Week 4 - First Things First
“But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
Before you put your New Year Resolution on paper, I invite you to consider first things first. What should be the first and foremost consideration when thinking of a resolution for the new year?
In the Old Testament, Joshua made a resolution when he gathered the people of Israel to hear his farewell address. They met at Shechem, a few miles northwest of Shiloh, where Abraham first received the promise that God would give the land of Canaan to his descendants. The time of the meeting was probably during the anniversary of an event. At that meeting, Joshua boldly challenged the Israelites to choose between the gods of Ur, whom their ancestors worshipped beyond the river, the gods of the Amorites in Canaan, and Yahweh.
Joshua and his people were about to start a new year and a new era in the land that God had given them. Like them, we look forward to the New Year and all its challenges. Like them, we too are called upon to choose between God and Mammon. It reminds us of Jesus’ warning that “no servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (Mammon)” (
Joshua not only influenced his own household but also set an example for many others to serve the Lord.
Serve the Lord
Section titled “Serve the Lord”The word “serve” appears seven times in Joshua’s farewell message in Joshua 24:14-15. It was clearly the main point of his message. After reflecting on all that God had done for them (vv 1-13), the only reasonable response to God’s goodness was to serve Him.
The Apostle Paul reiterates the same thing when he listed the goodness of God in Romans 1-11 and then declared in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers [and sisters], in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Choose This Day
Section titled “Choose This Day”In his study of Joshua 24, Francis Schaeffer (in his book Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History) points out that when Joshua challenged the people to choose to serve God, the tense that he used implied more than just a “once-for-all choice.” It involves continuous action. It involves the past, the present and the future. It is as if Joshua had said, “I have chosen to serve the Lord; I am choosing the same path of service now; and I will go on choosing to serve God until the very end.” To Joshua, serving the Lord was a daily choice.
Schaeffer writes, “This was the character of Joshua. He chose, and he chose, and he chose, and he kept right on choosing. He understood the dynamics of choice — once-for-all choice and existential choice as well. Thus, the word to the people was not an affirmation puffed up on the spur of the moment. It was deeply imbedded in Joshua’s comprehension of what it required of a person made in the image of God, one called upon not to obey God like a machine or an animal, but to obey God by choice.”
Joshua assured his people that whatever their choice may be, his own mind was made up and his course was clear. He therefore declared, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Sure, there were times when Joshua failed. There were times when he was discouraged, but once he had resolved to serve the Lord come what may, he did so with resolute till he reached the finishing line.
The book of Joshua aptly closes with these words, “Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD” (
In this present time, just as He has in the past, God is looking for men and women, young and old, who will echo what Joshua had declared, “As for me… we will serve the Lord.” May these words be ours, too, as we resolve to worship and serve the true God this new year and beyond.
For Your Reflection
Section titled “For Your Reflection”What does serving the Lord mean to you? How do you intend to serve the Lord this year? Identify one area of service which you would like to focus on this year.