Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

As I preached through the book of Joshua, I came to see what a remarkable faith he had, and I found myself wishing I could meet him face to face. Of course, the Bible is full of men and women of faith, and the faith they showed is precious beyond anything I would presume to judge. Yet Joshua’s faith deserves to be followed, for it never wavered, whether he stood in a lowly place or God had raised him up as Israel’s leader. In every circumstance his faith was humble, and he had the kind of character that always obeyed the commands of Moses. Admittedly, when I consider the faith of Moses himself, I sometimes think Joshua could hardly have done anything but obey such a teacher. But the humility and obedience Joshua displayed, whether he was going out to battle or standing beside Moses as he received the law, are not a faith anyone can easily show. Unless we love God as Joshua did, we cannot show a faith that obeys to the point of death, even with Moses for a teacher. We see why when we look at Gehazi beside Elisha, Joab beside David, and Demas beside the apostle Paul: to betray the teacher one has served shows, in the end, that one has not fully met God. Joshua, by contrast, though his faith ran as deep as Moses’, never once put himself ahead of Moses. God, who loved Joshua so, answered whatever he asked, and the more Joshua was blessed, the more uprightly he lived.

How beautiful it was, this faith of his that feared God and loved him at once! When God blesses people, they usually grow proud, but Joshua went on loving and fearing God until the moment he breathed his last. Even when Israel entered Canaan and faced the hard ordeal of circumcision, Joshua declared to the people that God is the living God and helped them believe that God was at work. Because he always showed the people a full and abundant life, they were able to obey God. Joshua is at once the finest of leaders and a preacher.

When Israel had come through the grave crisis that Achan’s cunning had caused, Joshua would perhaps have feared that God’s plan, which had led them all the way into Canaan, might come to nothing. That fear showed itself in a deeper faith and a more thorough obedience, and it bore fruit in fervent prayer to God. This is the faith that God’s people who look to Joshua today must have. Like the Israelites, who were shaken when they saw a world living in plenty, the saints today look at the world and sway to the right and to the left. Samson, a Nazirite, saw honey flowing from a dead lion and ran to eat it with no sense of sin; in the same way, those who ought to dwell in the light of God are running after the greed and lust that fill a lifeless world, and they are sinning. I long for all of us to follow Joshua’s faith. Joshua, resembling the God who is the First and the Last, held fast to the end, and his faith still shines on us today and sets an example for us.

As I preached on Joshua, I applauded his faith, I learned from the way he labored to exalt God, and I saw how wide his heart was in loving the people. Fierce as the war with Canaan was, Joshua made the merciful love of God known to the people, and he himself rested in that love and stood firm in his faith. On the day I preached my last sermon on Joshua, I wept. I was sorry to let so faithful a man go, and I suppose I felt it so keenly because all that time I had been running alongside him, following his faith. Friends, our destination is heaven. However much the world may tempt you, you who are bound for that heaven must stand against it as Joshua did, with faith, obedience, and loyalty. His word that he and his house would serve Yahweh to the very last moment stays with me. I will pray with all my heart that Joshua’s beautiful confession becomes your own.

Every book Watercourse Church has published is precious, but this book on Joshua is the one I treasure most. I am all the more thankful that through it I can pass on to you the love of God, who kept Joshua’s faith and guided his life. I owe deep thanks to the deacons of our publishing team, who worked so hard to bring these sermons on Joshua into print. It was their labor, reading the manuscript over and over, dozens of times, as they edited, that turned it into a book we can share with joy. As I watched them wrestle with how to make a cover everyone would love, I found myself giving thanks to God from the depths of my heart. Every book published so far was paid for by offerings that the whole congregation of Watercourse Church gave in prayer and with one heart, and that is how we have been able to share them with so many people, in the hope of leading them to Christ. I am especially grateful for this book on Joshua, because it was published through the generous giving of our newly ordained deacons. I earnestly hope that God’s quiet love and deep grace will remain in your hearts, and that you will serve our good God as Joshua did.

Cho Chun-sook, Pastor of Watercourse Church