2024 is the year of Joshua 24:24 – “The people said to Joshua, The Lord our God we will serve; His voice we will obey.”
Recall from yesterday’s article that God’s people in Moses and Aaron’s day reaffirmed twice that they would be obedient to what the Lord has said (Exo. 24:3,7). Refer to https://sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com/2023/12/31/2024-come-up-together-and-all-people-will-see-his-glory/. Joshua 24:24 is the third time God’s people vowed to serve and obey Him. Whenever you see anything in Scripture done three times, it means that it is firmly established due to a complete testing of one’s heart.
For a more thorough understanding of what their vow was and meant, we need to study the rest of chapter 24 in the Book of Joshua. Joshua Chapter 24 starts with Joshua gathering all the tribes of Israel to Shechem to present them before God (24:1). The Promise Land leader opens His mouth and the Lord’s overcomers history lesson flows out.
The Lord, the God of Israel gives them an overview of how He sustained and guided them, starting beyond the Euphrates with Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, serving other gods (24:2). God then declares that He “took your father Abraham… and led him through all the land of Canaan multiplied his offspring” (Joshua 24:3). Then the Lord tells all the tribes: I gave Abraham Isaac. In verse 4, God recounts giving Isaac both Jacob and Esau. Then, in verse 5, the Lord jumps to sending Moses and Aaron and the plagues of Egypt to bring them out of slavery to worship Him. The Lord hovers over their deliverance from Egypt (the world) by recalling His divine protection at the Red Sea (24:6-7) and He punctuates it with “you lived in the wilderness a long time [forty years]” (Joshua 24:7).
Everyone who gathered at Shechem intimately knew through experience about those wanderings in the desert and God’s supernatural protection and provision. The Lord God of Israel goes on about bringing them into the land of the Amorites (24:8) and how He didn’t let Balaam curse the children of Israel (24:9-10). Then, God speaks on how His people went over the Jordan to enter the Promise Land where they fought against the men of Jericho as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. God puts an exclamation point to those battles by saying: “I gave them into your hands” (Joshua 24:11). Note to self: When God gives something to me, I still must battle through for the victory. Refinement and effort are required in taking my own Promise Land.
Before the Lord asks His people to choose Him and His ways, He adds: “I have given you a land for which you did not labor and cities you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat from vineyards and olive yards you did not plant. 14 Now therefore, [reverently] fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the [Euphrates] River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:13-14 AMP). This is something that we still need to do today.
Then, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob leaves them with a choice, which will cause them to be witnesses against themselves. Listen to the context of one of the most famous verses in Scripture that even hangs, as plaques, in homes today: “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD” (Joshua 24:15 AMP).
Every single believer needs to humble ourselves and be teachable, by asking ourselves and God Himself: Is there things my ancestors (fathers) have done that causes me to serve anything other than the One True and Holy God? Are there things in the land that I dwell that causes me to serve other gods, knowingly or unknowingly?
The people in Joshua’s day responded: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods” (Joshua 24:16). Joshua knew where tribes of Israel were at, and he was led to emphasize: “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good” (Joshua 24:19-20 AMP). This is the prelude to the people reassuring Joshua, “No; but we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:21). Joshua hears them and announces: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve Him.” And the people echo: “We are witnesses.” God leads Joshua to repeat one more time: “Then put away… the foreign gods that are among you and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel” (Joshua 24:23).
This is the context for when Joshua made a covenant with the people at Shechem that culminated with “The Lord our God we will serve; His voice we will obey” (Joshua 24:24).
Behold, 2024 is the year when people will choose to serve and obey the Lord, or not. We will each reap the consequences of our own behaviors.
“If they obey and serve Him. They shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of God’s destructive judgments], and they shall die in ignorance of true knowledge” (Job 36:11-12 AMP).
Let us all say and wholeheartedly mean: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
Give em heaven!!!
Robin Main
www.sapphirethroneministries.com
www.santa-tizing.com
www.mysticmentoring.com
Written January 1, 2024 – Sapphire Throne Ministries – Robin Main. Copyrighted – If you are going to copy this, please copy it right by giving attributions to this source. Blessings!
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• SANTA-TIZING: What’s wrong with Christmas and how to clean it up book => https://amzn.to/3S5AxGG. This book was written to fulfill a vow made to Yeshua’s face to tell the Christian Church that “Christmas will be the Golden Calf of America.” It took 10 years of full-time research, a golden scribe angel and the Spirit’s leading to unearthing His Truth in the sands of time.
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