Who Said, "We Don't Change God's Word, God's Word Changes Us"?

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. ^two And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long agone your ancestors– Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor– lived across the Euphrates and served other gods. ³ Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.

"Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put abroad the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, cull this day whom you volition serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose state you are living; simply every bit for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Then the people answered, "Far be it from united states of america that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; ¹⁷ for information technology is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors upwards from the country of Egypt, out of the business firm of slavery, and who did those peachy signs in our sight. He protected u.s. forth all the way that we went, and amongst all the peoples through whom we passed; ^eighteen and the LORD drove out before the states all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the state. Therefore we also volition serve the LORD, for he is our God."

But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will non forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰ If you lot forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he volition turn and do yous harm, and consume yous, later having washed you skilful." ²¹ And the people said to Joshua, "No, nosotros will serve the LORD!" ²² Then Joshua said to the people, "Yous are witnesses against yourselves that you take chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "Nosotros are witnesses." ²³ He said, "And so put away the strange gods that are amid y'all, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." ²⁴ The people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we volition serve, and him we volition obey." ²⁵ And so Joshua made a covenant with the people that mean solar day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. – Joshua 24:one-3, fourteen-25

[Jesus said:] "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² 5 of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; ⁴ only the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the benedict was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. ⁶ Merely at midnight in that location was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come up out to meet him.' ⁷ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' ⁹ Just the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for y'all and for us; you lot had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' ¹⁰ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. ¹¹ After the other bridesmaids came besides, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to united states of america.' ¹² Merely he replied, 'Truly I tell yous, I do non know you.' ¹³ Continue awake therefore, for y'all know neither the day nor the hour. – Matthew 25:1-thirteen

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This is going to be one of those sermons that I need to preach to myself as much equally to y'all, because these two passages really speak to people where we are.

The passage in Joshua talks about serving the Lord. The things God asks us to practice aren't impossible. It'southward just… it seems like so many of them go against the grain! Where information technology comes to loving and serving God, sometimes I think it would exist easier to be given some great task to reach: Become observe the Holy Grail. Go toss the One Ring into the fires of Mordor. Go slay a dragon.

It is much harder to merely stay awake, as the bridesmaids detect in our 2d scripture. Or to worship God alone, every bit the people of Israel discover in our start scripture.

It'south all nearly choices. The things we choose today event our life tomorrow and into the future: and not merely our lives but the lives of those around united states. It's true equally individuals, as a people, as a nation, and as a church.

Then looking at our scriptures for today…

In the get-go we run into Joshua, the successor of Moses, calling God'due south people to loyalty. In the second nosotros meet bridesmaids waiting for a groom to get in – and some remember ahead and some don't. In both cases the people involved had choices to make. They needed to be thinking: where are we now? Where practise we need to exist? And what practice I need to be doing to go there?

In the first passage, Joshua, who took over the leadership of Israel when Moses passed, is now an elderly human being. He has led the people of Israel into the Promised Land and has given them directions as to which tribe will inherit which parts of the country. Simply in that location'south a catch: there are people already living in the land. God's command to the people of Israel is to "drive them out". Not kill them. Not brand friends with them. Just relocate them, forcibly if necessary.

Side annotation: I accept heard people say that the Bible isn't consistent – that the Old Attestation God is a bloody and tearing God but the New Testament God is a God of beloved and peace. And they point to passages like this.

Permit me put a word in for God here! In that location are some verses missing from our reading today: Joshua 4-13, in which God reviews everything God has washed for the people so far. We get a little chip of the history in vss 2 & 3: "a long time ago God took your ancestors – Terah and Abraham and Nahor – who lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods…" Hold that thought.

Side note to the side note: retrieve your world history from similar vi^th or vii^th form. Remember the "cradle of culture"? Mesopotamia? Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means "between the rivers" – in this example, the Tigris and the Euphrates, where – to the best of our knowledge – the first human being civilization appeared. God says "I took your forefathers from beyond the Euphrates". In other words, God has been with humanity from the very beginning. From the beginning of history God knew us. And from the beginning of history people were serving other gods. [End of side side note.]

Dorsum to our side annotation: God chose Abraham son of Terah, who was born in Mesopotamia, to build a family unit and a people for God: a people who would demonstrate to the world how good it is to worship and serve the i true and living God as opposed to false gods and expressionless gods similar the Mesopotamians.

And then today's reading jumps ahead to Joshua's parting voice communication, but let me make full in the missing bits. God led Abraham to the state of Canaan, the Promised Land, and gave that land also to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Simply during Jacob's lifetime at that place was a famine, and Jacob's family unit moved to Arab republic of egypt. At first the people flourished at that place, but afterwards a few hundred years the Egyptians enslaved them, so God sent Moses and rescued them from the Egyptians.

On their way back to the Promised Land the people of God made a gilded calf to worship in the wilderness. God destroyed it, and after some back-and-forth God forgave the people, and together they moved on. Also on the way to the Promised Land the people of God had to pass through the lands of other nations and tribes. A lot of times those other nations didn't desire strangers passing through their country, so they attacked. In verses 4-17 God says (summarizing): "the Amorites fought with you and I handed them over to you… Male monarch Balak of Moab set out to fight against yous… only I rescued you… the citizens of Jericho fought confronting you, and too the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to y'all," God says.

Notice these battles were defensive ones. Nowhere did God say "go assault them." In every instance God says "I defended you. I handed them over to you."

The reason God wanted the people displaced was because they worshipped simulated gods and God knew they would influence Israel to worship imitation gods – to break Commandment #2. As the Israelites moved into the Promised State, at first they did what God said: they displaced the people living there. But as they traveled farther northward, the Israelites stopped displacing the people, and they decided instead to enslave them. This was never God's plan! And so at present God'south people had slaves living among them who worshipped other gods.

Our reading today is from the last chapter of Joshua. In the very adjacent book, the book of Judges, we discover it only took one generation after the passing of Joshua'south generation for the people to start worshipping idols again. God was right. God wasn't violent; God was as merciful as God could possibly be.

So returning to the story of Joshua: Joshua speaks upwardly for God in poetry 14 saying: "At present therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD."

From the time God chosen Abraham it had been well over 500 years. God had rescued the people from slavery, led them through the desert, defended them against enemies, brought them to the Promised State… and still the people accept idols! Why else would Joshua need to say "put them abroad"? Even while the people are standing in God'due south presence in this scripture passage, saying "The Lord our God we volition serve and him we will obey" they're still holding onto their idols behind their backs!

Today, 4000 years later, idolatry is withal the root crusade of almost of the evils we see in the world. That's why, in the Ten Commandments, Commandment #two is so important. Commandment #1 says worship God only, with all your heart, soul, heed, and strength. Commandment #2 says have no other gods. Worship no-one else. Worship nothing else.

Idolatry is letting something exist more than of import to united states than God. To give a few gimmicky examples (and I am non implying anything political here, just giving a very short listing of examples) –

Global warming: the pollution of the good earth God has given us: a straight consequence of the idol of money. Greed.
War: the idol of domination.
Sexual sins: making idols of one's own desires. "The heart wants what the heart wants" is the very definition of idolatry.
The sin of forcing women and children to live in poverty at our border while we live in condolement: the idol of security and/or the idol of me-first.
Glory-worship: rock stars, actors, athletes, politicians, media pundits – a grade of self-worship in which we spend all kinds of coin and time trying to become more like them instead of being who nosotros're created to be.

And here's the thing: even skillful things can get idols, if they become more than important to u.s.a. than God. Food, for example, or habiliment, or exercise or sports… or (for me) the delights of the mind: fine art, music, literature, education, travel. These are practiced things, and God knows nosotros need them, but God must be in accuse. If God says "not right now" I need to exist willing to say, "OK Lord – what's on Your mind?"

God challenges usa to put away the idols and worship Him only, and so that we can be truly free. I once heard someone say, "God is the only thing you tin can worship that won't destroy you lot." (I wish I could retrieve who said that!) Whatever other object of worship leads to anarchy and decease. It'south non that God's on an ego-trip. Information technology's that God loves us and knows what nosotros demand.

Joshua says "as for me and my house, we volition serve the Lord" and he challenges us to make the same option. And it'due south not just a one-fourth dimension decision. Yep, we decide for Jesus at some point in our lives; merely Joshua'south words are for every day. Choose this day whom you will serve. Brand the decision fresh every morn.

Which leads us to the second reading about the wise and foolish bridesmaids.

In this parable the bridegroom represents Jesus. Jesus promised to return, and information technology seems to us like he's taking a very long time. And the sights and sounds of this world are distracting. And because it's human nature, all of us will nod off at some signal waiting for Jesus to return.

The difference is in planning alee. Don't look to build upwardly your spiritual warehouse. Don't wait until the flash of lightning breaks across the sky to pull out the Bible and start reading information technology.

A conclusion needs to be made: volition we exist ready, or won't we? Ten bridesmaids had the honor of beingness invited to a great nuptials feast. They had ane job: when the bridegroom approached, get out and light the mode to where the wedding was to take place. The five who were wise took actress oil just in instance… because that was their one job! The five who were foolish thought they could go by on what they had.

The oil, in scripture, corresponds to the Holy Spirit: God's beloved poured into our hearts (Romans v:5) We need to be close enough to God to be infused with God's dearest. That'southward our one job!

So choose this day… and be filled this day… and give it everything nosotros've got. AMEN.

Preached at Fairhaven United Methodist Church and Spencer United Methodist Church, 11/8/2020

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