Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve

Joshua 24:14-15

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

There were many pagan gods who the various nations the Israelites has encountered worshipped and served. After the people had agreed that they too would serve the Lord, Joshua speaks this warning:    Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

We too, need to realize that there are many gods we can worship and serve. These are not only the false gods of other religions or cults, but also anything that we put before our obedience and allegiance to God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We can worship and serve many false gods, but if we will as Joshua declared serve the Lord, we must serve and worship Him wholly and only. 

Luke 21:10-28       Things to Come

¹⁰ Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹ and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. ¹³ It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵ for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives.

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; ²² because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The Return of Christ

²⁵ “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The description of things to come is the reason that it is critical for us to determine now today and every day whom we will serve. Jesus says:       “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹ and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven."       There are those who believe that the frequency of natural disasters is increasing. Of those some would say that it is an indication of what is predicted for the last days in the Bible. Others would say that man is at fault, they blame man made climate change for just about any natural disaster they can't otherwise explain. If the frequency and intensity of these natural disasters is indeed increasing, I would say that to some extent both may be right. While once we arrive in the end times the things that take place will be with such intensity that we will know for sure that they are an indication of an end of things as we know them, there is some truth to the fact that man is to blame. Only the blame won't rest on our factories and automobiles. It won't be because we used too many incandescent light bulbs. It will be because of the vileness and depravity of man. It will be because of the evil man has chosen rather than God.

It says nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. This is not repetitive for emphasis. The word nation is the Greek word ethnos, from which we get the English word ethnic. So nation against nation is speaking of ethnic, racial and tribal tensions and fighting. These types of conflict are at all time highs both around the world and here in the U.S. It seems obvious in this country that there are those who have chosen to promote this type of racial fighting. It may be  a choice they make willingly for some personal motive, but behind their words and actions there is a spiritual darkness that will continue to increase as the end of this age approaches. We also can see evidence that the age old political conflicts pitting countries or kingdoms against each other is continuing and perhaps increasing. Certainly the situation in the middle east is at least as volatile as ever and quite possibly more so as governments around the world choose and change their alliances with Israel or the Arab countries. 

There is not a lot we can do about what is coming. It does us no good to try to over analyze everything that happens in nature and politics. These few verses though, I believe speak to us as we walk through these times.     “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. ¹³ It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵ for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives.

There is an increasing persecution of Christians happening around the world and here in the U.S. The Bible is clear that these things will happen and we need to be ready for them. The thing that we need to understand is that we can not prepare ourselves for this kind of severe persecution, even death by rehearsing or playing out the scenarios and our response ahead of time. Jesus says: " So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves;  for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute."    This will be, as Jesus says:  "for My name’s sake.  It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony."

Jesus, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say. We can not prepare in advance to know the right thing to say or do. The preparation we can and should do for the times and the things that are coming is to answer the proposal put forth by Joshua.

Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve,  fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth.

Come what may,  as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.