Renewing the Covenant

MEMORY SELECTION: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” —Joshua 24:15

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Joshua 24:19-28

NEAR the close of Joshua’s earthly pilgrimage he gathered the leaders of the children of Israel together so that he might appeal to them concerning their faithfulness to God. This week’s memory selection is in connection with that appeal—that they should reverently consider the divine providences on their behalf and renew their covenant to serve God, even as he had dedicated his life and family for that purpose.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of the book which bears his name, Joshua reviews the many providences that the nation of Israel had received from the mighty hand of God. He relates that from the time of Abraham they had been witnesses of the remarkable manner in which God had been leading them through all their experiences. This included their years in Egypt, the raising up of Moses, their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and the sparing of the firstborn during the final plague. They were also witnesses of God’s mighty power during the crossing of the Red Sea, their experiences in the wilderness, their eventual crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land, and their conquest of that land amid the various heathen hosts that were its inhabitants.

Having reminded the Israelites of the many blessings they had received and the wonderful way in which God had been leading them, Joshua went on to exhort his people to greater faithfulness and zeal for God. Three times he appealed to his brethren: the first time he said, (vss. 14,15) “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the Flood [on the other side of the river Euphrates, Lamsa], and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you [if it be displeasing in your eyes, Leeser] to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Joshua then left no question in the minds of his people when he declared that his life had been set aside to serve God, regardless of whatever decisions they made. His brethren also proclaimed their desire to serve God.

Joshua, however, was not entirely convinced that the children of Israel had outlived their idolatrous tendencies and might not return to their former objects of affection and reverence. Again he told them (vss. 19,20), “Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.” Joshua evidently understood the fact that although the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. Nevertheless, the people proclaimed a second time (vs. 21), “We will serve the Lord.”

Again Joshua exhorted his brethren (vs. 23), “Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.” And again the leaders of the children of Israel promised to put aside those things which they were told were an abomination to God, saying, “The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.”—vs. 24

Throughout the varied experiences of God’s typical people Israel, there are lessons for the new creation. The child of God confesses that the weaknesses of the flesh, the allurements of the world, and the temptations of the Adversary continually surround him, even as the temptations and seductions of a different nature befell the natural Israelite.

Every true Israelite who endeavors to follow the Lord, therefore, during the present age of sacrifice must do so with the same positiveness that Joshua possessed, proclaiming in his heart that “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

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