May the mumbling commence!
Get rid of all your idols. Choose the Lord your God. Serve the Lord your God. It was the words that Joshua spoke after
reminding the Israelite people of the faithfulness of their God. Read these words from Joshua chapter
twenty-four:
"So honor the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly.
Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the
Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your
ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you now live? But as for
me and my family, we will serve the Lord."
The people replied, "We would never forsake the Lord and worship other gods. For the Lord
our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of
Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled
through the wilderness among our enemies, he preserved us. It was the Lord
who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land.
So we, too,
will serve the Lord, for he alone
is our God."
Then Joshua said to the people,
"You are
not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not
forgive your rebellion and sins. If you forsake the Lord
and serve other gods, he will turn
against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you."
But the people answered Joshua,
saying, "No, we are determined to serve the Lord!"
"You
are accountable for this decision," Joshua said. "You have
chosen to serve the Lord."
"Yes," they replied, "we are accountable."
"All right then,"
Joshua said, "destroy the idols among you,
and turn your hearts to the Lord,
the God of Israel."
The people said to Joshua, "We
will serve the Lord our God. We
will obey him alone." (Verses 14-24)
We have a choice to make. It’s not a choice to take without care. There is no place to sit on this fence. It’s all or nothing. Serve the Lord or serve someone or something
else.
Are you and I ready? We will be held accountable by the Lord. It means destroying all the idols among us.
Exactly how do we destroy our idols? How do we destroy the idols of money, wealth,
prestige, fame, and knowledge? It is
with these idols that we contend. How do
we destroy the idol of our various drives like our sex drives and our appetites
for other things like food and drink?
Our idols are tricky.
We need these things to survive… How do we perhaps get rid of the power that
they have over us – the way they weasel their way between us and God? If we can be wise enough to tell our need
from our greed, will that be enough?
The
temptation will always be there. That’s
why we take the step to serving our Lord with trembling and fear. We need God’s help in this journey. We need each other in this journey… to make
accountability more tangible.
Otherwise,
we will use the sin of others to try and cover up our own sin. Like the men who brought the woman caught in
adultery. Read from John chapter eight:
Jesus returned to the Mount of
Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd
soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought
a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the
crowd.
"Teacher," they said
to Jesus, "this
woman was caught in the very act of adultery.
The law of Moses says to stone her. What
do you say?"
They were trying to trap him
into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped
down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up
again and said, "All
right, stone her. But let those who have
never sinned throw the first stones!" Then
he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with
the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the
woman.
Then Jesus stood up again and
said to her, "Where
are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"
"No, Lord," she said.
And Jesus said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more."
(Verses 1-11)
Jesus wrote in the sand.
What did Jesus write or draw? We
don’t know, but it’s fun to guess.
Could
it be that he quoted from the Scriptures that both the man and woman caught in
adultery must be stoned? Could it be
that he quoted from the Scripture that only the man was to be stoned if the act
happened in an uninhabited area? Could
it be that he reminded each man of his sin?
Could it be that he wrote the name of the man among them that was a part
of the adultery?
Let us be careful with our
idolatry toward sex and how it degrades people.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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