Choices — Ken Winter

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We live in a day of seemingly limitless choices – from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, and from the causes we rally to support to the allegiances we make. In most instances, our ability to exercise those choices is accomplished instantaneously through a few swipes of our finger on a screen. And we pride ourselves on our ability to change our choice at any given moment should we decide to do so. In many respects, we value our right and ability to choose over the rightness of the choices we make.

That ability to choose is a direct expression of a will that desires to be free. And the reality is that a free will was given to us by our Creator. The good news is He created us with the ability to choose. But i fear that too often the bad news is He created us with the ability to choose! Because left to our own devices, we can choose to choose very badly – particularly as it relates to our relationship with our Creator Himself.

Though the technology has changed, the choice that stands before us today as it relates to our Creator is the same choice that stood before the Israelites over 3,400 years ago. Even after all they had been through and experienced in inhabiting the Promised Land, they still needed to make a choice. You would have thought this would have already been settled for them long before. Even the people could quickly recite the mighty works of God they had seen Him do – His delivery from slavery, His mighty miracles, His preservation in the wilderness, and His victories over the Canaanites. And yet, for some reason – the question still remained.

In Joshua 24, we read that Joshua asked the people if they were going to choose the gods of the Chaldeans (beyond the Euphrates River).(1) The Chaldeans worshiped 2,100 gods – all of them holding equal position. Their belief was a syncretistic mix of the hodge-podge of ideas that were generated related to each of those gods. There was no absolute truth. Truth was whatever the individual believed it to be. Truth was dictated by changes that occurred in their culture. One person’s truth and another’s truth could be very different. And that was very acceptable to the Chaldeans. Any truth was permissible as long as you didn’t attempt to make any truth absolute – except the absolute truth that there is no absolute truth! Does that sound confusing? It was … and it still is today!

As you can imagine, with that many gods and that many beliefs, there were truths that were in direct opposition with one another. But the Chaldeans didn’t worry about that; they just accepted the “truth” that worked for them. There were miniature idols of many – if not all – of their gods. Years earlier, the Israelite patriarch, Jacob, had collected those idols from all of his household and buried them ‘under the great tree near Shechem.”(2) It is quite possible that he buried those idols under the very terebinth tree where Joshua was standing approximately 325 years later as he gave this challenge to the people. (If it wasn’t the same tree, it was nearby.)

i would expect that all of those “gods” had turned to dust in that amount of time! But here is the amazing thing – some of the Israelites that Joshua was speaking to had some of those very idols in their possession. Despite all that the LORD had said and done, some of the people were still willing to hold onto the syncretistic lies of the “gods” of the Chaldeans.

Joshua also asked if they were going to choose the gods of the Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians worshipped approximately 1,400 gods. That list continued to evolve and grow over time. Some of the gods had their origins in nature. Incidentally, that is why God chose plaques that had direct correlation to their nature gods – i.e. turning the river into blood, the plaque of frogs, covering the sun, etc. Some of their gods had evolved from humans. But apparently somehow all of them together maintained some type of “universal order”. They governed nature. They sustained it. Some of them disrupted it.

But the heart of Egyptian belief was universalism and the worship of nature – i.e. the son god, the moon god, etc. It would have many parallels today to the concept of “mother nature”. And despite the fact that the Israelites had seen God perform mighty miracles that defied nature – i.e. the parting of the sea, causing the sun to stand still, etc. – there apparently were some of the people standing before Joshua that day who still held an element of this nature worship in their belief.

He then asked them if they were going to choose the gods of the Amorites. The principal god of the Amorites was Marduk. He was the god of thunder who apparently defeated the other gods in some type of battle and thereby became the great god. No self-respecting Amorite would want to choose one of the lesser gods who was defeated! But the belief system was based on the principle of selfish ambition – the idea being that Marduk defeated the others because he was better and thereby achieved his greatness.

And as in any culture where selfish ambition is at its core, there has to be some way to keep score. That’s where materialism came into the picture. The Israelites had benefited from that materialism in the possessions that the LORD had allowed them to keep as they defeated a number of the armies and possessed the cities. As a matter of fact, Joshua made note of all of the plunder when he sent the eastern tribes back home to their families.(3) Joshua was now warning them of the allure of materialism and selfish-ambition, and the temptation of the gods of the Amorites.

Finally, he asked the Israelites if they were going to choose the Lord God Jehovah. He recounted God’s mighty works – how He had rescued them from slavery, preserved them in the wilderness, and gone before them in order for them to take possession of the Promised Land. He reminded them that He is a holy and just God; He will not forgive unrepentant sin and rebellion. He is a jealous God – and He alone is worthy of worship. He will not share the worship that is due Him with anything or anyone else. God chose this people. They were His people and His possession. But now, they needed to choose whom they would serve.

We must make the same choice. If you are a follower of Christ, He has drawn you to Himself through the work of His Holy Spirit. He has made the way of your salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. He has chosen you. The question that stands before you today is the same one that stood before the Israelites that day. They were a part of the people of God. And yet, some of them were still holding onto other gods – the gods of relative truth that worship the changing mores of culture, the gods of nature and universalism, and the gods of materialism and selfish-ambition.

Those gods are still very much a part of our culture today. And sadly, many of us have chosen to turn from the God of our salvation and turn to the gods of our culture. God will not share the worship that is due Him with any other. He would not do so then … and He will not do so now.

Joshua’s challenge therefore remains for each one of us: Choose you this day whom you will serve. “You are a witness to your own decision….”(4) If you choose the Lord God Jehovah, be sure that you have “destroy[ed] the idols among you, and turn[ed] your hearts to the LORD alone….”(5)

As for me and my family, we will serve the LORD!

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Portions of this post have been taken from chapter 39 of my book Possessing the Promise.

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(1) Joshua 24:15-28

(2) Genesis 35:4 (NLT)

(3) Joshua 22:7-8

(4) Joshua 24:22

(5) Joshua 24:23-24

Photo by Chad Madden on Lightstock