Other Gods

           "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” (Joshua 24:14-24)

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but this scene brings to mind a running gag in an old cartoon. In five episodes during the first season, Bullwinkle says, “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat.” He pulls a bear, lion, tiger, rhino, and flying squirrel (Rocky). I looked up the information. It seemed to me that there were more than five attempts.

At one point in those five, Rocky says, “That trick never works.”

In the passage above, Joshua challenges the Israelites to worship and obey God. He pointedly tells them to get rid of the Egyptian gods they’d been toting around for forty years. And like Bullwinkle, Israel promises a masterful performance, to which Joshua replies with his equivalent of “That trick never works.” He tells them they weren’t able to serve the Lord. Not exactly the expected answer.

I used to think that Joshua was predicting their future unfaithfulness. This morning, I wonder if he was saying is that the Israelites couldn’t serve God while they worshipped Egyptian gods or the gods of the people around them. He told them to throw the foreign gods away. They were adamant that when they reached into the hat, they’d pull out God. Instead, they pulled out Ra, Baal, Molech, Chemosh, Beelzebub, or any of a large number of other gods.  

I don’t know anyone who worships the gods mentioned in the last sentence. Instead, we might substitute wealth, fame, power, food, various addictive substances that aren’t food, an ideology, an identity, a person, a show or book, or almost anything else. The whole nation of Israel knew the story of the defeat of the Egyptian gods. They had just defeated many of the nations in the land. They knew these other gods were not able to protect, help, or benefit them, yet Joshua chided them and told the to throw the very gods they had defeated away. Rejecting other gods goes against our fallen nature. It’s not easy, but it is necessary.