The All Important Decision
“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 flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14-15
I ran across a quote one day by Bob Dylan, the famous singer and songwriter. He said, “You’re going to have to serve somebody; it may be the devil or it may be the LORD, but you’re going to have to serve somebody.” When God created man, He gave man the desire to worship, ideally to worship Him, and worship includes service. However, He also gave man free will which enabled man to choose who or what to worship. No one, including the LORD, desires to be loved by force, but by a sincere desire of the heart of mankind. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician, physicist, and theologian, said that “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”
When we hear the term “idol”, we probably first think about the “American Idol” competition or about images, statues, and golden calves that were worshiped in ancient Israel and the surrounding nations. I have never been able to figure out why those ancient people would think that a man-made object could provide needs and protect them from danger, but these lifeless objects were extremely popular. I guess one reason is that idols don’t require accountability, But isn’t that also true for the idols that folks worship today? Modern idols may not be statues or images, but there is no limit to what folks will put before God. Our Creator has been pushed aside for money, sex, fame, politics, and power to name just a few current day idols, but these things can never fill that God-shaped void to which Mr. Pascal referred.
Joshua was very adamant that he and his family would serve the LORD. The husband and father in the home is to be the spiritual head of the family. If he doesn’t set the example of a man who puts God first, which includes regular worship, Bible reading, prayer, and giving of his resources for the kingdom of God, then his family, particularly his children may very well have an indifferent or nonexistent view of God. If God and His word do not seem important to the parents, then neither will God be important to the children. The hope of any Christian parent is that his or her children will come to faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is incumbent upon parents to live their faith before their children.
Not every child will follow in the footsteps of godly parents, but they certainly have a better start in life as an adult with spiritual training under their belt. Proverbs 22:6 tells parents to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” That is not to say that he or she will not depart for a time, but the chances are that he or she will eventually remember what mom and dad taught him or her about righteousness and living a godly life and come to the conclusion that his parents weren’t so dumb after all. Hopefully, he or she will return, as the old song says, to the “God of (their) childhood.”