him.” Serving God requires exclusivity, serving only Him. It requires oneness of being and faithfulness. Serving God requires awe and reverence of Him singularly daily. God enables His people to serve Him completely and exclusively. People are fickle and unfaithful. Yet God does not command of people what He does not enable. God gives His people the ability to have a close and personal relationship with Him. From that relationship comes the will and desire to be closer to God and to honor Him with their lives by word, action, attitude, and exclusive worship.

Even today, God enables people to serve Him completely and selflessly. He does this by bringing a sinful person into a close and personal relationship with Him through Jesus. Because of God’s great love for people, He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to be born in human form, live sinlessly, die unjustly, and arise from death victoriously. Jesus died for our sin punishment, which we deserve, so that whoever believes in Him will be saved from their sin and given eternal life with God in His kingdom (John 3:16). For anyone who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the grave will be saved (Romans 10:9).

Anyone who is God’s child can obey His commands in Joshua 25:14 with His enabling. Trying to live as God’s child without His strength, power, and enabling, leads to sinning--missing the mark. God expects His children to live by His enabling them with ability, power, and strength. Anything less than exclusive and sincere worship of God is unacceptable. They become tepid water He spits from His mouth (Revelation 3:15-16).

Today, I encourage you to consider your relationship with God. Do you have a relationship with God by believing in Jesus? Is your worship of God true worship—done with your whole being? Do you worship God faithfully daily and weekly? Do you grasp God’s gift of enabling you to worship Him in these ways? Have you turned away from other things in your life that had more importance to you than God and returned to worship Him wholeheartedly and singularly?

“Choose you this day who you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15a)

 

Know and Be Still

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10a)

Often people quote this phrase of the verse. I call it a phrase because two other parts combine with it to make the whole verse. Contextual reading of each verse in the book is crucial. We should not consider solely one part of a verse.

Historically, the Korahites, descended from Korah, the son of Levi, wrote this psalm. During King David’s time, the Korahites were the choral and orchestral music writers, singers, and musicians. They wrote Psalm 46 for the Israelites about Yahweh God to tell of His might, sovereignty, and care for His people. When we read Psalm 46, we must look for what it tells us about God. A verse is not the complete lesson of a chapter or book. The psalmist unfolded for the congregants and his later hearers and readers a reminder of God to help each person understand God is greater than anyone or thing we could ever imagine. He is beyond our imaginings.

The psalmist began by stating in verse one, “God is our refugee and strength.” When does a person need refuge? When that person is facing an enemy or a seemingly insurmountable problem. During those crisis times, God provides safety from danger. He is our hope of shelter and the One whom we always can trust, according to this Korahite psalmist. Beyond protecting and providing for His children, God gives His strength for His children to endure, press on, draw closer to Him, and become victor over trials. The Korahite writer reminded the Israelites that God gives them strength and hope from His storehouses. God also is our defense. He can and often fights our battles Himself and provides shelter for us to rest and recover.

With verse one, the writer reminded the readers and hearers God is and gives us hope, refuge, strength to fight, and/or becomes our defense against our enemies. The psalmist also wrote, “He is an ever-present help in times of trouble.” God is omnipresent. That means He is everywhere at the same time and sees everything that happens. God is beyond time and breaks into time to be our loving, protective Father, who is sovereign over all created things. His help is always available, ever-present. God's help is constant and ever-present, never coming and going. His ever-present help supports, assists, and gives aid, relief, shelter, comfort, guidance, and defense in our times of trouble. The psalmist reminded the Israelites of God in their past when He reminded them of who God He had been to and for them. He assured the Israelites and assures us we can always turn to Him for our needs, crisis or not.

Verses two and three relay God’s stability and forever-ness. The psalmist showed this by writing about natural calamities. The writer said we need not fear when anything comes against us. He gave a list of intense events, like landslides, earthquakes, storms, and raging seas. God remains ever-present, sovereign, and almighty. We can trust that He will protect us and carry us when necessary.

With verse four, the psalmist spoke of the hope of gladness God’s people, His children, will experience in God’s kingdom. God’s river of gladness, of joy, will give delight to its inhabitants. His people shall fear no more since they will live in His kingdom. God reigns in His kingdom. Nothing can cause calamity there, like the earth changes mentioned in verses two and three. Its inhabitants will have stability, peace, and joy. Joy will flow like the river running through it.

The psalmist stated explicitly in verse five about what he reminded the Israelites in verses two and three. He wrote, “God is within her (His kingdom and His children); she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.” That last sentence reminds us that God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). God is constantly present, faithful, and loving. He never leaves His kingdom or His people. Because of God’s reign and supremacy, His kingdom and people will never be moved or removed from where He established it. This verse sums up what God wants His children to remember. Fear not, for God is with you; He is sovereign.

With verse six, we find the writer used a clever writing technique. The psalmist compares nations and kingdoms with earth’s calamities of verses two and three. In verse six, He wrote, “Nations rage, kingdoms crumble; the earth melts when God lifts His voice.” Just as God masters the earth, mountains, and water (all creation), so He masters nations and kingdom (again creation). Like God causes the earth to crumble, mountains to slide into the ocean, and seas to roar violently, He can cause this to nations and kingdoms. He can cause them to fear and become faint with the sound of His voice against them. These nations and kingdoms the psalmist wrote about are the enemies of God’s people. These unsaved people will recognize their sin when faced with God’s righteousness, omniscience, and power. For the Israelites, those nations and kingdoms were Gentiles. For God’s saved children, the Gentile nations and kingdoms are unsaved people unsaved, those who have not believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

The psalmist, in verses seven through nine, refocused the readers and hearers on who God has been and will be for them. He penned,

“The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come see the work of the LORD, who brings devastation upon the earth. He makes wars cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire.”

Yahweh (I AM) of Hosts is with His people now, just as He was for our forefathers. For the Israelites at the time the psalmist wrote, God’s people are “Jacob” in these verses. I AM will use all of creation—spiritual and earthly—to defend you, keep you safe, and, by it, give you peace in the tumult and in the calm. Recall what God has done in the past, the psalmist wrote. God commanded desolations and the destruction of nations and kingdoms who rose against Him or His people. And, just as God can destroy His enemies. He can break and burn the tools of war. God does not just intervene in our battles and fights for us, causing us to have peace. He uses non-aggressive means to end wars and battles that strike and batter us.

Because you know of God from your forefathers and personal experience and, because of the truths about God that people taught to you, you can have confidence God is for you. He will help in whatever way He deems is best for your whole being. Knowing (yada’) God like this leads to your stillness. Only when you have peace from knowing that God is for you can you have the peace to be still and know God deeper. We must know God to have stillness of heart, mind, body, and spirit, regardless of opposition. This stillness instills peace. This statement is circular. To know God, we must be still. To be still, we must know God. From knowing God and being still with Him, we have peace. In verse ten, the psalmist succinctly restated the most important point of this psalm, knowing God.

Know comes from the Hebrew word yada’. Yada’ means more than that of our English verb to know. It includes perceiving, recognizing, acknowledging, and confessing. Notice each level of knowing is part of a continuum of progressing closeness in relationship, in this case, of knowing God. With human relationships, we meet someone and grow in our connection to the person to perceive he or she is in the room. This leads us to recognize the person in a group. Our growth in relationship with that person eventually leads us to acknowledge our relationship to the person. Finally, our relationship with the person leads us to a confession of our closeness to the person. The Korahite who wrote this psalm led the readers and hearers to recognize and/or remember mighty occurrences from the past were by God’s hand. Next, He led the worshippers to know God has the best in store for His children in His kingdom. God’s mercy and salvation of His people comes with His victory over sin, guilt, and death. The psalmist next led people to recall God is mightier than unsaved nations and kingdoms. He reminds the readers and hearers God is sovereign over the spiritual world, unbelieving people, and earth. This Korahite brought to the minds of his congregants that God is supreme; no one is greater than Him. He is ever-present and almighty. God interacts with all realms of creation since He is supreme and Creator.

When we readers and hearers perceive, recognize, acknowledge, and confess God and His sovereignty, then we can be still in our heart, mind, body, and spirit. We perceive God is near and have peace, then declare His covering over and guiding of us. Perceiving God is near leads us to recognize and acknowledge with our mind, heart, and spirit that God moves in the world and our lives. Ultimately, our growth in knowing God leads to us confessing with our mind, heart, body, and spirit that God saved us from our sins, guilt, and death. Before achieving stillness, we must know God in this way. Our relationship with God should be one of growing closer to Him daily. Without our daily living out our personal knowledge of God in our heart, mind, body, and spirit, a storm could toss us. That storm could cause us to feel desperation, depression, anxiety, fearful, chaotic, sad, morose, and overwhelmed. It could cause us to feel like quitting. For this reason, the psalmist reminded us in verse one that God is our refuge and strength. God is “an ever-present help in times of trouble.”

God used the psalmist to lead worshippers. Those worshippers were the children of Israel. Today, believers in Jesus are the worshippers. With the psalmist’s words, we grow to worship Him, our Rescuer, as verses ten and eleven state. Verse ten is God declaring worship of Himself as our own King, Savior, Rescuer, Defender, Provider, Shelter-giver, and Victor. Verse eleven is each of God’s children proclaiming their testimony of Him.

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth. 

The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

What is our response?

God is my strength and fortress. All my hope is in Him. No need to fear; God's exceedingly abundant love is more than sufficient. God is Sovereign of creation—tangible and intangible—and is worthy of all my praise and proclamation.