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Joshua 24:15 – Choose (May 31)
Hello and thanks for joining in on to today’s daily devotion. Today is Tuesday. May 31st. The 3rd day of the Hebraic week.
Our verse today is Joshua 24:15.
“But if serving YHWH seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve YHWH.”
This is a verse that gets quoted quite often. More often than not, it seems to get used in messages where the speaker is giving an ultimatum to the listeners. It’s often presented with much passion and fervor to get the listener to repent. Yet, I have to tell you, that’s not how I read it from Joshua. He was really just laying the facts out before the people and telling the them to make up their mind.
We see Joshua as an older gentleman here. He died right after this at the age of 110. The point here though is that I really see that He is simply giving them the facts. If you read the story here, you can see the responses from the people and Joshua and it’s really quite interesting. At one point it seems that Joshua doesn’t believe the people when they say they will follow YHWH.
Yet, in all of it, He keeps a cool temper and simply tells the people to make up their mind and declares that he has already made up his mind. The question for today is, have we made up ours?
Let this be a focus in your time of meditation throughout the day. Until tomorrow, shalom!
