Lamp Light
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve.”
Joshua 24:15
Every time we drive through a fast
food restaurant, or stroll down a grocery store aisle, or wander through a used
car lot we face choices, decisions that have to be made. When we choose one thing it often means we’ve
decided against something else. Our new
car will either be a convertible or it won’t.
Choices can be hard because instead of
either/or we want both/and. The folks to
whom Joshua spoke were both/and kind of people.
They wanted to worship the God who had brought them out of the land of
bondage, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they also wanted to hedge
their bets. Their Amorite neighbors
worshipped a god called Baal who guaranteed good crops and healthy babies.
So, they tried to have it both
ways. On the Sabbath they worshipped the
God who created heaven and earth, and then during the rest of the week they
worshipped at the altar of an idol one who promised wealth and prosperity. It seemed to them to be the best of both
worlds.
But, Joshua stood up at Shechem and
declared a choice must be made. God who
laid the foundation of the world would not play second fiddle to a golden
idol. Both/and cannot work in matters of
the spirit because such things reach deep into the heart and a divided heart
can never find peace. So, “choose
this day whom you will serve”, and let that decision become the rock upon
which you stand.
