Joshua is an old man now and this is his farewell speech. He does not want them to be evicted from the land so he gives them some advice how to hold on to what God has given them.

1 – You must be careful to practice reverence (vs. 14)

You can lose your walk with God if you become casual and careless. You have lost your awe, respect and fear of God. See Psalm 25:14 & Psalm 31:19. God has laid of good things for those who fear the Lord. See Psalm 115:113.

Those who fear God the most love God the most. This fear is not superstitious. We are to speak God’s name with reverence. We must not be careless in our reverence of God. We need to fear the Lord. A son does not want to disappoint his father.

2 – You must have courageous resolve (vs. 15)

We are to serve God. Joshua was certain in what he believed.

• We are to serve God with sincerity. We are to present out bodies as living sacrifices, without blemish. We are to keep on presenting ourselves.
• We are to serve God in truth. We need truth and sincerity together. This makes a beautiful Christian.

This resolve may go against the crowd. Elijah stood alone against the prophets of Baal. There has to be courageous resolve or you will be booted out of Canaan.

3 – You must have continual repentance (vs. 14)

They have to put away their other gods. They had been out of Egypt for 40 years but still they had other gods in their houses. There are always weeds in the Christian life that want to grow again. These other gods demand service. Some ancient gods are still worshipped today:-

• Mammon – The god of wealth.
• Bacchus – The god of pleasure and drunkenness.
• Venus – The goddess of sexual lust.
• Mars – The god of war, bloodlust and revenge.
• Sophia – The goddess of wisdom.

We have old gods today who have come back with different names. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. One of the gods of the Canaanites was Baal. Baal worshippers had a few interesting characteristics:-

• Pro-choice – They believed in killing the babies after they were born.
• Environmentalists – They were more concerned about fertility and crops than human beings.
• Promiscuous lifestyle – They were all for sexual lusts and homosexuality was in the very root of it.
• Syncretism – They sought to legalise Baal worship and integrate with worship of Israel’s God. Remind you of anything? We have old gods under new names to protect the guilty.

4 – You must have complete reliance (vs. 16)

Joshua was not fooled by the insincerity of the people. He knew they did not mean what they had said. The people come back and say they will serve the Lord. Joshua then makes them to remove their false gods and rely completely upon the Lord.

Promises in the strength of the flesh do not last. Peter did this and denied the Lord with curses three times. If we are to maintain a life of victory we must be careful to practice reverence, have courageous resolve, have continual repentance and have complete reliance. You will not get evicted from Canaan if you have these four things.

Categories: Joshua