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FEAR THE LORD, SERVE HIM IN SINCERITY AND IN TRUTH

  • Writer: Olufunmilayo Adekusibe
    Olufunmilayo Adekusibe
  • Aug 14, 2021
  • 5 min read

Today’s Reading:

Joshua 24:14-28

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were 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.” So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord, our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will 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 not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord!” So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.” And they said, ‘We are witnesses.’ Now, therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline you, heart, to the Lord God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. Then Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of the God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” (Joshua 24:14-28, NKJV)


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The passage today form part of Joshua’s farewell speech (Jos. 23 - 24) to the people of Israel before his death at the ripe age of one hundred and ten years. His speech was based on God’s faithfulness to the people and how they should respond to God’s love. He realised that in their daily routines and challenges of life, it is possible the people are continuously faced with the challenge of faithfulness and obedience; or unfaithfulness and disobedience. And so, he called them out to publicly declare their loyalty and allegiance to God. In truth, the generation after this never responded positively to the faithfulness and love of God.


Joshua called the people to i) Fear the Lord; ii) serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and iii) to put away the man-made gods their fathers served at the other side of the Euphrates and in Egypt, which could be a snare unto them. After his death and the generation that witnessed the manifold mighty works of the Lord; there arose another generation that did not experience the mighty works God did in the midst of their forefathers. This generation now followed after the gods of the nations around them, served and worship them (Jud. 2:2-3). This provoked God to anger, and He delivered them into the hands of the spoiler that spoiled them and sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could no longer stand before their enemies (Jud. 2:10-14). In fact, throughout the Scriptures, we read how God dealt with the people because of the sins of idolatry and disobedience, and how He finally gave them over to powerful foreign nations that exiled them. As serious believers, to follow Jesus Christ, we must fear God, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and do away with the gods of our father’s house. We must put away anything that will hinder our wholehearted worship of God. This calls for a total break away from the old negative habits and traits of our father’s house. When God commissioned Gideon to deliver his people from the hands of the Midianites, He first instructed him to destroy the gods of his father’s house (Judges 6), and Israel had success after that throughout. Today, there are a lot of negative habits and indulgences we packaged and hide under modern technology and names, which can become idols in our hearts and a snare to us. Idol in our heart can be any right ambition but wrongly pursued that can lead to shedding of innocent blood, say, our ambition at all cost, for fame, riches and wealth; desiring to settle down in marriage by destroying other people’s marriage; forcefully, selfishly, and terribly seeking to take over other people’s possession. Other forms of an idol in the heart are pride, covetousness, greed, grudges, wrong priorities, unforgiveness, jealousy, prejudices, bearing false witness, lying, and stealing. All these will hinder us from according to God a reverent fear and serve Him in sincerity and in truth.

Today, like the Israelites, the purpose of the covenant blood of Jesus Christ is for us to be able to worship and obey the Lord alone (Luke 1:74-79). We are supposed to be a holy nation unto God’ (Ex. 19:5-6; Eph. 1:4-6), which would influence the world around us for God. But when we are daily preoccupied with mundane things, unnecessary wrangling, and quarrels in the community of faith, we will lose sight of the plan and workings of God in our lives and environment in a particular season. When we focus on issues that will not benefit the kingdom of God, we will miss it all. Also, when a church spends a large amount, too much attention, time and energy on gigantic competitive projects that would not benefit the kingdom, instead of investing in the souls of men; in the process, we would have lost focus on the original purpose of God for the church, which is the salvation of souls, lifting Jesus up, worshipping and glorifying the name of God.

OLUFUNMILAYO TITILOLA ADEKUSIBE



Prayer:

  1. Father, in your mercy, help me like Joshua to be able daily to choose whom to serve. So that I too can say that: ‘As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord, in Jesus name.

  2. Father, give me your spirit of wisdom and revelation, that I may know Christ more and better in my daily encounter, in Jesus name.

  3. Father, hold me by your right hand of power, lead and guide me in your right path, in Jesus name.

  4. Father, use the unpleasant situations in our nation to the glory of Your name, and for the growth of Your kingdom, in Jesus name.

  5. Father, in Your mercy, rescue Your Church and generations after (if Jesus tarries) from her enemies; that we may serve You without fear, in holiness, in righteousness, in truth and with sincerity of heart all the days of our lives, in Jesus name.

  6. Father, firmly establish Your will in our nation, and give us God-fearing leaders, in Jesus name.

 
 
 

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