Taking Inventory

Joshua 24:1-17

By: Ysrael De la Cruz

At the beginning of each year people tend to make resolutions, pledges or promises of what they would like to achieve in the new year.  Business, stores take inventory (a complete list of items such as goods in stock) they evaluate their products; what worked, what didn’t. They do these things in order to improve their quality; to give customers their best, compared to their competition.  Whether you are one of those who make year’s resolutions or not, one thing is certain.  A year is gone and a new has just begun.  When the nation of Israel was about to enter the promised land; that was going to be a dream come true for them.  It was their goal, their destination.  And right before they go each to their assigned property, God wanted Joshua to review their history.

Joshua reviewed Israel’s history. (Jos.24:1-13)  The LORD had Joshua review their ancestral history: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs,

–Moses and Aaron. (vv.5-7)

-Wilderness wandering (v.7-12)

-The possession of the land (v.13)

God’s faithfulness was evident in their history. (vv. 1-13) I took your father Abraham…(v.3) I gave him Isaac and Jacob and Esau.. (v.sent…..I brought…I delivered you… I blessed you……gave your enemies into your hands.  Notice who is the one doing the action here.  Yahweh.  God did all these things for his people.  Because he is faithful to the covenant he made with them.

 on their journey to the land, God provided for them.  Joshua challenged the people to think about the fact that the reason they made it to the land of the promise was because God is true to his word. He is faithful even when they were not faithful to him.  God’s presence was evident in Israel’s history.   

Joshua 24:14-27 Joshua’s challenge to the people to serve God faithfully.

–Fear the LORD (revere him) and serve him faithfully.

In order to serve God faithfully you must throw away the competition.

-Put away the gods that your fathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt.

Joshua challenged them to get rid of the idols their ancestors had been worshiping.  If Joshua is challenging them to put them away is because they were still worshiping those traditional gods.  Their families introduced them to these false gods.

-Put away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your heart to the LORD. (v.23)

In order for them to faithfully serve or worship God, they needed to get rid of the competition.  They were not completely devoted to Yahweh, they had other things beside God.

If the choice to serve God seems unseasonable to you, if it seems evil in your sight (if you do not desire to make this choice) Choose today whom you will serve.  The gods your families worshiped or the gods of the people of the land. (cultural gods) All those people, Amorites, Hitites,etc. They had their own gods and they would be a temptation for the people of God.

Joshua let the nation know his choice. As for me and my house we will serve the LORD. (v.15)

You must choose whom you will worship.  The inherited gods you grew up worshiping, or the gods of the land where we live now.  But as for me and my house, we will choose to serve Yahweh.

The people pledged themselves to serve God for it was him who brought them to the promised Land. (v.16)  Scripture tells us that the nation of Israel served God throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who were there that day.  They yielded their hearts to God as long as Joshua lived.

Judges 2:7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua , and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel.

We can relate to the nation of Israel.  We too can evaluate our story and see evidence of God’s faithfulness toward us.  We too can highlight certain events in which God worked on our behalf, providing, protecting us and so forth.  I want to challenge you to take inventory of your life; I want to challenge you to faithfully serve God this year.  Think about how committed are you going to be to God and his mission.  What kind of commitment will you make for him?

In order for you and I to truly serve God faithfully, we must get rid of whatever is competing with him in our heart.  Have we been worshiping traditional gods or cultural gods? Traditional gods, those things we grew up practicing which are not even biblical. (praying the rosary, lighting candles to images, etc.)

-Cultural gods (political party, left or right; gods of sexuality, fame, money, etc. beauty. Technology, Ai.  We have a lot to choose from).

In the world we live today, there are lots of gods, competing with the true God.  We must choose whom we are going to worship.  We must make the commitment to just worship the LORD.  But in order to truly worship him faithfully, we must throw away those idols we have erected that we have given them more value than God himself.  People whose hope and salvation depended on a political party have abandoned Yahweh and made that political party a god. Get rid of it.

Make an inventory of what it is that is competing with God in your life. And get rid of the competition for only the LORD is faithful, only the LORD saves.

Choose this day whom you will worship, but as for me and my family, we have already made our choice.  We will worship the LORD.  We will be about Jesus and his mission.