Joshua 24

It's a decision.

Joshua, in Joshua 24, 15, it says, Choose you this day whom you will serve.

He's saying, me and my family, we're going to serve God.

You know, it's yours.

He's going to leave them with his final message.

And notice what he says here in Joshua 24, verses 14 and 15, the final sermon given by Joshua before he dies.

And he says to the people of Israel, now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.

Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord.

He not only followed through on that perfectly.

He did it twice in Joshua 24, the final chapter of the book that bears his name.

Now Joshua is an old man.

And in Joshua 24, one, it says, then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at drum roll Shechem.

And he runs the whole thing again.

And with some of the last words he ever speaks to his people, he challenges them.

Sorry if you're having to drag yourself through some of our remembrance talk.

Joshua, Joshua 24.

So, yes.

I mean, the reason why Joshua, I think, is really interesting is And I'm not quite sure where it's gone in the Church of England lectionary, because it does appear in the Revised Common lectionary, which is why our friends in the States and elsewhere will be reading Joshua this weekend.

is because it's some of the hardest parts of the Bible to read today, particularly in the light of the Gaza crisis and now concern about West Bank settlers and so on.

Particularly the West Bank, because it's, you know, the early chapters of Joshua are all about crossing the Jordan and taking over from the Hivites and all of those ites in no uncertain terms with a huge sense of God's purpose.

Well, this all starts to sound rather uncomfortable.

in the light of current events.

Now, I think this may shock you how many of God's people ignorantly have an open door in this area.

Now, in Joshua 24, 2 and 3, God called Abraham out from his father's idolatry.

And so he left and he took him to a new country.

Now, some of us are being called out of some idolatry that maybe we're not even aware of because it's just been easy.

That was Genesis 19, 21 through 21, 4.

Our portion from the prophets today is Joshua 24.

Then Yehoshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned Israel's elders, heads, judges, and officials.

So they presented themselves before God.

It became the inheritance of the children of Yosef.

Then Elazar, son of Aharon, died, and they buried him in Gibeah, which had been given to Finchas, his son, in the hill country of Ephraim.

That was Joshua 24, and that concludes the book of Joshua.

Next we have our portion from the writings, and today it is Psalm 23.