Have you ever had one of those unsettling moments, when you realized a decision you were contemplating could very likely affect your entire future? Just knowing that if you pursue a certain kind of job, or pursued a certain life partner or live in a certain place, your future could be profoundly negative. It’s a scary thought.
When it comes to making choices in life, we often find ourselves standing at a fork in the road, knowing exactly what's at stake with the decision we are about to make. But so many times, we just keep wandering down a particular path, missing the fork in the road without really thinking about it. We make many choices without being aware we are actually choosing. We make many life choices because that's the way our families did things; or because that's the way certain other people—people we admire—do them; or we’re influenced by media, marketing and the majority... “everyone does this or that, this way.”
Whether we are aware of it, we regularly make choices that declare “which gods” are winning the war in our lives.
Moses led the homeless nation of Israel out of Egypt, where the people had been enslaved for several generations. God demonstrated His power through the 10 plagues, dividing the Red Sea, providing food from heaven and water from a rock. He also led them by a cloud during the day and pillar of fire at night.
However, the people still didn't have much faith. They constantly whined and complained. It should have been about a month-long hike to the Promised Land, but God caused them to wander in the wilderness for nearly 40 years because of a lack of trust and confidence in Him. Moses and his generation died before entering the land God had promised. Joshua replaced Moses as the leader of God's people and brought them into the Promised Land.
By this time, with the Promised Land before them. Joshua is compelled to layout the future for the Israelites... a future that hinges on the choices they will make. Joshua had been a commander through many battles. He had seen the walls of Jericho come thundering down in miraculous fashion. He had fought the battles, and he bore the scars and the wisdom and faith that grows and deepens with every struggle.
Joshua seemed to know he didn't have much time left, by now he’s a very old man. He gathered the people of Israel together for what could be likened to a farewell address. He stood and cleared his throat as the assembly turned toward him expectantly. He no longer was the powerful figure he once was, but still his voice carried power (Joshua 24:14-15).
Joshua got right to the point and issued a challenge: It's time for the people to make a choice. The people can follow the Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or they can choose a different god. It's time to select a god to follow, to accept a worldview and allow it to guide, shape and influence their future.
"It's up to you," Joshua said, "but I can tell you this much: As for me and my house, our decision is made. We know who we will serve; you must make your own choice."
It’s interesting that Joshua gave three other options along with the one True God. Joshua was a leader used to giving orders and having them followed, but in this situation he knew the people would have to make a choice. No one can be ordered into the kingdom of God. It's a path individuals must freely choose.
So Joshua laid out the options this way: [1] Follow the old gods from beyond the river, from the place where you started. [2] Follow the gods you met in Egypt, where you were enslaved. [3] Follow the local gods, those of the people recently defeated by the one true God.
How would you have reacted to Joshua’s options? Likely you would have said, “no problem, I don't worship Egyptian or local gods or any from beyond the river.” Forget the details for a moment, and notice each category has to do with a time and a place of life. This is highly significant. The gods that compete for our attention come at us based on the circumstances of everyday life, invited in to our lives by the choices we make. These unholy gods merge very quietly and subtly with the things we value and the routines of our lives, becoming our primary focus.
It's important to understand the easily missed assumption here: You will make a choice. All of us are worshipers. Worship is hardwired in who we are. It's true of every culture and every civilization. Everyone worships... something or someone.
Wherever you go, you see that people have chosen. You will, too. It's written into our genetic code. You can go to places where they have old-school idols, rituals and sacrifices; or you can go to the most technologically advanced placed, where folks think they're way past "religious mumbo jumbo."
Upon closer inspection, you find they are sacrificing a great deal on the altars of power, pleasure or finance—it's really all the same: People are choosing their gods and bringing their offerings. At the end of the day, the real offering is one's self.
Noted philosopher Peter Kreeft sums it up this way... "The opposite of theism is not atheism; it's idolatry." In other words, everyone is going to worship a god of some sort. We were created to be worshipers. The question for you is: Who or what will be the object of your worship?
In our modern thinking, we associate worship with religion. We think worship has something to do with the trappings, rituals and music that frame an assembly of believers. If someone doesn't have a “box” in life labeled "organized religion," then they assume the question of what god they worship doesn't apply to them. You've got boxes labeled "work," "family," "finances" and "hobbies," but not "worship."
The problem is a misunderstanding of what worship is. Worship is the built-in human reflex to put your hope in something or someone and then follow it passionately. Sooner or later, you grow some assumptions concerning what your life is all about, what you really should be going after. When you begin to align your life with that pursuit, then whether you realize it, you are worshiping whatever it is you are pursuing.
That's what human beings do, along with breathing, eating and thinking. We identify things we want—good and bad—then we make sacrifices to get them. The end result is that our lives begin to take the shape of what we care most about. We each make the choice to worship, and then at some point we discover the choice makes us. The object of your worship will determine your future and define your life. It's the one choice by which all other choices are motivated.
So, Joshua was speaking to all humanity when he said, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." Make an educated decision about the greatest goal of your life. Otherwise, you will flow passively into some choice, a little bit of yourself at a time, until you find yourself inside a temple bowing to a god you never recognized having chosen.
More to come on this discussion, next week.
