Click here to read Joshua 24 on BibleGateway.com
Ignorance can be bliss. If you don’t know exactly how a twinkie is made, you can just sit back and eat a dozen with no thought for what exactly you’re putting in you gullet. If you don’t know about tetanus, you can play in that deserted junkyard all day without a care in the world. If you don’t know Leia is Luke’s sister, you can avoid that slightly creepy feeling when she smooches him before swinging across that pointless chasm in the Death Star.
Unfortunately, once we gain knowledge, then we are held responsible for it. Once we know what’s true, we can’t pretend not to know anymore. Not only that, it seems in the Bible that God is actually willing to cut people slack for ignorance, but once they commit to serving Him, his standards go way up.
THINK CAREFULLY
It’s kind of ironic in our age of…oh, let’s saying begging… people to come to God, that Joshua actually almost flat-out tells the Israelites not to commit to serving God. Why? Because he knows they won’t be able to, and they will bring judgement on themselves if they commit now. It seems a far cry from our “raise your hand with no one looking” type of mentality.
It seems that we have a very light view of commitment in our modern world. If we have a bad day at work, we just quit. If we don’t pass a test, we drop out of school. If we have a fight with the spouse, we call a divorce attorney, or get an online lawyer, navigate here for more. If something is hard, we just figure it’s time to move on to something that’s a little less stressful.
DO OR DO NOT
Joshua tells the Israelites to carefully consider the promises they make. If they have no intention of serving God, they shouldn’t commit to serving him. We should follow the same advice. If you have no intention of being faithful to your spouse, don’t go down the aisle. You will have days that you consider it a terrible mistake; be prepared to stick it out through those days. If you have no intention of working hard, don’t apply for that job. You will have days when it seems the boss has an intellect rivaled only by garden tools; follow his authority anyway.
If you have no intention of submitting to God, don’t call yourself a Christian. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a one-time hand raise is the same as serving Jesus as your Lord. Jesus said no one who looks back is worthy of being his disciple. It’s a serious thing, and should not be undertaken simply because an emotional moment. God will hold us to that promise; are we ready for that commitment?
What commitments are you taking lightly today?
