Skip to main content

Battle of the Gods

 


The land promise had been fulfilled. The conquest of Canaan had come to an end. Joshua now stood before the people to deliver them a message. He said, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves 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.” (Joshua 24:15)

This battle of the gods boils down to the question, “Who will you serve?” On one hand you have the one true Living God. The Israelites acknowledged Him and His great power. Note what they said.

So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; 17 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. 18 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.” (Joshua 24:16-18 NKJV)

The Israelites acknowledged that God delivered them from Egypt and gave them the land of Caanan. It was by His power and goodness that they were blessed, not by their own strength or merit.

Contrast this with the other gods. What did they do to bless Isarel? The short answer is nothing. In fact, all the other gods were nothing. They knew nothing. They were less than nothing. If they at least could know they were nothing, that would have been something.

While it would be easy to criticize Isarel of their idolatry, we must ensure we are not falling into the same trap today. Paul wrote, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5)

We can fall into the same snare that the Israelites did by coveting the material possessions of others. Like idols, these objects cannot see, hear, or know anything. Yet, the devil uses them to battle for a place within our hearts.

Jesus taught, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

The idols may have changed, but the question remains the same. Who will you serve?

 

God Bless each of you,

Eric Hicks

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk Worthy

  The Christian life has been compared to a variety of things. One in particular is that of a walk. A walk in the context of the Christian faith involves the way we live and conduct ourselves throughout our lives. The manor in which we live will either reflect Christ or it will reflect the ways of the world. Paul wrote, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Ephesians 4:1). There are a multitude of ways we must walk to be pleasing unto the Lord. We will consider a few. Bearing with one another. Walking worthy before the Lord strongly involves our conduct with one another. Paul continued, “ with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). Bearing with one another is not possible apart from a humble mindset. It is the humble mindset that keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves. It also enables us to focus on the needs of others rather than ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Taking Time to Pray

  We have all had those busy mornings where we rush around trying to get out the door. We scrabble frantically trying to gather everything we know we are going to need for the day. We fly out the door only to remember that the cell phone is still on the dresser. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we will turn around, go back inside to retrieve our cell phone no matter how late we may be running. While this is all well and good, the question arises, what if we run out the door and remember we had not yet prayed to our heavenly Father. What would be our response. Would we stop dead in our tracks and offer a prayer before God, or continue in moving toward our daily pursuits with the intention of praying when we have more time? Our great example of a prayer life is Christ. He too had a busy schedule to maintain. Mark records, “And He said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ For there were many coming and going, and they did not even ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Take Careful Aim

       In the book of Proverbs, we read that where there is no vision the people perish. Vision is an absolute necessity if one is to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. Without vision, there is no goal. Without a goal, there is no purpose. Having a vision for the future is like having a target you do not intend to miss. Like a marksman taking careful aim at his target, we too must take careful aim if we are to accomplish great things for the Lord. There are various goals we should take careful aim at. One is increasing our relationships with one another. The only way this can be accomplished is through effective communication with each other. We can do this in a variety of ways including phone calls, personal visits, and through the positive side of social media. Equally, we grow in our relationship with one another through worshipping God together. The Hebrew writer stated, “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more